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Harper's   Stereotype  Edition. 


HISTORY  OF   THE    CHURCH, 


THE  EARLIEST  AGES 


THE    REFORMATION. 


BY    THE    REV.    GEORGE    WADDINGTON,    M.A. 

FELLOW    OF    TRINITY    COLLEGE,    CAMBRIDGE,    AND    PREBENDARY    OF 
FERRING,    IN    THE    CATHEDRAL    CHURCH    OF    CHICHESTER. 


NE  W-YORK: 
PUBLISHED    BY    HARPER    &    BROTHERS, 

„*0.     82     CLIFF -ST RFFT 
18  43. 


ANALYTICAL   TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Page 
The  Author's  reasons  for  abandoning  in  this  work 

the  usual  method  of  division  by  centuries  25 

This  history  is  divided  into  five  parts  or  periods, 
ending  respectively  at  the  establishment  of  the 
Church  by  Constantino  ;  at  the  death  of  Charle- 
magne ;  at  the  death  of  Gregory  VII.;  at  the  seces- 
sion of  the  Popes  to  Avignon  ;  at  the  beginning  of 
the  Reformation  26 

The  study  of  ecclesiastical  history  teaches  religious 
moderation  27 


PART  I. 

Chapter  I.  —  The  Propagation  of  Christianity. 
A.D. 
60  The  Church  of  Jerusalem.    James  the  Just  itg 

first  President  or  Bishop  29 

65  Secession  of  the  Christian  Church  to  Pella  30 

No  tabularies  or  public  acts  preserved  by  the 

primitive  Christians  30 

134  Foundation  of  JE\m  Capitolina  by  Adrian  30 

40  Church  of  Antioch,  founded   by  St.  Paul  and 

Barnabas  31 

There  the  converts  first  assumed  the  name  of 
Christian  31 

107  Ignatius,  the  second  Bishop,  suffered  martyr- 
dom in  the  persecution  of  Trajan  31 
The  pretended  correspondence  between  Jesus 
Christ  and    Abgarus,   Prince  of  Edessa,  in 
Mesopotamia,  proves  the  early  introduction 
of  the  faith  into  that  country  31 
The  Church  of  Ephesus,  founded  by  St.  Paul, 
and  governed  by  St.  John  31 
166  The  Church  of  Smyrna  governed  by  Polycarp, 
till  his  martyrdom  under  Marcus  Antoni- 
nus                                                                          32 
The  Churches  of  Sardis  and  Hierapolis.     Meli- 
toand  Papias.     Conversion  of  Bithynia  32 
.307  The  testimony  of  Pliny  the  Younger,  contained 

in  his  Epistle  to  Trajan  33 

The  difficulty  of  establishing  the  Church  at 
Athens  may  be  ascribed  to  the  speculative 
character  of  the  people  34 

95  Greater  facility  in  the  conversion  of  the  Corin- 
thians. The  dissensions  of  the  converts 
were  censured  by  St.  Clement,  Bishop  of 
Rome  34 

165  The  seven  Catholic  Epistles  of  the  Bishop  Dio- 

nysius  35 

64  The  persecution  at  Rome  by  Nero  is  related  by 
Tacitus,  with  little  humanity.    St.  Peter  and 
St.  Paul  are  believed  to  have  suffered  on  that 
occasion.     Testimony  to  the  numerical  im- 
portance of  the  Converts  35 
196  Victor,  Bishop  of  Rome,  addressed  an  order  to 
the  Asiatic  Bishops  respecting  the  celebra- 
tion of  Easter,  which  they  refused  to  obey. 
A  Schism  was  the  consequence  36 
177  A  persecution  in  Gaul  by  Marcus  Antoninus  37 
Irenasus  was  subsequently  Bishop  of  Lyons  37 
Some  reasons  why  the  Church  of  Alexandria 

was  probably  numerous  at  an  early  period  37 

St.  Mark,  the  first  Bishop  37 

134  Testimony  of  the  Emperor  Adrian,  respecting 

the  religious  character  of  the  Alexandrians         37 
Establishment  there  of  the  Catechetical  School, 
and  subsequent    labors  of   Pantaenus,   Cle- 
mens, and  Origen  38 

Chapter  IT. — On  the  Numbers,  Discipline,  Doctrine, 
and  Morality  of  the  Primitive  Church. 

200  The  great  extent  over  which  Christianity  was 

spread  before  the  end  of  the  second  century        38 

The  earliest  converts  were  chiefly  of  the  mid- 
dle or  lower  classes;  the  cause  of  their  ob- 
scurity 30 

The  great  facility  of  intercourse  throughout  tne 
Roman  Empire,  the  zeal  of  the  missionaries, 
&c.  39 

On  the  miraculous    powers   claimed    by  the 


i.D.  Pags 

Church,  and  the  period  to  which  they  were 
most  probably  confined  4ft 

They  appear  to  have  ceased  with  the  immedi- 
ate successors  of  the  Apostles  40 

The  episcopal  government  generally  establish- 
ed after  the  death  of  the  Apostles  ...  A 
perpetual  succession  of  Bishops  traced  up  to 
that  time  in  mos'  of  the  Eastern  Churches 
and  in  Rome  41,42 

On  the  temporary  ministry  of  the  prophets  42 

On  the  subordinate  office  of  deacon,  and  the 
extent  of  the  spiritual  duties  assigned  to  it  42 

Very  early  origin  of  the  distinction  between 
clergy  and  laity,  established  by  the  Act  of 
Ordination  43 

The  Bishop  co-operated  with  the  Council  of 
Presbyters  in  the  government  of  his  Church, 
and  was  elected  by  the  whole  body  of  the 
clergy  and  people  43 

\5Qetseq.  Origin  and  composition  of  the  first  pro- 
vincial assemblies  or  synods  ;  they  rose  in 
Greece  43 

From  these  synods  proceeded  the  title  and  dig- 
nity of  the  Metropolitan,  and  the  general  ag- 
grandizement of  the  episcopal  order  44 

Excommunication  the  oldest  weapon  of  the 
Church  44 

Community  of  property  had  not  universal  prev- 
alence 45 

The  primitive  institution  of  the  Lord's  day  45 

The  two  most  ancient  festivals  were  those  of 
the  resurrection  and  of  the  descent  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  45 

The  only  public  fast  on  the  day  of  the  cruci- 
fixion 45 

The  variety  of  early  creeds,  and  primitive  use 
of  the  Apostles'  creed.  The  sacraments  of 
Baptism  and  the  Eucharist  45 

—    Nature   and   use  of  the   Agapae,  or  feasts  of 

Charity  46 

Exemplary  morality  of  the  early  Christians, 
proved  from  the  writings  of  St.  Clement, 
Origen,  the  younger  Pliny,  Bardesanes,  Lu- 
cian,  and  Justin  Martyr  47-49 

Charity  the  corner  stone  of  the  moral  edifice     47-49 

Chapter  III. —  Progress  of  Christianity  from  200 
till  Constantine's  Accession. 

The  first  appearances  of  corruption  in  the 
Church  necessarily  proceeded  from  the  in- 
creased numbers  and  more  varied  character 
of  the  converts  49 

313  Before  the  time  of  Constantine,  Christianity 
was  deeply  rooted  in  all  the  eastern  provin- 
ces of  the  Roman  empire  it  had  also  spread 
among  the  northern  and  western  nations  50 

Some  vague  pretensions  of  Rome  advanced 
and  resisted  50 

251  The  Roman  Synod  against  Novatian  was  at- 
tended by  sixty  Bishops  50 

203  Origen  was  made  President  of  the  Catechetical 
School,  and  remained  so  for  nearly  tlrrty 
years.  His  great  diligence  and  erroneous 
principles  in  the  interpretation  of  Scripture. 
He  was  successful  in  converting  some  Arabi- 
an Heretics  51 

192  Tertullian  was  made  Presbyter  of  the  Church 
of  Carthage.  He  fell  into  Montanism  about 
seven  years  afterwards.  He  was  of  a  vio- 
lent, inconsistent,  and  powerful  character  52 

250  Cyprian  was  raised  to  the  See  of  Carthage  5?. 

The  dignity  of  the  Metropolitans  was  exalted, 
and  the  general  distinction  between  Bishops 
and  Presbyters  widened  during  the  third 
century.    Cyprian  instrumental  in  this  52,53 

Some  inferior  classes  in  the  ministry  were  in- 
stituted ;  the  distinction  between  the  faithful 
and  the  Catechumens  became  prevalent  in 
this  age;  and  some  mistaken  notions  were 
encouraged  respecting  the  nature  of  baptism, 
as  well  as  of  the  Eucharist  53,54 

The  sign  of  the  Cross  was  employed  in  the 
office  of  exorcism  53,54 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


The  connexion  of  religion  with  philosophy  oc- 
casioned the  origin  of  pious  frauds  and  for- 
geries 54 

The  sect  of  the  Eclectics,  founded  by  Ammo- 
nius  Saccas,  tended  to  the  injury  and  corrup- 
tion of  Christianity.  His  successor,  Plotinus, 
made  a  compromise  with  his  religion  55 

The  Millennarian  opinions  prevalent  in  the 
early  Church  should  probably  be  ascribed  to 
the  error  of  Papias  56 

Chapter  IV. — Persecutions  of  several  Roman 
Emperors. 

The  theory  of  pure  Polytheism  permits  an  un- 
limited reception  of  divinities,  and,  as  such, 
is  tolerant ;  but  the  Polytheism  of  Rome  was 
a  political  engine ;  the  laws  were  rigid  in  ex- 
cluding foreign  Gods  ;  and  the  practice  of  the 
Republic  was  continued  in  the  empire  57,58 

The  number  of  Ten  Persecutions  became  pop- 
ular after  the  fifth  century.  The  name  of 
persecution  should  be  confined  to  four  or  five  58 
64  Whether  the  persecution  of  Nero  was  general 
or  confined  to  Rome,  and  whether  his  laws 
against  the  Christians  were  more  than  an  ap- 
plication to  them  of  the  standing  statutes  of 
the  empire  59,60 

94  or  95  The  grandsons  of  St.  Jude  were  brought 

before  Domitian,  and  dismissed  in  security         60 
The  Rescript  of  Trajan  enjoined  death  as  the 
punishment  of  a  convicted  Christian;  forbid- 
ding, however,  inquisition  60 

138 — 161  The  Christians  suffered,  during  the  reign 
of  Antoninus  Pius,  through  popular  violence, 
rather  than  legal  oppression  61 

162 — 181  The  first  systematic  persecution  was  that 
of  Marcus  Antoninus,  and  it  lasted  during 
his  whole  reign.  He  encouraged  inquiry  af- 
ter the  suspected  and  inflicted  every  punish- 
ment. He  censured  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
martyrs,  yet  not  himself  free  from  the  charge 
of  superstition,  though  adorned  by  many  vir- 
tues 61,62 

202—211  The  Edict  of  Severus  against  the  Chris- 
tians remained  in  force  ;  it  was  most  de- 
structive in  Egypt  62 

250  Decius  pretended  to  constrain  all  his  subjects 
to  return  to  the  religion  of  their  ancestors  ; 
many  perished  ;  and  many  fell  away  from 
the  faith  63 

258  Cyprian   suffered  martyrdom  in  the  reign  of 

Valerian,  on  his  refusal  to  sacrifice  64 

303  The  teachers  of  philosophy  were  instrumental 
in  bringing  Diocletian  to  begin  his  persecu- 
tion. It  was  continued  for  ten  years,  with  a 
severity  comprehending  every  form  of  oppres- 
sion ;  and  ceased  not  till  the  accession  of 
Constantine  64 

313  The  early  unpopularity  of  the  Christians  is  ac- 
counted for  by  ancestral  prejudices,  the  fame 
of  peculiar  sanctity,  converting  zeal,  Jewish 
hostility,  and  various  calumnies  ;  the  exclu- 
sive character  of  the  religion,  aversion  for 
idolatry,  &c.  65,66 

The  Church  learned  from  her  sufferings  the 
lesson  of  persecution,  which  she  practised 
in  after  ages  67 

Contumacy  the  pretext  for  these  Pagan  inflic- 
tions 68 
Various  false  notions  respecting  the  characters 
and  ends  of  the  emperors  who  persecuted 
and  who  tolerated  68 
These  persecutions  were  not,  upon  the  whole, 
unfavorable  to  the  progress  of  religion                69 

Chapter  V. — On  the  Heresies  of  the  First  Three 
Centuries. 

The  original  meaning  of  the  word  heresy  ia 
choice ;  it  passed  from  philosophy  into  relig- 
ion ;  and  various  senses,  no  longer  indiffer- 
ent, were  then  attached  to  it  69 

The  earliest  fathers  strongly  opposed  erroneous 
opinions  ;  yet  permitted  no  personal  severi- 
ties 70 

The  names  of  dissent  were  in  no  age  more  nu- 
merous than  the  earliest —  proving  the  num- 
bers of  the  early  converts  71 

Some  errors  probably  older  than  the  apostolic 
preaching  71 

The  Church  suffered  from  the  absurd  opinions 
of  some  of  the  heretics  who  were  confounded 
with  it  71 

Mosheim  distinguishes  the  early  heretics  into 
three  classes  72 

A  different  view  is  taken  by  Dr.  Burton,  who 


&■•  D-  Page 

traces  all  the  most  ancient  heresies  to  the 
Gnostic  philosophy  73 

The  division  of  heresies  here  given  is  rather  in 
reference  to  their  subject  than  their  supposed 
origin  72 

The  vain  inquiry  respecting  the  origin  of  evil ; 
it  is  ascribed  to  matter:  hence  the  eternity 
of  matter,  and  supposition  of  an  evil  principle  73 
The  association  of  this  philosophy  with  Chris- 
tianity occasioned  many  gross  errors,  as  the 
rejection  of  the  Old  Testament  as  the  work 
of  the  evil  spirit,  and  the  denial  of  the  hu- 
manity of  Christ ;  these  were  held  by  the 
Gnostics  73 

Simon  Magus  was  classed  among  these  ;  and 
his  disciples  are  thought  to  have  been  very 
numerous  at  Rome  74 

120-1  Saturninus  introduced  the  opinions  into  the 
Asiatic,  Rasilides  into  the  Egyptian,  School; 
and  Carpocrales  and  Valentinus  further  ex- 
tended or  refined  them.  Cerdo  and  Marcion 
introduced  them  into  Rome  74 

172  Tatian,  disciple  of  Justin  Martyr,  founded  on 
them  the  heresy  of  the  Encratites,  who  pro- 
fessed meditation  and  bodily  austerities  74 
The  Docets  (Phantastics)  were  of  very  early 
origin  ;  they  had  a  system  of  emanations  from 
the  Divinity,  called  jEons,  of  which  Christ 
was  one  ;  while  Jesus  was  the  mere  man, 
into  whom  the^Eon  descended.  They  disbe- 
lieved, in  consequence,  the  atonement  75 
72  The  Ebionites,  who  denied  the  divinity  of 
Christ,  were  of  very  early  origin  ;  they  were 
chiefly  confined  to  the  Jewish  converts,  and 
were  disclaimed  by  the  Church                       75,76 

200  Theodotus  was  expelled  from  the  Church  of 
Rome,  while  Victor  was  bishop,  for  asserting 
the  mere  humanity  of  Christ  76 

269  Paul  of  Samosata  was  deposed,  and  removed 

by  Aurelian  76 

The  creed  of  Tertullian  in  his  answer  to 
Praxeas  76 

250  Sabellius  denied  the  distinct  personality  of  the 
second  and  third  persons,  considering  them 
as  energies,  or  portions  of  the  first :  hence 
his  followers  were  called  Patripassians  77 

170  Montanus  began  to  prophesy  in  Phrygia,  in 
company  with  Maximilla  and  Priscilla.  Ter- 
tullian became  a  convert  and  advocate  78 

257  A  controversy  arose  about  the  baptism  of  here- 
tics, in  which  Stephen,  Bishop  of  Rome,  dis- 
played some  violence  78 

—  The  Novatians,  the  earliest  ecclesiastical  re- 

formers, were  condemned  by  the  Church ; 
they  subsisted  till  the  fifth  century  79 

Observations  on  the  character  of  the  early  her- 
esies, and  the  manner  in  which  they  were 
opposed  by  churchmen  79 

The  degree  of  respect  due  to  the  early  Fathers       79 
On  the  epistle  of  Barnabas,  the  Shepherd  of 
Hernias,  the  epistles  of  Ignatius,  and  that  of 
Polycarp  80 

140  The  two  Apologies  of  Justin  Martyr  and  his 

dialogue  with  the  Jew  Trypho  81 

178  Irenaeus  was  made  Bishop  of  Lyons.    He  wrote 

five  hooks  "Against  Heresies  "  81,82 

PART  II. 

Chapter  VI. — Constantine  the  Great. 

312  An  inquiry  into  the  miracle  of  the  luminous 

cross  ;  it  rests  on  very  insufficient  evidence  82,53 

313  Publication  of  the  edict' of  Milan  — an  edict  of 

universal  toleration  83 

The  suspicions  of  Constantine's  sincerity  are 
founded  on  the  inadequacy  of  his  morality  to 
his  profession  ;  and  are  counteracted  by  ma- 
ny particulars  of  his  conduct  and  character  83 
Before  Constantine,  neither  the  authority  of 
synods  or  bishops,  nor  the  property  of  the 
Church,  was  recognised  by  law.  Here  is  the 
earliest  vestige  of  distinction  between  spirit- 
ual and  temporal  power  85 
In  what  the  strength  of  the  Antenicene  Church 
consisted.  That  strength,  as  well  as  the 
peculiar  qualities  of  Christians,  influenced 
Constantine  to  legalize  Christianity                     86 

—  He  received  the  Church  into  strict  alliance 

with  the  State ;  investing  the  Crown  with 
the  highest  ecclesiastical  authority,  with 
great  mutual  advantage  86 

321  The  internal  administration  of  the  Church  re- 
mained in  the  hands  of  the  Prelates.  Per- 
mission was  granted  to  bequeath  property  to 
the  Church ;  also  exemption  from  civil  offi- 
ces, and  independent  jurisdiction  87 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


The  Emperor  assumed  the  control  of  the  ex- 
ternal administration  ;  the  right  of  calling 
general  councils,  &c.  88 

This  right  was  the  creation  of  a  new  power, 
not  an  usurpation  on  the  Church  88 

Constantine,in  the  ecclesiastical,  followed  the 
civil,  divisions  of  the  empire.  To  the  three 
leading  prelates  of  Rome,  Antioch,and  Alex- 
andria, he  added  the  Patriarch  of  Constan- 
tinople 89 

A  thousand  Bishops  administered  the  Eastern, 
and  eight  hundred  the  Western,  Church  89 

The  establishment  of  the  Church  was,  upon 
the  whole,  favorable  to  the  concord  of 
Christians.  The  persecutions  which  have 
followed  it  were  not  its  necessary  conse- 
quence 89 

Various  sources  of  the  Romish  corruptions  90 

Note.  On  the  historical  respectability  of  Euse- 
bius  ;  to  what  his  professions  are  confined, 
and  how  far  he  fulfils  them  90-91 

Chapter  VII. —  On  the  Arian  Controversy. 

Those  metaphysical  controversies,  which  ex- 
ercised only  the  wit  of  philosophers,  engaged 
the  passions  of  Christians.  They  were  pro- 
longed by  the  neglect  of  Scripture,  and  in- 
flamed by  the  national  characteristics  of  the 
disputants  92 

Constantine  presently  published  laws  against 
various  heretics  93 

319  Arius  promulgated  his  opinions  at  Alexandria, 
and  had  many  followers  in  Asia  and  Egypt. 
He  was  excommunicated  by  Alexander,  Bish- 
op of  Alexandria  93 

325  Constantine  reluctantly  convoked  the  Council 

of  Nice  94 

The  variety  of  motives  by  which  its  members 
were  probably  influenced.  The  dissensions 
of  the  Bishops,  who  finally  pronounced  the 
Son  consubstantial  with  the  Father  94 

Gibbon's  account  examined  (note)  95 

Temporal  penalties  were  inflicted  on  the  contu- 
macious, but  revoked,  as  soon  as  their  ineffi- 
cacy  was  discovered  96 

The  character  of  Arius,  according  to  Epiphanius      96 
336  Constantius  encouraged  Arianism  in  the  East        96 

326  Athanasius  succeeded  Alexander  in  the  See  of 

Alexandria.      He   was   degraded;    restored; 
and  again  degraded  ;  and  passed  his  exile  at 
,.  Rome  97 

349  He  was  again  restored  to  his  throne;  and,  in 

seven  years,  deposed  for  the  third  time  98 

The  difficulty  with  which  Constantius  accom- 
plished his  deposition,  proves  the  diminution 
of  the  imperial  despotism,  through  the  rise 
of  the  Church  98 

362  Athanasius  was  again  restored,  on  the  death 
of  Constantius,  and,  after  eleven  years,  died 
in  his  See  98 

Difference  among  the  Arians  as  to  the  likeness 
between  the  two  persons  ;  leading  to  divis- 
ions 98 
The   Semiarians,   Homoiousians,  Anomoians, 
or  Eunomians  98 

358-9  Synods  of  Ancyra  and  Seleucia  98 

360  The  Council  of  Rimini  established  Arianism 

(or  rather  Semiarianism)  in  the  West  99 

370  Valens  persecuted  the  Catholics  throughout  the 

East  99 

383  Theodosius  the  Great  generally  restored  the 

Catholic  belief  100 

381  The  Council  General  of  Constantinople  estab- 
lished the  divinity  of  the  Third  Person  100 
Damasus,  at  Rome,  and  Ambrose,  at  Milan, 
zealously  defended  the  Consubstantialist  doc- 
trine                                                                       100 

370  Ulphilas  converted  the  Goths  to  Arianism  ; 
other  barbarians  subsequently  adopted  the 
same  opinion  ;  and  in  the  fifth  century  it 
again  became  general  in  the  West  101 

527  et  seq.  Justinian  sustained  the  Catholics  102 

589  The  Council  of  Toledo  extirpated  Arianism 
from  Spain  ;  and  the  Lombards  soon  after- 
wards embraced  the  Catholic  doctrine  102 
The  Arians  may  have  been  free  from  some  of 
the  superstitious  corruptions  of  the  Catho- 
lics ;  but  the  merit  of  tolerance  cannot  be 
ascribed  to  either  party  102 
JVote  on  Socrates,  Sozomen,  Theodoret,  and 
other  ecclesiastical  writers                               103-4 

Chapter  VIII. —  The  Decline  and  Fall  of  Paganism. 

The  overthrow  of  Paganism  contemporary  with 
the  Arian  dissensions  104 


A.  D.  Page 

321  Constantine  published   an    edict    in  favor  of 

divination  105 

333  He  began  to  attack  the  temples  and  idols,  and 
generally  condemned  the  rights  of  Paganism. 
Constantius,  the  Arian,  followed  his  example  105 
The  supposed  motives  of  Julian,  and  his  char- 
acter^as  compared  to  that  of  Marcus  Anto- 
ninus 106 
The  policy  of  Constantine  contrasted  with  that 

of  Julian  106 

The  successive  penalties  and  disabilities  by 
which  Julian  attacked  the  Christians,  and 
the  great  knowledge  which  he  showed  of  the 
theory  of  persecution  107 

Hisendeavors  to  reform  Paganism  were  direct- 
ed to  three  points  ;  in  a  great  measure  bor- 
rowed from  the  ecclesiastical  system  of  the 
Christians  107 

363  He  made  his  celebrated  attempt  to  rebuild  the 
Temple  of  Jerusalem.     The  historical  facts 
of  this  attempt  are  founded  on  the  combined 
evidence  of  four  contemporary  authors,  one  of 
whom,  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  was  a  Pagan    108 
The  question  whether  the  phamomenon  which 
interrupted  the  work  was  natural  or  miracu- 
lous 108 
A  recent  explanation  of  it   is  attended  with 
some   difficulties,  and  still  leaves  room  for 
uncertainty  109 
Valentinian  f.  practised  universal  toleration        110 
392  Theodosius  published  his  famous  edict  against 
polytheism.     It  was  effectual  in  diminishing 
the  numbers  of  the  Pagans,  and  confining 
them  chiefly  to  the  villages ;   whence  the 
name                                                                      110 
The  religion  maybe  considered  as  extinct  from 

this  time  111 

Some  heathen  superstitions  were  communicat- 
ed to  Christianity.  The  veneration  for  mar- 
tyrs encouraged  by  the  Fathers,  and  carried 
to  excess  by  the  people  111 

404  Honorius  abolished  the  gladiatorial  games  112 

388  Christianity  was  established  by  the  Roman 

Senate  113 

JVute  on  the  writings  of  Julian,  Ammianus  Mar- 
cellinus, and  Zosimus.  Julian's  hatred  of 
Christianity  was  not  the  contemptof  a  philos- 
opher, but  the  passion  of  a  rival  ;  a  passage  in 
the  Misopogon  proves  his  own  superstitious- 
nessor  hypocrisy  ;  his  charitable  edicts  were 
derived  from  the  Christian  practices  113-14-15 

Chapter  IX. — From  the  Fall  of  Paganism  to  the 
Death  vf  Justinian. 

370 — 600  The  various  barbarian  tribes  were  con- 
verted, some  before,  some  after,  their  inva- 
sion of  the  empire  115 
496  The  probable  account  and  consequences  of  the 
conversion  of  Clovis-  The  first  connexion 
between  France  and  Rome  116 

The  natural  causes  which  facilitated  the  con- 
version of  the  barbarians  ;  their  respect  for 
the  grandeur  of  the  empire,  for  the  sacerdotal 
character,  for  the  imposing  ceremonies  of  the 
Church  116-17 

The  opinion  of  Mosheim  as  to  the  probability 
of  supernatural  interposition  in  aid  of  this 
work  118 

The  internal  condition  of  the  Church  was  still 
further  corrupted  by  the  admixture  of  anoth- 
er superstition  118 
427  Symeon  the  Stylite,  a  Syrian  monk,  commenc- 
ed his  method  of  penitential  devotion,  and 
obtained  the  admiration  of  the  people  and  the 
respect  of  the  Emperors  118-19 
440  Leo  the  Great  was  raised  to  the  See  of  Rome ; 
zealous  in  the  repression  of  error  both  in  the 
East  and  West  119 

And  in  the  aggrandizement  of  the  Roman  See     120 

Leo  encourased,  or  instituted,  the  practice  of 
private  confession, —  so  useful  to  sacerdotal 
power  120 

451  The  substance  of  the  29th  canon  of  the  Council 
of  Chalcedon  respecting  the  relative  rank  of 
the  Sees  of  Rome  and  Constantinople  120-1 

527  Justinian  ascended  the  throne,  and  held  it  for 
nearly  forty  years.  He  assailed  various  he- 
retics, Arians,  Nestorians,  Eutychians  ;  re- 
ceived from  the  fifth  General  Council  the  title 
of'  Most  Christian,'  and  died  in  the  heresy 
of  the  Incorruptibles,  or  Phantastics  121 

On  the  system  of  persecution  adopted  by  the 
Christian  Emperors.  Theodosius  II.  embodi- 
ed the  various  barbarous  edicts  in  the  The- 
odnsian  Code,  and  instituted  inquisitions  for 
the  detection  of  heresy  121-2 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


A.  D.  Page 

The  decline  of  the  Roman  literature  was  previ- 
ous to  any  influence  of  the  Christian  religion, 
and  chiefly  caused  by  despotism  122-3 

350 — 430  Many  eminent  Christian  writers  flourish- 
ed, and  were  the  best  of  that  age  122-3 
393  The  Council  of  Carthage  prohibited  the  study 
of  secular  books  by  Bishops  ;  great  ignorance 
followed,  though  not  in  consequence  of  this 
decree  124 
The  '  Seven  Liberal  Arts,'  '  Books  of  Martyrs,' 
'  Lives  of  Saints,'  &c.                                             124 
529  Justinian  published  the  edict  which  closed  the 

School  of  Athens  125 

Religion  in  its  purity  had  been  connected  with 

philosophy  in  its  corruption  and  abuse  125 

The   effect  of  Justinian's  edict  has   probably 

been  much  exaggerated  125 

The  moral  delinquences  of  the  clergy  were  not 

so  great  as  some  have  represented  them  126 

The  miseries  of  the  age  were  ascribed  by  many 
to  the  overthrow  of  the  idols  ;  and  Augustine 
combats  this  notion  in  his  '  City  of  God'        12B-7 
Note  on  certain  ecclesiastical  writers  127 

310,&c.    The  '  Divine  Institutions,'  and  '  Deaths  of 

the  Persecutors,'  the  works  of  Lactantius  127 

362,&x.  Gregory  Nazianzen  wrote  some  Discourses 
against  the  Emperor  Julian  ;  he  exalts  in 
lofty  language  the  authority  of  the  Church  128 
374  Ambrose  raised  by  the  people  to  the  See  of  Mi- 
lan ;  he  was  not  then  baptized.  In  390  he 
imposed  an  act  of  humiliation  on  Theodosius 
the  Great  128 

Chrysostom  combined  great  eloquence,  zeal, 
and  piety,  with  some  extravagance  ;  he  died 
in  exile  on  Mount  Taurus.  His  opinions  on 
the  Eucharist,  on  Grace  and  Original  Sin, 
and  on  Confession,  have  been  the  occasion  of 
much  controversy  130-31 

390  Jerome,  in  his  convent  at  Bethlehem,  exalted 
monastic  excellence,  and  attacked  the  re- 
formers and  heretics,  Jovinian,  Vigilantius, 
Pelagius,  &c.  His  Latin  translation  of  the 
Old  Testament  less  favorably  received  at  the 
time  than  his  polemical  philippics  131-2 

Chapter  X. — From  the  Death  of  Justinian,  to  that 
of  Charlemagne,  567 — 814. 

596  St.  Austin,  with  forty  Benedictines,  introduc- 
ed Christianity  into  Britain.  His  miraculous 
claims  may  be  rejected  ;  but  the  work  was 
accomplished  without  violence.  Gregory  the 
Great  was  Bishop  of  Rome  133-4 

Some  of  the  oiiginal  Christians  remaining  in 
Wales  retained  the  Eastern  error  as  to  the 
celebration  of  Easter  133-4 

715—723  Winfred  (Boniface),  an  Englishman,  call- 
ed the  Apostle  of  Germany.  He  was  raised 
to  the  see  of  Mayence,  and  (755)  murdered 
by  the  Frieselanders  134-5 

622 — 732  The  Mahometans  conquered  Persia,  Sy- 
ria, Egypt,  (through  the  co-operation  of  the 
Jacobites)  the  northern  parts  of  Africa,  and 
Spain.  They  invaded  France,  and  were  de- 
feated by  Charles  Martel  135-6 

772  Charlemaune  converted  the  Saxons  by  the 
sword  ;  and  had  reason  to  complain  of  their 
contumacy  137 

590—604  Gregory  the  Great  was  raised  to  the  Ro- 
man See  ;  he  possessed  some  good  and  great 
qualities,  and  applied  himself  to  reform  some 
abuses.  He  was  charitable,  zealous  for  the 
propagation  of  Christianity,  and  the  unity  of 
the  Church  138-9 

The  charge  acainst  him  of  having  burned  the 
Palatine  Library  is  probably  unfounded  139 

—  He  encouraged  the  use,   and   prohibited  the 

worship,  of  images  139 

He   inculcated   purgatory,  and  pilgrimage  to 

holy  places  140 

His  extravagant  letter  to  the  Empress  Constan- 
tina  on  the  bodies  of  the  Saints  and  the  sanc- 
tity of  their  relics  140-1 

—  Worship  was  still  celebrated  by  every  nation 

in  its  own  language  141 

Gregory  instiluted  the  canon  of  the  Mass,  and 
added  splendor  to  the  ceremonies  of  the 
Church  14] 

588  The  title  of  CEcumenic  was  conferred  bv  the 
Emperor  Maurice  upon  the  Patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople. Gregory  vehemently  disputed 
the  propriety  of  the  title,  without  claiming  it 
for  himself  142 

Gregory  first  claimed  the  power  of  the  Keys  for 
the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  rather  than  the 
body  of  the  Bishops  142 

The  use  of  papal  envoys  and  advocates,  and 


the  practice  of  appeal  to  Rome,  became  more 
common  during  the  pontificate  of  Gregory  143 

—  Of  his  claim  to  the  title  of  Great,  and  the  mis- 
chief occasioned  by  the  superstitions  encour- 
aged by  him  143 
604 — 770  No  character  of  ecclesiastical  eminence 
from  Gregory  to  Charlemagne.  But  many 
changes  were  silently  introduced  into  the 
Western  Church,  through  the  barbarian  con- 
quests.    The  East  remained  unaltered               144 

The  lower  orders  of  the  clergy  were  greatly 
debased  in  the  West.  The  office  of  priest- 
hood was  commonly  conferred  on  the  serfs 
of  the  Church  145 

A  number  of  laymen  were  connected  with  the 
Church  by  the  giving  of  the  tonsure  145 

The  principle  of  the  Unity  of  the  Church,  now 
useful  in  associating  the  barbarians,  prepared 
the  way  for  the  papal  despotism.  On  some 
Councils  held  in  Spain  145 

The  process  by  which  the  Popes  usurped  the 
authority  of  the  Metropolitans  146 

Princes  usurped  the  appointment  to  vacant 
Sees,  with  great  detriment  to  the  Church,  in 
those  ages  147 

The  power  and  corruption  of  the  episcopal  or- 
der.   The  military  character  commonly  as- 
sumed 147 
635  Pope  Martin  was  carried  away  to  Constantino- 
ple, and  died  in  exile  in  the  Chersonesus          148 
754-5  Pope   Zachary,  having  contributed  to  raise 
Pepin  to  the  throne  of  France,  was  rewarded 
by  the  donation  of  the  Exarchate  of  Ravenna  148-9 
800  Charlemagne  was  proclaimed  Emperor  of  the 
West.    He  exerted  great  munificence  towards 
the  Church  ;  still,  however,  retaining  Rome 
as  a  part  of  the  empire.     His  object  was  to 
civilize  his  subjects  by  means  of  the  clergy        149 
789  The    Councils  of   Aix-la-Chapelle  and   (794) 
Frankfort  assembled  for  the  reformation  of 
the  clergy                                                               150 

Chapter  XL — On  the  Dissensions  of  the  Church 
from  Constantine  to  Charlemagne. 

311  The  principal  cause  of  the  schism  of  the  Dona- 
tists  was  a  disrespect  shown  to  the  Numidian 
Bishops.  The  principle  which  it  pleaded 
was  the  invalidity  of  the  ministry  of  the 
Traditors  152 

Constantine  interfered,  by  synods,  first  at 
Rome,  then  at  Aries  ;  lastly,  by  personal  in- 
vestigation. He  decided  against  the  Dona- 
tists,  and  used  the  secular  power  152 

But  he  presently  repealed  the  laws  against 
them.  They  were  persecuted  by  Constans  ; 
restored  by  Julian  ;  they  then  flourished,  and 
quarrelled.  Presently  Augustin  assailed 
them  ;  and  they  were  condemned  by  the 
Council  of  Carthage,  and  persecuted.  Great 
ravages  were  committed  by  the  Circumcel- 
lions  153 

354 — 430  Augustin,  a  Numidian,  embraced  the 
Manichean  opinions.  He  returned  to  the 
Church  ;  was  made  Bishop  of  Hippo  ;  re- 
formed the  abuse  of  the  Agapa? ;  and  became 
celebrated  by  his  Catholic  zeal,  and  his 
writings  154-5 

Erasmus  had  drawn  a  parallel  between  Augus- 
tin and  Jerome  155 
Some  particulars  relating  to  his  private  life           156 

380  Priscillian  was  condemned  on  the  charge  of 
Manicheism  by  the  Council  of  Saragossa,  and 
executed  at  Treves,  by  Maximus,  four  years 
afterwards.  He  is  generally  considered  as 
the  first  martyr  to  religious  dissent.  It  is 
disputed  what  his  opinions  were  156-7 

390  Jovinian  was  condemned  by  a  Council  held  by 
Ambrose,  at  Milan,  and  banished  by  the  em- 
peror. He  wrote  against  celibacy,  and  relig- 
ious seclusion  158 

405  Vigilantius  wrote  against  the  temples  of  mar- 
tyrs, prodigies,  vigils,  prayers  to  saints,  fast- 
ing, &c.  159 

412  The  opinions  of  Celestials  were  condemned 
by  a  Council  at  Carthage.  Augustin  then 
accused  Pelagius  before  two  Councils,  in  Sy- 
ria ;  but  he  was  acquitted  in  both.  Zosimns, 
Bishop  of  Rome,  at  first  declared  in  his  favor. 
But  an  imperial  edict  was  obtained  against 
the  heresv,  &c.  159-60-61 

What  is  the  substance  of  the  Pelagian  opinions ; 
and  what  seem  to  have  been  the  real  senti- 
ments of  Augustin  161 

428  The  Semipelagian  doctrines  began  to  spread 
in  France,  and  seem  to  have  had  earlier 
prevalence  in  the  East ;  but  they  were  equal 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


ly  condemned  by  the  Church  of  Rome  1U2 

The  doctrine  of  the  '  One  Incarnate  Nature ' 
was  first  avowed  in  Egypt  by  Apollinaris, 
Bishop  of  Laodicea,  the  friend  of  Athanasi- 
us;  but  condemned  in  Asia  and  Syria  162 

428  Nestorius  was  raised  to  the  See  of  Constanti- 
nople. He  maintained  that  the  Virgin  Mary 
should  be  called  the  '  Mother  of  Christ,'  or 
even  '  Mother  of  Man  ;'  not '  Mother  of  God.' 
Cyril  of  Alexandria  opposed  him  163-4 

431  He  was  condemned  by  the  General  Council  of 

Ephesus,  and  died  in  the  deserts  of  Upper 
Egypt.  But  his  opinions  spread  throughout 
Asia  164 

The  doctrine  of  the  Nestorians,  according  to  the 
Councils  of  Seleucia  164 

449  The  Monophysite  opinions  of  Eutyches  were 
confirmed  in  a  Council  held  at  Ephesus  ;  but 
rejected  by  that  of  Chalcedon  (451),  which 
established  the  doctrine  of  Christ  in  one  per- 
son and  two  natures  165 

432  Zeno  published  his  Henoticon,  or  edict  of  Union    166 
629  Heraclius  proposed  the  question  of  the  single 

or  double  will  of  Christ  ;  and  the  latter  was 
established  by  the  sixth  General  Council  at 
Constantinople,  held  in  680 
Some  remarks  favorable  to  the  parties  engaged 
in  these  controversies 

726  Leo  the  Isaurian  attacked  the  worship  of  ima- 
ges, established  in  the  East  before  600 
And  was  resisted  both  in  the  East,  and  in  Ita- 
ly, and  by  Gregory  II. 

754  An  assembly  near  Constantinople  decreed  the 
destruction  of  images  (hence  the  name  Ico- 
noclasts) ;  but  Irene  restored  them  by  the 
General  Council  of  Nice,  in  787  ;  the  seventh, 
and  last,  of  the  Greek  Church.  Some  re- 
marks on  those  Councils  168-69 
The  Iconoclast  heresy  was  renewed  by  some 
following  emperors ;  but  finally  repressed 
(842)  by  the  Empress  Theodora  170 

754  John  Damascenus,  the  last  of  the  Greek.  Fa- 
thers 171 

—  The  miracles  in  this  contest  were  chiefly 
claimed  by  the  friends  of  the  idols,  who,  in 
the  East,  were  for  the  most  part  the  monks 
and  lower  people.  In  the  West,  the  Papal 
Chair  zealously  supported  the  same  cause 

794  Bufthe  Council  of  Francfort,  under  Charle- 
magne, was  much  more  moderate  171-2 


166 
166 


1G7 


16S 


171 


Chapter  XII. —  On  the  Schism  between  the  Greek 
and  Latin  Churches. 

Some  political  causes  which  accelerated  the 
division  between  the  Churches  172-3 

320 — 451  The  extent  and  authority  of  the  See  of 
Constantinople  increased  widely,  and  its  ju- 
risdiction was  confirmed  by  the  Council  of 
Chalcedon,  in  spite  of  the  Legates  of  Leo  the 
Great  0        172-3 

588  After  continued  disputes,  John  the  Faster  as- 
sumed the  title  of  Universal  Patriarch,  which 
led  to  fresh  quarrels.  The  internal  dissen- 
sions of  the  Greek  Church  always  gave  Rome 
an  influence  in  its  affairs  173-4 

767  The  doctrine  of  the  double  procession,  having 
been  previously  agitated  in  Spain,  was  re- 
ceived by  the  French  clergy  at  the  Council 
of  Gentiili,  and  advocated  by  Charlemagne 
at  Aix-la  Chapelle,  in  809 

853  Photius  was  raised  to  the  See  of  Constantino- 
ple, and  then  he  and  Nicholas  I.  excommu- 
nicated each  other  175 
Photius  charged  the  Roman  Church  with  five 

errors  175 

There  were,  besides,  differences  about  the  lim- 
its of  their  respective  jurisdiction.  Photius 
was  deposed,  and  the  act  confirmed  by  a 
Council  held  at  Constantinople,  in  869  ;  but 
this  had  no  effect  in  healing  the  schism  175 

1054  Another  dispute  between  Michael  Cerularius 
and  Leo  IX.  completed  the  division  ;  and  the 
Latin  Act  of  Excommunication  was  placed 
on  the  grand  altar  of  St.  Sophia  176 

Chapter  XIII. —  The  condition  of  the  Church  at 
the  Death  of  Charlemagne. 

The  subjects  of  this  chapter  are  chiefly  retro- 
spective 176 
I — 313  The  nature  of  the  primitive  ecclesiastical 
government.  The  elements  of  three  forms 
of  government  may  be  discovered  in  it  — 
the  Episcopal,  the  Presbyterian,  and  the  In- 
dependent;  but  they  immediately  resolved 
themselves  into  a  limited  episcopacy  177 


A.  D. 


Page 
177 


The  rise  of  synods  ;  their  co-operation  for  the 

union  of  the  various  churcnes 
The  principal  bond  of  union  was  the  catalogue 
of  the  Sacred  Books;  and  perhaps  the  salva- 
tion of  the  Church  may  be  ascribed  to  that 
union  178 

An  opinion  of  Semler  considered,  Note  178 

The  writings  of  the  Antenicene  Fathers  con- 
tain the  most  important  doctrines,  but  no 
theological  system  178 

Miraculous  powers  falsely  attributed  to  the 
early  Church,  at  least  after  the  middle  of  the 
second  age  179 

The  nature  of  those  which  it  asserted  179 

On  exorcists  and  Daemoniacs.    The  words  of 

Cyprian  180 

Several  literary  forgeries  disgraced  the  Anteni- 
cene Church  181 
The  distinction  of  the  converts  into  Catechu- 
mens and  Faithful,  was  as  early  as  Tertul- 
lian.     Its  motive  two-fold  181 
There  were  two  original  sacraments  or  myste- 
ries ;  but  the  ceremonies  of  penitential  abso- 
lution, ordination,  &c,  were  concealed  from 
the  uninitiated  ;  and  even  baptism  and  the 
eucharist  were  surrounded  with  some  super- 
stitious reverence  181 
The  birthdays  of  the  martyrs  were  of  early  in- 
stitution ;  and  honors  were  offered  at  their 
tombs                                                                         182 
The  use  of  prayers  and  offerings  for  the  dead, 
and  the  practice  of  occasional  fasting,  was 
very  early  182 
Some  of  the  forms  of  the  external  economy  of 
the  Church  are  to  be  sought  in  Jewish,  some 
in  Pagan  practices.     On  the  distinction  be- 
tween  clergy  and   laity,  the  power  of  the 
presbytery,  liturgies,  the  sacrifice,  votive  do- 
nations, &x.  183 
Two  conclusions  may  be  drawn.     (1.)   That 
the   Antenicene   Church  was  not  a  perfect 
model  of  a  Christian  society.     (2.)  That  the 
fundamental  doctrines   of   Christianity  are 
steadily  perceptible  from  the  beginning.   The 
corruptions,  which  were  even  then  in  exist- 
ence, might  have  been  easily  corrected  on 
the  establishment  of  the  Church                    183-4-5 
320 — 604  A  great  progress  in  abuse  during  this  period     185 
The  Monastic  system  took  root  in  the  4th  and 

5th  ages  185 

The  celibacy  of  the  clergy  was  treated  in  the 
Councils  of  Ancyra  and  Nice,  and  in  that  of 
Constantinople  m  Trnllo  185 

The  exertions  of  Pope  Siricius  and  Gregory  the 
Great  185 

>  The  penitential  system  was  maintained  in  full 
vigor,  till  the  institution  of  private  confession 
by  Leo  the  Great  186 

The  doctrine  of  purgatory  was  first  expressly 
laid  down  to  the  Church  by  Gregory  the 
Great  186 

A  great  number  of  Pagan  ceremonies  found 
their  way  into  the  Church  in  the  5th  and  6th 
centuries  ;  and,  among  other  evils,  the  use 
and  abuse  of  images  187 

The  origin  of  the  spiritual  power  of  the  Chris- 
tian clergy  ;  a  power  unknown  to  the  Pagan 
priesthood.  To  what  objects  it  was  directed 
before  Constantine.  The  popular  influence 
which  it  conferred  187 

Other  motives  afterwards  combined  to  raise 

the  authority  and  influence  of  the  hierarchy      188 
The  great  number  (1800)  of  the  Bishops  increas- 
ed their  weight  in  the  commonwealth  ;  but 
this  was  diminished  by  their  intestine  dis- 
sensions 189 
The   ill  and   wicked   policy,  which    led    the 

Church  to  appeal  to  the  temporal  sword  189 

The  influence  of  the  Presbytery  in  tiie  govern- 
ment of  the  diocese  gradually  decayed  ;  and 
the  authority  of  the  Bishop  rose  far  above  the 
inferior  clergv  190 

The  Bishop  of  Rome  was  exalted  as  the  Bishop 
of  the  Imperial  city,  as  the  only  Patriarch  of 
the  West,  by  the  absence  of  the  Imperial 
Government,  by  the  especial  claim  of  St.  Pe- 
ter's protection,  and  of  the  Keys  ;  hence  he 
derived  respect,  which  he  converted  into  au- 
thority 190-1 
600 — 800  A  vast  field  for  ecclesiastical  exertion,  for 
good  as  well  as  for  evil,  was  opened  by  the 
barbarian  conquests  ;  the  inordinate  growth 
of  episcopal  power  was  another  characteris- 
tic of  this  period  ;  another  was  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Pope's  temporal  monarchy  by  the 
donation  of  Pepin  191-2 
The  Athanasian  Creed,  originally  written  in 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


A.D 

Latin,  is  commonly  attributed  to  Vigiliua 
Tapsensis,  who  lived  at  the  end  of  the  fifth 
century ;  the  principle  of  this  creed  is  the 
exclusive  salvation  of  those  within  the 
Church.  The  truths  which  it  contains  are 
not  expressed  in  the  words  of  Scripture  ;  it 
was  composed  many  ages  after  the  apostoli- 
cal times,  when  evangelical  purity  was  in  no 
prevalence  192-3 

Constantine  instructed  the  magistrates  to  exe- 
cute the  episcopal  sentence,  but  he  restrain- 
ed their  power  within  narrow  limits.  Some 
decrees  of  subsequent  emperors  on  the  same 
subject  and  with  the  same  view  193-4 

Justinian  enlarged  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Bish- 
ops, and  entirely  exempted  them  from  the 
lay  courts,  and  there  the  matter  rested  in  the 
Eastern  Church  ;  in  the  West,  Charlemagne 
increased  their  privileges  to  an  inordinate 
extent,  which  their  territorial  possessions 
stretched  still  farther  195 

The  foundations  of  the  Papal  omnipotence 
were  laid  by  the  forgeries  of  the  donation  of 
Constantine,  and  the  false  Decretals  ;  how 
far  Charlemagne  may  have  been  influenced 
by  the  former  ig5 

1—325  The  Antenicene  clergy  were  supported  by 
voluntary  oblations.  Constantine  opened  a 
variety  of  new  sources  196 

What  exemptions  the  clergy  soon  afterwards 

enjoyed  197 

The  ancient  manner  of  dispensing  the  Church 
funds  197 

470  (about.)  A  law  for  the  quadripartite  division  of 

the  funds  was  enacted  in  the  West  198 

Changes  introduced  by  the  system  of  feudali- 
ties 198 
Foundation  of  benefices  and  right  of  patronage    198 
The  territorial  and  other  possessions  of  the 
clergy  were  very  considerable,  even  before 
Charlemagne,  and  not  always  acquired  by 
worthy  means                                                       199 
Much  on  the  other  hand  was  derived  from  fair 
and  honorable  sources  ;  and  all  was  liable  to 
plunder                                                                  199 
No  tithes  were  paid  to  the  Antenicene  Church  ; 
but  both  Ambrose  and  Augustin  inculcated 
the  payment  vehemently,  and  pressed  the 
divine  obligation.    Chrysostom  and  Jerome 
were  more  moderate                                            200 
Some    special   endowments  may  have    been 
made  before  the  end  of  the  seventh  century  : 
but  the  first  legislative  act  which  conferred 
778      the  right  was  that  of  Charlemagne.     Other 
constitutions  followed,  but  the  payment  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  commanded  '  as  a 
1215      duty  of  common  right,'  till  the  fourth  Later- 
an  Council,  under  Innocent  III.     (Canon 
54  *)                                                                    201-2 
The  power  and  influence  of  the  Church,  at  the 
period  of  the  barbarian  conquests,  were  the 
instruments  by  which  the  religion  was  pre- 
served                                                                   203 
It  afterwards  conferred  great  benefits  on  soci- 
ety by  the  general  exercise  of  charity,  by  the 
severity  of  its  penitential  discipline,  by  its 
more  civilized   principles  of  legislation,  by 
attempts  to  abolish  slavery,  and  to  diminish 
civil  outrage  and   international  warfare,  by 
preserving  the  ancient  writings,  and  dissem- 
inating the  imperfect  education  of  the  age     203-4 

PART  III. 

Chapter  XIV.  —  The  Government  and  Projects 
of  the  Church  during  the  Ninth  and  Tenth  Cen- 
turies. 

The  contents  of  this  chapter  are  divided  under 
three  separate  heads  : —  205 

I.  The  original  law  of  Papal  election  continued 
to  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  and  was  not  dis- 
turbed by  him.  It  became,  in  two  respects, 
offensive  to  the  Popes  ;  they  began  to  dis- 
pense with  the  Imperial  confirmation  under 
the  Carlovingian  princes,  and  Charles  the 
Bald  (875)  resigned  his  right  205 

960  Otho  the  Great,  after  a  long  prevalence  of  dis- 
order in  the  pontifical  elections,  resumed  the 
privilege  of  the  empire,  and  extended  it  so 
far  as  to  appoint  Popes  by  his  own  authority  206 
t047— 59  The  liberty  of  the  See  was  gradually  recov- 
ered, and  the  appointment  vested  in  the  Col- 
lege of  Cardinals  by  Nicholas  II.  206 


'  Quod  Decimae  ante  TVibuta  solvantur.' 


A- D-  Page 

Remarks  on  the  fluctuations  of  the  contest, 

and  the  causes  which  produced  them  206 

II.    The  encroachments  of  ecclesiastical  on 

civil  authority  were  of  various  descriptions      207 
Evils  proceeding  from  the  indistinct  limits  of 
spiritual  and  secular  jurisdiction  ;  yet  these 
were  not  very  perceptible  till  after  the  death 
of  Charlemagne  207 

On  the  increase  of  power  and  privilege  confer- 
red on  the  higher  clergy,  by  the  establish- 
ment of  the  feudal  system.  They  became 
an  Order  in  the  State,  &c.  208 

They  gradually  assumed  the  military  character    209 
The  superstitious  method  of  trials  was  useful 
to  priestly  authority,  yet,  on  many  occasions, 
it  was  opposed  by  the  clergy  209 

The  intellectual  superiority  of  the  clergy  natu- 
rally and  necessarily  enlarged  their  influence 
and  power  209 

The  pit  perty  of  the  church  was  liable  to  per- 
petual spoliation  210 
Wetseq.  On  the  deposition,  penance,  and  tempo- 
rary humiliation  of  Lewis  the  Meek,  by  the 
episcopal  authority.    This  act  had  a  prece- 
dent in  the  deposition  of  Vamba,  King  of  the 
Visigoths,  in  Spain,  at  the  twelfth  Council 
of  Toledo  (682)  211 
These  were  episcopal,  not  papa),  usurpations      211 
842 — 859  Other  instances  of  the  power  of  the  Bish- 
ops and  the  weakness  and  dependence  of  the 
Crown,  in  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Bald        211-12 
Pope  Nicholas  I.  interfered  respecting  the  mar- 
riage (870)  of  Lothaire,  King  of  Lorraine,  and 
Adrian  II.  in  the  succession  to  that  throne        212 
880  Hincmar,  of  Bheims,  employed  strong  expres- 
sions and  a  fortunate  prophecy  against  Lew- 
is III.                                                                      213 
Charles  the  Bald  accepted  the  vacant  empire 
as  the  donation  of  John  VIII.    This  prece- 
dent was  of  great  value  to  the  Popes  in  after 
ages                                                                   213-14 
Further  progress  of  ecclesiastical  usurpation         214 
978  Robert  of  France  put  away  his  wife  and  per- 
formed penance  in  obedience  to  the  interdict 
of  Gregory  V                                                          214 
III.  The  progress  of  papal  authority  was  not 
rapid  until  the  forgery  of  the  False  Decretals  ; 
and  even  these  were  not  brought  into  full  op- 
eration before  the  time  of  Gregory  VII.              215 
Some  French  Prelates  retorted  the  threat  of  ex- 
communication against  Pope  Gregory  IV.       215-16 
862,&.c.  Pope  Nicholas  I.  restored  to  his  see,  by  his 
own  authority,  a  Bishop  who  had  been  de- 
posed by  Hincmar  of  Rheims,  and  had  ap- 
pealed to  Rome                                                     216 
Five  years  afterwards  the  Pope  gained  another 
triumph  over  the  Archbishop                               216 
845 — 882  Hincmar  occupied  the  See  of  Rheims  — 

the  great  churchman  of  the  ninth  century  217 

A  vague  notion  of  the  Pope's  omnipotence  was 
gairung  ground  among  the  laity  in  this  age  217 
876  John  VIII.  appointed  the  Archbishop  of  Sens 
his  permanent  vicar  and  legate  in  France,  in 
spite  of  Hincmar  and  the  clergy.  The  pon- 
tifical power  was  further  advanced  by  ex- 
emptions of  monasteries,  by  the  principle  I  hat 
Bishops  derived  their  power  from  the  Pope, 
by  the  exclusive  convocation  of  councils        218-19 

Chapter  XV. —  On  the  Opinions,  Literature,  Dis- 
cipline, and  external  Fortunes  of  the  Church. 
The  vicissitudes  of  religion,  during  these  ages, 
in  the  different  countries  of  the  West,  gen- 
erally corresponded  with  their  literary  revo- 
lutions 219 
A  half-enlightened  age  is  more  fertile  in  contro- 
versies than  one  of  perfect  darkness  219 
It  is  a  question  whether  the  bodily  presence 
was  universally  received  in  the  beginning  of 
the  ninth  age                                                         219 
831 — 846  PaschalraffTladbertus  originated  the  con- 
troversy concerning  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ                                                                     220 
His  doctrine  is  expressed  in  two  propositions. 
Ratramn  and  John  Scotus  were  ordered  by 
Charles  the  Bald  to  write  on  the  same  sub- 
ject.   The  controversy  died  away  before  the 
end  of  this  century,  without  any  result,  and 
•    reposed  during  the  tenth                                      220 
848  Godeschalcus  advanced   predestinarian  opin- 
ions, which  were  condemned  by  the  council 
of  Mayence,  convoked  by  Rabanus  Maurus. 
Next  year  he  was  again  condemned  by  Hinc- 
mar, deposed,  flagellated,  imprisoned  for  life, 
and  deprived  of  Christian  sepulture             221-2-3 
960—1000  Bernard,  a  Thuringian  hermit,  preached 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


A. D-  Paee 

the  approaching  end  of  the  world  ;  the  opin- 
ion generally  spread  and  produced  great  com- 
motion and  mischief  to  society  223 

800 — 999  Letters,  somewhat  revived  by  Charle- 
magne, partially  flourished  during  the  ninth 
century  ;  they  then  expired.  In  the  mean- 
time, the  Arabians  diffused  them  in  Spain  ; 
thence  they  passed  into  France,  and  ascend- 
ed, with  Sylvester  II.,  into  the  Papal  Chair  224-5 
The  prostrate  discipline  of  the  Church,  raised 
by  Charlemagne,  was  supported  by  numerous 
councils  during  the  ninth  age,  especially  in 
France,  and  through  Hincmar.  In  the  mean- 
time, the  False  Decretals  were  making  silent 
progress  225-6 

817  Benedict  of  Aniane  reformed    the  monastic 

order  226-7 

The  election  of  bishops  was  nominally  restor- 
ed to  the  chapters,  and  their  translations  vain- 
ly prohibited  227 

896  A  posthumous  insult  was  offered  to  Pope  For- 
mosus,  who  had  been  promoted  from  the  See 
of  Porto  to  that  of  Rome  227 

956  John  XII.  introduced  the  custom  of  assuming 

a  new  name  on  elevation  to  the  Papal  Chair     228 

830  Claudius,  Bishop  of  Turin,  the  Protestant  of 
the  ninth  century,  opposed  the  use  of  relics 
and  other  corruptions  228 

Christianity  was  generally  introduced  into  the 
north  of  Europe  before  the  middle  of  the 
eleventh  age  229 

830 — 854  Ansgarlus  attempted  the  conversion  of 
Sweden  ;  that  of  Russia  may  be  assigned  to 
the  end  of  the  tenth  century  ;  that  of  Poland 
was  somewhat  earlier;  that  of  Hungary 
somewhat  later  229-30 

On  the  contemporaneous  progress  of  the  Nor- 
mans and  the  Turks  231 

Chapter  XVI.—  The  Life  of  Gregory  VII. 
Section  I. 
1049  Leo  IX.,  appointed  to  the  see  by  the  Emperor, 
is  recorded  to  have  taken  Hildebrand  with 
him  to  Rome,  from  his  monastery  at  Cluni        231 
1054  Victor  II.  succeeded,  on  the  recommendation 

of  Hildebrand  232 

1059  Papal  election  was  confided  to  the  Cardinals 
by  Nicholas  II.  Of  whom  that  body  then 
consisted  232 

The  consent  of  the  rest  of  the  clergy  and  people 
was  required  ;  but  Alexander  III.  afterwards 
removed  that  restraint  233 

The  original  method  of  popular  election  had 

gradually  fallen  every  where  into  disuse  233 

The  necessity  of  imperial  confirmation  was  vir- 
tually abolished  by  Nicholas  II.  at  the  same 
time  233 

The  Norman  Duke  of  Apulia  received  his  ter- 
ritories as  a  fief  of  the  Roman  See  234 
1061  Hildebrand  succeeded  in  placing  Alexander  II. 
in  the  Chair,  ruled  the  Church  under  his 
name,  and  developed,  during  this  Pontificate, 
the  leading  schemes  of  his  own  ambition        234-5 

1073  Himself  was  raised  to  the  See,  and  took  the 

name  of  Gregory  VII.  234-5 

Section  II. — Pontificate  of  Gregory. 

1074  The  Pope  assembled  a  council  against  the  con- 

cubinage of  the  clergy  and  simony  235 

A  great  relaxation  in  the  morals  of  the  clergy 
during  the  tenth  century;  the  Popes,  from 
Leo  IX.,  had  attempted  to  correct  it,  but 
with  no  effect  236 

Gregory  endeavored  to  enforce  his  decree,  and 
great  confusion  ensued  236 

The  princes,  long  before  Charlemagne,  had 
gradually  usurped  the  most  valuable  Church 
patronage,  and  frequently  abused  it  236 

It  was  Gregory's  object  to  recover  it  from  them  ; 
the  question  about  investitures  was  only  the 
means  to  do  so  236 

From  the  time  of  Otho  I.  the  sovereigns  had 
performed  the  office  of  investiture  with  the 
ring  and  crosier,  symbols  of  a  spiritual  office  ; 
this  was  the  point  ostensibly  disputed  237 

Henry  IV.  resisted  Gregory's  demands,  and  the 
Pope  deposed  some  German  prelates,  and 
menaced  anathemas  237 

Gregory  summoned  Henry  to  Rome,  to  clear 
himself  from  certain  charges  alleged  by  his 
subjects  238 

Henry  assembled  a  Synod  at  Worms  to  depose 
the  Pope  238 

The  Pope  excommunicated  and  deposed  Henry    238 

A  civil  war  in  Germany  followed,  and  a  coun- 


A.  D.  Pag* 

cil  was  appointed,  in  which  the  claims  of 
both  parties  were  to  be  referred  to  the  decis- 
ion of  the  Pope  239 

Henry  crossed  the  Alps,  and  made  submission 
to  the  Pope  at  Canossa,  and  was  restored  to 
communion  239 

The  civil  wars  were  then  renewed,  and  three 
years  afterwards  (1080)  Gregory  bestowed  the 
crown  on  Rodolphus  239 

Gregory  extended  his  claims  of  temporal  su- 
premacy to  the  crowns  of  France,  England, 
Naples,  and  many  inferior  dukedoms  and 
principalities  240 

He  designed  to  regulate  the  affairs  of  Christ- 
endom by  a  council  of  bishops  periodically 
assembled  at  Rome.  Some  circumstances 
which  ought  to  be  considered  in  passing  an 
opinion  on  that  project  240 

What  were  the  grounds  on  which  Gregory 
founded  his  pretensions  to  this  universaldo- 
minion  241 

The  power  '  to  bind  and  to  loose'  extended  to 
the  oath  of  allegiance  241 

Matilda,Countess  of  Tuscany,  consented  to  hold 
her  domains  on  feudal  tenure  from  the  Pope       242 

It  was  the  object  of  Gregory  to  destroy  the  in- 
dependence of  the  national  churches,  and 
lead  the  whole  hierarchy  to  look  to  Rome  only 
as  its  head  242 

The  objects  and  some  of  the  contents  of  the 
False  Decretals  248 

1082  Henry  ad/anced  to  Rome,  and  after  two  re- 
pulses, in  two  successive  years,  obtained  pos- 
session of  the  city.  Gregory  retired  to  the 
Castle  of  St.  Angelo,  and  was  relieved  by  the 
Normans,  under  Robert  Guiscard  243 

1085  Gregory,  having  retired  with  the  Normans, 
died  at  Salerno.  An  examination  of  his 
character  as  a  churchman  and  as  a  Christian  244-5 

His  private  morality  was  marked  by  the  auste- 
rity of  the  cloister  246 

Section  III. 
1045  Berenger,  Scholastic  at  Tours,  published  hi3 
opposition  to  the  doctrine  afterwards  called 
Transubstantiation  ;  he  was  condemned  at 
Rome  five  years  afterwards,  and  again  by 
some  French  councils,  especially  that  of 
Tours;  he  retracted,  and  immediately  return- 
ed to  his  opinion  247 

He  was  summoned  to  Rome  by  Nicholas  II., 
when  he  again  retracted,  and  again  abjured 
his  retractation  248 

1078  Gregory  VII.  required  his  subscription  to  a  pro- 
fession, admitting  the  real  presence,  without 
mention  of  the  change  of  substance,  and  he 
subscribed.  In  the  year  following  he  sub- 
scribed to  the  whole  doctrine,  without  any 
reservation  ;  and  then,  returning  to  France, 
taught  as  before  248 

1088  He  died  in  peace,  at  an  advanced  age  248 

Gregory's  moderation  has  occasioned  a  suspi- 
cion that  he  shared  the  opinions  249 

The  use  of  the  Latin  Liturgy  was  imposed  gen- 
erally upon  the  Church  by  Gregory  VII.  In 
a  letter  to  Vratislaus,  Duke  of  Bohemia,  he 
declared  the  policy  of  closing  the  Scriptures 
against  the  people.  Both  were  contrary  to 
the  practice  of  the  early  Church  249-50 

JVote  respecting  the  reputed  inscription  to  Si- 
mon Magus,  discovered  at  Rome  in  1574  250 

Misrepresentation  by  Mosheim  of  a  sermon  of 
Eligius,  Bishop  of  Noyon  251-2 


PART   IV. 

From  Gregorv  VII.  to  Boniface  VIII. 
Chapter  XVII. — From  Gregory  VII.  to  Innocent  III. 
1087 — 99  Urban  II.  pursued  the  schemes  of  Gregory, 
and  in  1095,  he  held  the  councils  of  Placentia 
and  Clermont,  and  setonfoot  the  first  crusade  252-3 
The  notion  of  a  crusade  was  first  started  by 
Sylvester  II.,  and  taken  up  by  Gregory  VII.      253 
1099—1118    Pascal  II.  (like  Gregory  and  Urban,  a 
monk  of  Cluni),  revived  the  contest  with  the 
empire  254 

Henry  died  under  the  sentence  of  excommuni- 
cation, with  his  son  in  arms  against  him,  and 
his  body  was  kept  for  five  years  in  unhallow- 
ed ground  254 
The  contest  continued  with  Henry  V.  255 
The  regalia  were  grants  conferred  on  the  bish- 
ops by  Charlemagne,  partaking  of  the  privi- 
leges of  royalty,  and  the  emoerors  claimed 
the  right  of  confirming  them  253 


10 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


A.  D  page 

Pascal  n.  agreed  to  cede  them,  on  the  Empe- 
ror's ceding  the  right  of  investiture.  The 
1110  ceremony  of  coronation  was  to  follow  ;  but  a 
dispute  arose  in  St.  Peter's,  and  the  Pope  was 
carried  away  prisoner  to  Viterbo,  where  he 
made  every  concession  255 

A  Lateran  council  was  assembled,  and  cancel- 
led the  treaty  256 
A  disputed   succession  was  still   usual  at  the 
death  of  almost  every  Pope                                    256 

1122  The  Investiture  question  was  reasonably  ar- 

ranged in  a  council  or  diet  held  at  Worms, 
under  Calixlus  II.,  a  relative  of  the  Emperor    256 
Some  remarks  on  the  arrangement  thus  adopted     257 

1123  The  first  Lateran  (ninth  Latin  General)  was 

held  for  the  General  regulation  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal matters  257 
1'24 — 1154  Rome  was  disturbed  by  uninterrupted 
discord  and  convulsion.  Arnold  of  Brescia 
was  distinguished  during  this  period  258 
1155  Adrian  IV.  placed  the  city  under  an  interdict, 
and  so  effected  the  expulsion  of  Arnold,  who 
was  presently  delivered  up  to  him  by  Fred- 
eric Barbarossa,  and  burnt  alive.  The  pro- 
bable character  of  Arnold                                      258 

Barbarossa  held  the  stirrup  of  Adrian  259 

Alexander  III.,  after  a  long  conflict,  reduced 
Frederic  Barbarossa  to  terms  favorable  to  the 
Church.  In  1179,  he  held  the  third  Lateran 
Council,  and  enacted  the  final  regulations  re- 
specting Papal  election.  He  was  a  zealous 
patron  of  letters  260-1 

Three  descriptions  of  disputes  distracted  this 
period  :  those  between  the  Popedom  and  the 
empire;  those  between  rivals  for  the  See; 
those  in  various  states  between  the  ecclesias- 
tical and  civil  authorities  261 

The  general  correspondence  between  religion 
and  literature,  in  their  progress  and  decay, 
admits  of  many  particular  exceptions  262 

After  the  first  barbarian  conquests,  the  whole 
office  of  public  instruction  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  clergy  ;  and  no  subjects  were  treated, 
or  lessons  delivered,  except  with  a  view  to 
theology.  The  invasion  of  the  Lombards 
was  destructive  to  all  learning  in  Italy  263 

The  exertions  of  Charlemagne  had  much  more 
fruit  in  France  than  in  Italy  during  the  ninth 
aSe  263 

In  the  tenth,  every  thing  degenerated  in  both 
countries  ;  literature  and  morality  ;  laity  and 
clergy.  Yet  the  literary  condition  of  France 
was  not  lower  at  the  accession  of  Sylvester 
II.,  than  at  that  of  Charlemagne  264 

On  the  other  hand,  the  ecclesiastical  composi- 
tions of  those  ages  had  commonly  a  practical 
tendency,  and  were  directed  to  moral  im- 
provement 265 

From  the  Saracenic  conquest  of  Egypt,  papy- 
rus began  to  be  disused  in  Europe,  and  parch- 
ment was  the  substitute  ;  so  that  MSS.  could 
not  multiply  or  spread  with  any  rapidity.  An 
instance  of  their  scarcity  266 

This  evil  was  removed  in  the  eleventh  centu- 
ry by  the  invention  of  paper  266 

About  eighty  councils  were  held  in  France 
during  that  age.  On  the  three  characters  or 
ffiras  of  theological  literature  ;  that  of  the  ec- 
clesiastical Fathers;  that  of  the  collectors 
and  compilers  ;  that  of  the  Schoolmen  267 

On  the  Trivium  and  Cluadrivium  268 

1091-1153  Note  on  St.  Bernard.  He  founded  Clair- 
val,  and,  in  the  course  of  his  life,  about  a  hun- 
dred and  sixty  other  monasteries  269 

He  was  very  influential  in  establishing  Inno- 
cent II.  in  the  disputed  See  ;  and  through 
his  numerous  ecclesiastical  merits,  he  is  de- 
nominated the  last  of  the  fathers  269 

In  his  opinion  respecting  grace,  he  followed  St. 
Augustin  270 

1140  He  entered  the  lists  in  public  disputation  against 
Abelard,  at  Sens  ;  but  the  latter  declined  the 
controversy,  and  appealed  to  the  Pope  271 

He  was  a  zealous  supporter  of  papal  authority 
and  adversary  of  heresy.  Various  expres- 
sions from  his  writings  on  both  these  subjects  272-3 

He  likewise  denounced,  with  great  indignation, 
the  numerous  abuses  prevalent  in  the  Church 
at  that  period  274-5 

On  his  mingled  good  and  dangerous  qualities, 
and  the  wide  extent  of  his  personal  influence    275 

Chapter  XVIII.—  The  Pontificate  of  Innocent  III. 
(1198-1216.) 
1083-1198  Considerable  improvement  had  been  ef- 
fected in  the  Church  system  between  Grego- 


■  Paee 

ry  VII.  and  Innocent.     Three  Lateran  coun- 
cils assembled  in  the  twelfth  century  276 
1151  Gratian  published  his  famous  collection  of  ca- 


non law 


276 


The  possessions  of  the  clergy  were  greatly 
increased  during  the  same  period  ;  and  the 
ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  had  made  wide 
encroachments  on  the  secular  277 

Various  instances  of  the  persons  and  causes 
which  had  been  insensibly  drawn  into  the 
former  courts  277 

Thus  the  clergy  exercised,  at  Innocent's  acces- 
sion, a  greater  control  over  society  than  at 
any  former  period  278 

His  designs  may  be  classed  under  four  heads        278 

I.  The  character  of  the  Roman  people,  accord- 
ing to  the  expressions  of  Luitprand,  a  Lom- 
bard of  the  tenth  age  278 

According  to  those  of  St.  Bernard,  addressed 
to  Eugenius  III.  279 

The  turbulence  of  the  Romans  was  excused  by 
the  weakness,  capriciousness,  and  uncertain 
character  of  their  government.  Some  vicis- 
situdes in  its  form,  from  Charlemagne  to  In- 
nocent. The  latter  at  length  entirely  shook 
off  the  imperial  claims,  and  deprived  the 
Prefect  of  his  power.  279-80 

Yet  other  changes  and  tumults  succeeded,  and 
were  not  appeased  till  the  middle  of  the  fif- 
teenth century  280 

The  circumstances  of  the  empire  were  favora- 
ble to  the  project  of  Innocent.  He  obtained 
from  Frederic  a  confirmation  of  the  donation 
of  Matilda  281 

II.  Innocent  exercised  his  temporal  authority 
in  the  disposal  of  the  empire.  Through 
what  causes  that  authority  ever  acquired  any 
strength,  or  received  any  obedience  281 

Many  imagined  that  the  ceremony  of  corona- 
tion by  the  Pope  was  necessary  for  the  legiti- 
macy of  the  emperor  282 

In  a  contest  with  Philippe  Auguste  of  France, 
Innocent  threw  an  interdict  over  the  whole 
country,  and  the  king  made  his  submission      282 

He  published  some  general  assertions  of  his 
power  over  thrones  ;  and  interfered  in  Arra- 
gon,  Navarre,  Bohemia,  Wallachia,  Bulgaria, 
and  Armenia  283 

The  resistance  and  final  humiliation  of  John 
of  England  283-4 

III.  It  was  necessary  for  the  success  of  Inno- 
cent, to  hold  the  hierarchy  in  subservience. 
He  endeavored  to  usurp  all  important  patron- 
age 283-4 

He  imposed  a  regular  tax  (the  Saladin  tax)  on 
ecclesiastical  property.  The  power,  which 
the  Bishops,  as  a  collective  body,  had  lost, 
passed  into  the  possession  of  the  Pope  285 

1215  The  fourth  Lateran  Council  met  for  the  recov- 
ery of  the  Holy  Land,  and  the  reformation 
of  the  Church  285 

The  name  of  transnbstantiation  was  introduc- 
ed into  the  vocabulary  of  the  Church  285 

Sacramental  confession  generally  imposed  286 

Reformation  in  the  faith  of  the  Church  only 
meant  extirpation  of  heresy.  The  substance 
of  the  third  canon  of  this  council  on  that  sub- 
ject 286 

IV.  From  the  controversy  about  images,  till  the 
twelfth  century,  the  Church  had  not  been 
stained  by  any  rigorous  persecution  287 

1110  Pierre  de  Bruys  originated  the  sect  of  Petro- 
brussians,  who  rejected  some  superstitions, 
and  advanced  some  errors.  He  was  burnt  in 
a  popular  tumult  287 

1148  Henry,  from  whom  the  Henricians  were  named, 

was  opposed  by  St. Bernard,  and  died  in  prison  287 
Both  these  heresies  prevailed  chiefly  in  the 
South  of  France,  as  well  as  some  others  of 
no  name,  and  perhaps  of  no  very  definite 
tenets,  but  professing  an  apostolical  character 
and  origin  288 

The  Cathari,  or  Gazari,  &c,  may  probably  have 
descended  from  the  Paulicians  of  the  East, 
and  may  thus  have  been  Semi-Manichffians  ; 
but  it  would  be  absurd  to  charge  Ibis  error 
upon  all  the  heretics  of  the  twelfth  century    288-89 

1160  Peter  Waldus  commenced  his  preaching,  and 
caused  some  part  of  the  Scriptures  to  be  trans- 
lated into  the  vulgar  tongue  :  but  the  Vau- 
dois,  or  Waldenses,  were  of  earlier  and  im- 
memorial origin,  though  it  is  impossible  to 
trace  them  to  the  apostolical  times.  The 
opinions  ascribed  to  them  289-90 

Albigeois,  or  Albigenses,  was  the  common 
name  for  the  various  heretics  of  the  South  of 
France  at  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  291 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


11 


1017  Some  persons  of  good  condition,  charged  with 
Manicheism,  and  probably  guilty  of  mysti- 
cism, were  condemned  by  a  synod  at  Or- 
leans, and  burnt  to  death  291 

1163  Alexander  III.  published,  in  a  Council  at 
Tours,  an  edict  against  the  heretics  of  Tou- 
louse and  Gascony,  and  afterwards  attacked 
the  Cathari  in  his  Lateran  Council  292 

1198-1207  Innocent  III.  attempted  to  reduce  the  Al- 
higeois,  tirst  by  legates,  and  then  by  missiona 
ry  preachers,  under  the  name  of  Inquisitors, 
of  whom  Dominic  was  one  :  but  failing,  he 
appealed  to  the  sword  of  Louis  Philippe  293 

Simon  de  Montfort  then  led  the  crusade  against 
them,  with  barbarous  success  293 

1229  A  system  of  inquisition  was  permanently  estab- 
lished at  Toulouse,  by  a  council  there  assem- 
bled. The  Scriptures  were  strictly  prohibit- 
ed to  all  laymen  294 

1216  The  circumstances  of  the  death  of  Innocent 
are  variously  recounted.  His  private  char- 
acter should  be  distinguished  from  his  eccle- 
siastical ;  the  former  had  many  good  quali- 
ties, the  latter  abounded  with  crimes  294 
His  policy  was  strictly  temporal.  The  taxation 
of  the  clergy  was  the  principal  change  which 
lie  introduced  into  the  economy  of  the  Church  295 
A  comparison  drawn  between  his  public  char- 
acter and  that  of  Gregory  VII.  is  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  latter  296 

Chapter  XIX. —  The  History  of  Monachism. 

For  what  reasons  any  general  notice  of  the  Mo- 
nastic Orders  has  been  deferred  till  this  pe- 
riod of  the  history  296 

Section  I. 
250  The  practice  of  seclusion  was  indigenous  in 
the   East ;  the  testimony  of  Pliny  the  philo- 
sopher 297 

The  original  Therapeutfe  or  Essenes  were  pro- 
bably Jews  ;  but  in  assuming  Christianity 
they  may  have  retained  their  eremitical  habits    297 

The  Ascetics  were  Christians  ;  they  were  the 
most  rigid  among  the  converts,  but  were  not 
recluses.  Their  origin  ascribed  by  Mosheim 
to  the  double  doctrine  of  morals  297 

250  et  seq.  Many  flying  from  the  persecutions  of  De- 
cius  and  Diocletian  adopted  the  anachoretical 
life  298 

The  first  institution  of  Coenobites  is  attributed 
to  St.  Anthony,  the  contemporary  of  Atha- 
nasius  ;  and  Egypt  was  the  country  wherein 
it  rose  298 

395  Cassian  made  his  visit  to  the  monks  of  Egypt. 
They  were  divided  into  Anchorets,  Coeno- 
bites, and  Sarabaites.  A  passage  respecting 
the  first  of  these  299 

The  numerous  establishments  and  moderate 
discipline  of  the  Coenobites.  The  times  and 
manner  of  their  devotion.  The  four  objects 
comprehended  by  their  profession.  A  great 
portion  of  their  time  was  devoted  to  manual 
labor  299 

The  Sarabaites  are  probably  calumniated  both 
by  Cassian  and  Jerome  ;  what  they  seem  re- 
ally to  have  been  300 
360  et  seq.  Basil,  the  patriarch  of  Monachism,  is  be- 
lieved to  have  delivered  a  Rule,  and  estab- 
lished the  obligation  of  a  vow  ;  yet  this  is 
not  certain                                                             300 

All  the  Fathers  of  that  age  eAcouraged  the 
growth  of  Monachism  ;  yet  their  motives 
were  not  selfish  nor  sordid,  nor  such  as  are 
commonly  ascribed  to  them  301 

The  earliest  form  of  Monachism  was  subject  to 
many  wholesome  restraints,  which  were  first 
weakened  by  Justinian  302 

The  original  monks  were  laymen  302 

Monastic  austerity  was  not  carried  to  greater 
excess  in  the  East  than  in  the  West,  since  a 
variety  of  motives,  derived  from  Papal  prin- 
ciples, gained  influence  in  the  latter,  which 
had  no  existence  in  the  former  303 

The  institution  of  nunneries  is  also  attributed 
to  St.  Anthony  ;  but  it  never  attained  such 
prosperity  in  the  East  as  in  the  West  303 

Section  II. 
341 — 430  Monachism,  said  to  have  been  introduc- 
ed into  Rome  by  Athanasius,  was  diffused 
through  the  North  of  Italy  and  the  South  of 
France  304 

The  love  for  insular  retirement,  which  prevail- 
ed among  the  recluses  of  the  East,  was  imi- 


305 


3(15 
305 


306 


A.  D.  Page 

tated  in  the  Adriatic,  and  on  the  western 
coasts  of  Italy  304 

The  general  spreading  of  Monachism  was  con- 
temporaneous with  the  barbarian  conquests; 
and  those  establishments  were  of  use  in  pre- 
serving religion,  and  relieving  individual 
misery 

The  Rule  of  St.  Basil  was  that  first  professed 
in  the  West 
529  Benedict  of  Nursia  instituted  a  new  order 

His  object  was  excellent,  and  the  principle  of 
his  establishment  beneficial  in  those  ages 

Some  account  of  the  '  Rule  of  St.  Benedict :  ' 
the  times  of  public  worship;  duty  of  mental 
prayer ;  of  manual  labor ;  of  reading;  of  rigid 
temperance,  rather  than  abstinence  ;  of  si- 
lence, seriousness,  and  obedience;  difficulties 
offered  to  the  introduction  of  novices  306-7 

The  Monastery  of  Monte  Cassino  was  founded 
by  Benedict,  and  his  Rule  spread  into  France, 
and  elsewhere,  though  it  may  not  have  been 
universally  received  in  the  West  before  the 
ninth  century 
817  Benedict  of  Aniane  reformed  the  Benedictine 
Order,  and  his  regulations  were  confirmed  by 
the  Council  of  Aix-la-Chapelle 
900,&c.  The  order  of  Cluni,  in  Burgundy,  was  es- 
tablished, and  was  very  celebrated  for  about 
two  centuries.     It  then  became  wealthy  and 
corrupt.     Gregory  VII.,  Urban  II.  and  Pascal 
II.  were  educated  there 
1098  The  Cistertian  Order  was  founded  in  its  neigh- 
borhood, and  honored  and  advanced  by  St. 
Bernard 
1178  The  Order  of  the  Chartreuse,  which  had  been 
founded  by  St.  Bruno  in  1084,  was  sanction- 
ed by  Alexander  III.  310-11 

The  rivalry  among  these  and  other  orders,  all 
Benedictines,  was  of  advantage  to  the  disci-' 
pline  of  them  all 
1040  The  distinction  between  monks  and  lay  breth- 
ren was  first  introduced  at  Vallombrosa  ;  and 
it  secured  the  corruption  of  the  former 

The  Abbot  was  originally  subject  to  the  Bish- 
op of  the  Diocese  ;  the  practice  of  Papal  ex- 
emption occasioned  extreme  relaxation  of 
discipline 

The  prevalence  of  monastic  corruption  was 
acknowledged  by  councils  held  early  in  the 
thirteenth  century 


307 


303 


309 


310 


311 


311 


311 


312 


Section  III. 
The  order  of  Canons  Regular,  professing  the 
institution  of  St.  Augustin,  is  of  uncertaiu 
origin.  A  general  rule  was  imposed  on  them 
by  the  Councils  of  Mayence  and  Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle, early  in  the  ninth.age  312 
1059  They  were  subsequently  reformed  by  Nicholas 
II.,  and  were  first  subjected  to  a  vow  by  In- 
nocent II.  313 

Section  IV. 
The  Monastic  Order3  were   powerful  instru- 
ments of  pontifical  ambition,  through  their 
wealth,  their  obedience,  and  their  popular 
influence  313 

The  confusion  of  the  military  and  ecclesiastical 
characters  had  preceded  the  foundation  of 
the  Military  Orders  313 

1050  Four  merchants  erected  a  hospital  at  Jerusa- 
lem, which  was  endowed  by  Godfrey  of 
Bouillon  ;  and  then  rose  the  Knights  of  the 
Hospital,  afterwards  known  as  the  Knights 
of  Rhodes  and  Malta  314 

1118  The  Knights  Templars  were  founded.  Their 
Rule  was  written  by  St.  Bernard  ;  their  office 
and  corruption  314 

1192  The  Teutonic  Order  received  its  Rule  from 
Celestine  III.  Afterwards  (1230),  those 
knights  converted  Prussia  by  the  sword  ;  and 
joined  the  Reformers  in  the  sixteenth  age         315 

Section  V. 
1217,&c.  The  number  and  variety  of  heresies  made 
a  new  order  necessary  for  their  extirpation. 
St.  Dominic  instituted  that  of  the  Preachers, 
and  it  was  sanctioned  by  the  bull  of  Honori- 
us  III.  315 

1210  Innocent  III.  established  the  order  of  St.  Fran- 
cis, which  was  originally  founded  in  poverty 
only  315 

The  Testament  of  St.  Francis  did  not  enjoin 

mendicity  316 

These  two  orders  adopted  each  other's  charac- 
teristics, and  presently  became  both  Preach- 
ers and  both  Mendicants  316 


12 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


A.  D.  Page 

The  severity  of  the  Rule  of  St.  Francis  occasion- 
ed many  dissensions  among  his  disciples,  and 
great  insubordination  in  the  Ohurch  317 

The  Dominicans  were  more  orderly  and  obe- 
dient 317 
St.  Dominic  was  not  the  founder  of  the  Inqui- 
sition                                                                        317 
122S-1259  The  Dominicans  became  learned  scholas- 
tics,  and  contested   the    theological  chairs 
with  the  University  of  Paris                               318 
The  good  proceeding  from  this  struggle.     The 
prophecy  concerning  the  '  perils  of  the  latter 
times '  was  applied  to  the  Mendicants  by  a 
doctor  at  Paris.    A  general  remark  on  Mil- 
lennarians                                                             318 
1274  Gregory  X.  suppressed  several    Mendicants, 
and  distributed  the  sect  into  four  societies  : 
Dominicans,  Franciscans,  Carmelites,  and 
Hermits  of  St.  Augustin                                         318 
1209  Albert,  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  gave  a  Rule  to 
the  Carmelites,  confirmed  in  1226  by  Hono- 
rius  III.,  and  afterwards  interpreted  by  In- 
nocent IV.                                                             319 
Alexander  IV.  collected  various  Hermits  into 

one  order,  called  the'Hermitsof  St.  Augustin'    319 
The  earliest  Dominicans  were  distinguished  by 

great  talents  and  merits,  and  professional  zeal    320 
Great  jealousy  was  occasioned  among  the  An- 
cient Orders  and  Secular  Clergy,  and  violent 
disputes  followed  320 

The  influence  of  the  Mendicants  depended  al- 
most entirely  on  their  merits  and  activity  320 
Yet  they  soon  became  liable  to  many  reproaches    321 

Section  VI. 

On  the  '  Holy  Virgins  '  who  existed  in  the  An- 
tenicene  Church  321 

350  St.  Syncletica  is  said  to  have  founded  the  first 

nunnery  322 

In  Egyptj  Marcella,  a  Roman  lady,  introduced 
the  institution  into  the  West,  and  it  spread 
rapidly  322 

The  Rule  of  the  Nuns  was  formed  upon  those 
of  the  Monasteries  322 

The  necessity  of  a  '  Vow  of  Chastity  '  strongly 
urged  by  St.  Basil  323 

The  Canon  of  Chalcedon  was  moderate  in  the 
penalty  denounced  against  its  violation  ;  but 
Innocent  I.  increased  its  severity,  and  subse- 
quent ages  still  more  so  323 

The  imposition  of  the  Veil  was  earlier  than  St. 
Ambrose  323 

The  age  of  taking  it  varied  at  different  times 
and  places  323 

The  order  of  the  Nuns  of  St.  Benedict  was  in- 
stituted at  the  same  time  with  his  first  monas- 
teries, and  rose  in  importance  and  pride  323 

There  were  also  Canonesses.  Nuns  of  the 
Hospital,  Nuns  of  St.  Dominic,  following  the 
various  monastic  denominations  324 

1537  The  Ursulines  were  a  truly  ascetic  and  char- 
itable institution  ;  indeed  the  Nuns  were 
generally  free  from  any  of  the  vices  charged 
against  their  Monastic  brethren.  The  Pro- 
testants have  imitated  those  virtues  325 

The  Benedictine,  the  Military,  and  the  Mendi- 
cant orders,  were  all  peculiarly  adapted  to 
the  age  and  circumstances  in  which  they 
flourished,  and  the  qualities  required  for  the 
support  of  Papacy  j  as  were  the  Jesuits  at  a 
later  period  325-6-7 

The  Monastic  system  was  only  perpetuated  by 
a  succession  of  reformations  and  regenera- 
tions 325-67 

Such  was  the  history  of  every  order,  and  none 
could  have  long  subsisted  otherwise  327-8 

Many  advantages  were  conferred  on  society  by 
Monachism.  Tracts  of  land  were  brought 
into  cultivation  ;  hospitality  and  refuge  af- 
forded to  the  wretched  ;  charity  largely  dis- 
tributed ;  spiritual  consolation  commonly 
administered  to  the  lower  orders;  and  an 
example  set  of  piety  and  humanity.  Educa- 
tion was  intrusted  to  the  Monks  ;  and  man- 
uscripts, profane  and  sacred,  were  preserved 
and  multiplied  by  them  ;  so  that,  if  they  were 
only  useful  in  bad  ages,  then  at  least  they 
were  seemingly  the  best  members  of  society  328-32 

Yet  they  were  the  steady  defenders  of  every 
superstitious  abuse,  and  the  sworn  enemies 
of  all  general  reform.  The  system  of  exemp- 
tion made  them  firm  supporters  of  the  Papal 
system ;  and  in  recompense,  indulgences, 
private  masses,  and  many  of  the  worst  abuses 
of  the  Church  were  sustained,  chiefly  for 
their  profit,  by  Pontifical  authority  332-34 


A.  D.  P.JB 

Chapter  XX. — From  the  Death  of  Innocent  to 

that  of  Boniface  VIII. 

The  interests  of  the  Church  of  Rome  were  be- 
coming at  variance  with  the  peace  of  Chris- 
tendom 334 

Frederic  II.  long  deferred  his  promised  depart- 
ure to  the  Holy  Land  335 
1227  Gregory  IX.  was  elected  ;  the  ceremony  of  his 

coronation  335 

He  excommunicated  the  Emperor.  Frederic 
wrote  to  the  King  of  England  in  reprobation 
of  the  Church  336 

He  proceeded  to  Palestine  ;  he  made  an  advan- 
tageous treaty  with  the  Infidels,  in  spite  of 
the  Pope's  persecutions,  and  returned  to  re- 
pel an  invasion  of  his  territories  336 
1243-1245  Innocent  IV.  continued  the  quarrel  with 
Frederic,  and  assembled  the  first  council  of 
Lyons.  It  professed  three  objects.  The  Em- 
peror was  summoned  before  it,  and  on  his 
non-appearance,  deprived  of  his  crown  337 

Innocent  vainly  attempted  to  seduce  the  Em- 
peror's son  into  an  alliance  against  his  father    337 
1250  Frederic  died  in  adversity,  having  been  virtu- 
ally deposed  by  the  sentence  of  Innocent  338 

The  real  merits  of  this  quarrel ;  in  what  re- 
spects Frederic  justly  offended  the  Church  ; 
the  fierce  edicts  against  heresy,  by  which  he 
aimed  to  support  it,  and  by  which  he  deserv- 
ed his  future  misfortunes  339 

Some  points  by  which  this  dispute  between  the 
Church  and  the  Empire  is  distinguished  from 
that  commenced  by  Gregory  VII.  340 

Taxes  were  rigidly  levied  by  the  Pope  upon 
the  clergy,  and  a  crusade  was  preached 
against  the  Emperor  340 

Innocent  returned  to  Italy,  and  after  some  suc- 
cesses against  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  died 
in  1254  341 

His  temporal  ambition  and  policy,  and  trium- 
phant pontificate  341 

Alexander  IV.  continued  the  struggle  for  Na- 
ples 342 
1261-1268  Urban  IV.  and  Clement  IV.,  two  French- 
men, introduced  the  French  into  that  king- 
dom                                                                       342 

1273  Gregory  X.,  a  pious  enthusiast,  was  raised  to 

the  See  ;  and  labored  earnestly,  and  with 
promise  of  success,  to  excite  a  grand  crusade      343 

1274  He  convoked  the  second  Council  of  Lyons  for 

that  purpose,  and  for  the  reformation  of  the 
Church.  The  canon  was  then  enacted,  which 
imposed  severe  restraints  upon  the  conclave      344 

The  Pope  died  before  the  expedition  set  sail, 
and  it  immediately  dispersed  344 

Martin  IV.,  a  Frenchman,  accepted  the  office 
of  senator,  and  held  it  for  life  345 

1294  The  circumstances  of  the  election  of  Pietro  Mo- 
rone,  Celestine  V.;  his  utter  incapacity  ;  his 
simplicity,  piety,  humility,  and  good  inten- 
tions ;  his  resignation  and  the  pontificate  ; 
and  imprisonment  by  his  successor  Boniface 
VIII.  346-7-8 

The  lofty  and  various  pretensions  of  Boniface  ; 
in  whose  reign  the  Papal  supremacy  proba- 
bly attained  its  highest  elevation.  His  au- 
thority recognised  by  Albert  of  Austria  348-9 

The  condition  of  the  Gallican  Church  at  that 
moment  349 

1296  Boniface  published  the  bull  Clericis  Laicos, 
against  all  who  should  exact  contributions 
from  the  clergy  350 

It  was  chiefly.levelled  against  Philip  of  France. 
A  dispute  was  the  consequence,  but  it  was 
soon  suspended  350 

1301  Philip  arrested  the  Bishop  of  Pamiers.  Boni- 
face published  the  bull  Jlusculta,  Fili,  de- 
manding his  liberation,  &c;  and  it  was  pub- 
licly burnt  by  the  King  351 

Philip  was  supported  by  his  barons.  Some  of 
the  clergy  attended  the  Pope's  summons  to 
assemble  at  Rome  ;  and  under  the  name  of 
this  Council,  he  published  the  bull  Unam 
Sanctam,  asserting  the  unity  of  the  Church, 
and  the  use  of  the  double  sword  351 

1303  William  of  Nogaret  and  Sciarra  Colonna  sur- 
prised the  Pope  at  Anagni  ;  but  offered  him 
no  bodily  injury.  He  returned  to  Rome  and 
died.  The  circumstances  of  his  intrepidity, 
and  of  his  death  353-4 

Chapter  XXI. 

Section  I. 
1215-1270  Lonis  IX.  of  France  was  one  of  the  few 
monarchs,  who  founded  his  policy  on  relig- 
ious considerations,  and  whose  life  is  thus 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


13 


closely  connected  with  ecclesiastical  history. 
The  excellence  of  his  private  morality  355 

In  what  language  he  is  characterized  by  Hume    356 

His  various  legislative  attempts  to  extend  the 
civilization  of  his  subjects  356 

Much  superstition  was  mixed  with  his  piety; 
exemplified  in  his  acquisition  and  reception 
of  the  Crown  of  Thorns.  He  instituted  fes- 
tivals in  its  honor,  &c.  356 

He  died  before  Tunis,  and  was  canonized 
twenty-seven  vears  afterwards  by  Boniface 
VIII.     The  Bull  of  Canonization  357 

Section  II. 

St.  Louis  confirmed  the  institution  of  the  In- 
quisition in  his  dominions  358 

What  was  the  extent  of  the  commission  of  the 
first  Inquisitors ;  all  trials  were  still  con- 
ducted in  the  Episcopal  Courts  •  358 
1229  The  council  of  Toulouse  established  a  sort  of 
committee  of  Inquisition,  the  foundation  of 
the  court  358 

The  court  was  still  episcopal ;  but  Gregory  XI. 
transferred  the  power  to  the  Dominicans, 
who  acted  more  immediately  under  Papal 
authority  359 

1244  The  edicts  of  Frederic  II.  assisted  the  progress 
of  the  Inquisition.  Innocent  IV.  established 
it  in  the  north  of  Italy,  and  it  spread  to  some 
other  countries  359 

Section  III. 
1263  The    general    contempt  of  excommunication 
then  prevalent  is  instanced  in  a  conference 
between  Louis  and  his  prelates  360 

1244  Innocent  IV.  requested  a  refuge  in  France, 

and  Louis  eluded  his  solicitation  361 

Before  he  set  off  on  his  last  crusade,  Louis  pub- 
lished his  Pragmatic  Sanction.  It  consisted 
of  six  articles,  which  were  chiefly  directed 
against  the  usurpations  of  patronage  by  Rome 
and  its  pecuniary  exactions  362 

A  spirit. of  opposition  to  the  See  was  occasion- 
ally exhibited  by  the  French  clergy  362-3 

Section  IV. 

The  character  of  the  first  crusade  ;  the  battle 
of  Doryleum  ;  the  capture  of  Antioch  ;  and 
cruelties  committed  at  the  storming  of  Jeru- 
salem 363 

St.  Bernard  preached  the  second  crusade  with 
success  ;  his  prophecy  ;  its  falsification  ;  and 
the  authority  which  he  pleaded  in  his  de- 
fence 363-4 
1189-1291  The  third  crusade  was  that  of  Richard  of 
England  »  the  fifth  and  sixth  were  projected 
by  Innocent  III.;  the  disastrous  expedition 
and  captivity  of  Louis  in  Egypt:  his  second 
against  Tunis  may  be  considered  as  conclu- 
ding the  history  of  the  crusades  365-6 

Among  the  causes  of  the  crusades,  the  earliest 
was  the  practice  of  pilgrimage  ;  the  Saracens 
tolerated  the  visits  of  the  Christians  to  the 
Holy  Sepulchre,  and  they  were  multiplied  by 
the  fanaticism  of  the  tenth  century  ;  but 
towards  the  close  of  the  eleventh,  the  Turks 
got  possession  of  Jerusalem,  and  persecuted 
the  pilgrims  366-7 

Warlike  spirit  and  superstitious  zeal  were  char- 
acteristics of  the  same  ages,  and  co-operated 
to  the  same  end.  so  that  the  minds  of  men 
were  prepared  for  the  preaching  of  Peter  the 
Hermit  367-8 

The  object  of  the  first  crusade  was  wholly  un- 
connected with  reason,  ambition,  or  policy       369 

The  objects  of  those  which  followed  became 
diversified  by  new  circumstances  ;  the  Latin 
kingdom  was  then  to  be  defended  ;  the  in- 
terest of  princes  became  engaged  ;  and  gene- 
ral views  of  conquest  were  formed  369-70 

Innocent  III.  preached  a  crusade  against  Here- 
tics ;  Innocent  IV.  against  the  Emperor  of 
Germany  370-71 

U  does  not  seem  that  the  crusades  produced 
any  one  general  advantage  to  Europe  or  to 
Christendom,  either  in  promoting  commerce 
or  advancing  the  art3  371-2 

But  they  introduced  new  barbarities  Into  war, 
and  inflamed  the  character  of  religious  perse- 
cution 373 

They  ruined  the  discipline  of  the  Church  by  the 
introduction  of  the  plenary  indulgence,  and 
the  subsequent  sale  of  it  373 

The  possessions  of  the  clergy  may  have  been 
augmented,  but  the  imposition  of  a  tax  more 
than  counterbalanced  that  gain  374 


A.  D.  Page 

Note  A.  On  the  first  Decretals  of  the  Pope  374 

1151  The  collection  of  Gratian  was  published  ;  di- 
vided into  three  parts  ;  abounding  in  errors       375 

1210  The  Roman  collection  was   published  under 
Innocent  III.;  the  Liber  Sextus  under  Bo- 
niface VIII. ;   the  Clementines  under  John 
XXII. ;  and  the  Extravagants  presently  fol- 
lowed 375-6 
Note  B.  The  Academy  of  Paris  first  took  the 
name  of  University  ;  its  classes  and  lectures ; 
the  four  faculties  376 
The  institution  of  four  degrees                               376 
Paris  was  chiefly  eminent  for  its  theological 
proficiency,  while  law  and  medicine  were 
more  successfully  cultivated  in  Italy                  376 

1250  Robert  of  Sorbonne  founded  the  college  known 

by  his  name  376 

Note  C.  On  the  Character  of  the  Philosophy 
adopted  by  the  early  Theologians  ;  in  the 
eleventh  century  Aristotle  took  possession  of 
the  Western  Schools,  and  introduced  endless 
perplexity  and  absurdity  377 

1150  Peter  the  Lombard  was  raised  to  the  See  of 
Paris — the  object  of  his  Book  of  the  Senten- 
ces, and  the  end  to  which  it  was  turned  378 

1224-1274  Thomas  Aquinas,  a  Dominican,  carried 

the  system  to  its  utmost  perfection  378 

Contemporary  was  Bonaventura,  a  Franciscan, 
a  man  of  great  piety  as  well  as  learning,  and 
more  inclined  to  Mysticism  than  Scholastic 
subtlety  379 

1320,&c.  John  Duns  Scotus  and  William  of  Occam 
were  Franciscans,  and  headed  the  faction  of 
the  Nominalists  or  Scotists  ;  the  Realists,  the 
supporters  of  Aquinas,  were  called  Thomists. 
Some  points  on  which  they  differed,  the  Im- 
maculate Conception,  &x.  380 


PART    V. 

Chapter  XXII.  —  Residence  at  Avignon. 
Section  I. 

1305  On  what  conditions,  made  with  Philip  of 
France,  Clement  V.  is  believed  to  have  ac- 
cepted the  pontificate  ;  how  far  he  fulfilled 
them  381 

The  Pope  took  up  his  residence  in  France,  and 
finally  at  Avignon  ;  he  revoked  the  decree  of 
Boniface  381 

1311  A  general  council  was  assembled  at  Viennev 

with  three  professed  objects  382 

It  condemned  the  Templars,  and  there  is  every 
reason  to  believe  unjustly  ;  it  refused  to  in- 
sult the  memory  of  Boniface  VIII.  382-3 
Many  ecclesiastical  abuses  were  exposed  to  the 
council,  and  some  insufficient  attempts  were 
made  to  restrain  them  383 

1315  John  XXII.  was  chiefly  characterized  by  his 
avarice  ;  he  extended  the  rule  of  the  Aposto- 
lical Chancery,  and  abused  the  patronage  of 
the  Church  384 

1323  The  contest  between  Louis  of  Bavaria  and 
John  was  not  marked  by  any  decisive  advan- 
tage on  either  side  ;  Louis  profited  by  the 
divisions  of  the  Church,  and  John  by  those 
of  the  Empire  385-6 

The  Pope  was  formally  accused  of  heresy  by 
an  imperial  Council  at  Milan,  though  without 
result ;  but  afterwards  he  expressed  some 
erroneous  opinions  about  the  Beatific  Vision, 
which  produced  a  great  sensation  in  Church 
and  State  ;  he  retracted,  not  very  satisfacto- 
rily, and  is  supposed  to  have  died  in  error  386-7 
Benedict  XII.  made  some  attempts  to  reform 
the  Church  abuses,  but  with  no  great  effect      388 

1343  Clement  VI.  published  a  bull  to  institute  the 
Jubilee  on  the  fiftieth  year,  and  laid  down 
the  doctrine  of  supererogation  and  the  treas- 
ure of  the  Church  388 
Account  of  the  Jubilee  from  Matteo  Villani  389 
Clement  renewed  the  disputes  with  Louis,  and 
bought  the  city  of  Avignon  of  the  Queen  of 
Naples                                                                   389 

1352  The  first  instance  of  an  obligation  undertaken 
in  Conclave  by  the  future  Pontiff;  it  was  im- 
mediately violated  by  Innocent  VI.  390 
That    Pope's   transactions  with  the  German 
clergy  390 

1367  Urban  V.  removed  his  residence  to  Rome,  but 
after  three  years  returned  to  Avignon  and 
died  there  391 

1376  Gregory  XT.  finally  restored  the  papal  residence 
to  Rome  ;  Catharine  of  Sienna  made  an  em- 
bassy to  the  Court  of  Avignon  ;  her  singular 
fanaticism  391-9 


14 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


A.C.  Page 

Section  II. 

I.  On  the  decline  of  Papal  power  ;  the  Popes 
wereengaged  in  continual  and  fruitless  wars 
in  Italy  ;  their  rapacity  and  the  profligacy  of 
the  court  surpassed  all  former  excesses,  and 
diminished  the  force  of  the  prejudices  which 
supported  them  :  they  forfeited  their  inde- 
pendence by  residence  in  a  foreign  kingdom  ; 
there  were  some  violent  dissensions  within 

the  Church  393-6 

II.  The  attempts  which  were  made  to  remove 
the  acknowledged  abuses  were  sometimes 
insincere,  and  always  feeble  396 

III.  The  principles  of  the  rigid  Franciscans 
scandalized  the  luxury  of  the  Hierarchy,  and 
some  Popes  tried  to  persuade  them  to  relax 
their  Rule  ;  but  no  one  persecuted  them  be- 
fore John  XXII.  His  famous  bull  Gloriosam 
Ecclesiam.  The  Spirituals  became  more  ob- 
stinate, and  sought  the  protection  of  Louis 
of  Bavaria  ;  the  Dominicans  supported  the 
Pope,  and  the  contest  continued  until  Charles 
IV.  made  peace  with  the  Popedom,  and  the 
heretics  were  delivered  up  to  Its  mercy  ;  after 
much  bloodshed  the  dispute  ended  by  an  au- 
thorized division  of  the  Order  into  Conven- 
tual Brethren  and  Brethren  of  the  Observ- 
ance 395-399 

The  Beghards  and  Lollards  ;  their  mystical 
opinions  were  distorted  and  exaggerated  by 
the  Churchmen  ;  some  Church  superstitions 
of  this  age  400-401 

The  imputed  opinions  and  savage  persecution 
of  Dulcinus  401 

1340  The  Flagellants  re-appeared  in  Italy  ;  their  dis- 
cipline, practices,  alleged  opinions,  and  per- 
secution 402-3 

Some  comparison  of  the  above  heresies  with 
those  of  the  earlier  ages  of  Christianity  403 

In  what  light  ecclesiastical  abuses  ought  to  be 
regarded  by  Churchmen  403 

Notes  (1.)  On  the  Franciscans  and  other  Men- 
dicants ;  the  Fratricelli  disclaimed  any  right 
even  to  the  use  of  property  403 

1210  The  Eternal  Gospel  propounded  the  doctrine  of 
three  dispensations  ;  it  was  republished  by 
the  Franciscans  in  1250,  and  was  probably  a 
Franciscan  fabrication  404 

1290  Pierre  Jean  d'Olive,  a  spiritual  reformer  404 

(2.)  A  contest  arose  between  the  Mendicants 
and  the  parochial  clergy  respecting  the  receiv- 

.  ing  of  confessions,  and  occasioned  a  number 
of  contradictory  bulls  during  the  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  centuries  404 

Chapter  XXIII.  —  Grand  Schism  of  the  Roman 

Catholic  Church. 
A  representation  was  made  by  the  magistrates 
to  the  Cardinals,  of  the  evils  suffered  by 
Rome  through  the  absence  of  the  Popes,  with 
a  petition  to  them  to  elect  an  Italian  for  Pope  405 
A  certain  decree  of  intimidation  was  unques- 
tionably exercised  by  the  populace  over  the 
Conclave  406 

It  is  not,  upon  the  whole,  probable  that  the  Con- 
clave, uninfluenced,  would  have  chosen  an 
Italian  407 

A  Neapolitan,  the  archbishop  of  Bari,  was  at 

last  elected,  and  took  the  name  of  Urban  VI.  407 
A  man  of  exalted  reputation  and  severe  temper ; 
he  began  his  reign  by  some  harsh  censures 
on  the  disorders  of  his  rourt;  the  cardinals 
soon  afterwards  withdrew  to  Anagni,  and 
annulled  the  election  of  Urban  408 

1378  Thence   retiring  to    Fondi,   they  there  chose 

(Sept.  20)  Robert  of  Geneva,  Clement  VII.  409 
As  the  cardinals  had  previously  confirmed  the 
election  of  Urban ,  a  great  part  of  Europe  con- 
tinued in  obedience  to  him  ;  France  declar- 
ed, on  the  other  hand,  for  Clement ;  the 
kings  of  Scotland,  Castile,  and  Arragon,  the 
counts  of  Savoy  and  Geneva,  the  duke  of 
Austria,  and  others,  finally  joined  the  same 
party  409-10 

Clement  established  his  residence  at  Avignon       410 
1386  The  cruelly  of  Urban  towards  some  cardinals 

suspected  of  having  conspired  against  him        411 
1389  Boniface  IX.  succeeded  Urban  ;   he  appointed 
a  Jubilee  at  Rome  for  the  year  following,  and 
granted  the  same  privilege  to  certain  cities 
and  towns  in  Germany  412 

1394  The  University  of  Paris  began  to  take  serious 

measures  for  the  healing  of  the  Schism  413 

And  proposed,  as  most  likely  to  be  effectual,  the 

method  of  Cession  413 

Clement  was  succeeded  by  Peter  of   Luna, 


A.  D.  Pnge 

Benedict  XIII.,  who  swore  in  Conclave  to 
make  every  exertion  to  restore  the  union  of 
the  Church  414 

A  solemn  embassy  was  sent  from  Paris  to 
Avignon,  and  its  demands  were  refused  or 
eluded  by  Benedict  414 

1398  The  French  published  the  Subtraction  of  Obe- 
dience, and  blockaded  Avignon  ;  in  1403  Be- 
nedict contrived  to  escape  ;  he  found  many 
adherents,  and  the  Subtraction  was  repeal- 
ed 415-16 
The  government  of  Boniface,  the  Roman  rival, 
was  directed  by  one  principle  only, — to  raise 
as  much  money  as  possible,  by  any  means 
whatsoever,  within  the  limits  of  his  obedi- 
ence ;  thus  he  held  a  second  Jubilee  in  the 
year  1400  416-17 

1406  Election  of  Angelo  Corrario,  Gregory  XII.,  and 

his  previously  unsullied  reputation  418 

1407  A  conference  was  agreed  upon  at  Savona,  be- 

tween the  two  parties  for  the  extinction  of 
the  Schism ;  Benedict  presented  himself 
there,  but  not  Gregory  ;  their  collusion  was 
now  obvious  to  all  the  world  419 

Benedict  was  then  compelled  by  the  French 
king  to  take  refuge  at  Perpignan  in  Spain, 
and  the  cardinals  convoked  the  Council  of 
Pisa,  (1409)  419 

The  Council  deposed  both  rivals,  and  elected 
Alexander  V.;  but  the  former  still  retained 
all  their  claims,  and  some  of  their  adherents  420 
1410  BaltazarCossa  (John  XXIII.)  succeeded  to  the 
See,  and  Sigismond  to  the  empire  ;  it  was 
agreed  that  a  new  Council  should  be  sum- 
moned, and  Constance  was  selected  as  the 
place  ;  that  spot  had  some  general  advanta- 
ges, but  was  wholly  unfavorable  to  the  Pope's 
interests  421-22 

1414  The  objects  of  the  Council  were  the  extinction 
of  the  Schism  and  the  reformation  of  the 
Church  422-23 

The  different  principles  on  which  the  Pope  and 
the  most  distinguished  doctors  proposed  to 
accomplish  the  first ;  soon  after  the  arrival  of 
Sigismond  the  Council  declared  for  the  meth- 
od of  Cession,  and  the  Pope  was  compelled 
to  abdicate  423-24 

Presently  he  escaped  from  the  Council,  and 
fled,  first  to  Schaffhausen,  afterwards  to 
Brisac  ;  but  was  then  restored  to  Sigismond 
by  the  treachery  of  the  Duke  of  Austria        425-26 

He  was  then  accused  of  several  enormous 
crimes,  deposed  and  placed  in  rigorous  con- 
finement 426-27 

Gregory  had  also  resigned  :  Benedict  now  re- 
mained the  only  obstacle  to  the  unity  of  the 
Church,  and  Sigismond  went  in  person  to 
Perpignan,  there  to  terminate  the  affair         427-28 

Benedict  clung  to  his  dignity  with  extraordi- 
nary tenacity ;  at  length  he  fled  to  Panisco- 
la,  and  was  then  formally  deposed  428-29 

1417  Nov.   11,  Martin   V.  was  elected   Pope,  with 

very  general  approbation  429 

Benedict  lived  six  years  longer  at  Paniscola, 
and  anathematized  every  day  the  rival  pon- 
tiffs. John  XXIII.  was  presently  released 
from  confinement,  and  threw,  himself  at  the 
feet  of  Alartin,  who  treated  him  with  gen- 
erosity and  raised  him  to  dignity.  John, 
though  stained  by  many  vices,  has  still  been 
much  calumniated  by  party  historians  429-32 

Note  on  the  White  Penitents,  &c.  Account  of 
three  descriptions  of  Enthusiasts,  who  rose 
in  the  fourteenth  century  432-33 


Chapter  XXIV. — Attempts  of  the  Church  at  Self- 
Reformation. 

Many  Roman  Catholic  divines  were  anxious 
for  a  partial  Reformation  of  their  Church  ;  in 
fact,  the  principle  of  Reformation  had  ev- 
er been  acknowledged,  and  even  practised 
by  Churchmen.  Very  general  complaints 
against  ecclesiastical  abuses  had  been  in- 
cessantly repeated  in  all  countries,  from  the 
days  of  St.  Bernard  to  those  of  Gerson  ;  but 
they  were  directed  against  the  Clergy,  rather 
than  against  the  system,  which  was  still 
held  sacred  434-37 

They  attacked  the  scandals  even  of  the  Vati- 
can ;  but  did  not  question  the  inherent  pow- 
er and  infallibility  of  the  Church  434-37 

The  attempts  of  the  Council  of  Pisa  were  nu- 
gatory ;  but  some  Anti-papal  principles  were 
broached,  if  not  established  there  438 

In  that  of  Constance,  Papal  delinquences  were 
denounced  in  very  strong  language  438 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


15 


A.D.  lJage 

1415  June  15.  A  committee  of  Reform  was  appoint- 
ed for  the  consideration  of  all  remediable 
abuses.  Some  expressions  of  Gerson  — '  De 
signis  Ruinte  Ecclesice'  439 

1417  On  the  vacancy  of  the  See,  the  question  rose, 
whether  the  election  of  a  new  Pope,  or  the 
Reformation  of  the  Church,  should  be  first 
entered  upon  ;  and  in  this,  the  whole  ques- 
tion of  a  real  or  false  Reform  was  involved. 
After  many  disputes,  the  anti-reform  party, 
in  spite  of  the  influence  of  Sigismond,  pre- 
vailed, and  Martin  was  elected  439-40 
The  Italian  Clergy,  as  well  as  the  Cardinals, 

were  almost  unanimously  opposed  to  reform  442 
A  project  of  Reformation  was  broached,  con- 
taining eighteen  articles,  regarding  respect- 
ively the  Pope,  the  Court  of  Rome,  and  the 
Secular  Clergy.  By  what  limits  this  Reform- 
ation was  confined  442-4 
In  what  manner  it  was  eluded  by  Martin  ;  and 
what  was  the  substance  of  the  Eight  Articles 
and  the  separate  concordats  which  he  pub- 
lished in  its  place                                                  444-5 

1417  The  bull  by  which  he  dissolved  the  Council  445 

Some  disputes  respecting  Annates,  particularly 
between  the  French  and  the  Pope  446 

—  A  decree  for  the  Decennial  Meetings   of  Gen- 

eral Councils  was  promulgated  at  Constance  446-7 
1431  The  Council  of  Basle  assembled  447 

Circumstances  under  which  Eugenius  IV.  was 
elected,  and  his  incapacity  447 

After  a  vain  attempt  to  crush  the  council,  he 
appointed  Julian,  Cardinal  of  St.  Angelo,  as 
the  president.  The  three  purposes  for  which 
it  was  convoked  448 

The  first  two  years  of  its  session  were  spent  in 
disputes  with  Eugenius  448 

The  prophetical  warnings  respecting  the  dan- 
gers of  the  Church,  which  were  addressed 
by  Cardinal  Julian  to  the  Pope,  and  the  dis- 
regard with  which  they  were  received  450 
1435  Jan.  23.  Some  edicts  were  at  length  published 
for  the  reformation  of  abuses  ;  and  others 
were  added  during  the  fourteen  following 
months,  in  spite  of  the  struggles  of  the  Papal 
party  to  prevent  them.  They  respected  mat- 
ters of  very  secondary  importance  ;  and  were 
interrupted  by  a  second  and  final  breach  be- 
tween the  Council  and  the  Pope  451-2 
1438  Jan.  10.  After  having  been  cited  oefore  the 
Council,  and  condemned  for  contumacy  on 
his  non-appearance,  Eugenius  annulled  all 
its  future  acts,  and  opened  the  Council  of 
Ferrara.     He  was  joined  by  Cardinal  Julian     453 

Questions  on  the  legitimacy  of  the  Council  of 
Basle  453 

The  Council  then  deposed  Eugenius  and  elect- 
ed Felix  V.,  and  presently  dissolved  itself. 
But  Eugenius  retained  almost  all  his  power 
till  his  death  ;  and  on  the  accession  of  Nich- 
olas V.,  Felix  abdicated  in  his  favor  454 

—  On  the  diet  of  Mayence  assembled  for  the  ar- 

rangement of  the  affairs  of  Germany.  On 
the  Council  of  Bourges,  for  the  establishment 
of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  in  France.  The 
two  great  principles  on  which  the  Sanction 
rested  455-6 

On  the  question  whether  the  Decennial  Meet- 
ings of  Councils,  as  decreed  at  Constance, 
would  have  conferred  any  great  benefits  on 
the  Church  457 

On  the  general  principles  of  the  Councils  of 
Constance  and  Basle.  The  decree  of  the 
former,  on  the  violation  of  faith  with  here- 
tics.   Discovery  of  the  art  of  Printing  457-8 

Chapter  XXV. — History  of  the  Hussites. 

1324-1384  (I.)  The  early  reputation  of  Wiclif,  his 
advancement,  opposition  to  Papacy,  persecu- 
tion and  death  460-1 

His  opinions  at  direct  variance  with  some  of 
the  innovations  of  Rome  ;  not  so  with  others  ; 
his  abhorrence  of  the  Court  of  Anti-Christ; 
objection  to  ecclesiastical  endowments ; 
translation  and  circulation  of  the  Bible  461-2 

(II.)  The  opinions  of  Wiclif  were  introduced 
into  Bohemia,  and  propagated  by  John  Huss  ; 
his  character  and  early  preaching  at  Prague    462-3 

Disputes  in  the  University  of  Prague  462-3 

Huss  preached  against  the  crusade  of  John 
XXItl.,  and  some  disorders  followed.  John 
cited  him  to  Rome  in  vain  463-4 

The  tenets  imputed  to  Huss,  and  for  the  most 
part  disclaimed  by  him  ;  his  opinion  on  the 
nature  of  tithes.  The  demand  for  the  resto- 
ration of  the  Cup  to  the  laity  did  not  origin- 


A.D. 


Pago 

464 


465 
466 


469 


470 


ate  with  Huss,  but  with  another  preacher, 
named  Jacobellus  of  Misnia 

1414  The  nature  of  the   safe  conduct,  in  faith  of 

which  Huss  presented  himself  at  Constance 
His  own  confidence  and  enthusiasm 
He  was  presently  placed  under  confinement, 
accused  of  various  heresies,  and  brought  to 
trial :   his  appeals  to  Scripture   were  disre- 
garded, his  reasonable  arguments  derided, 
and  he  was  finally  condemned  to  death       466-7-8 
His  conduct  from  the  time  of  his  condemnation 
to  that  of  his  execution  ;  attempt  of  Sigis- 
mond to  induce  him  to  retract ;  interview 
with  his  friend,  John  of  Chlum 

1415  July  6.  The  sentence  passed  on  him  ;  his  deg- 

radation and  execution  469-70 

What  were  the  two  heads  under  which  his  real 
differences  with  the  Church  were  compre- 
hended 

(III. )  Jerome  of  Prague,  after  being  condemned 
by  the  same  Council  for  nearly  the  same  of- 
fences, retracted  (Sept.  11,  1415),  but  in  the 
course  of  a  few  months  recalled  his  retracta- 
tion, and  was  likewise  consigned  to  the 
flames  ;  testimony  of  Poggio,  the  Florentine, 
and  .(Eneas  Sylvius,  to  the  constancy  of  both 
these  martyrs  in  their  last  moments  470-1 

(IV.)  Insurrection  of  the  Bohemians  ;  the  ne- 
cessity of  the  Double  Communion  was  the 
point  round  which  they  united  ;  their  milita- 
ry triumphs  under  Zisca  472-3 

The  Adamites,  the  Orebites,  and  Orphans  473 

The  grand  division  into  Thaborites  and  Calix- 
tines  473-4 

1433  Their  fruitless  embassy  to  Basle,  and  the  four 
points  in  dispute  with  the  Council ;  the  latter 
then  sent  an  embassy  to  Prague,  which  led 
to  the  renewal  of  hostilities  ;  several  thou- 
sand Thaborites  and  Orphans  were  destroy- 
ed by  the  treachery  of  the  Catholics 
1436  The  compact  of  Iglau  between  Sigismond  and 
the  Hussites  ;  the  description  of  the  Thabo- 
rites by  ^Eneas  Sylvius 

Continued  disputes  between  the  Popes  and  the 
Calixtines  ;  the  attempt  of  Paul  II.  to  transfer 
the  crown  to  John  Huniades 

Many  of  the  Hussite  opinions  were  preserved, 
and  published  by  the  Bohemian  Brothers  in 
the  following  century 


474 


475 


476 


476 


Chapter  XXVI. — History  of  the  Greek  Church 
after  its  separation  from  the  Latin. 

On  the  origin,  progress,  and  sufferings  of  the 
Paulicians  ;  on  the  opinions  usually  ascribed 
to  them,  and  those  which  they  seem  really  to 
have  professed  477-8 

How  early  the  use  of  the  Bible  was  prohibited 
to  the  Laity  in  the  East  479 

The  disposition  to  Mysticism  generally  preva- 
lent in  the  East  was  never  quenched  in  any 
age  of  that  Church  ;  the  Euchites,or  Messa- 
Iians,  were  an  early  sect  of  Mystics  :  in  the 
fourteenth  century  arose  the  Hesychasts  or 
Quietists  (Umbilicani),  and  occasioned  an 
important  controversy  480 

The  Bogomiles  combined  Paulician  with  mys- 
tical tenets  481 

The  controversy  concerning  the  God  of  Ma- 
homet 482 

On  some  of  the  essential  differences  between 
the  Greek  and  Latin  Churches.  The  former 
always  subject  to  the  state  ;  absence  of  feu- 
dal institutions  ;  education  more  extensively 
prevalent  in  the  East ;  the  Decretals  never 
received  there ;  greater  consistency  in  the 
reverence  for  antiquity  483 

The  foundation  of  the  Latin  kingdom  of  Jeru- 
salem and  introduction  of  the  Roman  Church 
into  those  provinces ;  the  dissensions  thus 
occasioned  484 

Latin  conquest  of  Constantinople,  and  conse- 
quent establishment  and  endowment  of  a 
Latin  Church  there  ;  various  disputes  and 
other  evils,  which  seem  to  have  been  occa- 
sioned by  it  485-6 
1232  Mission  from  Rome  to  Nice  for  the  reconcilia- 
tion of  the  Churches  ;  some  particulars  of  the 
negotiation  and  its  entire  failure  487-8 

The  attempt  was  repeated  by  Innocent  IV.  and 
other  Pontiffs,  with  the  same  result,  till  the 
second  Council  (1274)  of  Lyons,  when  an  in- 
sincere accommodation  was  effected  and  soon 
afterwards  broken  oft"  488-9 

The  same  negotiations  continued  under  the 
Avignon  Popes,  and  were  at  length  renewed 
by  Eugenius  IV.,  who  summoned  the  Coun- 


16 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


A.  D.  page 

cil  of  Ferrara  for  the  termination  of  the 
schism  489-90 

The  principal  parties  there  present ;  the  points 
chiefly  debated  ;  the  nature  of  those  debates; 
the  respective  opinions  of  the  Churches  on 
purgatory;  conduct  of  Bessarion  of  Nice,  and 
Marc  of  Ephesus  490 

1439  The  Council  was  removed  to  Florence,  and 
after  great  debates  a  common  confession  of 
faith  was  agreed  upon  491 

Treaties  of  union  followed  ;  according  to  one 
of  which  the  Pope  was  bound  to  furnish 
succors  against  the  Infidels  492 

Among  the  controverted  points  transubstantia- 
tion  was  not  one  ;  but  it  led  to  an  incidental 
discussion,  and  Bessarion  made  an  affirma- 
tion on  the  subject  satisfactory  to  the  Latins  ; 
the  Decree  of  the  Union  was  then  finally  rati- 
fied 492-3 
The  concluding  history  of  the  Cardinal  of  St. 

Angelo  493 

Violent  dissensions  arose  in  the  East  on  the  re- 
turn of  the  Deputies  ;  the  very  great  major- 
ity of  the  clergy  and  people  declared  against 
the  Union  494 

Fortunate  prediction  of  Nicholas  V.  494 

The  violence  of  the  Greeks  continued  to  in- 
crease ;  they  opened  negotiations  with  the 
Bohemians  494 

Closed  the  Churches  against  all  who  were  pol- 
luted with  Romanism ;  and  were  thus  dis- 
posed, when  Mahomet  II.  assaulted  Constan- 
tinople and  overthrew  the  empire  495 
Note  (1)  on  the  Armenians  495 
1145  A  mission  of  Armenians,  with  a  view  to  an 
union  with  Rome,  seems  to  have  been  with- 
out result                                                                495 
1170  Negotiations  were  opened  between  the  Arme- 
nian and   Greek  Churches  ;  what  were  the 
principal  points  of  difference  between  them     495 
1199  Overture  of  Leo,  king  of  Armenia,  for  a  recon- 
ciliation  with   Innocent  III.,  and  seeming 
reconciliation                                                         496 
1J41-51  Renewed  negotiations  and  correspondence 
between  Armenia  and  Rome  ;  the  errors  then 
charged  upon  the  former  and  the  extravagant 
demands  of  the  latter                                           497 
JVote  (2)  on  the  Maronites                                        498 
On  their  name  and  origin,  and  the  circumstan- 
ces of  their   connexion  with   the   Roman 
Church 


P««a 


498 

Chapter  XXVII.— From  the  Council  of  Basle  to 
the  beginning  of  the  Reformation. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
the  Popes  invariably  eluded  the  duty  of  sum- 
moning a  General  Council,  and  ruled  as 
despots  499 

Nicholas  V.  was  distinguished  by  his  learning, 
and  several  excellent  qualities  ;  but  in  the 
great  object  of  his  policy,  the  preservation  of 
the  Eastern  Empire,  he  wholly  failed  :  his 
death  was  by  some  attributed  to  disappoint- 
ment proceeding  from  that  cause  500-1 
1455  Calixtus  III.  (Alphonso  Borgia)  succeeded,  and 
may  perhaps  be  considered  as  the  introducer 
of  the  system  of  Nepotism,  which  thencefor- 
ward prevailed  in  the  Vatican  502 

1458  ^Eneas  Sylvius,  after  having  been  engaged  in 

the  service  both  of  the  Emperor  and  the  Holy 
See,  was  at  length  raised  to  the  pontificate ; 
the  recorded  circumstances  of  his  elevation  ; 
he  took  the  name  of  Pius  II.  503 

1459  June  1st.  He  opened  the  Council  of  Mantua, 

and  exerted  himself  to  raise  a  confederacy 
against  the  Turks,  but  without  any  perma- 
nent success  504 

1460  A  deputation  from  the  Princes  of  the  East  ar- 

rived at  Rome  504 

Catharine  of  Sienna  was  canonized  by  Pius  II.  505 
1463  Pius  II.,  originally  the  advocate  of  the  Council 
of  Basle,  after  having  gradually  adopted  all 
the  High-Papal  principles,  published  his  cele- 
brated Bull  of  Retractation,  condemning  his 
former  acts  and  expressions ;  his  professed 
and  his  probable  motives  505-6 

He  then  prepared  to  conduct  in  person  an  ex- 
pedition against  the  Turks ;  proceeded  to 
Ancona,  and  there  died  506 

He  had  some  points  of  resemblance,  both  with 
Nicholas  V.  and  Cardinal  Julian  507 

After  confirming  on  oath  the  Capitulation 
drawn  up  in  Conclave,  Paul  II.  was  conse- 
crated to  the  See,  and  immediately  violated 
his  oath  ;  remarks  on  those  Capitulations  507 

Paul  II.  turned  the  arms  of  Corvinus,  son  of 


Huniades,  from  the  Turkish  war  against  the 
Bohemian  Schismatics,  and  after  seven  years 
of  warfare,  failed  in  his  purpose  508 

He  persecuted  a  literary  society  established  at 
Rome,  and  tortured  several  of  its  members        508 

He  reduced  the  intervals  between  the  Jubilees, 
from  thirty-three  to  twenty-five  years  508 

1471  Sixtus  IV.  succeeded.  The  circumstances  of 
his  dispute  with  Florence,  and  the  obstinacy 
with  which  he  persisted,  till  Otrantowas  ta- 
ken by  the  Turks  509 

He  surpassed  his  predecessors  in  the  practice 
of  Nepotism  509 

His  vigorous,  though  unprincipled  character ; 
and  some  works  of  art  which  he  accomplished    510 
1484  Elevation  and  character  of  Innocent  VIII.  510 

1492  Circumstances  of  the  elevation  of  Alexander 
VI.  510-11 

M  Some  of  the  earliest  acts  of  his  Pontificate  512 

His  overtures  of  alliance  against  Charles  VIII. 
to  the  Sultan  Bajazet  513 

1493  He  bestowed  the  newly- discovered  regions  on 
the  Crown  of  Spain.  The  donation  was  con- 
tested by  the  Portuguese:  on  what  ground        513 

1494  He  concluded  a  treaty  at  Rome  with  Charles 
VIII.,  and  received  his  homage  514 

Zizim,  brother  of  Bajazet,  who  had  been  the 
Pope's  prisoner,  was  given  up  to  ChaiUs,  and 
died  immediately  afterwards  514 

The  Duke  Valentino;  his  character  and  pro- 
jects 514 
1503  The  circumstances  of  the  death  of  Alexander 
VI.,  as  they  are  variously  related,  with  dif- 
ferent degrees  of  authority                                515-16 

Some  expressions  of  Guicciardini  respecting 
his  character  516 

Pius  III.  was  elected  as  his  successor,  and  died 
in  twenty-six  days  516 

Julius  II.  was  then  raised  to  the  See  516 

A  proof  that  the  spiritual  authority  of  the  Pope 
was  not  yet  by  any  means  disregarded,  in 
the  conduct  of  Louis  XII.  of  France  517 

Success  of  Julius  in  recovering  possession  of 
the  States  of  the  Church  ;  by  what  methods 
he  accomplished  this  ;  the  power  and  versa- 
tility of  his  character  517-18 

1511  The  Cardinals  summoned  a  Council  against 
Julius,  which  met  at  Florence,  and  adjourn- 
ed to  Milan,  and  thence  to  Lyons.  It  pub- 
lished no  edicts  of  importance  518-19 

1512  But  Julius  in  defence  was  obliged  to  convoke 

the  Fifth  Lateran  Council,  and  died  the  year 
following  519 

Leo  X.  continued  to  direct  the  Council.  It 
then  issued  some  decrees  to  alleviate  the 
least  important  abuses  of  the  Church,  and 
some  general  declarations  against  the  immo- 
rality of  the  Court  of  Rome  ;  it  restrained  the 
license  of  the  Press  ;  it  abolished  the  Prag- 
matic Sanction  ;  and  renewed  the  Constitu- 
tion Unam  Sanctarn,  of  Boniface  VIII.  519 
1517  It  was  then  dissolved,  as  having  done  all  that 
was  necessary  for  the  perpetuity  of  the 
Church.  Luther  began  his  preaching  the 
very  same  year                                                      521 

Gradual  depravation  of  the  See  during  the  last 
fifty  years  ;  the  increase  of  Nepotism  ;  the 
scandals  of  the  Conclave  and  the  Palace ; 
literary  Popes  ;  the  great  use  which  the  Pon- 
tiffs made  of  the  terror  of  the  Turks  to  sup- 
port Ecclesiastical  Abuses,  and  avoid  a  Gen- 
eral Council  521-2-3 

They  succeeded,  and  through  their  success  they 
fell  524 

Chapter  XXVIII.—  Preliminaries  of  the 
Reformation. 
Section  1. —  On  the  Power  and  Constitution  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  525 

I.  The  temporal  sovereignty  of  the  Pope  was 
never  before  so  extensive  and  firm,  as  in  the 
beginning  of  the jentjt  century,  to  which  re- 
sult Julius  II.  chieTIy  contributed  525-6 

The  argument,  by  which  the  possession  of  such 
power  by  the  Spiritual  Chief  is  defended ; 
yet  it  led  to  great  and  necessary  evils,  which 
were  reflected  back  upon  the  See  itself  526 

II.  The  progress  of  the  Spiritual  Supremacy  of 
Rome,  and  the  full  extent  to  which  it  finally 
advanced.  The  usurpation  of  the  Church 
patronage  was  one  of  the  chief  instruments 

for  its  support  527-8 

On  the  Pope's  pretensions  to  personal  infalli- 
bility 52s 
On  the  command  he  acquired  over  the  morality 
of  the  Faithful ;  yet  his  spiritual  power  had 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


17 


somewhat  decayed  before  the  time  of  Lu- 
ther, though  still  strong  529 

III.  Attempts  of  the  Popes,  from  Gregory  VII., 
to  usurp  authority  over  Civil  Governments. 
How  far  they  were  aided  by  the  dissensions 
and  weakness  of  the  Princes  themselves  530 

Their  political  interference  has  been  sometimes 
used  for  a  good  purpose,  though  their  princi- 
ples were  frequently  worse  than  the  ordinary 
principles  of  the  age  530-31 

IV.  On  the  Constitution  of  the  Church.  The 
origin  and  gradual  growth  of  the  dignity  and 
power  of  the  Cardinals.  The  attempts  made 
in  Conclave  to  impose  obligations  upon  the 
future  Pontiff",  which  were  invariably  violat- 
ed or  eluded  531 

The  relative  situation  and  mutual  influence  of 
the  Pope  and  the  College.  What  were  the 
means  by  which  the  Pope  maintained  his  au- 
thority over  the  Consistory  533 

The  place  which  General  Councils  held  in  the 
economy  of  the  Church  533 

The  dignities  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
were  accessible  to  all  ranks  :  a  circumstance 
of  immense  advantage,  as  long  as  they  were 
obtained  through  personal  merit,  and  no 
longer  533-4 

Legates  a  latere ;  Mendicants.  The  extremes 
permitted  in  the  discipline  of  the  Church  ; 
some  maxims  of  Papal  policy  534 

A  JVot.e  on  the  nature  of  one  branch  of  spiritual 
jurisdiction,  as  exercised  in  England  535-6 

On  the  vicarious  character  assumed  by  the 
Priesthood  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  Church- 
es, and  the  temporary  reverence  with  which 
it  surrounded  them  537 

On  the  advantages  conferred  on  the  Church  by 
the  humble  origin  and  conversation  of  a 
branch  of  the  Clergy ;  and  the  close  and  firm 
connexion  thus  established  between  the  Hi- 
erarchy and  the  People.  The  spiritual  des- 
potism of  the  Pope  rested  at  the  bottom  on  a 
popular  ground  537-8 

Section  II. —  Ontke(\.)  Spiritual  Character,  (2.) 
Discipline,  and  Morals  of  the  Church. 

I.  The  essential  doctrines  have  been  preserved 
by  the  Roman,  and  also  by  the  Greek  Church, 
with  some  variation  in  the  manner  538 

On  the  original  system  of  Penance  538 

680  Penitential  of  Theodore  of  Tarsus,  and  various 
abuses  which  grew  up  soon  after  its  introduc- 
tion into  the  West  539 

The  early  origin  and  gradual  perversion  of  the 
indulgence  539 

The  professed  doctrine  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  respecting  purgatory  540 

Several  changes  in  the  object  of  the  Plenary 
Indulgence  540 

Translation  of  that  which  was  sold  by  Tetzel       540 

The  origin  and  abuse  of  Private  Masses  541 

On  the  practices  flowing  from  the  doctrine  of 
Transubstantiation.  The  elevation  of  the 
Host  was  introduced  by  the  Latins  into  the 
East  541-2 

On  the  retrenchment  of  the  Cup,  probably  the 
least  politic  among  all  the  innovations  of 
Rome  542 

The  practice  of  prohibiting  the  general  use  of 
the  Bible  was  of  very  early  origin,  both  in 
the  East  and  in  the  West.  False  Miracles. 
Abuse  of  Images,  &c.  On  various  Festivals, 
and  childish  Dissensions.  The  Stigmata  of 
St.  Catharine.  The  Feast  of  the  Immaculate 
Conception.  Difference  respecting  the  kind 
of  worship  due  to  the  blood  of  Christ.  The 
original  inscription  on  the  Cross.  The  head 
of  the  True  Lance,  &c.  542-5 

Reciprocal  influence  of  the  superstitions  and 
the  power  of  Rome  545 

II.  The  general  demoralization  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Clergy  admitted  and  deplored  by 
the  Catholics  themselves,  from  St.  Bernard 
downwards  545-6 


A.  D.  page 

A  seeming  exception  in  favor  of  Cardinal  Xi- 
menes,  and  the  Spanish  Clergy  540 

Yet  the  Church  in  different  ages  has  forwarded 
in  various  manners  the  ends  of  morality         546-7 

The  original  principles  of  Monachism  promised 
great  advantages  to  society  in  its  early  ages, 
and  no  doubt  produced  them.  The  Mendi- 
cants have  done  good  service  both  as  Cler- 
gymen and  as  Missionaries,  especially  during 
the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  547-8 

Even  at  the  beginning  of  the  reformation,  the 
Church  was  not  wholly  destitute  of  piety 
(1.)  the  principles  of  Mysticism  were  perpet- 
uated through  all  ages  of  the  Church,  and 
this  tendency  upon  the  whole  was  greatly 
favorable  to  religious  excellence ;  (2.)  the 
lower  orders  of  the  Clergy,  where  the  great 
mass  of  the  piety  of  the  Church  doubtless  re- 
sided, are  necessarily  condemned  to  obscuri- 
ty, while  the  more  ambitious  and  less  spirit- 
ual part  of  the  Ministry  is  that  which  alone 
meets  the  observation  of  the  historian  548-9 

Section  III. —  On  various  attempts  to  reform  or 
subvert  the  Church. 

I.  On  those  which  were  made  by  the  Church 
itself  in  the  Councils  of  Pisa,  Constance, 
Basle,  and  the  Fifth  Lateran.  To  what  a 
narrow  field  they  were  confined — how  feebly 
they  touched  even  that  which  they  designed 
to  heal — how  they  were  arrested  and  eluded 

by  the  Papal  party  550-1 

That  resistance  occasioned  the  Reformation, 
since  which  event  many  great  improvements 
have  taken  place  in  the  Roman  Catholic  sys- 
tem 552 

II.  Many  attempts  have  been  made  to  trace  the 
continuity  of  the  Protestant  principles  to  the 
Apostolical  times,  principally  through  the 
Vaudois  ;  yet  the  existence  of  these  cannot 
be  ascertained  with  any  historical  confidence 
before  the  twelfth  century  552-3 

If  any  connexion  with  the  earliest  times  could 
be  made  out  through  the  Albigeois,  or  through 
the  Mystics,  still  this  would  not  be  a  connex- 
ion with  the  Apostolical  Church  554-5 

A  Note  on  the  Eleventh  Book  of  Bossuet's  Va- 
riations 552 

III.  On  the  treatment  of  Heretics  by  the  Church  555 
The  third  Canon  of  the  fourth  Lateran  Coun- 
cil received  the  sanction  of  the  Civil  Author- 
ities, and  thus  united  them  in  the  same  con- 
spiracy. On  the  principle  of  the  necessary 
'Unity  of  the  Church,'  persecution  could  not 

be  avoided  ;  the  Laity  co-operated  ;  and  the 
spirit  was  never  more  decided  than  in  the 
fifteenth  age  555-6. 

IV.  Some  individual  reformers  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  John  of  Wesalia  was  condemned 
and  imprisoned.  John  Wesselus  of  Grb'nin- 
gen  is  mentioned  with  very  high  respect  hy 
Luther.  Aninstanceof  hisdisinterestedness  557-8 

John  Laillier  published  at  Paris  some  opinions 
which  were  censured  by  the  Faculty.  He 
was  condemned,  and  subsequently  retracted. 
Jerome  Savonarola  obtained  extraordinary 
influence  as  a  prophet  and  a  demagogue  at 
Florence.  His  interview  with  Charles  VIII. 
of  France,  and  address  to  that  Monarch. 
The  circumstances  of  his  overthrow,  con- 
demnation and  execution  559-61 

John  Reuchlin  and  his  admirer  Erasmus  561-2 

V.  The  abuses  of  the  Church  were  particularly 
felt  and  detested  in  Germany.  The  political 
interests  of  the  Empire  and  Popedom  had 
been  almost  always  at  variance.  The  Con- 
cordats had  been  violated  or  eluded  by  the 
Popes.  The  people  of  Germany  had  become 
more  generally  enlightened,  and  thirsted  for 
the  Scriptures.  The  Church  reposed  in  in- 
dolent security.  Leo  X.  had  not  the  charac- 
ter which  the  exigences  of  bis  establishment 
required  ;  and  the  moment  for  the  Reforma- 
tion was  arrived  562-4 


INTRODUCTION. 


An  attempt  to  compress  into  the  following  pages  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  fifteen  centu- 
ries, requires  some  previous  explanation,  lest  any  should  imagine  that  this  undertaking  ha3 
been  entered  upon  rashly,  and  without  due  consideration  of  its  difficulty.  This  is  not  the  case ; 
I  am  not  blind  to  the  various  and  even  opposite  dangers  which  beset  it ;  and  least  of  all  am  I 
insensible  to  the  peculiar  and  most  solemn  importance  of  the  subject.  But  I  approach  it 
with  deliberation  as  well  as  reverence,  willing  to  consecrate  to  God's  service  the  fruits  of  an 
insufficient,  but  not  careless  diligence,  and  also  trusting,  by  His  divine  aid,  to  preserve  the 
straight  path  which  leads  through  truth  unto  wisdom. 

The  principles  by  which  I  have  been  guided  require  no  preface ;  they  will  readily  develops 
themselves,  as  they  are  the  simplest  in  human  nature.  But,  respecting  the  general  plan 
which  has  been  followed  in  the  conduct  of  this  work,  a  few  words  appear  to  be  necessary. 
In  the  first  place  I  have  abandoned  the  method  of  division  by  centuries,  which  has  too  long 
perplexed  ecclesiastical  history,  and  have  endeavoured  to  regulate  the  partition  by  the  de- 
pendence of  connected  events,  and  the  momentous  revolutions  which  have  arisen  from  it. 
It  is  one  advantage  in  this  plan,  that  it  has  very  frequently  enabled  me  to  collect  under  one 
head,  to  digest  by  a  single  effort,  and  present,  in  one  uninterrupted  view,  materials  bearing 
in  reality  upon  the  same  point,  but  which,  by  the  more  usual  method,  are  separated  and  dis- 
tracted. It  is  impossible  to  ascertain  the  proportions  or  to  estimate  the  real  weight  of  any 
single  subject  amidst  the  events  which  surround  it — it  is  impossible  to  draw  from  it  those 
sober  and  applicable  conclusions  which  alone  distinguish  history  from  romance,  unless  we 
bring  the  corresponding  portions  into  contact,  in  spite  of  the  interval  which  time  may  have 
thrown  between  them  :  for  time  has  scattered  his  lessons  over  the  records  of  humanity  with  a 
profuse  but  careless  hand,  and  both  the  diligence  and  the  judgment  of  man  must  be  exercised 
to  collect  and  arrange  them,  so  as  to  extract  from  their  combined  qualities  the  true  odor  of 
wisdom. 

It  is  another  advantage  in  the  method  which  I  have  adopted,  that  it  affords  greater  facility 
to  bring  into  relief  and  illustrate  matters  which  are  really  important  and  have  had  lasting 
effects ;  since  it  is  chiefly  by  fixing  attention  and  awakening  reflection  on  those  great  phenom- 
ena which  have  not  only  stamped  a  character  on  the  age  to  which  they  belong,  but  have 
influenced  the  conduct  and  happiness  of  after  ages,  that  history  asserts  her  prerogative  above 
a  journal  or  an  index,  not  permitting  thought  to  be  dispersed  nor  memory  wasted  upon  a 
minute  narration  of  detached  incidents  and  transient  and  inconsequential  details.  And,  in 
this  matter,  I  admit  that  my  judgment  has  been  very  freely  exercised  in  proportioning  the 
degree  of  notice  to  the  permanent  weight  and  magnitude  of  events. 

As  regards  the  treatment  of  particular  branches  of  this  subject,  all  readers  are  aware  how 
zealously  the  facts  of  ecclesiastical  history  have  been  disputed,  and  how  frequently  those 
differences  have  been  occasioned  or  widened  by  the  peculiar  opinions  of  the  disputants.  Re- 
specting the  former,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  the  limits  of  this  work  obviously  prevent  the 
author  from  pursuing  and  unfolding  all  the  intricate  perplexities  of  critical  controversy.  I 
have,  therefore,  generally  contented  myself,  in  questions  of  ordinary  moment,  with  following, 
sometimes  even  without  comment,  what  has  appeared  to  me  to  be  the  more  probable  conclu- 
sion, and  of  signifying  it  as  probable  only.  Respecting  the  latter,  I  have  found  it  the  most 
difficult,  as  it  is  certainly  among  the  weightiest  of  my  duties,  to  trace  the  opinions  which 
have  divided  Christians  in  every  age  regarding  matters  of  high  import  both  in  doctrine  and 
discipline.  But  it  seems  needless  to  say  that  I  have  scarcely,  in  any  case,  entered  into  the 
arguments  by  which  those  opinions  have  been  contested.  It  is  no  easy  task,  through  hostile 
misrepresentation,  and  the  more  dangerous  distortions  of  friendly  enthusiasm,  to  penetrate 
their  real  character,  and  delineate  their  true  history.  For  the  demonstration  of  their  reason- 
ableness or  absurdity  I  must  refer  to  the  voluminous  writings  consecrated  to  their  explanation. 

This  history,  extending  to  the  beginning  of  the  Reformation,  will  be  divided  into  five  Parts 
or  Periods.  The  Jirst  will  terminate  with  the  accession  of  Constantine.  It  will  trace  the 
propagation  of  Christianity  ;  it  will  comprehend  the  persecutions  which  afflicted,  the  heresies 
which  disturbed,  the  abuses  which  stained  the  early  Church,  and  describe  its  final  triumph 


20 


INTRODUCTION. 


over  external  hostility.  The  second  will  carry  us  through  the  age  of  Charlemagne.  We 
shall  watch  the  fall  of  the  Polytheistic  system  of  Greece  and  Rome ;  we  shall  examine  with 
painful  interest  the  controversies  which  distracted  the  Church,  and  which  were  not  suspend- 
ed even  while  the  scourge  from  Arabia  was  hanging  over  it,  and  that  especially  by  which 
the  East  was  finally  alienated  from  Rome.  In  the  West,  we  shall  observe  the  influx  of  the 
Northern  barbarians,  and  the  gradual  conquest  accomplished  by  our  religion  over  a  second 
form  of  Paganism.  We  shall  notice  the  influence  of  feudal  institutions  on  the  character  of 
that  Church,  the  commencement  of  its  temporal  authority,  and  its  increasing  corruption. 
Our  third  period  will  conduct  us  to  the  death  of  Gregory  VII.  And  here  I  must  observe, 
that  from  the  eighth  century  downwards,  our  attention  will,  for  the  most  part,  be  occupied 
by  t'he  Church  ofliome,  and  follow  the  fluctuations  of  its  history.  About  270  years  compose 
this  period — the  most  curious,  though  by  no  means  the  most  celebrated,  in  the  papal  annals. 
From  the  foundations  established  by  Charlemagne,  the  amazing  pretensions  of  that  See 
gradually  grew  up;  in  despite  of  the  crimes  and  disasters  of  the  tenth  century,  they  made 
progress  during  those  gloomy  ages,  and  finally  received  developement  and  consistency  from 
the  "extraordinary  genius  of  Gregory.  Charlemagne  left  behind  him  the  rudiments  of  the 
system,  without  any  foresight  of  the  strauge  character  which  it  was  destined  to  assume ;  Gre- 
gory grasped  the  materials  which  he  found  lying  before  him,  and  put  them  together  Avith  a 
giant's  hand,  and  bequeathed  the  mighty  spiritual  edifice,  to  be  enlarged  and  defended  by  his 
successors.  The  fourth  part  will  describe  the  conduct  of  those  successors,  as  far  as  the  death 
of  Boniface  VIII.,  and  the  removal  of  the  seat  of  government  to  Avignon.  This  is  the  era 
of  papal  extravagance  and  exultation.  It  was  during  this  space  (of  about  220  years)  that  all 
the  energies  of  the  system  were  in  full  action,  and  exhibited  the  extent  of  good  and  of  evil 
of  which  it  was  capable.  It  was  then  especially  that  the  spirit  of  Monachism  burst  its 
ancient  boundaries,  and  threatened  to  quench  the  reviving  sparks  of  knowledge,  and  to  repel 
the  advancing  tide  of  reason.  The  concussion  was  indeed  fearful ;  the  face  of  the  Church 
was  again  darkened  bv  the  blood  of  her  martyrs,  and  the  rage  of  bigotry  was  found  to  be 
more  destructive  than  "the  malice  of  Paganism.  The  last  division  will  follow  the  decline  of 
papal  power,  and  the  general  decay  of  "papal  principles ;  and  in  this  more  grateful  office,  it 
will  be  my  most  diligent,  perhaps  most  profitable,  task,  to  examine  the  various  attempts 
which  were  made  by  the  Roman  Church  to  reform  and  regenerate  itself,  and  to  observe  the 
perverse  infatuation  by  which  they  were  thwarted  ;  until  the  motives  and  habits  which  at- 
tached men  to  their  ancestral  superstitions  at  length  gave  way,  and  the  banners  of  reason 
were  openly  unfurled  in  holy  allegiance  to  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

There  is  a  sober  disposition  to  religious  moderation  and  warm  but  dispassionate  piety, 
with  which  the  book  of  Ecclesiastical  History  must  ever  inspire  the  minds  of  those  who 
approach  it  without  prejudice,  and  meditate  on  it  calmly  and  thoughtfully.  May  some 
portion  of  that  spirit  be  communicated  to  the  readers  of  the  following  pages !  May  they 
learn  to  distinguish  the  substance  of  Christianity  from  its  corruptions— to  perceive  that  the 
religion  is  not'  contaminated  by  the  errors  or  crimes  of  its  professors  and  ministers,  and  that 
all  the  evils  which  have  ever  been  inflicted  upon  the  world  in  the  name  of  Christ,  have  inva- 
riably proceeded  from  its  abuse !  The  vain  appendages  which  man  has  superadded  to  the 
truth  of  God,  as  they  are  human  so  are  they  perishable  ;  some  have  fallen,  and  all  will  grad- 
ually fall,  by  their  own  weight  and  weakness.  This  reflection  will  serve,  perhaps,  to  allay 
certain  apprehensions.  From  the  multitude  of  others  which  suggest  themselves,  I  shall 
select  one  only.  The  readers  of  this  work  will  observe,  from  the  experience  of  every  age  of 
Christianity,  that,  through  the  failings  and  variety  of  our  nature,  diversity  in  religious  opin- 
ion is  inseparable  from  religious  belief;  they  will  observe  the  fruitlessness  of  every  forcible 
attempt  to  repress  if,  and  they  will  also  remark,  that  it  has  seldom  proved  dangerous  to  the 
happiness  of  society,  unless  when  civil  authority  has  interfered  to  restrain  it.  The  moral 
effect  of  this  great  historical  lesson  can  be  one  only — uncontentious,  unlimited  moderation — 
a  temperate  zeal  to  soften  the  diversities  which  we  cannot  possibly  prevent— a  fervent  dispo- 
sition to  conciliate  the  passions  where  we  fail  to  convince  the  reason  ;  to  exercise  that  for- 
bearance which  we  surely  require  ourselves,  and  constantly  to  bear  in  mind  that  in  our 
common  pursuit  of  the  same  eternal  object,  we  are  alike  impeded  by  the  same  human  and 

irremediable  imperfections. 

George  Waddington. 

Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 


r 


CONTENTS. 


PART   I. 

FROM  THE  TIMES  OF  THE  APOSTLES  TO  THE  ACCESSION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 
Chapter  I. —  The  Propagation  of  Christianity. 

Method  of  treating  the  subject.  (1.)  Church  of  Jerusalem  —  Its  earliest  members — Death  of  St. 
James — Succession  of  Symeon — Destruction  of  the  city  by  Titus — S««Bession  to  Pella — Bishops 
of  the  Circumcision — Destruction  of  the  city  by  Adrian — ./Elia  Capitolina — Second  succession  of 
Bishops — Conclusion.  (2.)  Church  of  Antioch — Its  foundation  and  progress — Ignatius — Theo- 
philus — Mesopotamia — Pretended  correspondence  between  the  Saviour  and  Abgarus,  Prince  of 
Edessa.  (3.)  Church  of  Ephesus — The  Seven  Churches  of  Asia — The  latest  years  of  St.  John — 
Piety  and  progress  of  the  Church  of  Ephesus — Polycrates — His  opposition  to  Rome.  (4.)  Church 
of  Smyrna — Polycarp — His  Martyrdom — Sardis — Melito — Hierapolis — Papias — Apollinaris— Bith- 

ynia Testimony  of  the  younger  Pliny.     (5.)  Church  of  Athens — Character  of  the  people — Quad- 

ratus — Aristides — Athenagoras — Their  apologies  —  Other  Grecian  Churches.  (6.)  Church  of 
Corinth — Character  of  the  people — Nature  of  their  dissensions— Clemens  Romanus — His  Epistle 

Form  of  Government— Dionysius  of  Corinth — Seven  general  Epistles — Remarks.     (7.)  Church 

of  Rome — The  persecution  of  Nero  described  by  Tacitus — Martyrdom  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  Peter — 
Probable  effect  of  this  persecution — Extent  of  Romish  superiority  over  other  Churches — Contro- 
versy respecting  Easter — Conduct  of  Victor,  Bishop  of  Rome — Irenseus — France — Church  of 
Lyons.  (8.)  Church  of  Alexandria — St.  Marc — Its  increase  and  importance — Epistle  of  Hadrian 
— Remarks  on  it — Education  of  the  first  Christians — Pantasnus — Clemens  Alexandrinus — The 
Church  of  Carthage.  ...  -  ...    page  2<J 

Chapter  II. — On  the  Numbers,  Discipline,  Doctrine,  and  Morality  of  the 
Primitive  Church. 

(1.)  General  view  of  the  extent  of  the  Church — Facility  of  intercourse  favourable  to  Christianity — 
Other  circumstances — Miraculous  claims  of  the  Church — To  what  limits  they  ought  to  be  con- 
fined. (2.)  Government  of  the  Primitive  Church — During  the  time  of  the  Apostles — After  their 
Death — Deacons — Distinction  of  Clergy  and  Laity — Earliest  form  of  Episcopal  Government — 
Independence  of  the  first  Churches — Institution  of  Synods — Their  character  and  uses — The  evil 
supposed  to  have  arisen  from  them — Metropolitans — Excommunication — Supposed  community  of 
property — Ceremonies  of  religion — Feasts  and  fasts  —  Schools.  (3.)  Creeds  —  The  Apostles' 
Creed — Baptism — The  Eucharist — The  Agapae.  (4.)  Morality  of  the  first  Christians — Testimonies 
of  St.  Clement — Pliny — Bardeyuies — Chastity — Exposure  of  infants — Charity — The  earliest  con- 
verts amonor  the  lower  orders— The  progress  of  the  faith  was  upwards — Testimony  of  Lucian  in 
history  of  Peregrinus — Suffering  courage.  ------  38 

Chapter  III. —  The  Progress  of  Christianity  from  the  year  200  a.  d.  till  the 
Accession  of  Constantine,  a.d.  313. 

Incipient  corruption  of  the  Church — Reasons  for  it — Its  extent —  External  progress  of  religion  in 
Asia  and  in  Europe — Claims,  character,  and  prosperity  of  the  Church  of  Rome — That  of  Alex- 
andria.— Origen — his  character — Industry — Success — Defect — The  Church  of  Carthage — Tertul- 
lian — His  character — Heresy — Merits. — Cyprian — Government  of  the  Church — Increase  of  epis- 
copal power,  or,  rather,  influence — Degeneracy  of  the  Ministers  of  Religion  exaggerated — Insti- 
tution of  inferior  orders — Division  of  the  people  into  Faithful  and  Catechumens — Corruption  of 
the  sacrament  of  Baptism — Effect  of  this — The  Eucharist — Daemons — Exorcism — Alliance  with 
philosophy — Its  consequences. — Pious  frauds — Their  origin — Excuses  for  such  corruptions — 
Eclectic  philosophy — Ammonius  Saccas — Plotinus — Porphyry — Compromise  with  certain  philoso- 
phers— The  Millennium — The  writings  of  the  early  Fathers — Apologies.  49 

Chapter  IV. —  On  the  Persecutions  of  several  Roman  Emperors. 

Claims  of  Roman  Paganism  to  the  character  of  tolerance  examined — Theory  of  pure  Polytheism — 
Roman  policy — Various  laws  of  the  Republic — continued  under  the  emperors — Mecaenas — Re- 
marks— The  ten  persecutions — how  many  general — That  of  Nero — its  character — Of  Domitian — 
The  grandsons  of  St.  Jude — The  epistle  of  Pliny  to  Trajan — His  answer — Real  object  of  Trajan 
— Letter  of  Serenius  Granianus  to  Hadrian — Antoninus  Pius. — Marcus  Antoninus — Gibbon's  par- 
tiality— Real  character  of  this  persecution  compared  with  those  preceding  it — His  principles  and 
knowledge,  and  superstition — His  talents  and  virtues— Connection  of  his  philosophy  and  his 
intolerance — Commodus — Decius — His  persecution — accounted  for — its  nature — Valerian — Mar- 


22  CONTENTS. 

tyrdom  of  Cyprian — Persecution  of  Diocletian — Its  origin  and  motives — Influence  of  Pagan 
priesthood — Progress  of  the  persecution — Its  mitigation  by  Constantius,  and  final  cessation  at  the 
accession  of  Constantine.  General  remarks — Unpopularity  of  the  Christians — accounted  for — 
Calumnies  by  which  they  suffered — Their  contempt  of  all  false  gods — Change  in  the  character  of 
their  adversaries — Philosophy — Excuses  advanced  for  the  persecutors — their  futility — General 
character  of  persecuting  emperors — Absurd  opinions  on  this  subject — Effect  of  the  persecutions — 
upon  the  whole  favourable — For  what  reasons.      ......  57 

Chapter  V. — On  the  Heresies  of  the  three  first  Centuries. 

Meaning  of  the  word  Heresy — Charges  of  immorality  brought  against  Heretics — Their  treatment  by 
early  Church — Number  of  early  Heresies — Moderation  of  the  primitive  Church — Three  classes  of 
Heretics.  (1.)  Two  kinds  of  Philosophy — Gnosticism — Origin  and  nature  of  that  doctrine — its 
association  with  Christianity — Moral  practice  of  the  Gnostics — Their  martyrs — Various  forms  of 
Gnosticism —  Basilides. —  Carpocrates — Valentinus — Cerdo  and  Marcion — Tatian  and  the  Encra- 
tites.  (2.)  The  Ebionites — Eusebius's  account  of  them — Conclusions  from  it — The  Heresy  of 
Artemon — revived  by  Paul  of  Samosata — his  sentence  and  expulsion — how  finally  enforced — He- 
resy of  Prajeas — Doctrines  of  the  Church  stated  by  Tertullian — Sabellius — his  opinions — Patro- 
passians.  (3.)  Simon  Magus — Montanus — his  preaching  and  success — Controversy  on  the  Baptism 
of  Heretics — The  Novatians — their  schism  and  opinions — Conclusions  respecting  the  general 
character  of  the  early  Heresies,  and  the  manner  of  opposing  them — On  the  Fathers  of  the  primi- 
tive Church — Real  importance  of  their  writings — Shepherd  of  Hermas — Epistle  of  St.  Barna- 
bas— Ignatius — Polycarp — Clement  of  Rome — Respecting  their  doctrine — Irenseus.  -  69 

PART    II. 

FROM  THE  ACCESSION  OF  CONSTANTINE  TO  THE  DEATH  OF  CHARLEMAGNE. 

Chapter  VI. — Constantine  the  Great. 

The  Luminous  Cross — Edict  of  Milan — Character,  Conversion,  Policy  of  Constantine — Changes  in 
the  Constitution  of  the  Church — Imperial  Supremacy — Rights  of  the  Church — Its  internal  Ad- 
ministration— External — Conclusion.  ...-..-82 

Chapter  VII. —  The  Arian  Controversy. 

Controversies  among  Christians  accounted  for  —  Conduct  of  Constantine — Alexander — Arius — 
Council  of  Nice — Constantius — Athanasius — Council  of  Rimini — Theodosius — Council  of  Con- 
stantinople— Arianism  of  the  Barbarians— Justinian — Spain — Council  of  Toledo — Termination  of 
the  Controversy — Observations.      ....----92 

Chapter  VIII. —  The  Decline  and  Fall  of  Paganism. 

Policy  of  Constantine — of  Julian — Designed  Reformation  of  Paganism — Attempt  to  restore  the  Tem- 
ple of  Jerusalem — Gradual  Decline  of  the  Superstition  and  virtual  overthrow  by  Thedosius        104 

Chapter  IX. — From  the  Fall  of  Paganism  to  the  Death  of  Justinian. 

Conversion  of  the  Northern  Barbarians— Superstitions  of  the  Church— Leo  the  Great— Papal  Ag- 
grandizement—Justinian — his  Ecclesiastical  Policy — Established  Laws  against  Heresy — Litera- 
ture, Profane  and  Christian — Causes  and  Periods  of  the  Decay  of  either— Moral  Condition  of  the 
Clergy  and  People— Note  on  certain  Fathers  of  the  Fourth  and  Fifth  Centuries.  -  115 

Chapter  X. — From  the  Death  of  Justinian  to  that  of  Charlemagne. 

1.  Mission  of  St.  Austin  to  England — of  St.  Boniface  to  Germany — Mahomet  and  his  Successors — 
Victory  of  Charles  Martel — Charlemagne.  2.  Gregory  the  Great — his  Character — Policy — its  per- 
manent Results — Council  of  Francfort— Deposition  of  Childeric — Donation  of  Pepin —  Charle- 
magne's Liberality  to  the  Church.  .......  133 

Chapter  XI. —  The  Dissensions  of  the  Church  from  Constantine  to  Charlemagne. 

1.  Schism  of  the  Donatists— St.  Augustin.  2.  Priscillian— his  Opinions,  and  Death.  3.  Jovinian— 
Vigilantius — St.  Jerome.  4.  Pelagian  Controversy— Councils  of  Jerusalem  and  Diospolis — St. 
Augustin.  5.  Controversy  respecting  the  Incarnation— Apollinaris — Nestorius — Council  of  Eph- 
esus— Eutyches — Second  Council  of  Ephesus  —  Council  of  Chalcedon  —  The  Monothelites — 
Council  of  C.  P.  6.  Worship  of  Images— Leo  the  Isaurian— The  Empress  Irene— Seventh  General 
Council — Empress  Theodora — Observations.  -  151 

Chapter  XII. —  Schism  between  the  Greek  and  Latin  Churches. 

Origin  of  the  Dispute — Council  of  Chalcedon — Title  of  CEcumenical  Bishop— John  the  Faster- 
Gregory  the  Great— Procession  of  the  Holy  Spirit — Photius — his  Fortunes — Michael  Cerularius 
.— Anathema  by  the  Legates  of  Leo  IX.    -  *  172 


CONTENTS.  23 

Chapter  XIII. —  The  Constitution  of  the  Church  as  fixed  by  Charlemagne. 

Retrospect  of  the  Condition  of  the  Church  at  preceding  Periods — at  the  Accession  of  Constantine— 
the  Death  of  St.  Gregory — 'the  Accession  of  Charlemagne — The  Judicial  Rights  of  the  Clergy 
under  Constantine — Justinian — Charlemagne — The  false  Decretals — Donation  of  Constantine — 
The  Revenues  of  the  Church — their  Sources  and  Objects.  ...  176 

PART  III. 

FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  CHARLEMAGNE  TO  THAT  OF  POPE  GREGORY  VII.  814  —  1085. 

Chapter  XIV. —  On  the  Government  and  Projects  of  the  Church  during  the 
Ninth  and  Tenth  Centuries. 

Division  of  the  Subject  into  Three  Parts.  (I.)  Independence  of  Papal  Election — Original  Law  and 
Practice — First  Violation — Posterity  of  Charlemagne — Charles  the  Bald — Otho  the  Great — Henry 
III. — Alterations  under  Nicholas  II. — Reflections.  (II.) — Encroachment  of  Ecclesiastical  on  Civil 
Authority — Indistinct  Limits  of  Temporal  and  Spiritual  Power — Till  the  time  of  Charlemagne — 
After  that  time — Influence  of  Feudal  System — Kind  of  Authority  conferred  by  it  on  the  Clergy — 
Military  Service — of  Church  Vassals — of  Clergy — latter  forbidden  by  Charlemagne — Supersti- 
tious Methods  of  Trial — by  Hot  Iron — the  Cross — the  Eucharist — Political  offices  of  the  Clergy — 
Influence  from  Intellectual  Superiority — Plunder  of  Church  Property — Lay  Impropriators — 
Advocates — Louis  le  Debonnaire — his  Penance — Council  at  Paris  in  820 — Charles  the  Bald — Coun- 
cil of  Aix  la  Chapelle — Lothaire,  King  of  Lorraine — his  Excommunication — Hincmar,  Archbishop 
of  Rheims — his  Conduct  on  two  occasions — Charles  the  Bald  accepts  the  Empire  from  the  Pope — 
General  Reflections — Robert,  King  of  France — his  Excommunication  and  Submission — Episcopal 
distinct  from  Papal  Encroachment.  (III.)  Internal  Usurpation  of  the  Roman  See — Its  Original 
Dignity — Metropolitan  Privileges — Appellant  Jurisdiction  of  Pope — The  False  Decretals — Contest 
between  Gregory  IV.  and  the  French  Bishops — between  Adrian  II.  and  Hincmar — Character  of 
Hincmar — Consequence  of  regular  Appeals  to  the  Pope — Vicars  of  the  Roman  See — Exemption 
of  Monasteries  from  Episcopal  Superintendence — Remarks.  ....  205 

Chapter  XV. —  On  the  Opinions,  Literature,  Discipline,  and  External 
Fortunes  of  the  Church. 

H.)  On  the  Eucharist — Original  Opinions  of  the  Church — Doctrine  of  Paschasius  Radbert — Com- 
bated by  Ratram  and  John  Scotus — Conclusion  of  the  Controversy — Predestination — Opinions  and 
Persecution  of  Gotteschalcus — Millennarianism  in  the  Tenth  Century — Its  strange  and  general 
Effect.  (II.)  Literature — Rabanus  Maurus,  John  Scotus,  Alfred — its  Progress  among  the  Saracens 
— Spain — South  of  Italy — France — Rome — Pope  Sylvester  II.  (III.)  Discipline— Conduct  of 
Charlemagne  and  his  Successors — St.  Benedict  of  Aniane.  Institution  of  Canons  Regular — Epis- 
copal election — Translations  of  Bishops  prohibited.  Pope  Stephen  VI. — Claudius  Bishop  of  Turin 
—Penitential  System.  (IV.)  Conversion  of  the  North  of  Europe — of  Denmark,  Sweden,  Russia — of 
Poland  and  Hungary — how  accomplished  and  to  what  Extent — The  Normans— The  Turks.      219 

Chapter  XVI. —  The  Life  of  Gregory  VII. 

Division  of  the  Subject. — Section  I.  From  Leo  IX.  to  the  Accession  of  Gregory.  Section  II. 
The  Pontificate  of  Gregory.  Section  III.  Controversy  respecting  Transubstantiation  and  Estab- 
lishment of  the  Latin  Liturgy. 

Section  I.— Pope  Leo  IX.— Early  History  of  Hildebrand— Succession  of  Victor  II. — of  Stephen 
IX.— of  Nicholas  II.— his  Measure  respecting  Papal  Election — the  College  of  Cardinals — imper- 
fection of  that  Measure — Subsequent  and  final  Regulation— Inconveniences  of  popular  Suffrage — 
Restriction  of  the  Imperial  Right  of  Confirmation-— Homage  of  Robert  Guiscard  and  the  Normans 
—Dissensions  on  the  Death  of  Nicholas — Succession  of  Alexander  II. — actual  Supremacy  of 
Hildebrand — Measures  taken  during  that  Pontificate — Alexander  is  succeeded  by  Hildebrand, 
under  the  title  of  Gregory  VII. 

Section  II. — Gregory's  First  Council— its  two  objects — to  prevent  (I.)  Marriage  or  Concubinage  of 
the  Clergy— (2.)  Simoniacal  Sale  of  Benefices — On  the  Celibacy  of  the  Clergy — why  encouraged 
by  Popes — Leo  IX. — Severity  and  Consequence  of  Gregory's  Edict— Original  Method  of  appoint- 
ment to  Benefices— Usurpations  of  Princes— how  abused— -the  Question  of  Investiture— Ex- 
plained—Pretext  for  Royal  Encroachments— Original  form  of  Consecration  by  the  King  and 
Crown— Right  usurped  by  Otho— State  of  the  Question  at  the  Accession  of  Gregory — Conduct  of 
Henry— further  measures  of  the  Pope — Indifference  of  Henry— Summoned  before  a  Council  at 
Rome— Council  of  Worms — Excommunication  of  the  Emperor  and  Absolution  of  his  Subjects 
from  their  Allegiance— Consequence  of  this  Edict— Dissensions  in  Germany— how  suspended — 
Henry  does  Penance  at  Canossa — restored  to  the  Communion  of  the  Church — again  takes  the 
field— Rodolphus  declared  Emperor — Gregory's  Neutrality— Remarks  on  the  course  of  Gregory's 
Measures — Universality  of  his  temporal  Claims— his  probable  project— Considerations  in  excuse 
of  his  Schemes — partial  admission  of  his  Claims — Ground  on  which  he  founded  them— power  to 
bind  and  to  loose — Means  by  which  he  supported  them— Excommunication— Interdict — Legates 
a  Latere — Alliance  with  Matilda— his  Norman  allies  German  Rebels— Internal  Administration 
— Effect  of  his  rigorous  Measures  of  Reform — his  grand  scheme  of  Supremacy  within  the  Church 
— False  Decretals — Power  conferred  by  them  on  the  Pope— brought  into  action  by  Gregory— Ap- 
peals to  Pope— Generally  encouraged  and  practised— their  pernicious  Effects— Gregory's  Double 


24  CONTENTS. 

Scheme  of  Universal  Dominion— Return  to  Narrative— Clement  III.  anti-Pope — Death  of  Rodol- 
phus— Henry  twice  repulsed  from  before  Rome— finally  succeeds — his  Coronation  by  Clement- 
ine Normans  restore  Gregory— he  follows  them  to  Salerno  and  there  dies— his  Historical  impor- 
tance—his Character— Public— his  grand  principle  in  the  Administration  of  the  Church — Private 
— as  to  Morality— as  to  Religion. 
Section  III. — (I.)  Controversy  respecting  Tratisubstantiation— suspended  in  the  Ninth,  renewed 
in  the  Eleventh  Century— Character  of  Berenger — Council  of  Leo  IX. — of  Victor  II.  at  Tours 
in  1054— Condemnation  and  conduct  of  Berenger— Council  of  Nicholas  II.— repeated  Retractation 
and  relapse  of  Berenger— Alexander  II. — Council  at  Rome  under  Gregory  VII.— Extent  of  the 
Concession  then  required  from  Berenger— further  Requisition  of  the  Bishops — a  Second  Council 
assembled—Conduct  of  Gregory— Berenger  aouin  solemnly  assents  to  the  Catholic  Doctrine,  and 
again  returns  to  his  own— his  old  Age,  Remorse,  and  Death— Remarks  on  his  Conduct— on  the 
Moderation  of  Gregory.  (2.)  Latin  Liturgy— Gradual  Disuse  of  Latin  Language  throughout  Eu- 
rope— Adoption  of  Gothic  Missal  in  Spain — Alfonso  proposes  to  substitute  the  Roman— Decision 
by  the  Judgment  of  God— by  Combat — by  Fire — doubtful  Result— final  Adoption  of  the  Latin 
Liturgy— Its  introduction  among  the  Bohemians  by  Gregory — Motives  of  the  Popes — other  instan- 
ces of  Liturgies  not  performed  in  the  Vulgar  Tongue— Usage  of  the  early  Christian  Church.     231 

PART  IV. 

FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  GREGORY  VII.  TO  THAT  OF  BONIFACE  VIII. 

Chapter  XVIII.     From  Gregory  VII.  to  Innocent  III. 

(I.)  Papal  history — Urban  II — Council  of  Placentia — that  of  Clermont — their  principal  acts — The 
Crusades — their  origin  and  possible  advantage' — Pascal  II. —  Renewed  disputes  with  Henry — his 
misfortunes,  private  and  public —  his  death  and  exhumation — Henry,  his  son,  marches  to  Rome — 
Convention  with  Pascal  respecting  the  regalia  —  its  violation  —  Imprisonment  of  the  Pope  —  his 
concessions — annulled  by  subsequent  Council— Henry  again  at  Rome — Death  and  character  of 
Pascal  — Final  arrangement  of  the  investiture  question  by  Calixtus  II. —  Observations — The  first 
Lateran  (ninth  general)  Council  —  Death  of  Calixtus  —  Subsequent  confusion  and  its  causes  — 
Arnold  of  Brescia — his  opinions,  fate,  and  character — Adrian  IV. — Frederic  Barbarossa — Disputes 
between  them,  and  final  success  of  the  Pope —  Alexander  III.  —  his  quarrel  with  Frederic,  and 
advantages  —  his  talents  and  merits — Celestine  III.  —  The  differences  between  Rome  and  the 
Empire  —  The  internal  dissensions  at  Rome  on  papal  election  —  National  contentions  between 
Church  and  State.  (II.)  Education  and  theological  learning — Review  of  preceding  ages — in  Italy 
and  France — Parochial  schools — Deficiency  in  the  material — Papyrus — Parchment — Consequent 
scarcity  of  MSS. — Invention  of  paper — Thiee  periods  of  theological  literature — the  characteristics 
of  each — Gradual  improvement  in  the  eleventh  century.  ......  252 

Chapter  XVIII. — Pontificate  of  Innocent  III. 

Prefatory  facts  and  observations  —  Circumstances  under  which  Innocent  ascended  the  chair  —  Col- 
lection of  Canons — Condition  of  the  clergy — Ecclesiastical  jurisdiction — by  what  means  extended 
— Innocent's  four  leading  objects — (1.)  to  establish  and  enlarge  his  temporal  power  in  the  city  and 
ecclesiastical  states  —  Office  of  the  Prefect — Favorable  circumstance,  of  which  Innocent  avails 
himself —  his  work  completed  by  Nicholas  IV.  —  (2.)  to  establish  the  universal  pre-eminence  of 
papal  over  royal  authority  —  His  claims  to  the  Empire  —  His  dispute  with  Philippe  Auguste  of 
France  —  he  places  the  kingdom  under  interdict —  submission  of  Philippe —  His  general  assertions 
of  supremacy — particular  applications  of  them — to  England  and  France,  Navarre,  Wallachia  and 
Bulgaria,  Arragon  and  Armenia — His  contest  with  John  of  England — Interdict — the  Legate  Pan- 
dulph — Humiliation  of  the  King — (3.)  to  extend  his  authority  within  the  church — Italian  clergy 
in  England — his  general  success  in  influencing  the  priesthood  —  Power  of  the  Episcopal  Order — 
The  fourth  Lateran  Council.  Canons  on  transubstantiation  —  on  private  confession  —  against  all 
heretics — (4.)  to  extinguish  heresy.  The  Petrobrussians — their  author  and  tenets.  Various  other 
sects,  how  resisted.  The  Cathari  —  supposition  of  Mosheim  and  Gibbon  the  more  probable  opin- 
ion— The  Waldenses —  their  history  and  character — error  of  Mosheim — Peter  Waldus —  his  perse- 
cution. The  Albigeois  or  Albigenses — their  residence  and  opinions — attacked  by  Innocent — St. 
Dominic — title  of  Inquisitor — Raymond  of  Toulouse — holy  war  preached  against  them — Simon  de 
Montfort — resistance  and  massacre  of  the  heretics.  The  crusade  of  children  —  Continued  perse- 
cution of  the  Albigeois — Death  of  Innocent.  -..--.  276 

Chapter  XIX. —  The  History  of  Monachism. 

(I.)  Early  instance  of  the  monastic  spirit  in  the  east  —  Pliny  the  philosopher  —  The  Therapeutae  or 
Essenes — The  Ascetics  —  their  real  character  and  origin — The  earliest  Christian  hermits — dated 
from  the  Decian  or  Diocletian  persecutions — Cffinobites.  Pachomius  and  St.  Anthony — originated 
in  Egypt — Basilius  of  Caesarea  —  his  order  and  rule — his  institution  of  a  vow  questionable — Mo- 
nasteries encouraged  by  the  fathers  of  the  fourth  and  fifteenth  ages  —  from  what  motives  —  Vow 
of  celibacy —  Restrictions  of  admission  into  monastic  order —  Original  monks  were  laymen — Com- 
parative fanaticism  of  the  east  and  west  —  Severity  and  discipline  in  the  west  —  motives  and 
inducements  to  it  —  contrasted  with  the  Oriental  practice  —  Establishment  of  nunneries  in  the 
east.  (II.)  Introduction  of  monachism  into  the  west — St.  Athanasius — Martin  of  Tours — Most 
ancient  rule  of  the  western  monasteries — their  probable  paucity  and  poverty — Benedict  of  Nursia 
—  his  order,  and  reasonable  rule,  and  object  —  Foundation  of  Monte  Cassino —  France —  Si.  Co- 


CONTENTS.  25 

lumban —  Ravages  of  the  Lombards  and  Danes  —  Reform  by  Benedict  of  Aniane  —  The  order  of 
Cluni — its  origin,  rise,  and  reputation — its  attachment  to  papacy  and  its  prosperity — The  order  of 
Citeaux — date  of  its  foundation — Dependent  Abbey  of  Clairvaux — St.  Bernard — its  progress  and 
decline — Order  of  the  Chartreux.  (III.)  Order  of  St.  Augustin — Rule  of  Chrodegangus — Rule  of 
Aix-la-Chapelle — subsequent  reforms.  (IV)  Connexion  between  the  monasteries  and  the  Pope — 
mutual  services — The  military  orders—  (1.)  The  Knights  of  the  Hospital — origin  of  their  institu- 
tion —  their  discipline  and  character  —  (2.)  Knights  Templar  —  their  origin  and  object —  (3.)  The 
Teutonic  order  —  its  establishment  and  prosperity.  (V.)  The  mendicant  orders  —  causes  of  their 
rise  and  great  progress  —  (1.)  St.  Dominic  —  his  exertions  and  designs —  (2.)  St.  Francis  and  his 
followers — compared  with  the  Dominicans —  apparent  assimilation — essential  differences — disputes 
of  the  Franciscans  with  the  Popes,  and  among  themselves — Inquisitorial  office  of  the  Dominicans, 
their  learning  and  influence — quarrels  with  the  Doctors  of  Paris —  Austerity  of  the  Franciscans — 
The  FratriciTli — (3.)  The  Carmelites — their  professed  origin — (4.)  Hermits  of  St.  Augustin — Privi- 
leges of  these  four  orders.  (VI.)  Various  establishments  of  Nuns  —  their  usual  offices  and  char- 
acter —  General  remarks — The  three  grand  orders  of  the  Western  Church  (suited  to  the  ages  in 
which  they  severally  appeared  and  flourished) — The  Jesuits — The  Monastic  system  one  of  perpet- 
ual reformation — ^thus  alone  it  survived  so  long —  its  merits  and  advantages —  The  bodily  labor  of 
the  Monks  —  their  charitable  and  hospitable  offices  —  real  piety  to  be  found  among  them  —  super- 
intendence of  education,  and  means  of  learning  preserved  by  them  —  limits  to  their  utility  —  their 
frequent  alliance  with  superstition  —  their  early  dependence  on  the  Bishops  —  gradual  exemption, 
and  final  subjection  to  the  Pope — Their  profits  and  opulence,  and  means  of  amassing  it — Luther  a 
mendicant.  ...-....--  296 

Chapter  XX. —  History  of  the  Popes  from  the  Death  of  Innocent  III.  to  that  of 

Boniface  VIII. 

The  ardor  of  the  Popes  for  Crusades  —  its  motives  and  policy  —  Honorius  III.  —  Frederic's  vow  to 
take  the  cross,  and  procrastination  —  Gregory  IX.  —  his  Coronation  —  he  excommunicates  the 
Emperor — who  thus  departs  for  Palestine —  Gregory  impedes  his  success,  and  invades  his  domin- 
ions— their  subsequent  disputes — Innocent  IV. — his  previous  friendship  with  Frederic — Council 
of  Lyons  —  Various  charges  urged  against  Frederic  —  Innocent  deposes  Frederic  and  appoints  his 
successor — on  his  own  papal  authority — Civil  war  in  Germany —  in  Italy — death  of  Frederic — his 
character  and  conduct  —  his  rigorous  Decree  against  Heretics  —  Observations — Other  reasons 
alleged  to  justify  his  deposition  —  this  dispute  compared  with  that  between  Gregory  VII.  and 
Henry —  Taxes  levied  by  the  Pope  on  the  Clergy —  Crusade  against  the  Emperor —  Exaltation  of 
Innocent — his  visit  to  Italy  andintrigues — his  death — his  qualities  as  a  statesman — as  a  churchman 

—  expression  of  the  Sultan  offcgypt — Alexander  IV. —  Urban  IV. —  Clement  IV. —  Introduction 
of  Charles  d'Anjou  to  the  throne  of  Naples  —  Gregory  X.  —  his  piety,  and  other  merits  —  Second 
Council  of  Lyons — Vain  preparations  for  another  Crusade — Death  of  Gregory — Objects  of  Nicho- 
las II. —  Martin  IV. —  Senator  of  Rome — Nicholas  IV.  diligent  against  Heresy —  Pietro  di  Morone 
or  Celestine  V. —  circumstances  of  his  elevation — his  previous  life  and  habits — his  singular  inca- 

Eacity — disaffection  among  the  higher  Clergy — his  discontent  and  meditations — his  resignation — 
loniface  VIII. —  his  excessive  ambition  and  insolence  —  on  the  decline  of  the  papal  power —  his 
temporal  pretensions — Sardinia,  Corsica,  Scotland,  Hungary — Recognition  of  Albert  King  of  the 
Romans — and  act  of  his  submission — Philip  the  Fair — The  Gallican  Church — origin  of  its  liberties 
—St.  Louis  and  the  Pragmatic  Sanction — Differences  between  Boniface  and  Philip — Bull  Clericis 
•  Laicos —  its  substance  and  subsequent  interpretation  —  Affairs  of  the  Bishop  of  Parmiers — Bull 
Ausculta  Fili — burnt  by  Philip — Conduct  of  the  French  Nobles — of  the  Clergy — of  Boniface.  Bull 
Unam  Sanctam — other  violent  proceedings — Moderation  of  Philip — further  insolence  of  the  Pope 

—  Philip's  appeal  to  a  General  Council — William  of  Nogaret — Personal  assault  on  Boniface — his 
behavior  and  the  circumstances  of  his  death.         ......  334 

Chapter  XXI. 

On  Louis  IX.  of  France — his  religious  and  ecclesiastical  acts  and  projects — On  the  origin  and  estab- 
lishment of  the  Inquisition  —  On  some  of  the  principal  effects  of  the  Crusades  —  The  Pragmatic 
Sanction,  and  the  Liberties  of  the  Gallican  Church.         .....  354 

PART    V. 

Chapter  XXII. — Residence  of  the  Popes  at  Avignon. 

(I.)  History  of  the  Popes — Clement  V. — Council  of  Vienne — Condemnation  of  the  Templars — John 
XXII. — his  contest  with  Lewis  of  Bavaria — supposed  heresy — Benedict  XII. — Clement  VI. — the 
Jubilee — Innocent  VI. — Urban  V. — goes  to  Rome  but  returns  to  Avignon — Gregory  XI. — dies  at 
Rome.  (II.)  General  history  of  the  Church — Decline  of  papal  power — Rapacity  and  profligacy  of 
the  Court  of  Avignon — Attempts  at  Reform — Schism  among  the  Franciscans — their  disputes  with 
John  XXII.  and  other  Popes  —  Change  in  the  Imperial  policy — The  Beghards — The  Lolhards — 
Heresy  and  fate  of  Dulcinus — The  Flagellants — Conclusion.       ....  381 

Chapter  XXIII. —  The  Grand  Schism  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

Turbulent  election  of  Urban  VI. — his  harshness — secession  of  the  college  to  Anagni,and  election  of 
Clement  VII. —  his  retreat  to  Avignon — division  of  Europe —  Boniface  IX.  succeeds  Urban — his 
extraordinary  avarice —  Pietro  di  Luna  (Benedict  XIII.)  succeeds  Clement — Attempts  to  heal  the 
4 


26  CONTENTS. 

schism — Boniface  succeeded  by  Innocent  VII. — he  by  AngeloCorrario  (Gregory  XII.) — his  repu- 
tation— Collusion  of  the  two  pretenders — Council  of  Pisa — their  deposition  and  election  of  Alex- 
ander V.,  who  is  succeeded  by  John  XXIII.  —  Council  of  Constance  — escape  and  deposition  of 

John Abdication  of  Gregory  —  Conference  of  Perpignan  and  deposition  of  Luna  —  Election  of 

Martin  V. — Fate  and  character  of  Gregory — Benedict  and  John.  ...  405 

Chapter  XXIV. — Attempts  of  the  Church  at  Self-Reformation. 

Spirit  manifested  at  the  Council  of  Pisa — Testimonies  of  Churchmen  against  ecclesiastical  corrup- 
tion  extent  of  their  complaints — Conduct  of  Alexander  V. — Council  of  Constance — Gerson — The 

Committee  of  Reform — their  labors — nature  of  the  opposition — how  their  exertions  are  eluded — 
Election  of  Martin  V. —  who  succeeds  in  evading  all  efficient  Reform  —  Real  objects  of  the  Refor- 
mers— Remarks — Assembly  of  the  Council  of  Basle — Eugenius  IV. — Three  objects  of  the  Council 
Cardinal  Julian  Cesarini — Struggle  between  the  Council  and  the  Pope — Substance  of  the  enact- 
ments of  the  Council  for  Church  Reform — New  differences  with  Eugenius —  Council  of  Ferrara 
and  Florence — Cardinal  of  Aries — Deposition  of  Eugenius — Felix  V. — Confirmation  of  the  liberties 
of  the  Gallican  Church — Conclusion.        -------  434 

Chapter  XXV. — History  of  the  Hussites. 

Wiclif — his  opinions — introduced  into  Bohemia — John  Huss — his  proceedings — arrival  at  Constance 
—  Safe-conduct  of  Sigismond  —  Various  charges  and  processes  of  the  Council  against  him  —  His 
firmness  and  execution — Jerome  of  Prague — his  persecution — vacillation  and  final  execution  — 
Remarks —  Insurrection  of  the  Bohemians  —  their  sanguinary  and  prolonged  contest  with  the 
Church.  .  .  . 559 

Chapter  XXVI. — History  of  the  Greek  Church  after  its  Separation  from  the  Latin. 

The  Paulicians — their  history  and  opinions  —  Various  mystics — Messalians,  Quietists  and  others  — 
Dispute  on  the  God  of  Mahomet — Attempts  to  re-unite  the  two  Churches —  System  of  the  Greek 
Church — distinguished  from  Latin — The  Latin  kingdom  of  Jerusalem — duration  and  consequences 
— Latin  conquest  of  Constantinople  —  Establishment  of  a  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  Greece  — 
its  endowments —  Embassy  to  Nice  for  the  re-union —  its  failure — other  similar  endeavors— faith- 
less reconciliation  at  Lyons  —  attempts  renewed  in  the  fourteenth  century  —  Negotiations  with 
Eugenius  IV. — Council  of  Ferrara — removed  to  Florence — its  deliberations — Conditions  and  decree 
of  union  —  Reception  of  the  Greek  deputies  on  their  return  to  Constantinople  —  Violence  of  the 
Greeks — unabated — till  the  taking  of  Constantinople  by  Mahomet  II.     -  -  -  477 

Chapter  XXVII. — History  of  the  Popes,  from  JYicholas  V.  to  Leo  X. 

Nicholas  V. — his  popular  character — CallixtusIII. — iEneas  Sylvius  or  Pius  II. — his  election — exer- 
tions against  the  Turks  —  Paul  II.  —  Sixtus  IV. —  his  literary  pretensions — Innocent  VIII. —  Ro- 
derigo  Borgia  or  Alexander  VI. — consummation  of  papal  iniquity — Pius  III. — Julius  II. — his  war- 
like talents,  enterprise  and  success — Leo  X. — The  Lateran  Council  convoked  by  Julius  and  carried 
to  its  conclusion  by  Leo.  _.....--  498 

Chapter  XXVIII. — Preliminaries  of  the  Reformation. 

(1.)  A  review  of  the  decline  of  the  papal  system — in  respect  to  its  temporal  power  and  pretensions — 
its  internal  constitution — its  discipline,  and  moral  instruction  and  practice — its  spiritual  innova- 
tions—  Festivals,  controversies,  &c.  —  the  mystics.  (2.)  On  the  endeavors  of  the  Church  to 
remove  its  own  abuses  —  to  what  limits  they  were  confined  —  On  the  exertions  of  Sectarians  or 
Separatists  —  how  early  they  began,  and  to  what  objects  they  tended  —  the  treatment  which  they 
received  from  the  Church —  Some  distinguished  Reformers  of  the  fifteenth  century — A  particular 
reference  to  the  German  Church — The  conclusion  of  this  history.  ...  524 


J\^A%% 


VA\ 


27 


HISTORY  OF   THE    CHURCH. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

h 

PART    I. 


FROM  THE  TIMES  OF  THE  APOSTLES  TO  THE  ACCESSION 
OF  CONSTANTINE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  propagation  of  Christianity. 

Method  of  treating  the  subject.  1.  Church  of  Jerusalem 
— Its  earliest  members — Death  of  St.  James — Succes- 
sion of  Symeon — Destruction  of  the  city  by  Titus — Suc- 
cession to  Pella — Bishops  of  the  Circumcision — Destruc- 
tion of  the  city  by  Adrian — ^Elia  Capitolina — Second 
succession  of  Bishops— Conclusion.  2.  Church  of  An- 
tioch — Its  foundation  and  progress — Ignatius — TheopJii- 
lus — Mesopotamia — Pretended  correspondence  between 
the  Saviour  and  Abearus,  Prince  of  Edessa.  3.  Church 
of  Ephesus — The  Seven  Churches  of  Asia — The  latest 
years  of  St.  John — Piety  and  progress  of  the  Church 
of  Ephesus — Polycrates — His  opposition  to  Rome.  4. 
Church  of  Smyrna — Polycarp — His  Martyrdom — Sardis 
— Melito — Hierapolis — Papias — Apollinaris — Bithynia- 
Testimony  of  the  younger  Pliny.  5.  Church  of  Athens 
—Character  of  the  people-Quadratus— Aristides-Athen- 
ngoras — Their  apologies — Other  Grecian  Churches.  6. 
Church  of  Corinth — Character  of  the  people — Nature 
of  their  dissensions — Clemens  Romanus — His  Epistle — 
Form  of  Government — Dionysius  of  Corinth — Seven 
General  Epistles — Remarks.  7.  Church  of  Rome — The 
persecution  of  Nero  described  by  Tacitus — Martyrdom 
of  St.  Paul  and  St.  Peter— Probable  effect  of  this  per- 
secution— Extent  of  Romish  superiority  over  other 
Churches — Controversy  respecting  Easter — Conduct  of 
Victor,  Bishop  of  Rome — Irenaeus — France — Church  of 
Lyons.  8.  Church  of  Alexandria — St.  Marc — Its  in- 
crease and  importance — Epistle  of  Hadrian — Remarks 
on  it — Education  of  the  first  Christians — Pantoenus — 
Clemens  Alexandrinus— The  Church  of  Carthage. 

It  is  our  object  in  this  chapter  to  state  what 
is  material  in  the  early  history  of  such  of  the 
Churches  of  Christ,  whether  founded  by  the 
apostles  themselves,  or  their  companions,  or 
their  immediate  successors,  as  were  permit- 
ted to  attain  importance  and  stability  during 
the  first  two  centuries.  For  this  purpose  we 
have  not:  thought  it  necessary  to  describe  the 
circumstances  which  are  detailed  in  the  sa- 
cred writings,  and  are  familiar  to  all  our 
readers.  The  Churches  which  seem  to  claim 
our  principal  attention  are  eight  in  number, 
and  shall  be  treated  in  the  following  order : 
Jerusalem  and  Antioch,  Ephesus  and  Smyr- 
na, Athens  and  Corinth,  Rome  and  Alex- 
andria ;  but  our  notice  will  be  extended  to 
some  others,  according  to  their  connexion 
with  these,  their  consequence,  or  local  situa- 


tion. It  is  thus  that  we  shall  gain  our  clear- 
est view  of  the  progress  made  by  infant  Chris- 
tianity, and  the  limits  within  which  it  was 
restrained. 

1.  The  converts  of  Jerusalem  naturally 
formed  the  earliest  Christian  society,  and  for 
a  short  period  probably  the  most  numerous ; 
but  the  Mosaic  jealousy  which  repelled  the 
communion  of  the  gentile  world,  and  thus 
occasioned  some  internal  dissensions,  as  well 
as  the  increasing  hostility  of  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple and  government,  no  doubt  impeded  their 
subsequent  increase.  The  same  causes  ope- 
rated, though  not  to  the  same  extent,  on  the 
Churches  established  in  other  parts  of  Pa- 
lestine, as  in  Galilee  and  Coesarea,  and  even 
on  those  of  Tyre,  Ptolemais,  and  Ceesarea. 
About  the  year  60  a.  d.,  James,  surnamed 
the  Just,  brother  of  the  Saviour,  who  was  the 
first  President  or  Bishop  of  the  Church  of 
Jerusalem,  perished  by  a  violent  death ;  * 
and   when    its   members  f  subsequently  as- 


*  Le  Clerc,  H.  E.  (vol.  i.  p.  415)  ad  aim.  62,  in 
which  year  he  places  the  death  of  St.  James,  and  af- 
firms that  nothing  is  known  respecting  its  manner. 
The  state  of  the  question  is  this:  Eusebius  (lib.  ii. 
cap.  23),  on  the  authority  of  Hegisippus  (a  Jewish 
convert  who  wrote  under  the  Antonines),  gives  a  very 
long  and  circumstantial  narration  of  the  Bishop's  mar- 
tyrdom ;  of  the  circumstances  many  are  clearly  fabu- 
lous, and  all  may  be  suspected;  but  the  leading  fact, 
thai  St.  James  was  killed  in  a  tumult  of  the  Jews,  it 
would  not  be  safe  to  reject.  His  violent  end,  with 
some  variation  in  particulars,  is  confirmed  by  Jose- 
phus,  Antiq.  p.  xx.  chap.  9. 

f  Eusebius  (lib.  iv.  cap.  11)  places  the  election  of 
Symeon  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  which  he 
makes  immediately  subsequent  to  St.  James's  mar- 
tyrdom ;  the  Jewish  rebellion  probably  was  so.  In 
the  same  book  (cap.  32)  he  relates  the  martyrdom  of 
Symeon  during  the  reign  of  Trajan,  at  the  age  of  120 
— again  on  the  authority  of  Hegisippus.  This  author 
wrote  five  books  of  ecclesiastical  history.  Such  a 
work,  by  a  judicious  writer  of  that  age,  would  have 
been  invaluable;  but  the  fragments  preserved  to  us  by 
Eusebius  persuade  us  that  Hegisippus  was  not  so. 


30 


HISTORY    OF  THE   CHURCH. 


sembled  for  the  purpose  of  electing  his  suc- 
cessor, their  choice  fell  on  Symeon,  who  is 
also  said  to  have  been  a  kinsman  of  Jesus. 
Shortly  after  the  death  of  St.  James,  an  in- 
surrection of  the  Jews  broke  out,  which  was 
followed  by  the  invasion  of  the  Roman  ar- 
mies, and  was  not  finally  suppressed  until 
the  year  70,  when  the  city  was  overwhelmed 
by  Titus,  and  utterly  destroyed.  During  the 
continuance  of  this  war,  as  well  as  through 
the  events  which  concluded  it,  the  Holy  Land 
was  subjected  to  a  variety  and  intensity  of 
suffering,  to  which  no  parallel  can  be  found 
in  the  records  of  any  people.* 

A  short  time  before  the  Roman  invasion, 
we  are  informed  f  that  the  Christian  Church 
seceded  from  a  spot  which  prophecy  had 
taught  to  hold  devoted,  and  retired  to  Pella, 
beyond  the  Jordan.  From  this  circumstance 
it  becomes  at  least  probable,  that  the  Chris- 
tians did  not  sustain  their  full  share  of  the 
calamities  of  their  country  ;  but  though  their 
proportion  to  the  whole  population  may  thus 
have  been  increased,  their  actual  numbers 
could  not  fail  to  be  somewhat  diminished, 
since  they  could  not  wholly  withdraw  them- 
selves from  a  tempest  directed  indiscrimi- 
nately against  the  whole  nation. 

During  the  next  sixty  years  we  read  little 
respecting  the  Church  of  Jerusalem,  except 
the  names  of  fifteen  successive  presidents, 
called  '  Bishops  of  the  Circumcision  ; '  four- 
teen of  these  only  belong  to  the  period  in 
question,  since  they  begin  with  James :  and 
they  appear  to  end  at  the  second  destruction 
of  the  city  by  the  emperor  Adrian.:):  But 
the  times  of  these  successions  are  extremely 
uncertain,  as  the  first  Christians  had  little 
thought  of  posterity,  §  nor  were  any  tabula- 
laries  preserved  in  their  Churches,  nor  any 
public  acts  or  monuments  of  their  proceed- 
ings.   The  Church  over  which  they  presided 


*  It  is  sufficient  to  refer  to  the  history  of  Josephus. 

t  Euseb.  lib.  iv.  c.  5.  Le  Clerc  places  this  seces- 
sion in  the  year  66.  Semler  (sect.  1)  fixes  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Jewish  war  in  64.  The  Christians  proba- 
bly retired,  as  the  war  became  more  obstinate,  and 
advanced  nearer  to  Jerusalem. 

}  Euseb.  lib.  iv.  c.  5. 

§  This  is  the  complaint  of  Le  Clerc,  ad  ann.  135. 
A.nd  in  fact  the  two  most  prominent  features  in  the 
iistories  of  Christians,  during  the  three  first  centuries, 
*re  their  divisions  and  their  persecutions.  These  sub- 
jects we  shall  examine  in  separate  chapters,  and  all 
that  can  be  confidently  asserted  on  other  points  we  are 
contented  to  glean  from  Eusebius  and  some  writers  of 
ambiguous  authority  who  are  quoted  by  him,  from  the 
apologies,  epistles,  and  treatises  of  die  early  fathers, 
and  from  a  few  fragments  of  profane  antiquity. 


seems  to  have  perished  with  them;  but 
there  is  still  reason  to  believe  that  it  was  not 
numerous,  and  we  may  attribute  its  weak- 
ness partly  to  the  continued  action  of  the 
two  causes  above  mentioned,  and  partly  to 
the  absolute  depopulation  of  the  country. 
Yet  it  would  appear  from  Scripture  that 
some  sort  of  authority  was  at  first  exercised 
by  the  Mother  Church  over  her  Gentile 
children;  and  that  'the  decrees  ordained  by 
the  apostles  and  elders  which  were  at  Jeru- 
salem '  found  obedience  even  among  distant 
converts. 

On  the  summit  of  the  sacred  hill,  out  of 
the  ruins  which  deformed  it,  Adrian  erected 
a  new  city,  to  which  he  gave  the  new  and 
Roman  title  of  TElia  Capitolina,  *  thinking 
perhaps  that  he  should  erase  from  all  future 
history  the  hateful  name  of  Jerusalem,  or 
that  a  city  with  a  more  civilized  appellation 
would  be  inhabited  by  less  rebellious  sub- 
jects, or  that  the  contumacy  of  the  Jews  was 
associated  with  the  name  of  then-  capital.  A 
new  Church  was  then  established,  composed 
no  longer  of  Jews,  but  of  Gentiles  only,  and 
was  governed  by  a  new  succession  of  bish- 
ops, as  obscure  and  as  rapid  as  that  which 
we  have  mentioned.  Their  names  are  also 
transmitted  to  us  by  the  diligence  of  Euse- 
bius (H.  E.  lib.  v.  c.  12),  but  none  with  any 
distinction  except  Narcissus,  the  fifteenth  in 
order,  who  flourished  about  the  year  180, 
and  of  whom  some  traditional  miracles  are 
recorded  (Euseb.  H.  E.  lib.  vi.  c.  9). 

Such  are  the  imperfect  accounts  which  re- 
main to  us  respecting  the  early  history  of 
the  Church  in  Palestine ;  but,  imperfect  as 
they  are,  we  are  enabled  to  collect  from 
them  that  the  progress  of  Christianity  in 
that  stubborn  soil  was  slow,  and  its  condi- 
tion uncertain  and  fluctuating.  And  this 
conclusion  is  confirmed  by  the  direct  asser- 
tion of  Justin  Martyr,  a  Samaritan  prose- 
lyte of  the  second  century,  our  best  authori- 


*  Ecclesiastical  writers  differ  about  the  date  of  this 
event.  Semler  (cent,  ii.)  places  it  in  die  year  119. 
Fleury  (liv.  iii.  sect.  24.)  mentions  JEUn  Capitolina 
as  existing  previous  to  the  rebellion  of  Barcochabas, 
but  still  as  the  work  of  Adrian.  Le  Clerc  (ad  ann. 
119)  seems  to  waver — (ad.  ann.  134)  decidedly  fixes 
the  foundation  for  that  year,  and  attributes  the  com- 
motions of  the  Jews  to  that  cause.  Those  commotions 
certaiidy  broke  out  in  132,  and  were  soon  quelled ;  but 
both  Mosheim  andBasnage  (Ann.  Polit.  Eccles.  A.  D. 
132,  vol.  ii.  p.  72)  consider  the  foundation  of  the  new 
city  to  have  been  immediately  subsequent  to  the  rebel- 
lion. Probably  Le  Clerc  is  right  as  he  admits  too  that 
the  city  was  finally  established  in  174,  after  the  insur- 
rection (ad  ann.  174) — See  Euseb.  H.  E.  lib  vi.c.  6. 


CHURCH  OB'   ANTIOCH. 


31 


ty  for  that  age  and  country,  who  expressly 
assures  us  that  the  converts  in  Judsea  and 
Samaria  were  inferior,  both  in  number  and 
fidelity,  to  those  of  the  Gentiles.  '  We  behold 
the  desolation  of  Judaea,  and  some  from  every 
race  of  men  who  believe  the  teaching  of 
Christ's  Apostles,  and  have  abandoned  their 
ancient  customs  in  which  they  fell  astray. 
We  behold  ourselves,  too,  and  we  perceive 
that  the  Christians  among  the  Gentiles  are 
more  numerous  and  more  faithful  than  among 
the  Jews  and  Samaritans.'  He  then  proceeds 
to  account  for  the  fact,  '  that  none  of  these 
have  believed  excepting  some  few,'  by  appeal 
to  the  prophetic  writers.* 

2.  From  the  spectacle  of  the  infidelity  and 
devastation  of  Palestine,  foretold  by  so  many 
prophecies,  and  truly  designated  by  Jortin  as 
an  '  event  on  which  the  fate  and  credit  of 
Christianity  depended,'  we  turn  to  the  more 
grateful  office  of  tracing  its  advance,  and 
celebrating  its  success.  We  may  consider 
the  neighboring  Church  of  Antioch  to  have 
been  founded  about  40  a.  D.f  by  St.  Paul 
and  St.  Barnabas.  It  was  there  that  the  con- 
verts first  assumed  the  name  of  Christian,  and 
the  first  act  which  is  recorded  respecting  them 
was  one  of  charity  to  their  suffering  brethren 
in  Judgea.  In  a  mixed  population  of  Greeks, 
and  natives  unfettered  by  the  prejudices  of 
Judaism,  our  holy  faith  made  a  rapid  and 
steady  progress.  In  the  residence  of  the  Pre- 
fect of  Syria,  under  the  very  eye  of  the  civil 
government,  it  is  probable  that  the  infant  soci- 
ety was  protected  against  the  active  hatred  of 
the  Jews ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  its 
early  prosperity  was  greatly  promoted  by  the 
zeal  of  its  second  bishop,  Ignatius.  This 
ardent  supporter  of  the  faith,  the  contempo- 
rary, and,  as  we  are  informed,  the  friend 
of  some  of  the  Apostles,  presided  over  the 
Church  of  Antioch  for  above  thirty  years,  and 
at  length  was  led  away  to  Rome,  and  perished 
there,  a  willing  and  exulting  martyr.  He  fell 
iu  the  prosecution  of  Trajan,  in  the  year  107J 


*  Apol.  i.,  cli.  53. 

fLe   Clerc,  Hist.  Eccl.  t.    i.,  p.  347   (ann.  40). 

Sender  places  the  foundation  of  the  Church  in  39.  In 
spite  of  Scripture  (Acts  xi.  21,  22,  &c.)  Baronius 
claims  the  honor  for  St.  Peter,  and  is  confuted  by  Bas- 
nuge,  vol.  i.,  p.  502.  (ad  ann.  40). 

^Le  Clerc  (Srec.  Sec.  ann.  116)  fixes  this  event 
after  the  earthquake  in  116,  which  destroyed  a  great 
part  of  the  city,  and  was  attributed  by  the  heathen 
priesthood  to  the  '  impiety  '  of  the  Christians.  Pear- 
son, Pag'i,  and  Fabricius  are  of  the  same  opinion. 
But  that  of  Tilleinont,  Du  Pin  and  Cave,  which  we 
follow,  is  more  probable,  and  is  confirmed  by  Lardner 


During  his  journey  through  Asia  to  Rome  he 
addressed  epistles  to  some  of  the  Christian 
Churches,  in  which  we  may  still  discover  the 
animated  piety  of  the  author,  through  the  in- 
terpolations with  which  the  party  zealots  of 
after  times  have  disfigured  them. 

The  fourth  bishop  in  succession  from 
Ignatius  was  Theophilus,  a  learned  convert 
from  paganism,  more  justly  celebrated  for  his 
books  to  Autolycus  in  defence  of  Christianity, 
than  for  his  attack  on  the  heresies  of  Marcion 
and  Hermogenes.  Under  such  guidance  the 
Church  of  Antioch  became  numerous  and  re- 
spectable ;  and  from  the  ordinary  course  of 
events  we  may  reasonably  infer,  that  the  re- 
ligion which  was  popular  in  the  capital  of 
Syria  obtained  an  easy  and  general  reception 
throughout  the  province.* 

A  correspondence  between  our  Saviour 
himself  and  Abgarus,  a  prince  of  Edessa  in 
Mesopotamia,  is  delivered  to  us  at  the  end  of 
the  first  book  of  Eusebius,  as  copied  from  the 
public  records  of  the  city.  The  genuineness 
of  the  correspondence  has  long  ceased  to  find 
any  advocate,  and  this  is  probably  among  the 
earliest  of  the  many  pious  frauds  which  have 
disgraced  the  history  of  our  Church ;  but  the 
existence  of  the  forged  record  in  the  archives 
of  Edessa  has  never  been  disputed  ;  and,  as 
it  is  clearly  the  work  of  a  Christian  intending 
to  do  honor  to  the  founder  of  his  religion,  it 
proves  at  least  how  early  was  the  introduction 
of  that  religion  into  the  province  of  Mesopo- 
tamia. 

3.  The  seven  Churches  of  Asia  mentioned 
in  the  Revelation  are,  Ephesus,  Smyrna,  Per- 
gamus  and  Thyatira,  Sardis,  Philadelphia, 
Laodicea.  Of  Pergamus  and  Thyatira  litde 
subsequent  mention  is  made  in  history ;  the 
other  five,  and  especially  the  two  first,  are 
distinguished  among  the  most  fruitful  of  the 
primitive  communities.  The  Church  of 
Ephesus,  which  was  founded  by  St.  Paul  and 
governed  by  Timothy,  was  blessed  by  the 
presence  of  St.  John  during  the  latest  years 
of  his  long  life.  Of  him  it  is  related,  on  suf- 
ficient authority,  that  when  his  infirmities  uo 
longer  allowed  him  to  perform  the  offices  of 
religion,  he  continued  ever  to  dismiss  the 
society   with  the  parting  benediction.     'My 


(p.  ii.,  c.  v.)  But  Basnage,  after  all,  is  right,  when 
he  candidly  places  '  the  year  of  Ignatius 's  death 
among  the  obscurities  of  Chronology.' — Hist.  Polit. 
Eccles.,  ann.  107,  sect.  6. 

*  Even  before  his  journey  to  Macedonia  we  read 
that  '  Paul  went  through  Syria,  and  Cilicia,  confirm- 
ins  the  churches.' — Acts  xv.  41. 


32 


HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


children,  love  one  another!'  and  there  is 
nothing  in  the  early  history  of  this  Church  to 
persuade  us  that  the  exhortation  was  in  vain. 
In  fact,  Ignatius,  during  his  residence  at 
Smyrna,  addressed  an  Epistle  to  the  Ephesi- 
ans,  hearing  testimony  to  their  evangelical 
purity,  and  to  the  virtues  of  their  bishop 
Onesimus.  And  it  is  important  to  add,  that 
two  other  Epistles  addressed  at  the  same  pe- 
riod to  churches  at  Magnesia  and  Tralles  (or 
Trallium),  of  more  recent  foundation,  prove 
the  continued  progress  of  our  faith  in  those 
regions,  even  after  the  last  of  the  apostles  had 
been  removed  from  it.  At  the  end  of  the 
second  century  we  find  that  Ephesus  still  re- 
mained at  the  head  of  the  Asiatic  churches, 
and  we  observe  its  bishop,  Polycrates,  con- 
ducting them  in  firm  but  temperate  opposi- 
tion to  the  first  aggression  of  the  Church  of 
Rome. 

4.  It  would  appear  from  the  Epistle 
of  Ignatius  to  the  Smyrnasans,  that  some  in 
that  communion  were  tainted  with  heresies, 
which  appeared  unpardonable  to  that  zealous 
bishop,  and  which  perhaps  might  be  attend- 
ed with  some  danger  to  an  infant  society. 
But  when  he  designates  those  schismatics  as 
'  beasts  in  the  shape  of  men,'  *  we  may  doubt 
whether  his  exertions  in  this  matter  were 
calculated  to  restore  the  union  of  the  Church. 
A  pious  bishop  named  Polycarp  at  that  time 
presided  over  the  Church  of  Smyrna:  he  had 
been  appointed  to  his  office  by  St.  John,  and 
continued  faithfully  to  discharge  it  until  his 
aged  limbs  were  affixed  to  the  stake  by  the 
brutality  of  Marcus  Antoninus.  'Eighty  and 
six  years  have  I  served  Christ,  and  he  hath 
never  wronged  me,'  was  his  reply  to  the  in- 
quisitorial interrogations  of  the  Roman  pro- 
consul ;  and  it  will  not  be  out  of  place  here 
to  transcribe  his  last  beautiful  prayer,  which 
has  reached  us  from  the  pen  of  those  who 
witnessed  his  martyrdom,  f 

'  Father  of  thy  beloved  and  blessed  Son 
Jesus  Christ,  through  whom  we  have  know- 
ledge of  thee  ;  God  of  angels  and  powers  and 
of  all  creation,  and  of  the  whole  family  of  the 
just  who  live  in  thy  presence  !  I  thank  thee 
that  thou  hast  thought  me  worthy  of  this  day 
and  this  hour,  that  I  may  take  part  in  the 
number  of  the  martyrs  in  the  cup  of  Christ 
for  the  resurrection  of  eternal  life,  soul  and 
body,  in  the  incorruptibility  of  the  Holy  Spir- 


*  Ignat.  Epist.  Smyrn.  sect.  4. 
f  Epistle  of  the  Church  of  Smyrna  to  that  of  Phil- 
omelium.     Euseb.  iv.  15. 


it  — among  whom  may  I  be  received  hi  thy 
presence  to-day  in  full  and  acceptable  sacri- 
fice, as  thou  hast  prepared,  foreshown,  and 
fulfilled,  the  faithful  and  true  God.  For  this, 
and  for  everything,  I  praise  thee,  I  bless 
thee,  I  glorify  thee,  through  the  eternal  High 
Priest,  Jesus  Christ,  thy  beloved  Son.'  The 
martyrdom  of  Polycarp  took  place  about  166 

A.  D.* 

The  Church  of  Sardis,  whose  imperfect 
faith  is  rebuked  by  St.  John,  may  have  profit- 
ed by  the  reproaches  of  its  founder,  for  about 
the  year  177  a.  d.  ,  we  again  discover  it  un- 
der the  government  of  a  learned  and  eloquent 
bishop,  named  Melito.  To  this  writer  we  are 
indebted  for  the  first  catalogue  of  the  books 
of  the  Old  Testament  compiled  by  any  Chris- 
tian author,  f  and  it  may  be  useful  as  well  as 
curious  to  quote  from  Eusebius  the  titles  of 
some  of  his  works :  — '  Two  Books  concern- 
ing Easter — Rules  of  Life  of  the  Prophets — 
A  Discourse  of  the  Lord's  Day  —  Of  the  Na- 
ture of  Man  —  Of  the  Obedience  of  the  Sen- 
ses to  Faith  —  Of  Baptism  —  Of  Truth  and 
of  Faith,  and  the  Generation  of  Jesus  Christ 
—  Of  Prophecy  — Of  Hospitality  —  Of  the 
Devil_  Of  the  Revelation  of  St.  John.'  And 
least  of  all  should  we  omit  to  mention  the 
Apology  for  Christianity,' J  which  he  ad- 
dressed to  M.  Antoninus. 

Before  we  take  leave  of  the  Asiatic  Church- 
es, we  must  remark  that  the  early  establish- 
ment of  Christianity  was  not  confined  to  the 
shore  of  the  iEgean,  §  or  to  places  little  re- 
moved from  it.  Hierapolis,  an  important 
city  of  Phrygia,  contained  a  Christian  society, 
over  which  Papias  presided  in  the  beginning 
of  the  second  century.    Papias  was  an  indus- 

*  This  is  the  opinion  of  Du  Pin,  Tillemont,  Arch- 
bishop Usher,  Lardner  (p.  ii.  1.  6.)  and  others.  Eu- 
sebius and  Jerome  also  place  the  event  in  the  time  of 
M.  Antoninus.  Bishop  Pearson  (Op.  Post  Diss.  2. 
|  c.  15,  16,  17,)  however,  argues  that  it  took  place  un- 
der Antoninus  Pius  in  148.  Le  Clerc  advocates  as 
late  a  year  as  169,  vol   i.  p.  724—730. 

t  Fleury,  lib.  iv.  sect.  3,  xi.  Melito  was,  by  many 
ancient  Christians,  accounted  a  prophet  —  in  the 
sense,  no  doubt,  of  an  inspired  teacher.  See  Jortin. 
Rem.  Eccl.  Hist,  book  ii.  part  i.  end. 

X  Fragments  of  this  are  preserved  by  Eusebius.  H. 
E.  lib.  iv.  c.  26.  He  boldly  censured  the  Emperor's 
decree  against  the  Christians,  as  one  '  which  ought 
not  to  have  been  promulgated  even  against  barbarous 
enemies.'  And,  therefore,  he  expressed  a  loyal  doubt 
whether  it  really  proceeded  from  the  councils  of  the 
Emperor.  Le  Clerc  supposes  the  Apology  to  have 
been  published  in  169  :  Fleury  (1.  iv.  1.)  ,  in  170. 

§  '  We  know  from  certain  documents  that  the 
Christian  religion  was  firmly  established  among  the 
Arabs,  in  the  second  century.     Sender,  sect.  ii.  c.  ii 


CHURCH   OF   SMYRNA. 


S3 


trious  collector  of  all  reported  acts  and  say- 
ings of  the  Apostles,  and  lias  been  justly  de- 
signated the  Father  of  Traditions  ;  he  may 
have  been  a  feeble  and  credulous  man,  but  it 
is  enough  that  his  mere  existence  as  Bishop 
of  Hierapolis  proves  the  very  early  progress 
of  our  religion  towards  the  interior  of  Asia. 
Claudius  Apollinaris  was  bishop  of  the  same 
church,  in  die  reign  of  M.  Antoninus,  'a 
man  of  great  reputation,'  as  says  Eusebius, 
and  celebrated  for  his  'Apology  for  Christian- 
ity,' *  and  his  'Books  against  Jews  and  Pa- 
gans.' 

The  province  of  Bithynia  was  situated  at 
the  south-western  extremity  of  the  Euxine 
Sea.  We  have  no  record  of  any  Apostolical 
Church  here  founded ;  but  we  are  accident- 
ally furnished  with  proof  that,  in  the  very  be- 
ginning of  the  second  century,  a  great  por- 
tion of  the  population  were  Christians — proof 
which  has  never  been  disputed,  because  it  is 
derived  from  the  annals  of  Pagan  history. 

Pliny  the  younger,  a  humane  and  accom- 
plished Roman,  was  governor  of  Pontus  and 
Bithynia  for  about  eighteen  months,  during 
the  persecution  of  Trajan  ;  and  on  that  sub- 
ject, in  the  year  107,  \  a.  d.,  he  addressed  to 
the  Emperor  his  celebrated  Epistle.  This 
being  justly  considered  as  the  most  impor- 
tant document  remaining  to  us  in  early 
Christian  history,  we  shall  here  transcribe 
some  portion  of  it,  the  more  willingly  as  we 
shall  have  occasion  hereafter  to  refer  to  it. 

After  mentioning  the  difficulty  of  his  own 
situation,  and  his  perplexity  in  what  manner 
to  proceed  against  men  charged  with  no  other 
crime  than  the  name  of  Christian,  the  writer 
proceeds  as  follows: — 'Others  were  named 
by  an  informer,  who  at  first  confessed  them- 
selves Christians,  and  afterwards  denied  it ; 
the  rest  said  they  had  been  Christians,  but 
had  left  them,  some  three  years  ago,  some 
longer,  and  one  or  more  above  twenty  years. 
They  all  worshipped  your  image,  and  the 
statues  of  the  gods;  these  also  reviled  Christ. 
They  affirmed  that  the  whole  of  their  fault 
or  error  lay  in  this — that  they  were  wont  to 
meet  together  on  a  stated  day  before  it  was 
light,  and  sing  among  themselves  alternately 
a  hymn  to  Christ,  as  to  God,  and  bind  them- 
selves by  an  oath,  not  to  the  commission  of 
any  wickedness,  but  not  to  be  guilty  of  theft, 
or  robbery,  or  adultery,  never  to  falsify  their 
word,  nor  to  deny  a  pledge  committed  to 
them  when  called  upon  to  return  it.     When 


*  Fleury,  H.  E.  1.  iv.  sect.  4. 
■fLardner,  Test,  of  Anc.  Heathen. 

5 


these  things  were  performed,  it  was  their 
custom  to  separate,  and  then  to  come  together 
again  to  a  meal,  which  they  ate  in  common 
without  any  disorder ;  but  this  they  had  for- 
borne since  the  publication  of  my  edict,  by 
which,  according  to  your  commands,  I  pro- 
hibited assemblies. 

'After  receiving  this  account,  I  judged  it 
the  more  necessary  to  examine,  and  that  by 
torture,  two  maid  servants,  which  were  call- 
ed ministers;  but  I  have  discovered  nothing 
beside  a  bad  and  excessive  superstition.     Sus- 
pending, therefore,  all  judicial  proceedings,  I 
have  recourse  to  you  for  advice,  for  it  has  ap- 
peared to  me  matter  highly  deserving  consid- 
eration, especially  upon  account  of  the  great 
number  of  persons  who  are  in  danger  of  suf- 
fering, for  many  of  all  ages,  and  every  rank, 
of  both  sexes  likewise,  are  accused,  and  will 
be  accused.     Nor  has  the  contagion  of  this 
superstition  seized  cities  only,  but  the  lesser 
towns  also,  and  the  open  country ;  neverthe- 
less, it  seems  to  me  that  it  may  be  restrained 
and  corrected.     It  is  certain  that  the  temples 
which  were  almost  forsaken  begin  to  be  more 
frequented;  and  the  sacred  solemnities,  after 
a  long  intermission,   are   revived.     Victims 
likewise  are  every  where  bought  up,  where- 
as for  a  time  there  were   few  purchasers. 
Whence  it  is  easy  to  imagine  what  numbers 
of  men  might  be  reclaimed  if  pardon  were 
granted  to  those  who  repent.' 

So  few  *  and  uncertain  are  the  records  left 
to  guide  our  inquiries  through  the  obscure 
period  which  immediately  followed  the  con- 
clusion of  the  labors  of  the  Apostles,  that  the 
above  testimony  to  the  numbers  and  virtues 
of  our  forefathers  in  faith  becomes  indeed  in- 
valuable. No  history  of  our  Church  can  be 
perfect  without  it ;  and  its  clear  and  unsus- 
pected voice  will  be  listened  to  by  every  can- 
did inquirer  in  every  age  of  truth  and  histo- 
ry. At  present  our  only  concern  is  with  the 
concluding  paragraphs,  which  show  us  how 
extensively  our  religion  was  disseminated 
within  seventy-five  years  from  the  death  of 
its  founder,  in  a  province  very  distant  from 
its  birthplace,  and  where  no  apostle  had  ever 
penetrated ;  and  certainly  it  is  not  unfair  to 
infer  that  in  other  provinces  more  favorably 
situated,  and  more  industriously  cultivated, 
as  rich  a  harvest  may  have  grown  up  of  faith 
and  piety,  though  unnoticed  by  the  pen  of 


*  Ecclesiastical  history  discovers  to  us  no  impor- 
tant event  between  the  death  of  St.  Peter  and  St 
Paul,  and  that  of  St.  John,  excepting  the  rise  of  the 
Gnostic  heresy,  which  Le  Clerc  places  in  the  year  76. 


34 


HISTORY    OF   THE  CHURCH. 


the  Roman  officers,  whose  mere  duty  requir- 
ed nothing  more  from  them  than  its  extirpa- 
tion. 

5.  From  the  churches  of  Asia  we  proceed 
to  the  description  of  those  of  Greece,  and 
among  these  our  first  notice  shall  be  directed 
to  Athens.  A  vain,  and  light,  and  learned 
city,  the  theatre  of  lively  wit  and  loose  and 
careless  ridicule,  the  school  of  intellectual 
subtlety  and  disputatiousness,  the  very  Pan- 
theon of  Polytheism,  where  the  utmost  efforts 
of  human  genius  had  been  exhausted  to  cele- 
brate a  baseless  and  gaudy  superstition — such, 
assuredly,  was  not  a  place  where  the  homeli- 
ness of  the  Gospel  could  hope  to  find  favor. 
More  curious  in  the  pursuit  of  theories  than 
in  the  investigation  of  facts,  the  Athenian 
philosopher  (of  whatever  sect)  would  not 
readily  embrace  a  faith  which  required  him 
to  believe  so  much  and  allowed  him  to  specu- 
late so  little  ;  and,  we  may  add,  that  he  would 
bring  to  the  inquiry  a  mind  either  hardened 
by  previous  habits  of  universal  skepticism,  or 
fraught  with  some  sort  of  theistical  notions 
inconsistent  with  the  truths  he  was  called 
upon  to  receive.  For  these,  and  similar  rea- 
sons, Christianity  made,  for  some  years,  very 
trifling  progress  at  Athens.  We  read,  indeed, 
of  a  succession  of  bishops,  beginning  widi  Di- 
onysius  the  Areopagite,  the  convert  of  St.  Paul. 
But  it  appears  that  Quadratus,  on  his  acces- 
sion in  Adrian's  time,  found  the  church  in  a 
state  verging  on  apostacy,*  and  to  him,  per- 
haps, may  belong  the  honor  of  restoring,  if 
we  should  not  rather  say,  of  establishing  it. 
After  that  period  we  find  it  more  flourishing ; 
and  we  have  the  authority  of  Origen,  in  his 
second  book  against  Celsus,  for  believing  that, 
about  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  the 
Christians  of  Athens  were  eminent  for  their 
piety,  and  their  industry,  if  not  learning, 
is  attested  by  the  publication  of  three  apolo- 
gies for  their  faith.  Two  were  written  by 
Quadratus  f    and    a   contemporary   philoso- 

*  Dionys.  apud  Euseb.  iv.  23.  The  age  of  Quad- 
ratus is  well  discussed  by  Le  Clerc,  H.  E.  ad  aim.  124. 

t  These  Apologies,  certainly  that  of  Aristides,  were 
extant  in  the  time  of  Eusebius  (1.  iv.  c.  3)  and  St. 
Jerome  (Catal.  Script.  Eccles.)— See  Fleury,  lib.  iii. 
sect.  22.  Athenagoras  dedicated  his  Apology  to  M. 
Aurelius  and  L.  Verus,  in  the  year  166,  calling  it  an 
«  Embassy  for  the  Christians.'  See  Le  Clerc,  ad  ami. 
166  (vol.  i.  p.  702—710),  and  Fleury,  lib.  iii.  sect.  47. 
Bayle  (vie  Athenag.)  mentions  with  surprise  that  that 
writer  was  unknown  to  Eusebius,  Jerome,  and  most 
of  the  ancient  fathers.  He  appears  to  have  held 
some  erroneous  opinions,  and  is  noticed  by  Epipha- 
niu9,  Adv.  Hapr.  num.  64,  p.  544,  t.  1. 


pher  named  Aristides,  and  were  presented  or 
dedicated  to  Adrian.  The  third  was  publish- 
ed several  years  afterwards,  by  another  philo- 
sopher, named  Athenagoras,  and  is  still  extant. 
To  the  Philippians  an  epistle  was  address- 
ed by  Polycarp,  about  108,  a.  d.,  attesting, 
at  least,  the  permanency  of  that  apostolical 
Church ;  and  that  that  of  Thessalonica  had 
also  been  perpetuated,  and  another  subse- 
quently established  at  Larissa,  is  proved  by  the 
circumstance  that  Antoninus  Pius  addressed 
copies  of  his  'Order  of  Toleration'  to  the 
governors  of  those  cities. 

6.  Tracing  the  footsteps  of  the  apostle  of 
the  Gentiles  from  Athens,  we  proceed  to 
Corinth.  We  still  find  ourselves  surrounded 
by  graceful  temples  and  statues,  consecrated 
to  the  deities  of  Paganism.  We  observe  the 
same  elegance  of  opulence,  the  same  aban- 
donment to  fastidious  luxury,  but  there  is  this 
difference,  that  the  character  of  the  people, 
with  less  renown  for  wit,  vanity,  and  ambi- 
tious pretension,  is  even  more  distinguished 
for  immorality.  Not  so  warmly  attached  to 
the  keen  and  fruitless  contests  of  the  schools, 
the  Corinthians  rather  sought  their  happiness 
in  the  vulgar  excitements  of  sensuality.  It  is 
easier  to  remove  many  moral  imperfections, 
than  to  convince  the  self-sufficiency  of  wit. 
And  this  may  have  been  one  of  the  reasons 
which  decided  St.  Paul  to  select  Corinth  as 
his  principal  residence  in  Greece.  The  early 
years  of  this  Church  are  not  free  from  re- 
proach ;  but  we  observe  that  they  are  distin- 
guished rather  by  the  spirit  of  dissension  and 
contumacy  than  by  that  of  immorality — it 
retained  the  vices*  of  the  Greek  character 
after  it  had  thrown  off  those  of  the  Corinthian. 
Cephas  and  Apollos  divided  the  very  converts 
of  the  apostle,  and,  about  fifty  years  after- 
wards, the  disunion  had  so  far  increased  as 
to  call  for  the  friendly  interference  of  the 
Church  of  Rome.  About  95,  a.  d.,\  St.  Cle- 
ment, the  bishop,  addressed  to  them  his  first 
and  genuine  Epistle,  which  has  fortunately 
been  preserved  to  us,  and  is  probably  the  most 
ancient  of  uninspired  Christian  writmgs4  The 


*  They  are  thus  enumerated  by  St.  Clement,  c.  35, 
tidixla,  uro^ta,7TlsovB^ta,  tgeig,  xaxor^&eiai 
re  xul  dohot,  ifn-d-vqiofiov  xal  y.aialuliai, 
■frsoo-Tvyla,  ineQrjcpuvla,  (xXa^ovetu  y.ul 
xevodo!;la. 

f  There  are  very  wide  differences  among  historians 
respecting  this  date.  Lardner  (part  i.  ch.  2.)  appears 
to  us  to  have  selected  the  most  probable  opinion. 

J  Perhaps  we  should  except  the  Epistle  ascribed  to 
St.  Barnabas. 


CHURCH  OF    ROME 


35 


author  is  related  to   be  the  same    Clement 
whom  St.  Paul  mentions  as  one  'of  his  fellow 
laborers   whose  names  are  in  the   Book   of 
Life.'  *     The  dissensions  of  the  Corinthians 
seem  to  have  entirely  regarded  the  discipline, 
not  the  doctrine  of  the  Church;  they  had  dis- 
missed from  the  ministry  certain  presbyters, 
as   St.   Clement    asserts,   undeservedly,   and 
much  confusion  was  thus  introduced.   For  the 
purpose  of  composing  it,  five  deputies  were 
sent  from  Rome,  the  bearers  of  the  Epistle. 
We  should  here  observe,  that  the  epistle  is 
written  in  the  name  of  '  the  Church  sojourn- 
ing at  Rome,'  not  in  that  of  the  Roman  bishop ; 
that   its  character  is  of  exhortation,   not  of 
authority  ;  and  that  it  is  an  answer  to  a  com- 
munication originally  made  by  the   Church 
of  Corinth.     The  episcopal  form  of  govern- 
ment was   clearly  not  yet  here  established, 
probably  as  being  adverse  to  the  republican 
spirit  of  Greece.     This  spirit,  naturally  ex- 
tending from  political  to  religious  affairs,  may 
have  acted  most  strongly  in  the  most  numer- 
ous society;  and  to  its  influence, so  dangerous 
to  the  concord  of  an  infant  community,  we 
may,  perhaps,  attribute  the  evils  of  which  we 
have  spoken.     At  what  precise  moment  the 
converts  of  Corinth  had  the  wisdom  to  dis- 
cover that  their  unity  in  love  would  be  better 
secured  by  a  stricter  form  of  Church  govern- 
ment, we  are  not  informed,  but,  about  seventy 
years  after  these  dissensions,  we  find  them 
flourishing  under  the  direction  of  a  pious  and 
learned  bishop,  Dionysius.     This   venerable 
person   is   chiefly    celebrated   for  his    seven 
Epistles  called,  by  Eusebius,f  Catholic, — two 
of  these  were  addressed  to  the  Churches  of 
Rome  and  Athens,  two  other  to  those  in  Pon- 
tus  and  Bithynia,  two  to  those  of  Gortyna  and 
Gnossos  in  Crete,  and  one  to  that  at  Lacedae- 
mon.     It  is  thus,   incidentally,   that  we  are 
furnished  with  our  best  evidence  of  the  grad- 
ual  growth  of  Christianity.     From   Athens 
we   proceed   to    Corinth,    from    Corinth   to 
Lacedsemon  ;  established  in   the  capital,  we 
advance  into  the  towns  and  villages  ;  and  we 
doubt  not  that,  at  that  early  period,  the  wild 
mountaineers  of  Taygetus  received  that  faith 
which  they  have  through  so  many  centuries 
so    devotedly   preserved,   and   which   is,    at 
length,  confirmed  to  them  forever. 

7.  In  the  Annals  of  the  historian  Tacitus 
(xv.  44),  after  the  description  of  a  terrible  fire 
at  Rome,  we  read  with  sorrow  and  indigna- 


*  '  Ancient  writers,  without  any  doubt  or  scruple,' 
assert  this.     Lard.  Cred.  G.  H.  p.  ii.  1.  2. 
+  H.  E.  I.  iv.  c.  23. 


tion  the  following  passage : — '  To  suppress  the 
common  rumor,  that  he  had  himself  set  fire 
to  the  city,  Nero  procured  others  to  be  accus- 
ed, and  inflicted  exquisite  punishments  upon 
those   people  who  were  held  in  abhorrence 
for  their  crimes,  and  were  commonly  known 
by  the  name  of  Christians.     They  had  their 
denomination   from    Christus,   who,   in    the 
reign  of  Tiberius,  was  put  to  death  as  a  crimi- 
nal by  the  procurator   Pontius  Pilate.     Thia 
pernicious   superstition,  though  checked  for 
awhile,   broke    out   again,   and    spread    not 
only  over  Judfea,  the  source  of  this  evil,  but 
reached  the  city  also,  whither  flow  from   all 
quarters   all   things  vile   and   shameful,  and 
where  they  find  shelter  and  encouragement* 
At  first  those  only   were  apprehended  who 
confessed  themselves  of  that  sect ;  afterwards 
a  vast  multitude  was  discovered  by  them,  all 
of  whom  were  condemned,  not  so  much  for 
the  crime  of  burning  the  city,  as  for  their  en- 
mity to  mankind.     Their  executions  were  so 
contrived  as  to  expose  them  to  derision  and 
contempt.     Some  were  covered  over  with  the 
skins  of  wild  beasts,   and  torn  to   pieces  by 
dogs ;     some    were    crucified ;     and    others 
having  been   daubed  over  with  combustible 
materials,  were  set  up  as  lights  in  the  night 
time,  and  thus  burnt  to  death.     Nero  made 
use  of  his  own  gardens  as  the  theatre  upon 
this  occasion,  and  also  exhibited  the  diversions 
of  the   Circus,   sometimes   standing   in     the 
crowd  as  a  spectator,  in  the  habit  of  a  ehar- 
rioteer,  at  others  driving  a  chariot   himself, 
till  at  length  these  men,  though  really  crimi- 
nal  and   deserving    exemplary   punishment, 
began  to  be   commiserated,   as  people   who 
were   destroyed,   not   out    of  regard   to   the 
public  welfare,  but  only  to  gratify  the  cruelty 
of  one  man.'   This  passage,  which  will  scarce- 
ly be  deemed  creditable  to  the  philosophy  of 
its  author  even  by  those  who  most  extol  it, 
and  which  is  most  deeply  disgraceful  to  his 
historical    accuracy,   to   his  political   know- 
ledge, and  to   his   common    humanity,  was 
written  at  the  end  of  the  first  century,  about 
thirty-six  years  after  the  persecution*  which 
it  so  vividly  describes.     It  was  in  the  midst 


*  That  event  is  placed  in  the  year  64,  by  a  general 
consent  of  Christian  antiquity.  It  is  also  commonly 
agreed,  that  St.  Peter,  as  well  as  St.  Paul,  suffered  mar- 
tyrdom under  Nero.  (Euseb.  1.  ii.  c.  25,  on  the  au- 
thority of  Caius  an  Ecclesiastic,  and  Dionys.  Epist. 
to  Romans.)  But  there  are  differences  as  to  the  exact 
time  of  that  suffering.  Le  Clerc  (vol.  i.  p.  447,  A.  D. 
6S)  places  it  at  the  end  of  Nero's  reign  in  the  year  68  ; 
but  the  general  opinion  refers  it  to  the  persecution. 
The  doubt  as  to  fact  rests  rather  on  the  martyrdom 


36 


HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


of  this  awful  scene,  that  St.  Peter  and  St. 
Paul*  are  believed    to   have  suffered.     We 
shall  not  pause  to  investigate  very  deeply  the 
truth  of  this  opinion,  but  rather  confine  our 
attention  to  the  testimony  here  afforded  as  to 
the  number  of  Christians  existing  at  Rome 
even  at  that  very  early  period.     '  A  vast  mul- 
titude was  discovered'  by  the  eye  of  persecu- 
tion, and  the  compassion  excited  by  their  suf- 
ferings would  naturally  awaken  an  attention, 
which   had   never  before   been   directed  to 
them.     The  assault  of  Nero  was  furious  and 
probably  transient ;  and  such  is  precisely  the 
method  of  aggression,  which  fails  not  in  the 
end  to  multiply  its  objects ;  and  if  it  be  thus 
probable  that,  before  the  end  of  the  first  cen- 
tury, the  Church  of  Home  surpassed  every 
other  in  power  and  consideration,  we  may 
rest  assured  that  these  were  rather  augment- 
ed than  diminished  during  the  century  fol- 
lowing.    To  this  belief  we   are   persuaded, 
partly  by  the  greater  facility  of  conversion  of- 
fered by  the  size  of  the  city,  and  the  number 
of  the  inhabitants;  partly  by  consideration 
that  the  force  of  opinion  would  naturally  lead 
the  feeble  Christian  societies  throughout  the 
empire  to  look  for  counsel  and  protection  to 
the  capital,  as  we  know  the  Church  of  Co- 
rinth to  have  done  ;  and  partly  by  the  fact, 
that   frequent  pecuniary  contributions  were 
transmitted  by  the  faithful  at  Rome,  to  their 
less  fortunate  brethren  in  the  provinces.-)     In 
this,  then,  consisted  the  original  superiority 
of  Rome  ;  in  numbers,  in  opinion,  in  wealth  : 
to  these  limits  it  was  entirely  confined,  and 


of  St.  Peter  than  of  St.  Paul,  but  the  authority  appears 
to  us  sufficient  historically  to  establish  the  violent  end 
of  both. 

*  Eusebius  asserts  that  these  two  apostles  were  joint 
founders  of  the  church  of  Rome,  and  thus  the  order 
of  their  three  immediate  successors  has  been  most 
warmly  disputed.  The  difficulty  is  not  removed  by 
the  supposition  that  the  Church  was  originally  divided, 
— one  apostle  (or  bishop)  presiding  over  the  Jewish, 
the  other  over  the  Gentile  converts.  According  to 
this  distribution,  St.  Peter,  of  course,  had  the  charge 
of  the  former. 

■f  Dionysius,  Bishop  of  Corinth,  thus  addresses  the 
Roman  Church,  about  the  year  156  : — '  This  is  your 
custom  from  the  beginning  to  confer  benefits  on  all 
brethren,  and  to  send  relief  to  various  churches  in 
every  city.  By  which  means,  while  you  assist  the  indi- 
gent, and  sustain  the  brethren  who  are  in  the  mines, 
and  while  you  continually  persist  in  such  donations, 
you  preserve  the  national  custom  of  Romans — that 
which  your  excellent  Bishop  Soter  has  even  carried 
further  than  usual  by  making  generous  donations  to  the 
Saints,  and  edifying  by  excellent  discourse  (as  a  lov- 
ing father  his  children)  the  brethren,  who  visit  him 
from  abroad.' — Euseb.  lib.  iv. ,  c.  23. 


it  was  not  until  quite  the  conclusion  of  the 
second  century  that  we  hear  of  any  claim  to 
authority. 

The  circumstances  of  that  claim  arose  from 
a  very  early  difference  in  the  Church  respect- 
ing the  celebration  of  Easter.     It  was  short- 
ly this  :  the  Christians  of  Lesser  Asia  observ- 
ed the  feast  at  which  the  Paschal  lamb  was 
distributed,  in  memory  of  the  Last  Supper,  at 
the  same  time  at  which  the  Jews  celebrated 
their  passover ;  that  is,  on  the  14th  day  of  the 
first  Jewish  month;  and  three  days  afterwards 
they  commemorated  the  resurrection,  with- 
out regard  to  the  day  of  the  week.      The 
western  churches  confined  the  anniversary  of 
the  resurrection  to  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
and  kept  their   Paschal  feast   on  the  night 
preceding  it.     Hence  arose  some  inconveni- 
ences ;  and  we  find  that  Polycarp  had  visited 
Rome  about  100,  a.  d.  for  the  purpose  of  ar- 
ranging the  controversy.*     He  was  not  per- 
manently successful ;  and  about  ninety  years 
afterwards  (a.  d.  196,  Fleury,  1.  iv.  c.  44),  Vic- 
tor, Bishop  of  Rome,  addressed  to  the  Asiat- 
ics an  express  order  to  conform  to  the  practice 
of  Rome.    They  convoked  a  numerous  synod, 
whose  feelings  of  independence,  and  disdain 
of  the  assumed  authority  of  the  Roman,  were 
temperately  expressed  in  the  answer  of  Poly- 
crates,  Bishop  of  Ephesus.f     The  insolence, 
of  Victor  was  irritated  by  the  refusal,  and 
he  published  an  edict   of  excommunication 
against  the  churches  of  Asia.     This  was  the 
first  aggression  of  a  Roman  bishop  on  the 
tranquillity  of  the  Church  of  Christ;  and  we 
may  reasonably  believe  that  it  was  disapprov- 
ed by  the  best  Christians  of  the  West,  since 
we  know  that  it  provoked  the  remonstrance 
of  Irenseus,  Bishop  of  Lyons.     The  churches 
of  Palestine  and  Alexandria}  appear  to  have 
united  with  those  of  Asia  in  an  affair  so  high- 
ly inflamed  by  the  arrogance  of  Victor,  that 
it  advanced  from  a  controversy  to  a  schism, 
which  was  not  finally  healed  till  the  Council 
of  Nice  in  325. 


*  Euseb.  H.  E.  lib.  v.,  c.  23.  See  Tillem.  vol 
iii.  p.  102,  &c. 

t  It  contains  these. words  :— -'I,  my  brethren,  who 
have  lived  five  and  sixty  years  in  the  Lord,  who  have 
conversed  with  my  brethren  dispersed  over  the  whole 
world,  who  had  read  through  the  whole  Scriptures,  am 
notliiii"  moved  by  the  terrors  (of  excommunication) 
which  are  held  over  us.  For  I  know  that  it  has  been 
said  by  those  who  are  far  my  superiors,  that  it  is  better 
to  obey  God  than  man.'— See  LeClerc,  vol.  i.  p.  800 

%  Euseb.  v.,  23  and  25.  The  church  of  Alexand- 
ria agreed  with  that  of  Rome  on  the  rights  of  the 
question,  but  opposed  the  overbearing  insolence  with 
which  they  were  asserted. 


CHURCH    OF    ALEXANDRIA. 


37 


Our  earliest  knowledge  of  the  existence  of 
Christianity  in  France  is  derived  from  its  ca- 
lamities. During  the  persecution  of  Marcus 
Antoninus,  the  churches  of  Vienne  and  Ly- 
ons sent  a  relation  of  their  sufferings  to  those 
of  Asia  and  Phrygia,  which  is  by  some  as- 
cribed to  the  pen  of  Irenseus.  It  is  written 
with  simplicity  and  beauty,  and  is  one  of  the 
most  affecting  passages  in  the  ancient  history 
of  Christianity.  Pothinus,  the  bishop,  with 
several  others,  underwent  the  last  infliction  ; 
still  we  have  not  reason  to  believe  that  the 
religion  was  at  that  time,  (a.  d.  177.)  *  widely 
diffused  in  the  country;  probably,  indeed, 
the  same  Pothinus  first  introduced  it  from 
the  East,  f  Irenseus,  the  learned  and  zeal- 
ous combatant  of  heresy,  succeeded  to  the 
dangerous  eminence  of  Pothinus,  aud  under 
his  prolonged  and  vigilant  protection  Chris- 
tianity took  deep  root,  and  finally  fixed  itself 
in  the  soil  of  France.  According  to  the  best 
authorities,  he  died  in  the  year  202.  J 

8.  It  was  an  early  belief  that  St.  Mark  first 
preached  his  gospel  at  Alexandria,  and  found- 
ed churches  there  ;  and  he  is  expressly  men- 
tioned by  Eusebius,  §  as  the  first  bishop  of 
that  city.  The  same  writer  asserts  that  a 
multitude  of  converts,  both  men  and  women, 
listened  to  his  instructions,  from  their  very 
first  delivery.  The  evidence  which  he  brings 
for  this  fact  is  not  quite  conclusive,  but  other 
circumstances  render  it  highly  probable.  The 
population  of  Alexandria  was  very  numerous, 
and  composed  of  every  variety  of  race  and 
superstition — so  that  no  general  prejudice 
against  the  introduction  of  a  new  religion 
could  exist  there ;  it  was  commercial,  and 
therefore  enlightened;  and  it  was  also  re- 
markable for  the  ardor  with  which  it  culti- 
vated every  branch  of  literature,  ||  the  facility 


*  Le  Clerc  places  that  event  seven  years  earlier. 

tDupin,  H.  E.,.vol.  i.  p.  32. 

%  That  he  died  a  martyr  is  the  common  belief;  but 
as  the  fact  is  not  mentioned  either  by  Tertullian  or 
Eusebius,  we  may  be  allowed  to  suspect  it,  though  as- 
serted by  Tillemont,  vol.  iii.  p.  94. 

§  H.  E.  1.  ii.  c.  16  and  24.  St.  Luke  is  also  be- 
lieved to  have  visited  this  city,  and  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  to  have  been  written  and  thence  diffused  over 
the  Christian  world.     Sender,  c.  i.  eh.  5. 

||  Le  Clerc,  (H.  E.  ann.  129,)  thinks  it  possible  that 
Adrian  was  deceived  by  informers,  who  mistook  the 
Gnostics,  many  sects  of  whom  .were  then  found  at 
Alexandria,  for  the  Orthodox  Christians.  But  this 
supposition  is  not  necessary ;  the  very  style  of  the  pas- 
sage argues  inaccuracy  aud  exaggeration,  it  not  indif- 
ference. The  Emperor  erected  a  number  of  temples, 
without  statues,  which  he  intended,  no  doubt,  to  be 


with  which  it  admitted  and  reconciled  philo- 
sophical tenets  the  most  dissimilar,  and  the 
freedom  which  it  indulged  to  every  novelty 
of  truth  or  speculation.  Again,  through  the 
number  of  Jews  originally  established  there 
at  the  foundation  of  the  city,  and  continu- 
ally increased  by  their  domestic  calamities; 
through  the  moderation  *  and  even  liberality 
of  those  Jews,  as  compared  to  their  brethren 
in  other  countries,  and  especially  through  the 
Septuagint  translation  of  the  Old  Testament, 
which  was  there  chiefly  circulated,  and 
studied  by  the  learned  of  every  sect,  the 
knowledge  of  the  true  God  was  more  gener- 
ally diffused  in  Alexandria  than  in  any  other 
Gentile  city,  and  the  minds  of  men  in  some 
degree  prepared  to  receive  the  second  Cove- 
nant. We  do  not  pretend  to  assert  that  they 
received  it  in  entire  purity,  or  with  a  perfect 
comprehension  of  its  true  character  and  ines- 
timable advantages;  but  we  doubt  not  that 
a  vast  number  believed  and  were  baptised, 
and  constituted,  under  the  holy  guidance  of 
the  Evangelist  and  his  successors,  a  respecta- 
ble and  powerful  community.  St.  Mark  was 
succeeded  by  Anianus,  and  the  Latin  names 
of  many  of  the  following  bishops  persuade 
us  that  the  same  alliance  and  continued  in- 
tercourse subsisted  between  the  ecclesiastical, 
as  between  the  civil,  governments  of  Rome 
and  Alexandria, 

Vopiscus,  an  historian  who  flourished  about 
300,  a.  d.,  has  preserved  a  letter,  written  by 
the  Emperor  Adrian  in  the  year  134,  imme- 
diately after  his  visit  to  Alexandria.  Its  con- 
tents are  nearly  as  follows : — '  I  have  found 
Egypt  in  every  quarter  fickle  and  inconstant 
— the  worshippers  of  Serapis  are  Christians, 
and  those  are  devoted  to  Serapis  who  call 
themselves  Christian  Bishops.  There  is  no 
ruler  of  the  synagogue,  no  Samaritan,  no 
presbyter  of  the  Christians,  no  mathematician, 
no  soothsayer,  no  anointer;  even  the  patri- 
arch himself,  should  he  come  into  Egypt,  is 
compelled  by  some  to  worship  Serapis,  by 
others  Christ — a  most  seditious  and  turbulent 
sort  of  men.  However,  the  city  is  rich  and 
populous.  .  .  .  They  have  one  God :  him 
the  Christians,  him  the  Jews,  him  all  the  Gen- 
tile people  worship.'  We  need  not  be  sur- 
prised or  offended  by  the  insolent  levity  with 


consecrated  to  himself.  Hence,  some  afterwards 
imagined  that  they  were  built  for  the  Christians,  but 
with  little  reason.  Lampridius,  Vit.  Alex.  Ser.  ch. 
xliii.  Eusebius,  however,  (Prep.  lib.  iv.  c.  17,)  as- 
sures us  that  it  was  particularly  in  the  reign  of  Adrian 
that  Revelation  made  progress. 
*  See  note  IT,  p.  17. 


38 


HISTORY   OF    THE  CHURCH. 


which  the  profligate  imperial  philosopher 
places  the  religion  of  Serapis  on  a  level  with 
that  of  Christ,  while,  through  the  numerous 
misrepresentations  so  obvious  in  these  sen- 
tences, one  important  truth  may  be  descried. 
They  manifestly  prove,  that,  within  a  hundred 
years  from  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  his 
worshippers  formed  at  least  an  important  part 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  second  city  of  the 
empire ;  and,  perhaps,  it  is  not  unfair  from 
this  record  to  conclude,  that  they  were  as 
numerous  as  those  who  remained  attached  to 
the  indigenous  superstitions. 

There  is  another  circumstance  which  in- 
creases the  importance  we  should  attach  to 
the  early  prosperity  of  the  Alexandrian 
Church.  Before  the  birth  of  Christ,  a  very 
great  proportion  of  the  learning  of  the  East- 
ern world  had  been  transferred  from  the 
schools  of  Greece  to  those  of  Alexandria. 
Not  that  Athens  was  entirely  abandoned  by 
disputants,  or  even  by  philosophers  ;  but  the 
uncertain  renown  which  it  still  maintained 
was  surpassed  by  the  splendid  institutions  of 
a  city,  whose  literary  triumph  was  preceded, 
and  perhaps  occasioned,  by  its  commercial 
superiority.  The  early  Christians  felt  the  ne- 
cessity of  education,  though  they  differed  as 
to  its  proper  limits  and  object.  We  are  told 
that  St.  John  erected  a  school  at  Ephesus, 
and  Polycarp  at  Smyrna,  and  even  that  St. 
Mark  originally  established  the  Catechetical 
School  at  Alexandria.*  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  these  schools,  by  whomsoever 
established,  were  useful  in  the  propagation 
of  religion  ;  but  it  was  long  before  any  of 
them  produced  any  persons  of  great  literary 
merit.  Pantaenus  a  convert  from  stoicism, 
who  flourished  about  180,  a.  d.,  directed  and 
adorned  for  several  years  that  of  Alexandria. 
He  resigned  his  office  in  190.  in  order  more  ef- 
fectually to  serve  his  religion  as  a  missionary. 
His  exertions  were  directed,  with  what  success 
we  know  not,  to  the  higher  regions  of  the 
Nile.f  He  was  succeeded  by  Clemens,  com- 
monly called  the  Alexandrian,  and  Clemens 

*  Schmidius  de  Schol.  Catech.  Alex:  Jeroin.  de  Vir. 
Must.  c.  36. 

f  From  Euseb.  H.  E.  1.  v.  c.  10,  and  Orig.  Epist. 
1.  vi.  c.  19,  Le  Clerc  infers  that  Pantaenus  resumed 
his  scholastic  office  after  his  return  Irom  Ethiopia, 
(India,)  vol.  i.  p.  757,  (ad  ann.  179.)  Lardner  fixes 
the  earliest  date  of  his  return  in  192,  (p.  ii.  c.  21.) 
St.  Jerome,  (de  Vir.  111.  c.  36,)  relates  that  Pantaenus 
found,  '  that  the  Apostle  Bartholomew  had  already 
preached  in  those  regions  the  coming-  of  Jesus  Christ, 
according  to  the  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew,  which  he 
brought  back  to  Alexandria,  written  in  Hebrew.' 


by  the  celebrated  Origen,  whose  fame,  howev- 
er, belongs  to  the  third  century.  Tt  is  only 
necessary  here  to  observe,  that  these  learned 
Christians  being  tinctured  with  certain  phi- 
losophical notions  which  they  were  desirous 
to  reconcile  with  the  Gospel,  and  influenced 
by  the  society  of  those  professing  them,  have 
very  frequently  distorted  and  discolored  the 
features  of  their  religion. 

At  the  end  of  the  second  centuiy,  the 
Church  of  Carthage  was  already  growing  in- 
to eminence  ;  but  we  shall  not  at  present  do 
more  than  notice  its  existence. 


CHAPTER  II. 

On  the  Numbei's,  Discipline,  Doctrine,  and 
Morality  of  the  Primitive  Church. 

I.  General  view  of  the  extent  of  the  Church — Facility  of 
intercourse  favorable  to  Christianity  —  Other  circum- 
stances—  Miraculous  claims  of  the  Church — To  what 
limits  they  ought  to  be  confined.  2.  Government  of 
the  Primitive  Church — During  the  time  of  the  Apostles 
—  After  their  Death  —  Deacons  —  Distinction  of  Clergy 
and  Laity  —  Earliest  form  of  Episcopal  Government  — 
Independence  of  the  first  Churches  —  Institution  of 
Synods — Their  character  and  uses — The  evil  supposed 
to  have  arisen  from  them — Metropolitans — Excommu- 
nication— Supposed  community  of  property  —  Ceremo- 
nies of  religion — Feasts  and  Fasts — Schools.  3.  Creeds 
— The  Apostles'  Creed— Baptism— The  Eucharist— The 
Agapffi.  4.  Morality  of  the  first  Christians — Testimo- 
nies of  St.  Clement  —  Pliny — Bardesanes — Chastity — 
Exposure  of  infants  —  Charity — The  earliest  converts 
among  the  lower  orders — The  progress  of  the  faith  was 
upwards — Testimony  of  Lucian  in  history  of  Peregri- 
nus — Suffering  courage. 

1.  From  a  review  of  the  preceding  chapter, 
we  find  that  before  the  year  200,  a.  d.,  the 
religion  of  Christ  had  penetrated  into  most 
of  the  provinces  of  the  Roman  empire,  and 
was  very  widely  diffused  in  many.  By  one 
of  those  dispositions  in  the  scheme  of  Divine 
Providence,  which  it  is  not  given  us  perfectly 
to  comprehend,  the  people  to  which  the  faith 
was  immediately  addressed,  was  that  which 
was  most  reluctant  to  receive  it ;  indeed,  its 
earliest  and   bitterest  enemies,*  wherever  it 


*  Less  so,  however,  at  Alexandria  than  in  Greece 
and  Asia,  which  we  may  attribute,  not  so  much  to 
any  general  disposition  in  that  people  to  engraft  for 
eign  superstitions  on  their  national  worship,  (See  i)r 
Burton,  Bamp.  Lect.  iii.,)  as  to  the  fact,  that  the 
Alexandrian  Jews  were  much  more  enlightened  by 
Greek  literature  and  Platonic  philosophy  than  the 
rest  of  their  race.  It  was  also  another  and  principal 
cause  of  their  greater  moderation,  that  they  had  been 
allowed  to  build  for  themselves  a  temple  at  Leontopo- 
lis,  near  Alexandria,  which  tended  to  disconnect  them 
from  Jerusalem,  and  thus  to  soften  their  prejudices. 


EXTENT   OF   THE   CHURCH. 


39 


presented  itself,  were  Jews ;  *  but  heaven  pro- 
tected its  weakness,  and  proved  its  legitima- 
cy, and  avenged  its  sufferings,  by  executing 
on  its  first  persecutor  the  severest  chastise- 
ment ever  inflicted  on  any  nation. 

During  the  few  first  years  of  Christianity, 
the  most  flourishing  Church  was,  undoubted- 
ly, that  of  Antioch ;  until,  in  the  wider  pro- 
gress of  the  Gospel,  it  was  surpassed  by  the 
superior  populousness  of  Rome  and  Alexan- 
dria. 

From  Syria  to  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea, 
throughout  the  rich  provinces  of  Asia  Minor, 
Cilicia,  Phrygia,  Galatia,  Pontus,  Bithynia, 
and  along  the  whole  coast  of  the  JEgean  Sea, 
a  considerable  proportion  of  the  inhabitants 
were  Christians,  and  we  find  their  establish- 
ment in  all  the  leading  cities  of  Greece. 
From  the  cities,  in  each  instance,  the  religion 
was  silently  derived  and  distributed  among 
the  surrounding  towns  and  villages  and  ham- 
lets, purifying  morality,  and  infusing  hope 
and  happiness ;  and  thus  every  Church  was 
surrounded  by  a  little  circle  of  believers, 
which  gradually  enlarged,  according  to  the 
zeal  and  wisdom  which  animated  the  centre. 

The  earliest  converts  were  to  be  found 
chiefly  among  the  middling  and  lower  class- 
es, which  will  account  as  well  for  their  num- 
bers as  for  their  obscurity,  and  the  little  men- 
tion that  is  made  of  them  by  contemporary 
writers. 

We  shall  not  enter  into  any  elaborate  con- 
sideration of  the  various  human  causes  which 
may  have  facilitated  the  progress  of  our  reli- 
gion,! nor  of  the  many  impediments  which 
have  been  opposed  to  it.  Instances  of  both 
will  frequently  present  themselves  in  the 
course  of  this  history,  and  some  of  the  former 
in  the  present  chapter.  It  would  neither  be 
wise  nor  consistent  to  deny  their  existence,  or 
to  assert  that  Providence,  which  condescends 
to  effect  its  other  earthly  purposes  by  the 
agency  of  man,  has  wholly  neglected  such 
means  in  effecting  its  great  purpose,  the  pro- 
pagation of  Christianity. 

A  very  general  facility  of  intercourse,  ren- 
dered still  easier  by  the  diffusion  of  the 
Greek  language  through  the  Eastern  provin- 


*Mosh.  Gen.  Hist.  cent.  i.  p.  i.  ch.  5. 

f  Le  Clerc,  (ad  ann.  102-3,)  ascribes  the  rapid  pro- 
pagation of  Christianity  during  the  second  century  to 
four  causes  :  (1.)  some  remaining  miracles  performed 
by  the  last  disciples  of  the  Apostles  :  (2.)  open  con- 
futation of  heathenism  by  Christian  apologists  ;  (3.) 
the  constancy  of  the  martyrs  ;  (4.)  the  morals  of  the 
Christians.  Others  might  be  added,  but  these  were 
unquestionably  among  the  principal. 


ce^  and  by  the  knowledge  of  the  Latin, 
which  was  universal  in  the  West,  prevailed 
throughout  the  Roman  Empire  ;  for  the  con- 
querors well  knew  that  without  great  rapidi- 
ty of  communication  by  sea  and  by  land,  so 
vast  a  compound  of  discordant  materials 
could  not  long  be  held  together  in  one  mass. 
This  was  the  most  beneficial  result  of  their 
political  speculations;  and  hence  proceeded 
their  great  diligence  in  the  formation  of 
roads  and  the  construction  of  bridges.  The 
means  which  were  intended  to  advance  the 
progress  of  armies,  and  perpetuate  the  dura- 
tion of  slavery,  were  also  converted  to  the 
more  honorable  purposes  of  commerce  and 
civilisation;  and  more  than  that,  they  were 
made  serviceable  to  an  end  which  was  least 
of  all  contemplated  by  their  authors,  when 
they  became  instrumental  in  the  dissemina- 
tion of  Christianity.  But  they  speedily  be- 
came so  ;  and  it  was  thus  that  the  weak  were 
enabled  to  obtain  support  from  the  more  pow- 
erful, the  poor  from  the  more  wealthy,  the  ig- 
norant from  the  more  enlightened  brethren  ; 
that  the  churches  in  distant  provinces  could 
maintain  an  easy  and  rapid  intercourse  ;  that 
the  East  could  send  missionaries  to  the 
West;  and  the  more  recent  converts  hold 
fearless  correspondence  with  the  establish- 
ments of  the  Apostles.*  The  devoted  zeal  ef 
the  primitive  missionaries,  the  pure  and  aus- 
tere morals  of  their  converts,  and  the  union 
and  discipline  of  the  Church,  are  universally 
admitted.  By  these  and  similar  considera- 
tions we  are  led  to  believe,  that,  at  least 
throughout  the  Eastern  provinces  of  the  em- 
pire, in  Syria,  Egypt,  Asia  Minor,  and  Greece, 
a  respectable  proportion  of  the  people  were 
Christians,  even  before  the  end  of  the  second 
century  ;  f  and  there  is  strong  reason  for  sup- 
posing our  religion  to  have  been  already  so 
firmly  rooted  in  those  parts,  that  its  extirpa- 
tion by  any  domestic  persecutor  would  even 
then  have  been  wholly  impossible.  This,  at 
least,  is  our  opinion  ;  if  true,  it  is  an  impor- 
tant service  to  have  established  it  from  the 
fair  examination  of  such  imperfect  records  as 


*  As  in  the  case  of  the  Church  of  Lyons,  which 
seems  to  have  been  established  by  a  Greek  missionary, 
Pothinus,  and  continued  in  correspondence  with  the 
Churches  of  Asia. 

f  The  o-reat  number  of  councils  assembled  about 
the  years  195  and  196,  on  the  controversy  about 
Easter,  proves,  as  Tillernont,  (vol.  iii.  p.  114,)  ob- 
serves, the  tranquillity  of  the  Church;  it  proves  also 
its  prosperity ;  and  the  authority  of  Tertullian  has 
persuaded  that  historian  that  the  Christians  formed 
at  that  time  almost  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants. 


40 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


remain  to  us  ;  for  infidel  writers  are  fond'of 
insinuating  that  Christianity  emanated  from 
the  court  of  Constantine,  and  had  nowhere 
assumed  any  permanent  or  consistent  form 
until  its  character  was  fixed  and  its  stability 
decided  by  the  policy  of  an  emperor. 

Miraculous  claims.  In  order  to  rest  on 
ground  which  will  not  be  disputed,  we  have 
been  contented  to  seek  our  proofs  of  the  early 
strength  and  security  of  Christianity  in  the 
ordinary  records  of  history,  made  probable 
by  natural  circumstances  and  human  opera- 
tion. But  we  should  treat  the  subject  imper- 
fectly if  we  were  to  make  no  mention  of  those 
higher  powers  which  have  been  so  generally 
claimed  for  the  primitive  Church,  not  mere- 
ly through  the  interposition  of  Divine  Provi- 
dence at  such  moments  as  seemed  fit  to  His 
omniscience,  but  as  a  gift  confided  by  the 
Most  High  to  the  uncertain  discretion  of  his 
ministers  on  earth,  and  placed  through  a 
succession  of  ages,  at  then  uncontrolled  dis- 
position. The  chain  of  historical  evidence 
on  which  this  claim  rests  is  continued  from 
the  days  of  St.  Irenseus  to  those  of  St.  Ber- 
nard, (and  even  much  later,)  with  much  uni- 
formity of  confident  assertion  and  glaring 
improbability;  it  is  interwoven  in  insepara- 
ble folds  throughout  the  whole  mass  of  eccle- 
siastical records,  aud  the  links  which  compose 
it  so  strongly  resemble  each  other  both  in 
material  and  manufacture,  that  it  appears 
absolutely  impossible  to  break  the  succession, 
or  to  distinguish  which  of  the  portions  were 
fabricated  by  the  wisdom  of  God,  which  by 
the  impiety  of  man.*  Various  writers  have 
assigned  various  periods  to  the  cessation  of 
supernatural  aids;  but  they  appear  for  the 
most  part  to  have  been  rather  guided  by  their 
own  views  of  probability,  than  by  critical  ex- 
amination of  evidence  ;  which  would  have 
led  them  equally  to  receive  or  equally  to  re- 
ject the  claims  of  every  age,  excepting  the 
first.     The  powers  which  were  undoubtedly 


*  The  performance  of  a  pretended  miracle  for  the 
purpose  of  delusion  is  the  highest  imaginable  impiety, 
and  the  deliberate  propagation  of  accounts  of  such 
performances,  with  knowledge  of  their  character,  is 
not  far  short  of  it.  But  we  do  not  intend  to  impute 
this  guilt  to  all  the  ancient  Christian  retailers  of  mir- 
aculous stories, — far  from  it; — credulity  is  the  weak- 
ness of  some  minds,  as  mendacity  is  the  vice  of 
others;  and  the  former  of  these  qualities,  perhaps 
even  more  than  the  latter,  has  characterized  some 
Eastern  nations  in  every  age.  And  we  should  recol- 
lect that  to  them  we  are  indebted  for  the  fabrication 
of  most  of  the  tales  which  stain  ecclesiastical  history, 
and  for  the  example  which  led  to  them  all. 


communicated  by  the  Apostles  to  some  of 
their  immediate  successors  probably  contin- 
ued to  enlighten  and  distinguish  those  holy 
persons  to  the  end  of  their  ministry,  and 
were  eminently  serviceable  in  the  foundation 
of  the  faith  ;  *  but  it  is  a  reasonable  opinion,f 
that  after  their  departure  the  possession  of 
miraculous  aids  was  no  longer  vouchsafed  to 
the  Church  as  a  community,  or  to  any  indi- 
viduals as  its  ministers.  All  miracles  which 
are  related  to  have  taken  place  after  that  pe- 
riod must  be  separately  subjected  to  the  usual 
tests,  |  and  must  stand  or  fall  on  their  own 
merits,  according  to  the  degrees  of  evidence 
and  probability.  On  the  other  hand,  we  are 
far  from  intending  to  assert  that  Providence, 
at  the  same  time,  withheld  His  occasional  as- 


*  Mosh.  Hist.  Gen.  c.  i.  p.  i.  ch.  4. 

f  On  such  a  question  as  this  it  is  vain  to  appeal  to 
authorities ;  and  unhappily  we  have  here  no  space  for 
full  developement  of  our  reasons  We  must  be  con- 
tented, then,  to  say,  that  the  argument  by  which 
we  are  principally  moved  is  this  :  miracles  become 
improbable  in  proportion  as  they  seem  to  be  not  ab- 
solutely necessary ;  and  we  consider  that  through  the 
wonders  wrought  by  the  Apostles,  and  those,  their 
contemporaries,  to  whom  similar  power  was  vouch- 
safed, some  of  whom  may  have  survived  them  forty  or 
fifty  years,  the  foundation  of  the  Christian  Church  was 
so  firmly  established  as  to  remove  the  necessity  of  the 
further  continuance  of  that  power  to  it.  The  facts 
which  have  chiefly  decided  us  are  the  following  : — In 
the  writings  of  the  Apostolical  Fathers  and  those  im- 
mediately succeeding,  we  read  nothing  respecting 
apostles,  prophets,  interpreters,  or  other  inspired  and 
extraordinarily  gifted  ministers  :  we  have  no  record 
of  the  perpetuation  of  any  office  in  the  ministry  which 
in  its  nature  and  name  included  the  certainty  of  in- 
spiration and  miraculous  powers.  Again,  the  fathers 
who  succeeded  them,  those  of  the  second  and  third 
centuries,  when  they  speak  of  the  existence  of  such 
powers,  confine  themselves  to  the  use  of  general  lan- 
guage ;  they  seldom  specify  an  instance  of  their  ap- 
plication; and  when  they  do  so,  it  may  usually  lie 
classed  in  that  description  of  miracles  which  is  most 
liable  to  misrepresentation  or  mistake;  such  as  the 
healing  of  diseases,  or  the  expulsion  of  demons.  Add 
to  these  and  similar  considerations  that  which  we  do 
not  hesitate  to  call  the  historical  impossibility  of 
assigning  any  period  for  the  cessation  of  such  gifts  in 
the  Church,  if  we  once  exceed  the  barrier  which  the 
infallibility  of  the  inspired  writers  has,  in  our  opinion, 
clearly  marked  out. — See  Bishop  Kaye  on  Tertullian, 
xcvi.  102.  In  the  meantime  there  is  one  most  im- 
portant consideration  which  we  should  always  bear  in 
mind — that  the  truth  of  Christianity  is  not  at  all  in- 
terested in  the  decision  of  this  question. 

X  Thus,  when  fairly  tried  by  these  tests,  tlie  once 
popular  miracle  of  the  Thundering  Legion  appears  at 
leno-th  to  have  fallen  into  universal  discredit.  One  or 
two  others  will  be  discussed  in  the  course  of  this 
work. — Mosh.  Gen.  Hist.  c.  ii.  p.  i.  ch.  1. 


DISCIPLINE   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


41 


sistance  from  His  faithful  and  afflicted  ser- 
vants ;  aud,  perhaps,  we  may  observe  gener- 
ally, that  the.  accounts  of  His  interposition 
which  we  should  receive  with  the  least  sus- 
picion are  those  which  describe  the  super- 
natural support  afforded  to  missionaries  in  the 
prosecution  of  their  holy  labors. 

2.  Church  government.  We  must  now  pro- 
ceed to  examine  the  discipline  and  govern- 
ment of  the  primitive  Church,  and,  in  this  in- 
quiry, we  shall  discover  no  marks  of  a  loose 
and  passing  superstition,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
the  surest  prognostics  of  vigor  aud  immortal- 
ity. There  are  many  reasons  which  make  it 
necessary,  in  the  treatment  of  this  subject,  to 
distinguish  clearly  between  what  is  historical- 
ly known  and  what  is  plausibly  conjectured ; 
for  it  is  from  the  confusion  of  facts  with  prob- 
abilities that  most  of  the  difficulties  of  this 
question  have  arisen.  In  the  first  place  it  is 
certain,  that,  from  the  moment  in  which  the 
early  Churches  attained  a  definite  shape  and 
consistency,  and  assumed  a  permanent  form 
of  discipline  ;  as  soon  as  the  death  of  the  last 
of  the  Apostles  had  deprived  them  of  the 
more  immediate  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  left  them,  under  God's  especial  care  and 
providence,  to  the  uninspired  direction  of 
mere  men ;  so  soon  had  every  Church,  res- 
pecting which  we  possess  any  distinct  infor- 
mation, adopted  the  Episcopal  form  of  govern- 
ment. The  probable  nature  of  that  govern- 
ment we  shall  describe  presently  ;  but  here  it 
is  sufficient  to  mention  the  undisputed  fact, 
that  the  religious  communities  of  the  Christ- 
ian world  universally  admitted  the  superin- 
tendence of  ministers,  called  bishops,  before 
the  conclusion  of  the  first  century.*  In  the 
next  place  it  is  equally  true,  that  neither  our 
Saviour  nor  his  Apostles  have  left  any  ex- 
press and  positive  ordinances  for  the  admin- 
istration of  the  Church  ;f  desiring,  perhaps, 
that  that  which  was  intended  for  every  age 

*  To  save  the  space  which  would  be  occupied  by 
an  accumulation  of  authorities,  it  will  be  sufficient, 
Derhaps,  to  remind  our  readers,  that  this  fact  is  ad- 
mitted by  Gibbon  in  his  15th  chapter. 

t  See  Mosh.  Gen.  Hist.,  c.  i.  p.  ii.  ch.  2  and  the 
translator's  impartial  note.  Also  Disnage,  torn.  i. 
hv.  i.  c.  8.  Principles  are  given,  but  no  specific, 
rules  (Hinds'  Early  Church,  vol.  ii.  p.  100).  After 
all,  no  form  of  Church  government  now  exists,  or 
could  exist,  accurately  framed  on  the  model  of  the 
earliest,  since  that  was  regulated  by  an  inspired  min- 
istry, and  enlightened  by  extraordinary  gifts,  The 
government  which  immediately  followed  that  earliest 
was  episcopal 

6 


and  condition  of  man,  to  be  the  associate  and 
guardian  of  every  form  of  civil  government, 
should  have  the  means  of  accommodating  its 
external  and  earthly  shape  to  the  various 
modifications  of  human  polity.  It  is  also 
true  that  in  the  earliest  government  of  the 
first  Christian  society,  that  of  Jerusalem,  not 
the  elders  only,  but  the  'whole  Church'* 
were  associated  with  the  Apostles :  and  it  is 
even  certain  that  the  terms  bishop  and  elder 
or  presbyter  were,  in  the  first  instance,  and 
for  a  short  period,  sometimes  used  synony- 
mously,* and  indiscriminately  applied  to  the 
same  order  in  the  ministry.  From  the  com- 
parison of  these  facts  it  seems  natural  to  draw 
the  following  conclusions, — that  during  the 
lifetime  of  the  apostles  they  were  themselves 
the  directors,  or  at  least  the  presidents  of  the 
Church;  that,  as  long  as  they  remained  on 
earth,  it  was  not  necessary,  in  all  cases,  to 
subject  the  infant  societies  to  the  delegated 
authority  of  a  single  superintendent,  though 
the  instances  of  Titus  and  Timothy  clearly 
prove  that  it  was  sometimes  done  ;  and  that, 
as  they   were   severally  removed  from  the 


*  Acts  xv.  2,  4,  22,  23,  &c. — still,  of  course,  with 
some  degree  of  subjection  to  apostolical  authority. 
This,  according  to  Mosheim  (c.  i.  p.  i.  ch.  2.),  was 
the  model  of  all  the  primitive  churches. 

t  Theodoret,  (Com.  on  1  Tim.  iii.  1.),  a  father 
of  the  fourth  century,  admits  and  explains  that  cir- 
cumstance as  follows: — 'The  same  persons  were  an- 
ciently called  both  bishops  and  presbyters,  while  those 
which  are  now  called  bishops  were  called  apostles; 
but,  shortly  afterwards,  the  name  of  apostles  was 
appropriated  to  those  who  were  apostles  indeed,  and 
then  the  name  bishop  was  given  to  those  before  called 
apostles.'  (See  also  a  passage  from  St.  Ambrose, 
cited  by  Amalarius  and  Bingham.)  Whatever  value 
we  may  attach  to  this  explanation,  it  is  quite  certain 
that  bishops  began  very  early  to  assume  the  title  of 
'  successors  of  the  apostles,'  which  we  find  to  have 
been  done  by  Firmilian,  Cyprian,  and  other  bishops 
of  Carthage.  See  Bingham's  Church  Antiquities,  b. 
ii.  c.  2.  Le  Clerc,  ad  ann.  44.  (vol.  i.  p.  358),  and 
aim.  47.  (vol.  i.  p.  449),  places  the  general  institution 
of  elders  in  the  year  47.  Bingham  (b.  ii.  c.  19.)  and 
others,  admitting  the  confusion  of  names,  would  still 
persuade  us  that  there  was  no  identity  of  office.  Bishop 
Pearson  (Vindic.  Ignatianoe)  is  of  opinion  that,  in 
some  churches,  there  were  bishops  and  not  presby- 
ters; in  others,  presbyters  and  not  bishops — a  plausi- 
ble opinion,  strongly  confirmed  by  the  assertions  of 
Clemens  and  Epiphanius,  that  in  some  churches  there 
were  bishops  and  deacons,  in  others  only  presbyters 
and  deacons;  but  diat  the  larger  communities  had 
all  the  three  orders.  Mosheim,  however,  considers 
'  the  two  terms  as  undoubtedly  applied  to  the  same 
order  of  men,'  (c.  i.  p.  i.  ch.  2.);  and  such  is  the 
plain  interpretation  of  the  Scripture  passages. — See 
Hinds'  Early  Prog.  Christ.,  vol.  i.  p.  349,  &c. 


42 


HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


world,  some  distinguished  brother  was  in 
each  instance  appointed  to  succeed,  not  in- 
deed to  the  name  and  inspiration,  but  to  the 
ecclesiastical  duties  of  the  blessed  Teacher 
who  had  founded  the  Church.  The  concur- 
rence of  ancient  records  confirms  this  last 
conclusion  ;  the  earliest  Church  historians* 
enumerate  the  first  bishops  of  the  Churches 
of  Jerusalem,  Antioch,  Ephesus,  Smyrna,  Al- 
exandria and  Rome,  and  trace  them  in  each 
case  from  the  Apostles.  And  thus  it  came  to 
pass  that,  for  more  than  twenty  years  before 
the  death  of  St.  John,  most  of  the  considera- 
ble Churches  had  gradually  fallen  under  the 
presidency  of  a  single  person  entitled  Bishop  ; 
and  that,  after  that  event,  there  were  certainly 
none  which  did  not  speedily  follow  the  same 
name  and  system  of  administration. 

Prophets.  Again,  for  the  first  thirty  years, 
perhaps  somewhat  longer,  after  the  ascension 
of  Christ,  the  labors  of  the  apostles  were 
aided  by  certain  ministers  entitled  Prophets,f 
who  were  gifted  with  occasional  inspiration, 
and  taught  under  the  influence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  This  order  of  teachers  was  with- 
drawn from  the  Church  when  their  office  be- 
came no  longer  necessary  for  its  advance- 
ment, and  it  appears  wholly  to  have  ceased 
before  the  end  of  the  century,  at  which  peri- 
od, as  we  have  already  observed,  ecclesiasti- 
cal government  universally  assumed  that  du- 
rable shape  which  has  been  perpetuated,  and, 
with  certain  variations,  generally  adopted 
through  every  age  of  Christianity. 

Deacons.  We  have  yet  made  no  mention 
of  the  deacons,  who  were  the  third  order  in 
the  Episcopal  Church.  The  word  deacon 
(di&xovoc)  means  minister,  and  in  that  sense 
is  sometimes  applied  to  the  office  of  the 
Apostles  ;  but  in  a  general  sense  only,  since 
we  are  assured  (Acts  vi.)  that  the  diaconal 


*  Hegesippus  and  Eusebius.  '  It  is  highly  probable,' 
says  Mosheiin,  (c.  1.  p.  ii.  ch.  2.)  'that  the  Church 
of  Jerusalem,  grown  considerably  numerous,  and  de- 
prived of  the  ministers  and  the  apostles,  who  were 
gone  to  instruct  other  nations,  was  the  first  which 
chose  a  president  or  bishop :  and  it  is  no  less  proba- 
ble that  the  other  churches  followed,  by  degrees,  such 
a  respectable  example.'  And  it  is  certain  that,  in  at 
least  two  instances,  such  presidents  were  appointed 
by  an  apostle.  The  Church  of  Corinth  seems,  indeed, 
to  have  been  the  only  exception.  Till  the  date  of  St. 
Clement's  Epistle,  (ch.  47.)  its  government  had  been 
clearly  presbyterial,  and  we  do  not  learn  the  exact  mo- 
ment of  the  change.— See  Hinds'  Early  Church,  vol. 
ii.  p.  163,  and  Bingham,  b.  ii.  c.  1. 

fSt.  Paul,  1  Cor.  xii.  20,  &c. ;  Ephes.  iv.  11. 
Mosheiin  de  Rebus  Christ,  ante  Const.  Sasc.  1.  s.  xl. 
and  Gen.  Hist.  c.  i.  p.  ii.  ch.  2. 


order  was  distinct,  and  instituted  for  a  speci- 
fic purpose.  However  it  seems  certain  that, 
in  the  very  beginning,  the  office  of  the  dea- 
cons was  not  confined  to  the  mere  ministry 
of  the  table,  since  we  read  that  Stephen  dis- 
puted publicly  on  the  Christian  truth  with 
irresistible  wisdom  and  spirit;  and,  moreover, 
that  'he  did  great  wonders  and  miracles 
among  the  people.'  It  is  equally  clear  that 
attendance  on  the  poor  was  for  several  centu- 
ries attached  to  it ;  even  after  the  office  of 
treasurer  was  held  by  the  bishop,  the  portion 
destined  to  charitable  relief  continued  to  pass 
through  the  hands  of  the  deacon.  It  is  not 
so  easy  to  ascertain  the  extent  of  their  spirit- 
ual duties  in  the  earliest  Church.  Ignatius 
speaks  of  them  with  high  respect,  and,  in  one 
place,*  calls  them  '  ministers  of  the  mysteries 
of  Christ.'  Tertullian  distinguishes  them  from 
the  laity,  together  with  bishops  and  presby- 
ters. Cyprian  asserts  that  the  Apostles  ap- 
pointed them  as  '  ministers  of  their  episco- 
pacy and  Church.'  By  the  Nicene  Council 
they  are  designated  as  servants  Umijoeiui) 
of  the  bishop.  It  is  certain  that  they  were  or- 
dained by  the  bishop  alone,  without  any  im- 
position of  hands  by  presbyters ;  that  in  some 
Churches  they  were  admitted  to  read  the 
gospel,  and  that  they  universally  assisted  in 
the  distribution  of  the  Eucharist,  without  any 
share  in  its  consecration.  Their  early  ac- 
knowledgment as  members  of  the  ministry  is 
proved  by  their  occasional  presence  in  the 
original  synods  of  the  clergy .f 

Clergy  and  Laity.  The  origin  of  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  clergy  and  the  laity  has 
given  rise  to  much  controversy.  Bingham  | 
is  of  opinion  that  it  was  derived  from  the 
Jewish  into  the  Christian  Church  in  its  earli- 
est days.  And  Clemens  Alexandrinns  §  has 
expressly  declared,  '  that  St.  John,  after  his 
return  from  Patmos,  ordained  bishops,  and 
appointed  such  men  for  clerical  ministers  as 
were  signified  by  the  Holy  Spirit.'  If  the 
persons  here  mentioned  were  actually  set 

*  Ignat.  Ep.,  ad  Trale.  Tertullian  de  Juge,  c.  11. 
Cyprian  Epist.  65.  (ad  Rogatian)  Cone.  Nic.  c.  IS. 

t  On  this  subject  consult  Bingham,  Ch.  Antiq.,  b. 
ii.  ch.  20.  The  deaconesses,  of  whom  we  read  in 
early  Church  History,  may  probably  have  been  wid- 
ows appointed,  for  the  better  preservation  of  the  min- 
istry from  scandal  and  calumny,  to  superintend  the 
charitable  distribution  made  to  the  female  portion  of 
the  p"oor. 

|  Eccles.  Antiq.,  b.  i.  ch.  5. 

§  Ap.  Euseb.  H.  E.  lib.  iii.,  c.  23.  xl^qa  svayi 
riru  xlijQ(Lan)v  tiop  inO  toO  FIi'eti/jaTog 
o~7j(iuirofiiro)v. 


DISCIPLINE   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


43 


apart  and  consecrated  to  the  ministry,  the 
reality  as  well  as  the  name  of  the  distinction 
might  with  greater  assurance  plead  apostolic, 
authority  ;  but  this  does  not  positively  appear. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  separation  of  the  sa- 
cred order  is  so  commonly  mentioned  by  the 
early  Fathers,  not  by  Cyprian  only,  but  by 
his  predecessors*  Tertullian  and  Origen,  and 
so  invariably  treated  as  a  necessary*  part  of 
the  Christian  system,  that  if  its  origin  was  not 
coeval  with  the  foundation  of  the  system,  it 
was  at  least  unrecorded  and  immemorial. 
The  fairest  supposition  respecting  this  ques- 
tion appears  to  be,  thatthe Jirst  converts,  those 
who  spread  the  earliest  tidings  of  redemption 
before  the  Apostles  themselves  had  quitted 
Judaea,  were  commissioned  to  preach  the 
name,  and  diffuse  the  knowledge  of  Christ 
indiscriminately.  But  it  seems  equally  cer- 
tain, that  this  commission  was  of  very  short 
duration  ;  and  that  as  soon  as  in  any  place 
converts  were  found  sufficient  to  form  a  soci- 
ety or  church,  a  bishop  or  presbyter  f  was 
ordained  for  life  to  minister  to  them.  The 
act  of  ordination  established  the  distinction  of 
which  we  are  treating. 

According  to  the  earliest  form  of  Episcopal 
government  it  would  appear  that  the  bishop 
possessed  little,  if  any,  power  in  matters  of 
discipline,  except  with  the  consent  of  the 
council  of  presbyters ;  that  the  council  pos- 
sessed no  sort  of  power  except  in  conjunction 
with  him;  J  and  that,  in  affairs  strictly  spirit- 
ual, as  the  ordination  §  of  the  inferior  clergy 


*  This  writer  goes  so  far  as  severely  to  censure  cer- 
tan  heretics  for  following  the  contrary  practice. 

fSee  Epiphan.  Hseres.  75;  ^Erian.  n.  5,  as  refer- 
red to  by  Bingham. 

%  We  refer  to  the  passages  from  the  Councils  of 
Laodicea,  Aries,  and  Toledo,  from  Ignatius's  Epis- 
tles and  the  Apostolical  Canons,  and  the  writings  of 
Tertullian,  Jerome,  and  Ambrose,  collected  by  Bing- 
ham, b.  ii.  ch.  3. 

§  It  appears  probable  (notwithstanding  the  silence 
of  St.  Paul  on  this  subject  in  his  commission  to  Titus, 
i.  5.)  that,  in  the  ceremony  of  ordination,  even  in  the 
earliest  church,  the  imposition  of  hands  was  perform- 
ed by  certain  presbyters,  in  conjunction  with  the 
bishop;  but  the  consecration  to  the  ministry  was  the 
act  of  the  bishop  only,  through  the  power  derived  in 
the  first  instance  from  the  apostles,  and  at  no  time 
claimed  by  any  inferior  order  in  the  church.  When 
Jerome  (Dissert.  85  ad  Evagr.)  and  Chrysostom,  in 
the  fourth  century  (Horn.  2  in  1  Tim.  iii.  8),  are  en- 
deavoring to  exalt  presbyter ial  almost  to  the  level  of 
episcopal  authority,  they  agree  in  considering  the 
power  of  ordination  as  constituting  the  grand,  and,  as 
they  assert,  the  only  distinction.  It  has  been  argued 
that  the  power  of  preaching  was  originally  confined  to 
the  bishops,  and  from  them  derived,  and  by  their  per- 


and  the  administration  of  the  escraments, 
especially  that  of  baptism,*  he  acted  as  some 
think  with  original,  and  certainly  with  inde- 
pendent authority.  His  office  was  for  life, 
and  the  funds  of  the  society  were  committed 
to  his  care  and  dispensation.  Of  most  of  the 
apostolical  churches,  the  first  bishops  were 
appointed  by  the  apostles  ;  of  those  not  apos- 
tolical, the  first  presidents  were  probably  the 
missionaries  who  founded  them  ;  but,  on  their 
death,  the  choice  of  a  successor  devolved  on 
the  members  of  the  society.  In  this  election 
the  people  had  an  equal  share  with  the  pres- 
byters and  inferior  clergy,  without  exception 
or  distinction  ;  and  it  is  clear  that  their  right 
in  this  matter  was  not  barely  testimonial,  but 
judicial  and  elective. f  This  appointment 
was  final,  requiring  no  confirmation  from  the 
civil  power  or  any  superior  prelate  ;  and 
thus,  in  the  management  of  its  internal  affairs, 
every  church  was  essentially  independent  of 
every  other. 

The  Churches,  thus  constituted  and  regu- 
lated, formed  a  sort  of  federative  body  of  in- 
dependent religious  communities,  dispersed 
through  the  greater  part  of  the  empire,  in 
continual  communication,  and  in  constant 
harmony  with  each  other.  It  is  towards  mid- 
dle of  the  second  century  that  the  first  change 
is  perhaps  perceptible:  as  the  numbers  of  the 
believers  and  the  limits  of  the  faith  were  ex- 
tended, some  diversities  in  doctrine  or  disci- 
pline would  naturally  grow  up,  which  it  was 
not  found  easy  to  reconcile  except  by  some 
description  of  general  assembly.  Accord- 
ingly we  find  the  first  instances  of  such  as- 


mission  exercised,  by  the  inferior  clergy;  the  reasons 
adduced  for  this  opinion  are  plausible,  though  not, 
perhaps,  conclusive. — Bingham's  Church  Antiq.,  b. 
ii.  ch.  3. 

*  Mosh.  Gen.  Hist.  (c.  i.  p.  ii.  ch.  4.  sec.  7  and 
8.)  When  the  bishop  extended  the  right  of  baptism 
to  presbyters  and  suffragan  bishops  (Chorepiscopi), 
he  still  reserved  to  himself  the  exclusive  power  of 
confirmation. — Bingham's  Church  Antiq.  c.  ii.  p.  ii. 
ch.  4. 

|  This  is  made  very  clear,  from  the  comparison  of 
much  contradictory  evidence,  by  Bingham,  Ch.  Hist., 
b.  iv.  ch.  2.  sec.  2,  3,  4,  &c.  There  were  some  vari- 
ations in  the  mode  of  election,  according  to  times  and 
circumstances,  since  no  rule  is  laid  down  in  Scripture 
on  the  subject;  but  there  is  a  great  concurrence  of 
evidence  to  show  that  no  bishop  was  ever  obtruded  on 
an  orthodox  people  without  their  consent.  Mosheim 
(c.  i.  p.  ii.  ch.  2.)  attributes  a  great  extent  of  general 
power  to  die  people,  not  only  in  the  election  of  their 
teachers,  but  in  the  control  of  their  conduct,  and 
even  extends  it  to  decision  on  controverted  points  and 
excommunication  of  unworthy  members.  We  are  not 
aware  on  what  authority  he  advances  these  assertions. 


44 


HISTORY    OF   THE   CHURCH. 


semblies*  (unless  that  which  was  summoned 
by  the  Apostles  may  be  so  called)  at  this  pe- 
riod. They  were  composed,  either  of  the 
bishops  only,  or  of  these  associated  with  a 
party  of  the  priesthood  ;  those  ministers  pre- 
sented themselves  as  the  representatives  of 
their  respective  societies ;  nor  was  any  supe- 
riority claimed  by  any  of  them  in  virtue  of 
the  supposed  pre-eminence  of  particular 
Churches.  These  councils  were  called  by 
the  Greek  name  Synods,  and  seem  at  first  to 
have  been  provincial,  following  in  some  man- 
ner the  political  division  of  the  empire.  They 
had  their  origin  in  Greece — the  land  of  pub- 
lic assemblies  and  popular  institutions,  of 
which  the  memory  was  fondly  cherished 
there,  after  the  reality  had  been  lost  in  Ro- 
man despotism.  Their  character  was  essen- 
tially popular ;  the  representatives  of  equal 
Churches,  elected  to  their  sacred  offices  by 
the  whole  body  over  which  they  presided, 
assembled  to  deliberate  as  equals ;  and  we 
may  reasonably  indulge  the  belief,  since  the 
exertion  of  freedom  in  any  one  direction 
makes  it  more  ready  to  act  in  every  other, 
that  the  political  emancipation  of  mankind 
was  promoted,  even  thus  early,  by  the  free 
and  advancing  spirit  of  Christianity. 

Such  were  the  principles  on  which  the 
affairs  of  the  Churches  were  conducted  for 
some  time  after  the  period  mentioned  by  us ; 
and  none  can  be  conceived  more  favorable  to 
the  progress  of  the  faith.  The  government  of 
a  single  person  protected  each  society  from  in- 
ternal dissension — the  electiveness  of  that  gov- 
ernor rendered  probable  his  merit — the  meet- 
ing together  of  the  deputies  of  the  Church- 
es, in  occasional  assemblies,  on  equal  terms, 
taught  the  scattered  members  of  the  faith  that 
they  were  animated  by  one  soul,  and  inform- 
ed and  dignified  by  one  spirit.  Some  evil 
will  be  expected  to  arise  out  of  much  good; 
and  evils  of  some  importance  have  been  at- 
tributed to  the  necessary  frequency  of  synods. 
The  first  was  an  early  addition  to  the  orders 
and  gradations  of  the  hierarchy  ;  for,  as  it  was 
soon  discovered  that  these  provincial  Coun- 
cils required  the  control  of  a  President,  the 
Bishop  of  the  capital  of  the  province  was 
usually  appointed  to  that  office,  under  the 
lofty  title  of  the  Metropolitan ;  ]  from  an  oc- 
casional office  he  presently  assumed  a  per- 
manent dignity,  and  his  dignity  was  insuf- 
ficient until   it   was   attended  by   authority. 

*  We  believe  the  view  of  Mosheim  upon  this  sub- 
ject to  be  very  nearly  correct.     C.  1.  p.  i.  ch.  2. 
t  Mosh.  Gen.  Hist.  c.  ii.  p.  ii.  ch.  2. 


Again,  the  ecclesiastics  who  composed  them 
properly  appeared  there  in  no  other  charac 
ter,  than  as  the  deputies  of  their  Churches , 
but  it  may  sometimes  have  happened,  that  on 
their  return  home  they  individually  assumed 
some  part  of  the  power  which  they  had  pos- 
sessed collectively  ;  at  least,  it  is  certain  that 
many  notions  respecting  the  exalted  and  irre- 
sistible nature  of  episcopal  authority,*  were 
already  floating  about  the  Christian  world, 
and  the  Bishop  was  not  likely  to  disclaim  the 
homage  which  would  occasionally  be  offered 
to  him.  But  it  was  not  until  the  habit  of 
acting  in  bodies  made  them  sensible  of  their 
common  interest  and  real  power,  that  they 
ventured  to  assert  such  claims,  and  assumed 
a  loftier  manner  in  the  government  of  their 
dioceses ;  so  that,  though  these  synods  were 
doubtless  indispensable  to  the  well-being  of 
Christianity,  they  seem  to  have  been  the 
means  of  corrupting  the  original  humility  of 
its  ministers  ;  and  the  method  which  was  in- 
tended to  promote  only  the  eternal  interests 
of  the  Church,  promoted,  in  some  degree,  the 
worldly  consideration  of  the  order  which 
governed  it.  This  change  began  to  show 
itself  towards  the  end  of  the  second  century  ; 
and  it  is  certain  that,  at  this  period,  we  find 
the  first  complaints  of  the  incipient  corruption 
of  the  clergy .f  On  the  other  hand,  there  can 
be  little  doubt  that  the  increased  authority 
and  influence  of  the  hierarchy  was  highly 
serviceable  to  the  whole  body  in  periods  of 
danger  and  persecution,  and  that  in  those 
times  it  was  generally  exerted  to  excite  the 
courage,  and  sustain  the  constancy  of  the 
faithful. 

Excommunication  was  the  oldest  weapon 
of  ecclesiastical  authority.  Doubtless,  every 
society  has  the  right  to  expel  its  unworthy 
members ;  and  this  right  was  of  extreme  use 
to  the  first  Christians,  as  it  gave  them  frequent 
opportunities  of  exhibiting  to  the  heathen 
world  the  scrupulousness  of  their  moral  pu- 
rity. But  afterwards  we  know  how  danger- 
ous an  engine  it  became  when  wielded  by 


*  The  Epistles  attributed  to  Ignatius  are  the  earli- 
est writings  which  countenance  such  claims;  and  they 
were  afterwards  more  boldly  advocated  by  Cyprian, 
Bishop  of  Carthage.  In  fact,  we  should  remark  that 
Ignatius  exalts  the  presbvterial  with  almost  as  much 
zeal  as  the  episcopal  order,  and  that  his  object  was 
rather  to  increase  the  authority  of  the  whole  ministry 
than  to  elevate  any  branch  of  it. 

f  From  the  moment  that  the  interests  of  the  minis- 
ters became  at  all  distinguished  from  the  interests  of 
the  religion,  the  corruption  of  Christianity  may  be 
considered  to  have  begun. 


DOCTRINES  OF  THE  CHURCH 


45 


weak  or  passionate  individuals,  and  directed 
by  caprice,  or  interest,  or  ambition. 

The  question  has  been  greatly  controvert- 
ed, whether  an  absolute  community  of  prop- 
erty ever  subsisted  in  the  Church.  That  it 
did  so,  is  a  favorite  opinion  of  some  Roman 
Catholic  writers,  who  would  willingly  dis- 
cover, in  the  first  apostolical  society,  the 
model  of  the  monastic  system  ;  and  the  same, 
to  its  utmost  extent,  has  been  partly  asserted, 
and  partly  insinuated  by  Gibbon.*  The  learn- 
ed argument  of  Mosheim*  disposes  us  to  the 
contrary  belief;  and  if  the  words  of  Scrip- 
ture in  one  placef  should  seem  to  prove  that 
such  community  did  actually  exist  among  the 
original  converts  in  the  Church  of  Jerusalem, 
we  are  obliged  to  infer  from  other  passages,! 
not  only  that  it  did  not  universally  prevail  as 
one  law  of  the  whole  Church,  but  that  it 
gained  no  favor  or  footing  in  the  several 
Churches  which  were  founded  elsewhere. 
This  inference  is  generally  confirmed  by  the 
uninspired  records  of  Christianity ;  and  it  is 
indeed  obvious  that  a  society  of  both  sexes, 
constituted  on  that  principle,  could  not  pos- 
sibly have  had  a  permanent  existence.  The 
truth  appears  to  be  this,  that  the  ministers  of 
religion,  and  the  poorer  brethren,  were  main- 
tained by  contributions  perfectly  voluntary, 
and  that  a  great  and  general  intercourse  of 
mutual  support  and  charity  prevailed,  as  well 
among  the  various  Churches,  as  among  the 
members  of  each. 

It  is  probable  that  the  ceremonies  of  relig- 
ion had  somewhat  outstripped  their  primitive 
simplicity,  even  before  the  conclusion  of  the 
second  century.  Some  additions  were  intro- 
duced even  thus  early,  out  of  a  spirit  of  con- 
ciliation with  the  various  forms  of  Paganism 
which  were  beginning  gradually  to  melt  into 
Christianity  ;  but  they  were  seemingly  differ- 
ent in  different  countries  ;  and  it  is  not  easy, 
or  perhaps  very  important,  to  detect  them 
with  certainty,  or  to  enumerate  them  with 
confidence.  We  shall,  probably,  recur  to 
this  subject  at  some  future  period,  when  we 
shall  have  stronger  light  to  guide  us. 

The  first  Christians  were  unanimous  §  in 
setting  apart  the  first  day  of  the  week,  as  be- 
ing that  on  which  our  Saviour  rose  from  the 

*  Dissertationes  ad  Hist.  Eccl.  pertinentes,  vol.  ii. 
Mosliei m's  object  is  to  prove  that  St.  Luke  means 
community  of  use,  not  of  possession.  Some  sup- 
pose the  passage  in  Acts  v.  4,  to  be  at  variance  with 
that  opinion. 

t  Acts  iv.  32,  34,  35. 

|  Acts  v.  4.  '  After  it  was  sold,  was  it  not  in 
thine  own  power  1 ' 

§  Mosh.  Gen.  Hist.,  1.  i.  p.  ii.  c.  4. 


dead,  for  the  solemn  celebration  of  public 
worship.  This  pious  custom  was  derived 
from  the  example  of  the  Church  of  Jerusa- 
lem, on  the  express  appointment  of  the  Apos- 
tles. On  these  occasions,  portions  of  Scrip- 
ture were  publicly  read  to  the  people  from 
the  earliest  age. 

The  two  most  ancient  feasts  of  the  Church 
were  in  honor  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ, 
and  of  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  At  a 
period  when  belief  must  almost  have  amount- 
ed to  knowledge,  the  first  Christians,  the 
companions  of  the  Apostles,  perhaps  the  dis- 
ciples of  our  Saviour  himself,  were  so  seri- 
ously and  practically  earnest  in  their  belief, 
and  so  satisfied  of  the  generality  of  that 
belief,  in  the  truth  of  those  two  mighty  mi- 
racles, which  have  presented,  perhaps,  the 
greatest  difficulties  to  the  skeptical  inquir- 
ers of  after  ages,  as  to  establish  their  two 
first  festivals  in  solemn  commemoration  of 
them. 

We  find  no  mention  of  any  public  fast, 
except  on  the  day  of  the  crucifixion.  The 
superstitious  multiplication  of  such  acts  of 
mistaken  devotion  was  the  work  of  a  later 
age. 

Christian  schools  existed  in  the  second 
century,  as  well  at  Rome,  Ephesus,  and 
Smyrna,*  as  at  Alexandria ;  they  were  con- 
ducted on  the  model  of  the  schools  of  phi- 
losophy, and  even  the  terms,  by  which  the 
different  classes  of  the  faithful  were  designat- 
ed, were  borrowed  from  these  latter.  There 
appears  to  have  been  as  yet  no  costume  pecu- 
liar to  the  ministers  of  religion.  The  bishops 
usually  adopted  the  garb  of  the  heathen  phi- 
losophers. 

3.  Creeds.  The  first  Christians  used  no 
written  Creed ;  the  Confession  of  Faith, 
which  was  held  necessary  for  salvation,  was 
delivered  to  children  or  converts  by  word 
of  mouth,  and  entrusted  to  their  memory. 
Moreover,  in  the  several  independent  Church- 
es, the  rule  of  faith  was  liable  to  some  slight 
changes,  according  to  the  opinion  and  discre- 
tion of  the  Bishop  presiding  in  each.  Hence 
it  arose,  that  when  the  creeds  of  those  nume- 
rous communities  came  at  length  to  be  writ- 
ten and  compared  together,  they  were  found 
to  contain  some  variations  ;  this  was  natural 
and  necessary ;  but  when  we  add  that  those 
variations  were  for  the  most  part  merely  ver- 
bal, and  in  no  instance  involved  any  question 
of  essential  importance,  we  advance  a  truth 

*  Iren.  ad  Florinum,  ap.  Euseb.  1.  v.  c.  20 
Mosh.  Gen.  Hist.,c.  i.  p.  ii.  ch.  3. 


46 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


which  will  seem  strange  to  those  who  are 
familiar  with  the  angry  disputations  of  later 
ages.  But  the  fact  is  easily  accounted  for, — 
the  earliest  pastors  of  the  Church  drew  their 
belief  from  the  Scripture  itself,  as  delivered 
to  them  by  writing  or  preaching,*  and  they 
were  contented  to  express  that  belief  in  the 
language  of  Scripture.  They  were  not  cu- 
rious to  investigate  that  which  is  not  clearly 
revealed,  but  they  adhered  firmly  and  faith- 
fully to  that  which  they  knew  to  be  true ; 
therefore  their  variations  were  without  schism 
and  their  differences  without  acrimony.  The 
creed  which  was  first  adopted,  and  that  per- 
haps in  the  very  earliest  age,  by  the  Church 
of  Rome,  was  that  which  is  now  called  the 
Apostles'  Creed,  and  it  was  the  general  opin- 
ion, from  the  fourth  century  downwards,  that 
it  was  actually  the  production  of  those  bless- 
ed persons  assembled  for  that  purpose ;  our 
evidence  f  is  not  sufficient  to  establish  that 
fact,  and  some  writers  J  very  confidently  re- 
ject it.  But  there  is  reasonable  ground  for 
our  assurance  that  the  form  of  faith  which 
we  still  repeat  and  inculcate  was  in  use  and 
honor  in  the  veiy  early  propagation  of  our  re- 
ligion. 

The  sacraments  of  the  primitive  Church 
were  two — those  of  Baptism  and  the  Lord's 
Supper.  The  ceremony  of  immersion  (the 
oldest  form  of  baptism)  was  performed  in  the 
name  of  the  three  Persons  of  the  Trinity ; 
it  was  believed  to  be  attended  by  the  remis- 
sion of  original  sin,  aud  the  entire  regenera- 
tion of  the  infant  or  convert,  by  the  passage 
from  the  land  of  bondage  into  the  kingdom 
of  salvation.  A  great  proportion  of  those 
baptized  in  the  first  ages  were,  of  course, 
adults,  and  since  the  Church  was  then  scru- 
pulous to  admit  none  among  its  members, 
excepting  those    whose  sincere   repentance 

*  It  is  expressly  affirmed  by  Eusebius  (E.  H.  book 
iii.  c.  24)  that  the  four  gospels  were  collected  during 
the  life  of  St.  John,  and  that  the  three  received  the 
approbation  of  that  apostle.  And  though  there  is 
great  difficulty  in  ascertaining  the  precise  period  in 
which  all  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  were  col- 
lected into  one  volume,  it  is  unquestionable  that  be- 
fore the  middle  of  the  second  century  the  greatest 
part  of  them  were  received  as  the  rule  of  faith  in  eve- 
ry Christian  society.     Mosh.  c.  1.  p.  ii.  ch.  2. 

t  Ignatius,  Justin,  and  Irenaeus  make  no  mention 
of  it,  but  they  occasionally  repeat  some  words  con- 
tained in  it,  which  is  held  as  proof  that  they  knew  it 
by  heart. — See  Cent.  Magdeb.,  cent.  i.  lib.  ii.  c.  4. 

|  As  Mosheim,  cent.  i.  p.  ii.  ch.  3;  admitting 
however,  (c.  ii.  p.  ii.  ch.  3)  that  the  first  teachers  in- 
culcated no  other  doctrines  than  those  contained  in 
what  is  commonly  called  the  Apostles'  Creed. 


gave  promise  of  a  holy  life,*  the  administra- 
tion of  that  sacrament  was  in  some  sense 
accompanied  by  the  remission,  not  only  of 
the  sin  from  Adam,  but  of  all  sin  that  had 
been  previously  committed  by  the  proselyte 
— that  is  to  say,  such  absolution  was  given  to 
the  repentance  necessary  for  admission  into 
Christ's  Church.  In  after  ages,  by  an  error 
common  in  the  growth  of  superstition,  the 
efficacy  inherent  in  the  repentance  was  at- 
tributed to  the  ceremony,  and  the  act  which 
washed  away  the  inherited  corruption  of  na- 
ture was  supposed  to  secure  a  general  impu- 
nity, even  for  unrepented  offences.  But  this 
double  delusion  gained  very  little  ground 
during  the  two  first  centuries. 

The  celebration  of  the  sacrament  of  the 
Eucharist  was  originally  accompanied  by 
meetings  which  somewhat  partook  of  a  hos- 
pitable, or  at  least  of  a  charitable  character, 
and  were  called  Agapse  or  Feasts  of  Love. 
Every  Christian,  according  to  his  circumstan- 
ces, brought  to  the  assembly  portions  of  bread, 
wine,  and  other  things,  as  gifts,  as  it  were,  or 
oblations  to  the  Lord.  Of  the  bread  and 
wine  such  as  was  required  for  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  sacrament  was  separated  from 
the  rest,  and  consecrated  by  the  bishop  alone  ;f 
its  distribution  was  followed  by  a  frugal  and 
serious  repast.  Undoubtedly,  those  assem- 
blies acted  not  only  as  excitements  to  ardent 
piety,  but  also  as  bonds  of  strict  religious 
union  and  mutual  devotion,  during  the  dark 
days  of  terror  and  persecution.  It  was  pro- 
bably on  those  occasious,  more  than  any  oth- 
er, that  the  sufferers  rallied  then*  scattered 
ranks,  and  encouraged  each  other,  by  one 
solemn  act  of  brotherly  communion,  to  con- 
stancy in  one  faith  and  association  in  the 
same  afflictions.  We  observe,  moreover,  that 
as  the  dangers  passed  away  from  the  Church, 
that  more  social  form  (if  we  may  so  express 
it)  of  eucharistical  administration  gradually 
fell  into  disuse. 

4.     Morality.     The  morality  of  the  primi- 


*  '  Whosoever  are  persuaded  that  those  things  are 
true  which  are  taught  and  inculcated  by  us,  and  en- 
gage to  live  according  to  them,  are  taught  to  pray  to 
God,  fasting,  for  the  remission  of  their  former  sins, 
while  we  pray  and  fast  with  them.  Theii  diey  are 
led  by  us  to  some  place  where  water  is,  and  are  re- 
generated even  as  we  ourselves  were  regenerated ;  for 
they  are  then  immersed  in  the  water,  in  the  name  of 
the  Father  of  all,  the  Lord  God,  and  of  our  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.'— Justin  Martyr, 
Apol.  i.  ch.  61. 

t  Mosh.,  c.  i.  p.  ii.  ch.  4.  Justin.  Mart.  Ap.  2. 
p.  98. 


MORALITY  OF  THE  FIRST  CHRISTIANS. 


47 


tive  Church  is  the  subject  to  which  we  pro- 
ceed with  high  confidence  and  unalloyed  sat- 
isfaction— for  since,  in  tlie  various  history  on 
which  we  are  entering,  our  admiration  of  the 
excellence  of  Christianity  will  be  sometimes 
interrupted  by  sighs  for  the  degeneracy  of  its 
professors,  it  is  delightful  to  pause  on  that 
period  when  the  faith,  yet  fresh  from  heaven, 
did  really  carry  practice  and  devotion  along 
with  it — a  period  which  preceded  the  birth 
of  intestine  persecution,  and  was  unstained 
by  the  furious  contests  of  sectaries ;  which 
did  not  witness  the  superstitious  debasement 
of  the  Church,  or  the  vulgar  vices  of  its 
ministers,  or  the  burning  passions  of  its  ru- 
lers. We  are  taught,  indeed,  humbly  to  be- 
lieve that  at  some  future,  and  probably  distant 
period,  the  whole  world  will  be  united  in  the 
irue  spirit  and  practice  of  Christianity  ;  but 
a  reviewing  the  history  of  the  past,  we  are 
compelled  to  confess  that  the  only  model  at 
all  approaching  to  that  perfection  is  confined 
to  the  two  first  centuries  of  our  faith,  and 
that  it  began  to  fall  off  in  excellence  even 
before  the  conclusion  of  that  period.  But 
transient  as  it  was,  we  still  recur  to  it  with 
pious  satisfaction,  and  we  l-ejoice  both  as  men 
and  as  Christians  that  our  nature  has  been 
found  capable  of  such  holy  exaltation,  and 
that  our  religion  was  the  instrument  which 
exalted  it. 

Certainly  the  character  of  the  first  Christ- 
ians, and  we  are  not  without  guides  who 
make  us  acquainted  with  it,  presents  to  us  a 
singular  spectacle  of  virtue  and  piety,  the 
more  splendid  as  it  was  surrounded  by  very 
mournful  and  very  general  depravity.  We 
cannot  read  either  St.  Clement's  description 
of  the  early  condition  of  the  Church  of  Co- 
rinth, or  Origen's  panegyric  on  that  of  Athens, 
without  recognising  a  state  of  society  and 
morality  such  as  all  the  annals  of  paganism 
do  not  discover  to  us,  and  such  as  its  princi- 
ples (if  it  had  any  fixed  principles)  could  not 
ever  have  created.  The  following  lines  are 
a  quotation  from  the  former.  '  You  were  all 
humble  in  spirit,  nothing  boasting,  subject 
rather  than  subjecting,  giving  rather  than  re- 
ceiving. Contented  with  the  food  of  God, 
and  carefully  embracing  his  words,  your  feel- 
ings were  expanded,  and  his  sufferings  were 
before  your  eyes — so  profound  and  beautiful 
the  peace  that  was  given  to  you,  and  so  insa- 
tiable the  desire  of  beneficence.  Every  di- 
vision, every  schism  was  detestable  to  you  ; 
you  wept  over  the  failings  of  your  neighbors  ; 
you  thought  their  defects  your  own,  and  were 
impatient  after  every  good  work,'  &c. 


It  is  true  that  soon  after  the  period  cele- 
brated by  this  glowing  description,  some  dis- 
sensions disturbed  the  peace,  and  probably 
the  morality,  of  the  Church  of  Corinth — but 
we  have  no  reason  to  believe  that  they  were 
of  long  duration,  or  left  any  lasting  conse- 
quences behind  them. 

The  above  passage  refers  to  the  Christians 
of  Greece  ;  and  there  is  a  sentence  in  the 
letter  of  Pliny  to  Trajan,  already  quoted, 
giving  still  stronger  testimony  to  the  virtues 
of  the  Asiatics.  '  They  bind  themselves  by 
an  oath,  not  to  the  commission  of  any  wick- 
edness, but  not  to  be  guilty  of  theft,  or  rob- 
bery, or  adultery, — never  to  falsify  their  word, 
nor  to  deny  a  pledge  committed  to  them 
when  called  upon  to  return  it.' 

Bardesanes,*  a  learned  Christian  of  Meso- 
potamia, who  lived  in  the  time  of  Marcus 
Antoninus,  has  the  following  passage,  pre- 
served to  us  by  Eusebius.  '  Neither  do  Christ- 
ians in  Parthia  indulge  in  polygamy,  though 
they  be  Parthians ;  nor  do  they  marry  their 
own  daughters  in  Persia,  though  Persians. 
Among  the  Bactrians  and  the  Gauls,  they  do 
not  commit  adultery  ;  but,  wheresoever  they 
are,  they  rise  above  the  evil  laws  and  cus- 
toms of  the  country.'  This  is  not  only  a 
very  powerful,  but  almost  an  universal  tes- 
timony in  favor  of  Christian  morality  ;  and 
there  are  some  to  whom  its  truth  will  appear 
the  less  questionable,  because  it  comes  from 
the  pen  of  a  heretic. 

The  virtue  of  chastity,  which  however  it 
may  have  been  celebrated  in  the  heroic  ages 
of  paganism,  was  certainly  little  reputed  in 
the  east,  during  the  more  enlightened  rule 
of  philosophy,  was  very  rigidly  cultivated  by 
the  primitive  converts.  This  truth,  which 
is  generally  attested  by  the  passages  above 
quoted,  is  made  the  subject  of  peculiar  exult- 
ation by  Justin  Martyr.f  But  the  continence 
of  the  first  Christians  did  not  degenerate  into 
any  superstitious  practice  :  yet  it  seems  cer- 
tain that,  in  the  ages  immediately  subsequent, 
the  simple  principle  of  the  Gospel  began  to 
be  unreasonably  exaggerated  ;  and  somewhat 
later  the  progress  of  monasticism  was  for- 
warded by  the  exalted  value  placed  on  that 
virtue.  So  that  excess  of  admiration  blinded 
enthusiasts  as  to  its  real  nature  and  character, 
and  led  them  to  invest  it  with  perfections  and 
pretensions  which  were  at  variance  with  the 
advancement  and  happiness  of  human  so- 
ciety. 

The  heathen  governments,  even  the  Ro- 

*  Euseb.  H.  E.,  I.  iv.,c.  30. 
f  C.  15.     Apol.  A. 


48 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


man,  in  its  highest  civilisation,  tolerated,  and 
perhaps  encouraged,  the  unnatural  practice 
of  exposing  infants — who  in  that  condition 
were  left,  as  it  might  happen,  to  perish  from 
cold  or  starvation,  or  preserved  for  the  more 
dreadful  fete  of  public  prostitution.  This 
practice  was  held  in  deserved  detestation  by 
the  followers  of  Christ.* 

Charity  was  the  corner-stone  of  the  moral 
edifice  of  Christianity,  and  its  earliest  char- 
acteristic ;  "and  as  this  is  still  the  virtue  by 
which  it  is  most  distinguished,  both  publicly 
and  privately,  from  every  false  religion,  so 
we  need  not  hesitate  to  avow  that  this  of  all 
its  excellences  was  the  most  efficient  under 
Divine  providence  in  its  original  establishment. 
Every  Christian  society  provided  for  the 
maintenance  of  its  poorer  members;  and 
when  the  funds  were  not  sufficient  for  this 
purpose,  they  were  aided  by  the  superfluities 
of  more  wealthy  brethren.f  The  same  spirit 
which  'preached  the  Gospel  to  the  poor, 
extended  its  provisions  to  their  temporal  ne- 
cessities ;  and  so  far  from  thinking  it  any 
reproach  to  our  faith  that  it  first  addressed 
itself,  by  its  peculiar  virtues  as  well  as  pre- 
cepts, to  the  lower  orders  of  mankind,  we 
derive  from  this  very  fact  our  strongest  argu- 
ment against  those  who  would  persuade  us 
that  the  patronage  of  kings  was  necessary  for 
its  establishment :  it  rather  becomes  to  us 
matter  of  pious  exultation  that  its  progress 
was  precisely  in  the  opposite  direction.  By 
far  the  majority  of  the  early  converts  were 
men  of  low  rank  ;  and  their  numbers  were 
concealed  by  their  obscurity,  until  they  be- 
came too  powerful  to  dread  persecution. 
Eveiy  step  which  they  took  was  upwards.  ' 
Until  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  they 
could  scarcely  discover  among  their  thou- 
sands one  learned  man.  From  the  schools 
they  advanced  into  the  senate,  and  from  the 
senate  to  the  throne  ;  and  they  had  possessed 
themselves  of  eveiy  other  office  in  society, 
before  they  attained  the  highest.  It  is  im- 
portant to  attend  to  this  fact,  that  we  may 
not  be  misled  ;  it  is  important  to  observe,  that 
the  basis  from  which  the  pyramid  started  up 
was  the  faith  and  constancy  of  the  common 
people — the  spirit  of  the  religion,  and  the  ear- 
liest government  of  the  Church,  was  popular; 
and  it  is  in  its  earliest  history  that  we  find 
those  proofs  of  general  moral  purity  on  which 

*  Justin  Martyr,  Apol.  A.,  c.  27. 

f  Our  readers  will  recollect  that  Dionysius  of  Co- 
rinth, in  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  desires  them  to 
continue  the  custom  established  from  the  beginning, 
»f  sending  charitable  contributions  to  all  churches. 


we  now  dwell  with  the  more  pleasure,  be 
cause,  in  the  succeeding  pages,  the  picture 
will  never  again  be  presented  to  us. 

We  will  make  one  short  extract  from  the 
writings  of  a  very  witty  pagan  of  the  second 
century,  which  throws  great  light  on  the 
character  of  the  Christians  of  that  age.  Lu- 
cian,  who  considered  every  form  of  worship 
as  equally  an  object  of  ridicule,  tells  a  story 
of  one  Peregrinus,  who  had  been  expelled 
from  his  country,  Armenia,  for  the  most  hor- 
rible crimes  ;  who  thence  wandered  into 
Palestine,  became  acquainted  with  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Christians,  and  affected  to  em- 
brace it.  Being  a  man  of  talents  and  educa- 
tion, he  acquired  great  influence  among  their 
illiterate  body  ;  and,  in  consequence,  he  soon 
attracted  the  notice  of  the  Roman  governor, 
and  was  thrown  into  prison  for  being  a  Christ- 
ian. In  prison  he  is  represented  to  have 
been  consoled  by  the  pious  charity  of  the 
faithful : — '  There  came  Christians,  deputed 
from  many  cities  in  Asia,  to  relieve,  to  en- 
courage, and  to  comfort  him,  for  the  care  and 
diligence  which  the  Christians  exert  on  these 
occasions  is  incredible — in  a  word,  they  spare 
nothing.  They  sent,  therefore,  large  sums  to 
Peregrinus,  and  his  confinement  was  an  oc- 
casion of  amassing  great  riches ;  for  these 
poor  creatures  are  firmly  persuaded  they  shall 
one  day  enjoy  eternal  life ;  therefore  they 
despise  death  with  wonderful  courage,  and 
offer  themselves  voluntarily  to  punishment. 
Their  first  lawgiver  has  taught  them  that  they 
are  all  brethren,  when  once  they  have  passed 
over  and  renounced  the  gods  of  the  Greeks, 
and  worship  that  Master  of  theirs  who  was 
crucified,  and  regulate  their  manner  and  con- 
duct by  his  laws.  They  despise,  therefore, 
all  earthly  possessions,  and  look  upon  them 
as  common,  having  received  such  rules  with- 
out any  certain  grounds  of  faith.  Therefore, 
if  any  juggler,  or  cunning  fellow,  who  knows 
how  to  make  his  advantage  of  opportunity, 
happens  to  get  into  their  society,  he  immedi- 
ately grows  rich  ;  because  it  is  easy  to  abuse 
the  simplicity  of  these  silly  people.'  We 
have  no  reason  to  complain  of  such  descrip- 
tion from  the  pen  of  an  adversary ;  for,  on 
the  one  hand,  it  attributes  to  our  ancestors  in 
faith  boundless  charity,  zeal  inexhaustible, 
brotherly  love,  contempt  of  death,  and  of  all 
earthly  possessions,  and  a  steady  adherence 
to  the  faith  and  precepts  of  Christ  ;  on  the 
other  hand,  it  lays  no  charge  against  them 
except  simplicity,  the  usual  associate  of  in- 
nocence. 

There  is  one    quality,  mentioned  in  the 


ITS    PROGRESS. 


49 


above  passage  which  we  shall  take  occasion  to 
notice  hereafter,  without  entirely  overlooking 
it  now,  the  suffering  courage  of  the  persecuted. 
We  consider  it  a  strong  proof  of  the  lively  faith 
of  the  sufferers  in  the  atoning  merits  of  their 
Saviour,  since  it  could  seldom  proceed  from 
any  other  conviction  than  that  the  change 
which  they  were  about  to  undergo  would  lead 
them  to  a  state  of  recompense  ;  a  confidence 
which  seems  scarcely  consistent  with  the 
consciousness  of  unrepented  sin.  Such,  at 
least,  we  know  to  have  been  the  impression 
sometimes  produced  on  the  more  enlightened, 
even  among  the  heathen  spectators.  The 
ancient  author  of  the  Second  Apology,  attrih- 
uted  to  Justin  Martyr,  urges  this  proof  with 
much  fervor  and  reason  ;  and  the  conversion 
of  Justin  himself  is,  in  a  great  degree,  ascribed 
to  the  persuasion  of  Christian  excellence  and 
sincerity,  wrought  in  him  by  those  awful 
spectacles. 

We  shall  conclude  this  chapter  by  a  quota- 
tion from  his  First  Apology  (c.  xiv.) :  — '  We 
who  formerly  rejoiced  in  licentiousness,  now 
embrace  discretion  and  chastity ;  we  who 
rejoiced  in  magical  arts,  now  devote  ourselves 
to  the  uubegotten  God,  the  God  of  goodness; 
we  who  set  our  affections  upon  wealth  and 
possessions,  now  bring  into  the  common 
stock  all  our  property,  and  share  it  with  the 
indigent;  we,  who,  owing  to  the  diversity  of 
customs,  would  not  partake  of  the  same  hearth 
with  those  of  a  different  race,  now,  since  the 
appearance  of  Christ,  live  together,  and  pray 
for  our  enemies,  and  endeavor  to  persuade 
those  who  unjustly  hate  us,  that,  by  leading 
a  life  conformed  to  the  excellent  precepts  of 
Christianity,  they  may  be  filled  with  the  good 
hope  of  obtaining  the  same  happiness  with 
ourselves  from  that  God,  who  is  Lord  above 
all  things.' 


CHAPTER   III. 


The  Progress  of  Christianity  from  the  year 
200,  a.  d.  till  the  Accession  of  Constantine, 

A.  D.  313. 

Incipient  corruption  of  the  Church  —  Reasons  for  it  —  Its 
extent  —  External  progress  of  religion  in  Asia  and  in 
Europe  — Claims,  character,  and  prosperity  of  the  Church 
of  Rome  —  That  of  Alexandria.  —  Origen  —  His  charac- 
ter —  Industry  —  Success  —  Defect.  —  The  Church  of 
Carthage.—  Tertul  I  ian—  His  character  —  Heresy—  Mer- 
its. —Cyprian.  —Government  of  the  Church  —  Increase 
of  episcopal  power,  or,  rather,  influence  —  Degeneracy 
of  the  Ministers  of  Religion  exaggerated  —  Institution 
of  inferior  orders  —  Division  of  the  people  into  Faithful 
and  Catechumens  —  Corruption  of  the  sacrament  of 
Baptism  —Effect  of  this  — The   Eucharist  — Demons 

7 


—  Exorcism  —  Alliance  with  philosophy —Its  conse- 
quences.—  Pious  frauds — Their  origin — Excuses  for 
such  corruptions — Eclectic  philosophy  —  Ammoniua 
Saccas  —  Plotinus  —  Porphyry  —  Compromise  with  cer- 
tain philosophers  — The  Milenniuin  —  The  writings  of 
the  early  Fathers  —  Apologies. 

Reserving  for  subsequent  consideration  the 
persecutions  and  the  heresies  by  which  the 
early  Church  was  disturbed,  we  shall  now 
pursue  its  more  peaceful  annals  as  far  as  its 
establishment  by  the  first  Christian  emperor. 
We  have  found  it  almost  necessary  to  sepa- 
rate, and  indeed  widely  to  distinguish  the 
events  of  the  two  first  from  those  of  the  third 
century,  lor  nearly  at  this  point  are  we  dis- 
posed to  place  the  first  crisis  in  the  internal 
history  of  the  Church.  It  is  true  that  the  first 
operations  of  corruption  are  slow,  and  gener- 
ally imperceptible,  so  that  it  is  not  easy  to  as- 
certain the  precise  moment  of  its  commence- 
ment. But  a  candid  inquirer  cannot  avoid 
perceiving  that,  about  the  end  of  the  second 
and  the  beginning  of  the  third  century,  some 
changes  had  taken  place  in  the  ecclesiastical 
system  which  indicated  a  departure  from  its 
primitive  purity.  Indeed,  such  a  state  of  so- 
ciety as  that  which  we  have  recently  described 
could  scarcely  hope  for  permanent  endurance, 
unless  through  a  fundamental  alteration  in 
human  nature  and  in  the  necessary  course  of 
human  affairs.  In  addition  to  this,  the  very 
principles  of  Christianity  prevented  it  from 
remaining  stationary  ;  the  spirit  of  the  faith  is 
active,  penetrating,  and  progressive  ;  and  thus, 
as  it  expanded  itself  in  numerical  extent  —  as 
it  rose  in  rank,  in  learning,  in  wealth  —  as  it 
came  in  contact  with  the  people  of  all  nations, 
and  with  all  classes  of  the  people,  a  great 
variety  of  human  passions  and  motives  was 
comprehended  by  it,  which  had  no  place  in  its 
early  existence.  As  it  increased  in  the  num- 
ber of  converts,  the  zeal  of  brotherly  love  and 
ardent  charity  became  more  contracted,  since 
it  could  no  longer  be  universally  exerted.  As 
it  rose  in  rank,  it  lost  that  perfect  equality 
among  its  members  which  formed  the  very 
essence  of  its  original  and  best  character  — 
false  learning  corrupted  its  simplicity,  and 
wealth  undermined  its  morality.  If  it  gain- 
ed in  prosperity  and  worldly  consideration,  it 
resigned  the  native  innocence  and  freshness 
of  childhood. 

We  are  far  from  intending  to  assert  that 
any  sudden  demoralization  or  violent  apostasy 
from  its  first  principles  took  place  in  the 
Church  during  the  third  century — far  from 
it —  we  feel  even  strongly  assured  that  it  still 
continued  to  embrace  the  great  proportion  of 
whatever  was  truly  virtuous  and  excellent  in 


60 


HISTORY    OF   THE  CHURCH. 


the  Roman  empire.  *  But,  in  closely  attend- 
ing to  its  history,  we  observe  that  it  becomes 
thenceforward  the  history  of  men  rather  than 
of  things  ;  the  body  of  the  Church  is  not  so 
much  in  view,  but  the  acts  of  its  ministers 
and  teachers  are  continually  before  us.  We 
read  little  of  the  clergy  of  the  two  first  cen- 
turies ;  they  appear  to  have  discharged  their 
pastoral  duties  with  silent  diligence  and  dis- 
interested piety.  We  learn  then  character,  for 
the  most  part,  from  the  effects  of  their  labors ; 
and  we  find  its  ample  and  indisputable  record 
in  the  progress  of  their  religion,  and  in  the 
virtues  of  their  converts. 

The  progress  of  religion,  indeed,  continued, 
under  easier  circumstances,  with  equal  rapid- 
ity ;  and  we  have  reason  to  believe  that,  be- 
fore the  time  of  Constantine,  it  was  deeply 
rooted  in  all  the  eastern  \  provinces  of  the  Ro- 
man, as  well  as  in  the  Persian  empire.  Gib- 
bon X  has  candidly  acknowledged  his  error  in 
attributing  the  conversion  of  Armenia  to  the 
reign  of  that  emperor  ;  and,  perhaps,  a  more 
impartial  reflection  on  the  mission  of  Pan- 
tsenus,  which  we  have  no  reason  to  believe 
fruitless,  would  have  led  him  to  doubt  his  own 
accuracy  when  he  makes  a  similar  assertion 
respecting  ^Ethiopia.    The  liglit  of  Christian- 

*  'Who  will  not  confess  (says  Origen  to  Celsus) 
that  the  worst  members  of  the  Church,  who  are  few  in 
comparison  with  the  better,  are  much  more  virtuous 
than  those  who  compose  the  popular  assemblies  1 
The  Church  of  God,  at  Athens,  if  you  will,  is  tranquil 
and  peaceable,  searching  only  to  do  God's  pleasure  : 
the  Assembly  of  the  Athenians  is  seditious,  and  bear- 
ing no  comparison  to  it.  The  same  is  true  of  the 
Churches  of  Corinth  and  Alexandria,  compared  to  the 

popular  assemblies  of  those   cities So    that,  if 

we  compare  the  senate  of  the  Church  with  the  senate 
of  every  city,  we  shall  find  the  senators  of  the  Church 
worthy  to  govern  the  city  of  God  ;  while  the  others 
have  nothing  in  their  morals  which  fits  them  for  their 
rank,  or  places  them  above  the  ordinary  qualities  of 
citizens.  And,  if  we  carry  the  comparison  further, 
we  shall  observe  the  immense  moral  superiority  of  the 
most  dissolute  and  imperfect  of  the  bishops  and  pres- 
byters over  the  civil  magistrates.'  —  See  Fleury,  lib. 
vii.,  sec.  18. 

f  Dionys.  ap.  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  vii.  5.  Dionysius 
was  Bishop  of  Alexandria  during  the  middle  of  the 
third  century.  Tillemont  (vol.  iii.  p.  405),  on  the 
authority  of  Origen,  asserts  that  the  Christians,  before 
the  middle  of  the  second  century,  not  only  had  built  a 
number  of  churches,  but  had  ventured  in  some  places 
an  assault  upon  temples,  altars,  and  idols. 

X  Vindication,  p.  74.  We  give  him  credit  for  this 
admission,  because  the  error  was  of  his  own  discovery. 
He  adds,  '  The  seeds  of  the  faith  were  deeply  sown 
here  during  the  last  and  greatest  persecution.  Tiri- 
dates  may  dispute  with  Constantine  the  honor  of 
being  the  first  Christian  sovereign.' 


ity  had  certainly  penetrated,  with  varying 
splendor,  among  the  Bactrians,  the  Parthians, 
the  Scythians,  Germans,  Gauls,  and  Britons  ; 
the  Goths  of  Mysiaand  Thrace  were  convert- 
ed by  missionaries  from  Asia,  and  laid  aside, 
on  the  reception  of  the  faith,  the  primeval 
barbarity  of  their  manners.* 

While  the  Church  of  Antioch  retained, 
after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  a  nominal  supre- 
macy among  the  Christians  of  the  east,  that 
of  Rome  continued  to  advance,  among  the 
western  churches,  certain  vague  assertions 
of  authority.  On  one  occasion  indeed,  in  the 
conviction  of  a  heretical  bishop,  Paul  of  Sam- 
osata,  its  claims  appear  to  have  been  indirect- 
ly encouraged  f  by  the  Emperor  Aurelian  ; 
but  they  were  not  then  acknowledged  by 
any  Christian  Church,  and  were  very  warm- 
ly contested  by  Cyprian,  Bishop  of  Carthage. 
That  prelate  maintained  with  equal  zeal  and 
truth  the  primitive  equality  of  the  churches. 
If  the  early  Christians  had  for  the  most  part 
derived  the  rudiments  of  their  learning  \  from 
Alexandria,  their  charitable  exertions  had  been 
principally  animated  by  the  wealth  and  mu- 
nificence of  Rome.  These  two  cities  appear 
still  to  have  maintained  their  respective  advan- 
tages. During  the  suspension  of  persecution, 
in  the  reign  of  Commodus,  many  great  and 
opulent  families  were  converted  ;  and  we  learn 
from  an  epistle  of  Cornelius,  Bishop  of  Rome, 
that  it  was  among  his  duties  to  provide  for 
the  maintenance  of  more  than  1500  widows 
and  mourners.  §  The  excellences  of  the  reli- 
gion contributed  to  its  progress,  and  so  rapid 
at  this  period  was  that  progress,  that  at  the 
synod  assembled  at  Rome  in  the  year  251  to 
pronounce  upon  the  heresy  (or  schism)  of 
Novatian,  ||  sixty  bishops,  and  a  greater  num- 
ber of  presbyters  and  deacons  were  present, 
though  the  rustic  pastors  in  the  other  districts 
held  their  separate  meetings   respecting  the 


*  Mosh.  Gen.  Hist.,  c.  iii.,  p.  i.,  ch.  1.  The 
progress  of  Christianity  in  Gaul  was  not  rapid.  Even 
as  late  as  the  reign  of  Decius,  we  observe  that  it  was 
necessary  to  send  fresh  missionaries  from  Rome  for 
the  complete  conversion  of  that  country. 

t  Euseb.  H.  E.,  1.  vii.,  c.  30.  Pagi.  ad  ann.  271, 
n.  3,  4. 

%  The  Catechetical  School  there  established,  was 
clearly  the  most  important  among  the  early  literary 
institutions  of  Christianity. 

§  6li36^ievat,.  See  Sender,  vol.  i.,  p.  66.  The 
clergy  of  Rome  then  consisted  of  forty-six  presbyters, 
seven  deacons,  seven  sub-deacons,  besides  the  inferior 
orders.     Euseb.  lib.  vi.,  c.  43. 

||  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  vi.  43.  Novatus  originated  the 
heresy  ;  Novatian  carried  it  into  a  schism.  See 
Tillem.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  433  to  493. 


ITS    PROGRESS. 


51 


same  question.  Under  such  of  the  emperors 
as  were  not  decidedly  opposed  to  Christianity, 
a  considerable  number  of  its  professors  were 
to  be  found  in  the  army  and  even  at  the  court, 
since  their  profession  did  not  exclude  them 
from  public  preferment;  and  their  assemblage 
for  divine  worship,  in  certain  houses  *  set 
apart  for  that  purpose,  was  permitted  by  the 
connivance  of  the  civil  magistrate,  f 

Origen.  The  best  history  of  the  Church 
of  Alexandria  during  the  first  half  of  the  third 
century,  is  furnished  by  the  life  of  Origen. 
That  extraordinary  person,  the  most  eminent 
among  the  early  fathers,  was  a  native  of 
Egypt,  the  son  of  one  Leonidas,  who  suffered 
martyrdom  in  the  year  202.  When  in  prison 
he  received  an  epistle  from  his  son,  of  which 
one  sentence  only  is  preserved  to  us.  '  Take 
heed,  father,  that  you  do  not  change  your 
mind  for  our  sake.'  Origen  was  then  about 
seventeen  years  old — his  religious  instructions 
he  had  received  from  Clemens  Alexandrinus, 
his  philosophical  lore  from  Ammonius  Saccas, 
and  such  proficiency  had  he  made  in  both 
those  studies,  that  he  was  called  to  preside 
ever  the  Catechetical  School  of  Christianity 
at  the  age  of  eighteen.  He  filled  that  office 
for  nearly  thirty  years,  and  discharged  its 
duties  with  zeal  and  genius  so  distinguished, 
with  such  fruitful  diligence  of  composition, 
such  persuasiveness  of  oral  eloquence,  as  to 
make  it  a  question  whether  our  religion  was 
ever  so  much  advanced,  in  point  of  numbers, 
by  the  mere  intellectual  exertions  of  any  other 
individual.^  He  merited  the  honor  of  per- 
secution,  and  had  the  double  fortune  to  be 
expelled  from  his  chair  and  country  by  the 
jealousy  §  of  the  Bishop  Demetrius,  and  to 
be  tortured  in  his  old  age  by  the  brutality  of 
a  Roman  emperor.  ||  The  works  of  Origen 
exhibit  the  operation  of  a  bold  and  compre- 

*  Mosh.  cent.  Hi.,  p.  ii.,  ch.  4. 

f  Mosh.,  c.  iii.,  p.  i.,ch.  1.  The  emperors  during 
this  age  who  were  most  favorable  to  Christianity  were 
Caracalla,  Heliogabalus,  Alexander  Severus,  Gordian, 
and  his  two  successors,  the  Philips.  Respecting  the 
first  of  these  two,  a  great  mass  of  authorities  is  adduced 
to  prove  that  he  had  actually,  though  secretly,  embrac- 
ed the  religion. 

X  The  diligent  distribution  of  his  translation  of  the 
Scriptures  was  among  the  most  certain  means  of  ac- 
complishing that  work. 

§  Mosheiin  appears  to  think  that,  because  Demetrius 
patronised  Origen  in  his  youth,  it  is  not  probable  that 
he  was  jealous  of  him  afterwards. 

II  Decius.  The  reader  may  find  a  satisfactory  ac- 
count of  the  life  and  writings  of  Origen  in  Tillem. 
Mem.,  vol.  iii.  p.  494,   495.     '  He   was  followed  bv 


hensive  mind,  burning  with  religious  warmth, 
unrestrained  by  any  low  prejudices  or  inter 
ests,  and  sincerely  bent  on  the  attainment  of 
truth.  In  the  main  plan  and  outline  of  hia 
course,  he  seized  the  means  best  calculated  to 
his  object,  for  his  principal  labors  were  di- 
rected to  the  collection  of  correct  copies  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  to  their  strict  and  faithful 
translation,  to  the  explanation  of  their  numer- 
ous difficulties.  In  the  two  first  of  these 
objects  he  was  singularly  successful ;  but  in 
the  accomplishment  of  the  last  part  of  his 
noble  scheme  the  heat  of  his  imagination  and 
his  attachment  to  philosophical  speculation 
carried  him  away  into  error  and  absurdity  ; 
for  he  applied  to  the  explanation  of  the  Old 
Testament  the  same  fanciful  method  of  alle- 
gory by  which  the  Platonists  were  accustomed 
to  veil  the  fabulous  history  of  their  gods. 
This  error,  so  fascinating  to  the  loose  imagin- 
ation of  the  East,  was  rapidly  propagated  by 
numerous  disciples,  and  became  the  founda- 
tion of  that  doubtful  system  of  theology,  called 
Philosophical  or  Scholastic. 

The  fame  of  Origen  was  not  confined  to  his 
native  country,  or  to  the  schools  of  philosophy, 
or  to  the  professors  of  the  Faith.  Mammsea, 
the  mother  of  the  Emperor  Alexander,  sought 
a  conference  with  him  in  Syria  ;  he  was  held 
in  high  repute  at  Rome ;  his  personal  exertions 
were  extended  to  Greece,  and  among  the  most 
fortunate  efforts  of  his  genius  we  may  be 
allowed  to  mention,  that  when  a  numerous 
synod  was  twice  convoked  in  Arabia  on  two 
occasions  of  heresy,  Origen,  who  was  present 
by  invitation,  was  twice  successful  in  convinc- 
ing his  opponents.*  His  school  gave  birth 
to  a  number  of  learned  men,  Plutarch, 
Serenus,  Heraclides,  Heron,  who  proved  the 
sincerity  and  multiplied  the  followers  of  their 
religion,  by  the  industry  with  which  they 
adorned  life,  and  the  constancy  with  which 
they  quitted  it. 

Tertullian.  The  Latin  Church  of  Carthage 
attained  little  celebrity  till  the  end  of  the 
second  century,  when  it  was  adorned  by  Ter- 


the  same  fate  (says  that  author)  after  his  death  as 
during  his  life.  The  saints  themselves  were  divided 
on  that  subject.  Martyrs  have  made  his  defence,  and 
martyrs  have  written  his  condemnation.  The  one 
parly  has  regarded  him  as  die  greatest  doctor  possessed 
by  the  Church  since  the  apostles ;  the  other  has  exe- 
crated him  as  the  parent  of  Arius  and  every  other 
heresiarch,  &c.'  Tillemont  takes  the  favorable  side. 
*  Euseb.  H.  E.  vi.  19  and  37.  Origen  had  also 
the  credit  of  converting  various  other  heretics,  espe- 
cially one  Ambrose,  whose  errors  had  some  celebrity 
at  the  moment. 


52 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


tullian ;  and  we  find  that,  about  that  period, 
Christianity,  which  had  already  scattered  its 
blessings  along  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  and 
into  the  adjacent  deserts,  also  made  great  * 
progress  along  the  northern  coast  of  Africa. 
Tertullian  is  described  by  Jerome f  as  'a  man 
of  eager  and  violent  temper  ; '  and  he  appears 
to  have  possessed  the  usual  vice  of  such  a 
temperament  —  inconstancy.  The  same  is 
the  character  of  his  writings ;  they  contain 
some  irregular  eloquence,  much  confidence 
of  assertion,  and  a  mixture  of  good  with  very 
bad  reasoning.  He  wrote  many  tracts  against 
heretics,  and  then  adopted  the  opinions  of  the 
least  rational  of  all  heretics,  the  Montanists. 
But  in  spite  of  many  imperfections,  his  gen- 
ius, his  zeal,  and  his  industry  place  him  at  the 
head  of  the  Latin  fathers  of  that  period  ;  his 
moral  writings  must  have  been  eminently 
serviceable  to  converts  who  had  been  educated 
with  no  fixed  principles  of  morality  ;  and  his 
'Apology'  is  among  the  most  valuable  mon- 
uments of  early  Christianity.  He  appears  to 
have  been  made  a  presbyter  of  the  Church  of 
Carthage  about  192  a.  d.,  at  the  age  of  forty- 
five.  His  secession  from  the  Church  may 
have  taken  place  seven  years  afterwards,  and 
some  of  his  most  valuable  works  were  proba- 
bly composed  during  the  period  of  his  heresy 4 
The  fame  of  Tertullian  was  succeeded  in 
the  same  Church,  but  not  surpassed,  by  that 
of  Cyprian,  an  African  and  a  heathen,  who 
was  converted  to  Christianity  late  in  life,  and 

*  Tertullian  in  several  places  indulges  in  somewhat 
exaggerated  descriptions  of  the  multitude  and  power 
of  the  Christians  throughout  the  empire.  But  when 
he  tells  Scapula,  proconsul  of  Africa,  that  the  effect 
of  continuing  the  persecution  against  the  Christians 
would  be  to  decimate  the  inhabitants  of  Carthage,  he 
probably  does  not  exceed  the  truth.  Yet  Carthage 
was  at  that  time  one  of  the  youngest  among  the 
Churches.     See  Bishop  Kaye,  p.  92. 

f  Catalogus  Script.  Ecclesiast. 

J  We  acknowledge  great  obligations  to  Bishop 
Kaye  for  the  manner  in  which  he  has  brought  within 
the  reach  of  ordinary  readers  of  theology  the  works  of 
Justin  and  Tertullian.  Whoever  shall  imitate  his  ex- 
ample in  the  treatment  of  the  other  principal  Fathers, 
examining  with  the  same  learning,  judgment,  and  mo- 
deration their  merits  and  defects,  and  sifting  from  the 
various  contents  of  their  folios  what  is  really  valuable 
to  the  history  and  right  understanding  of  religion,  will 
complete  an  undertaking  of  incalculable  use  in  the 
study  of  early  Christianity.  And  at  the  same  time  he 
will  perform  a  secondary,  but  not  unworthy,  office  — 
that  of  placing  those  writers  in  their  just  rank  in 
literature  —  a  rank  from  which  they  are  equally  far 
removed  by  the  enthusiasm  of  those  who  reverence 
them  too  highly,  and  by  the  ignorance  of  the  more  nu- 
merous party  who  scorn  them  altogether. 


presently  raised  to  the  see  of  Carthage  about 
the  year  250.  It  is  said  that  he  was  exalted 
to  that  dangerous  honor  rather  by  the  popular 
voice  of  the  Church  than  by  his  own  inclina- 
tion :  it  is  certain  that,  after  a  very  short  and 
disturbed  possession  of  it,  he  suffered  mar- 
tyrdom with  great  fortitude  in  the  reign  of 
Valerian.  An  interesting  and  probably  faithful 
account  of  his  sufferings  will  be  found  in  a 
later  page. 

Government.  The  government  of  the  Church 
at  the  beginning  of  the  third  century  was 
nearly  such  as  we  have  described  in  the  last 
chapter.  The  more  important  Churches  were 
severally  superintended  by  a  bishop,  possessed 
of  a  certain,  but  not  very  definite  degree  of 
authority,  who  ruled  in  concert  with  the  body 
of  presbyters,  and  even  consulted  on  matters 
of  great  moment  the  opinion  of  the  whole 
assembly.  The  provincial  synods,  of  which 
we  have  spoken,  composed  of  those  bishops, 
assisted  by  a  few  presbyters,  now  began  to 
meet  with  great  regularity  *  and  to  publish 
canons  for  the  general  ordination  of  ecclesi- 
astical affairs.  The  Metropolitans  gradually 
rose  in  consequence.  Their  dignity  seems  to 
have  been  conferred  for  life  ;  but  their  legiti- 
mate power  was  confined  to  the  calling  and 
presiding  in  councils,  and  the  fraternal  admo- 
nition of  offenders.  Still  it  was  the  natural 
consequence  of  this  system,  acting  on  human 
imperfection,  that  the  occasional  presidents 
insensibly  asserted  a  general  preeminence 
over  the  other  bishops,  which  it  became  their 
next  step  to  dispute  with  each  other ;  and  that 
the  other  bishops,  being  now  constantly  dis- 
tinguished from  their  presbyters  by  these 
synodical  meetings,  assumed  both  over  them 
and  the  people  a  degree  of  ascendency  not 
originally  acknowledged,  but  which  it  was  not 
difficult  gradually  to  convert  into  authority. 
Tf  we  are  to  bestow  on  any  individual  the 
credit  of  having  accomplished  a  change  so 
natural  and  so  nearly  insensible,  that  distinc- 
tion may  possibly  be  due  to  Cyprian  ;  certain 
it  is,  that  he  pleaded  for  episcopal  supremacy 
with  much  more  zeal  and  vehemence  than 
had  hitherto  been  employed  in  that  cause,  f 
It  seems  clear,  indeed,  from  several  of  his 
epistles,  J  especially  that  addressed  to   Roga- 

*  Twice  every  year  —  in  the  spring  and  autumn. 

f  Mosh.  Gen.  Hist.  c.  iii.  p.  ii.  ch.  2. 

X  Bingham,  Ch.  Antiq.  b.  ii.  ch.  3.  The  apostol- 
ical canons  confirm  these  pretensions,  and  so  do  certain 
canons  of  the  councils  of  Nice,  Sardica,  Antioch, 
Chalcedon,  and  others  ;  but,  according  to  the  first 
|'  and  second  councils  of  Carthage,  the  consent  of  three 


ITS  PROGRESS. 


53 


tian,  that  bishops  possessed  in  his  time,  or  at 
least  in  his  Church,  the  power  of  suspending 
or  deposing  delinquents  among  the  clergy ; 
yet  even  this  was  liable  to  some  indefinite 
restrictions  as  to  circumstance  and  custom, 
and  to  a  direct  appeal  to  a  provincial  council. 
And  it  does  not  appear  that  such  power 
was  frequently  exerted  without  the  consent 
of  the  presbyterial  college,  or  '  senate  of  the 
Church.'  From  these  facts,  compared  with 
the  assertions  afterwards  made  by  St.  Jerome 
and  St.  Chrysostom,  (which  we  have  already 
mentioned,)  we  infer  that  the  actual  progress 
of  episcopal  usurpation,  during  the  third  cen- 
tury, was  much  less  than  some  have  imagined 
—  or  at  least,  that  the  power  of  the  bishops 
grew  chiefly  througli  the  growth  of  their 
influence,  and  was  not  yet  publicly  acknow- 
ledged by  the  constitution  of  the  Church.* 

We  admit,  however,  with  sorrowful  reflec- 
tion, that  the  individual  conduct  of  some, 
perhaps  many,  among  the  directors  of  the 
Church,  during  the  course,  and  especially  the 
conclusion,  of  this  century,  deserved  the  rep- 
rehensions of  contemporary  and  succeeding 
writers.f  Some  assumption  of  the  ensigns  of 
temporal  dignity — the  splendid  throne,  the 
sumptuous  garments,  the  parade  of  external 
pomp — indicated  a  departure  from  apostolical 
simplicity  ;  and  a  contentious  ambition  suc- 
ceeded to  the  devoted  humility  of  former  days. 
And  though  we  believe  this  evil  to  have  been 
exaggerated  by  all  the  writers  who  have  dwelt 
upon  it,  since  the  abuses  which  we  have 
noticed  could  scarcely  be  carried  to  violent 
excess  by  an  order  possessing  no  legally  re- 
cognised rights  or  property,  we  may  still  be 


bishops  was  necessary  for  die  censure  of  a  deacon, 
of  six  for  that  of  a  presbyter,  of  twelve  for  that  of 
a  bishop.  '  Reliquorum  Clericorum  causas  solus  Epis- 
copus  loci  agnoscat  et  finiat.'  —  Cone.  Carth.  iii.  Can. 
8.  Cyprian  himself  (Epist.  v.  p.  11.  Ep.  xiii.  p. 
23.  Ep.  xxviii.  p.  29,  and  in  many  other  places) 
avows  diat  he  cannot  act  without  his  council  of  pres- 
byters and  deacons,  and  the  consent  of  the  people. 
See  Mosh.  (De  Reb.  Christ,  ant.  Const,  sec.  iii.  sec. 
xxiii.  xxiv.)  for  a  full  examination  of  the  principles 
and  conduct  of  Cyprian.  The  writings  of  that  prelate 
seem  to  have  been  more  effectual  in  exalting  the  epis- 
copal dignity  in  following  times  than   during  his  own. 

*  We  are  disposed  to  attribute  much  of  this  increase 
of  influence  to  a  cause  not  sufficiently  attended  to  by 
ecclesiastical  writers,  —  the  judicial,  or  rather  arbi- 
trative,  authority  originally  vested  in  die  bishops  by 
the  consent  of  their  people,  and  which  would  naturally 
extend  its  limits,  as  it  was  confirmed  by  time  and  usage. 

f  Origen.  Coinm.  in  Matthreum,  par.  i.  app.  p. 
420.  411,  442  ;  Euseb.  H.  E.  1.  viii.  c.  1.  Cyprian 
himself  rates  his  contemporary  prelates  with  great 
severity.      (Laps.   p.  289,   &c.)     The  language   of 


convinced,  by  the  institution  of  certain  inferior 
classes  in  the  ministry,  such  as  subdeacons, 
acoluthi,  readers,  exorcists,  and  others,  that 
the  higher  ranks  had  made  some  advances  in 
luxurious  indolence.* 

Catechumens.  This  deterioration  in  the 
character  of  the  ministers  was  attended  by  a 
corresponding  change  in  the  ceremonies  of 
the  Church.  The  division  of  the  people  into 
two  classes,  the  Faithful  and  the  Catechu- 
mens, was  the  practice,  if  not  the  invention, 
of  the  third  century.  It  was  borrowed  from 
the  pagan  principle  of  initiation  ;  and  the  out- 
ward distinction  between  those  classes  was 
this:  that  after  the  performance  of  public 
worship  the  latter  were  dismissed,  while  the 
former,  the  true  and  initiated  Christians,  re- 
mained to  celebrate  the  mysteries  f  of  their 
religion  ;  and  this  term  is  by  some  thought  to 
have  expressed  not  only  the  administration 
of  the  sacraments,  but  the  delivery  of  some 
doctrinal  instructions.  The  original  simpli- 
city of  the  office  of  baptism  had  already  un- 
dergone some  corruption.  The  symbol  had 
been  gradually  exalted  at  the  expense  of  the 
thing  signified,  and  the  spirit  of  the  ceremony 
was  beginning  to  be  lost  in  its  form.  Hence 
a  belief  was  gaining  ground  among  the  con- 
verts, and  was  inculcated  among  the  heathen, 
that  the  act  of  baptism  gave  remission  of  all 
sins  J  committed  previously  to  it.  It  was  not 
fit,  then,  that  so  important  a  rite  should  be 
hastily  performed  or  inconsiderately  receiv- 
ed ;  and,  therefore,  the  new  proselytes  were, 
in  the  first  instance,  admitted  into  a  proba- 
tionary state  under  the  name  of  Catechumens, 

Mosheim,  who  is  always  extremely  violent  ou  this  sub- 
ject, will  not  bear  careful  examination.  Gen.  Hist. 
cent.  iii.  p.  ii.  ch.  2.  See  also  Tillem.  vol.  iii.  p.  306. 
The  praise  which  Origen  has  bestowed  on  Christians 
generally,  may  be  contrasted  with  his  censures  on  the 
clergy,  and  they  will  serve  to  moderate  each  other. 

*  Mosh.  de  Reb.  Ch.  ante  Const,  sec.  iii.  sect.  23. 

f  The  term  mystery  is  in  die  Greek  Church  synon- 
ymous with  sacrament.  See  Sender,  Cent.  iii.  p. 
63;  and  particularly  Le  Clerc,  cent.  ii.  ann.  101.  and 
ad  ann.  118.  Neither  were  the  catechumens  allowed  to 
use  the  Lord's  Prayer,  which  was  even  denominated 
f  vy r\  Tiicn&v ,  the  prayer  of  the  faithful.  Chrysost. 
Horn.  ii.  in  2  Cor.  p.  740,  and  Horn.  x.  in  Coloss. 
For  other  references  see  Bingham,  Ch.  Antiq.  b.  i. 
ch.  4. 

%  Cyprian,  Epistle  73.  '  It  is  manifest  when  and 
by  whom  the  remission  of  sins,  which  is  conferred  in 
baptism,  is  administered.  They  who  are  presented  to 
the  rulers  of  the  Church  obtain,  by  our  prayers  and 
imposition  of  hands,  the  Holy  Ghost.'  See  also  Euseb. 
H.  E.  1.  vii.  c.  8.  Mosh.  c.  iii.  p.  ii.  c.  4.  Compare 
Cyprian's  language  with  the  passage  of  Justin  Martyr, 
on  the  same  subject. 


64 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


whence  they  were  chosen,  according  to  their 
progress  in  grace,  into  the  body  of  the  Faith- 
ful, As  long  as  they  remained  in  that  class, 
great  care  was  taken  to  instruct  them  in  the 
important  truths,  and  especially  in  the  moral 
obligations,  of  religion ;  yet  doubtless  there 
would  be  some  among  them  in  whom  the 
love  of  sin  survived  the  practice  of  supersti- 
tion,* and  such  would  naturally  defer  their 
baptism  and  their  pardon  until  the  fear  of 
death,  or  satiety  of  enjoyment,  overtook  them. 
It  is  true,  that  baptism  was  not  supposed  to 
bestow  any  impunity  for  future  sins  ;  on  the 
contrary,  the  first  offence  committed  after  it 
required  the  expiation  of  a  public  confession,  f 
and  the  second  was  punished  by  excommuni- 
cation. But  if  the  hope  and  easy  condition 
of  pardon  for  the  past  tended,  as  it  may  have 
done,  to  fill  the  ranks  of  the  catechumens, 
we  may  reasonably  indulge  the  belief  that  the 
great  majority  were  amended  and  perfected 
by  the  religious  instruction  which  was  then 
opened  to  them. 

About  the  same  time,  and  from  causes  con- 
nected with  this  misapprehension  of  the  real 
nature  of  baptism,  and  the  division  of  the  con- 
verts, a  vague  and  mysterious  veneration  be- 
gan to  attach  itself  to  the  other  Sacrament ; 
its  nature  and  merits  were  exaggerated  by 
those  who  administered  and  partook  of  it ;  it 
was  regarded  with  superstitious  curiosity  by 
those  to  whom  it  was  refused  ;  and  reports 
were  already  propagated  of  the  miraculous 
efficacy  of  the  consecrated  elements. 

An  opinion  at  this  time  became  prevalent 
in  the  Christian  world,  that  the  demons,  the 
enemies  of  man,  were,  in  fact,  the  same  be- 
ings whom  the  heathen  worshipped  as  gods, 
who  inhabited  their  temples  and  animated 
their  statues.  It  became,  therefore,  the  duty 
of  the  soldiers  of  Christ  to  assail  them  under 
every  fonn,  and  expel  them  from  every  resi- 
dence. That,  indeed,  which  they  are  related 
most  frequently  to  have  occupied  was  the 
body  of  man,  \  and  from  this  refuge  they  were 
jterseveringly  disturbed  by  the  pious  exor- 
cisms of  the  clergy ;  and  this  practice  was 
carried  to  such  superstitious  excess,  that  none 


*  Origen,  however,  assures  us,  that  among  his  con- 
verts there  were  more  who  had  previously  led  amoral  life 
than  of  the  opposite  description —  a  fact  which  may 
serve  as  an  answer  to  one  of  Gibbon's  insinuations.  See 
Cels.  1.  iii.  p.  150, 151.  Tillem.  Mem.  vol.  iii.  p.  116. 

t  Called  l£o{wl6yrjoig. 

X  Celibacy,  though  under  no  circumstances  consid- 
ered as  a  duty  either  by  clergy  or  laity,  acquired  some 
unmerited  honor  during  this  age,  through  the  absurd, 
but  general  persuasion,  that  those  who  had  wives  were 


were  admitted  to  the  ordinance  of  baptism 
until  they  had  been  solemnly  delivered  from 
the  dominion  of  the  Prince  of  Darkness.  * 
The  Sign  of  the  Cross,  which  was  already  in 
much  honor  in  the  time  of  Tertullian,  f  was 
held  to  be  of  great  effect  in  the  expulsion  of 
demons,  and  in  other  miracles.  We  also  find 
that  the  use  of  prayers  for  the  dead  obtained 
very  general  prevalence  during  this  age. 

Philosophy.  A  dispute  had  divided  the 
Church  during  the  second  century,  as  to  the 
propriety  of  adopting,  in  its  contests  with  the 
heathen,  the  weapons  of  philosophy,  and  it 
was  finally  decided  by  the  authority  of  Ori- 
gen, and  the  superior  loquacity  of  the  phi- 
losophical party.  By  this  condescension  the 
Christians  gained  great  advantages  in  the  dis- 
play of  argument,  in  subtlety  of  investigation, 
in  plausibility  of  conclusion,  in  the  abuse  and 
even  in  the  use  of  reason ;  but  they  lost  that 
manly  and  simple  integrity  of  disputation 
which  well  became,  in  spite  of  its  occasional 
rusticity,  the  defender  of  truth.  It  is  to  this 
alliance  J  that  some  are  disposed  to  trace  the 
birth  of  those  pious  frauds  which  cover  the 
face  of  ecclesiastical  history.  The  original 
source  of  this  evil  was  at  least  free  from  any 
stain  or  shame.  It  had  long  been  a  practice 
among  ancient  philosophical  writers  to  as- 
cribe their  works  to  some  name  of  undisput- 
ed authority,  in  order  to  secure  attention  to 
their  opinions,  though  the  opinions  were  well 
known  to  be  only  those  of  the  writer;  but  the 
consequences  which  flowed  from  it  have  in- 
fected the  Church  of  Christ  with  some  of 
its  deepest  and  most  dangerous  pollutions. 
Books   written  in  later  ages  were   zealously 

peculiarly  liable  to  the  influence  of  malignant  demons. 
At  least  Mosheim  (cent.  iii.  p.  ii.  ch.  2)  asserts  this 
on  the  authority  of  Porphyry,  Tieol  .^tto/tj.:-  \,  iv. 
p.  417.  In  the  time  of  Ireneeus,  (1.  i  c.  24.)  the 
profession  of  celibacy  was  a  heresy. 

*  Mosh-  Gen.  Hist.  cent.  iii.  p.  ii.  ch.  4. 

f  De  Corona,  cap.  iii.  Semler,  Hist.  Eccl.  cent, 
iii.  cap.  3. 

%  Le  Clerc  adjudges  to  an  earlier  year  (ann.  122) 
the  celebrated  forgery,  under  the  name  of  Hermes 
Trismegistus,  of  which  the  object  was  to  trace  the 
doctrine  of  Christ  to  a  much  higher  period  than  his 
incarnation,  and  thus  to  increase  its  sanctity-  The 
interpolation  of  the  Sibylline  Books  is  referred  by  the 
same  historian  to  the  year  131.  This  latter  impos- 
ture, as  foolish  as  shameful,  was  warmly  patronised  by 
a  host  of  Fathers,  including  Clemens  Alex.,  Tertullian, 
Eusebius,  Jerome,  Augustin,  &c.  and  thus  occasioned 
much  scandal  to  Christians  in  general  among  their  ene- 
mies in  that  age,  and  no  little  disrepute  to  its  ancient  pa- 
trons among  candid  writers  of  every  age.  See  Le  Clorc, 
vol.  i.  p.  106.     Jortin,  Remarks,  &c.  vol.  i.  p.  18& 


ITS   PROGRESS. 


55 


circulated  as  the  writings  of  the  Apostles,  or 
of  the  Apostolical  Fathers.*  The  works  of 
these  last  were  altered  or  interpolated,  accord- 
ing to  the  notions  of  after  times  or  the  capri- 
ces of  the  interpolator ;  but  usually  for  the 
purpose  of  proving  the  antiquity  of  some  new 
opinion,  some  innovation  in  discipline,  some 
usurpation  in  authority.  The  practice  was 
justified  by  the  detestable,  but  popular  prin- 
ciple, '  that  truth  may  be  defended  by  false- 
hood ;'  it  was  encouraged  by  the  difficulties 
of  detection  in  ignorant  ages ;  and  it  contin- 
ued for  more  than  six  centuries  to  disgrace 
the  Roman  Church.  It  was  the  same  princi- 
ple, pushed  a  little  farther,  which  has  stained 
the  writings  of  so  many  among  the  early  Fa- 
thers with  statements  at  least  doubtful,  if  not 
with  palpable  falsehood.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  should  ever  recollect  that  Christian- 
ity in  those  days  was  chiefly  in  the  hands  of 
Greeks  and  Africans,!  men  of  subtle  intel- 
lects and  violent  passions,  whose  habits  and 
whose  climate  too  often  carried  them  into  the 
extreme  either  of  metaphysical  sophistry  or 
wild  enthusiasm — men  who  could  speculate 
on  their  faith,  or  who  could  die  for  it,  but 
who  were  little  calculated  for  the  tranquil 
equanimity  of  sober  and  reasonable  belief. 
We  should  recollect  also,  that  some  of  our 
iest  and  commonest  principles  of  action  were 
then  unknown  or  partially  received  ;  and  that, 
in  fact,  many  of  them  are  the  result  of  the 
patient  operation  of  Christianity  on  the  human 
character,  through  a  long  succession  of  ages. 
We  shall  never  do  justice  to  the  history  of 
our  religion,  unless  we  continually  bear  in 
mind  the  low  condition  of  society  and  mor- 
als existing  among  the  people  to  whom  it  was 
first  delivered. 

During  the  concluding  part  of  the  second 
century,  a  philosophical  sect  arose  at  Alex- 
andria, who  professed  to  form  their  own  ten- 


*  Such,  in  the  second  century,  were  the  celebrated 
Apostolical  Canons;  and,  afterwards,  the  Apostolical 
Constitutions,  attributed  to  the  diligence  of  Clemens 
Romanus ;  and  such  were  the  False  Decretals  in  the 
eiahth.— Mosh.  G.  Hist.  c.  i.  p.  ii.  ch.  2.  Le  Clerc 
(sec.  i.  ad.  ami.  100)  supposes  the  Canons  to  be  of 
the  third,  the  Constitutions  of  a  later  age.  Jortin, 
supposing  that  the  Canons  may  have  been  forged, 
some  in  the  second  and  some  in  the  third  century, 
refers  the  Constitutions  to  some  period  after  Constan- 
tino, vol.  i.  pp.  152,  185. 

I  It  is  certainly  very  remarkable,  that  for  the  first 
three  centuries  Rome  produced  no  ecclesiastical  writer 
of  any  merit,  excepting  Clement ;  and  the  western 
provinces  not  one  of  any  description:  Rome  was  very 
nearly  as  barren  during  the  three  which  followed. 


ets,  by  selecting  and  reconciling  what  was 
reasonable  in  the  tenets  of  all  others,  and  re- 
jecting what  was  contrary  to  reason — they 
were  called  the  new  Platonics,  or  Eclectics. 
What  they  professed  respecting  philosophy, 
they  easily  extended  to  religion,  since  with 
them  religion  was  entirely  founded  on  philo- 
sophical principles.  It  is  strange  that  the 
great  founder  of  this  sect,  Ammonius  Sac- 
cas,*  had  been  educated  in  Christianity  ;  and 
he  seems  never  to  have  abandoned  the  namef 
of  the  faith,  while  he  was  disparaging  its  doc- 
trines and  its  essence.  A  sect,  which  was 
founded  on  the  seductive  principle  of  univer- 
sal concord,  soon  made  extraordinary  pro- 
gress. In  his  eminent  disciple  Plotinus,  Am- 
monius left  a  successor  not  inferior  to  him- 
self in  subtlety  of  genius,  and  power  of  pro- 
found and  abstruse  investigation  ;  and  next 
to  Plotinus  in  age  and  reputation,  is  the  cele- 
brated name  of  Porphyry.  J  The  efforts  of 
these  philosophers  were  for  the  most  part  di- 
rected against  Christianity,  and  the  contest 
was  waged  with  great  ardor  during  the  third 
century.  But  as  Origen  and  his  scholars,  on 
the  one  hand,  adopted  into  the  service  of  re- 
ligion some  of  the  peculiar  principles  of  their 
adversaries,  so,  on  the  other,  certain  disciples 
of  Plotinus  assumed  the  name  and  professed 
the  faith  of  Christians,  at  the  same  time 
that  they  retained  some  favorite 
opinions  of  their  master ;  §  an  accession 
which  was  only  valuable  in  so  far  as  it  swell- 
ed the  body  and  increased  the  lustre  of  the 
church.  II 


*  Mosh.  Gen.  Hist.  c.  ii.  p.  ii.  ch.  1.  Memoires 
de  Tillem.  torn.  iii.  p.  279. 

t  Porphyry  asserts  that  Ammonius  deserted  Chris- 
tianity, Eusebius  that  he  adhered  to  it.  To  these 
two  opinions,  variously  advocated  by  most  modern 
divines,  others  have  added  a  third,  that  Eusebius  mis- 
took a  Christian  writer  of  the  same  name  for  the  hea- 
then philosopher  ;  and  this  is  warmly  maintained  by 
Lardiier  (Collection  of  Heathen  and  Jewish  Testimo- 
nies.) The  question  was  not  worth  one  page  of  con- 
troversy ;  and,  in  our  mind,  Christian  writers  would 
act  a  more  politic,  as  well  as  a  more  manly  part,  if 
they  at  once  disclaim  their  ambiguous  defenders. 

i  Mosh.  de  Reb.  Ch.  ante  Constant,  sect.  iii. 
xxi. 

§  August.  Epist.  56,  ad  Dioscor.  —  Mosh.  c.  iii.  p 
ii.  ch.  1. 

||  To  give  some  idea  of  the  nature  of  Christian  lit- 
erature in  this  age,  it  may  be  worth  while  to  mention 
the  subjects  of  some  of  the  most  celebrated  productions 
—  On  Temptations  —  The  Baptism  of  Heretics  — 
Promises  — Chastity  — The  Creation — The  Origin 
0f  Evil — The  Vanity  of  Idols  —  The  Dress  of  Vir- 
gins —  The   Unity  of  the   Church  —  Circumcision  — 


56 


HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


Millennium.  It  has  been  too  hastily  assert- 
ed by  some  historians,  and  too  readily  admit- 
ted by  others,  that  the  expectation  of  the  Mil- 
lennium, or  presence  of  Christ  on  earth  to 
reign  with  his  elect,  was  the  universal  opinion 
of  the  ancient  church.  The  fair  statement 
of  that  much -disputed  question  appears  to 
be  this : — Eusebius  *  informs  us  that  Papias, 
'among  certain  parables  and  sermons  of  the 
Saviour,  and  other  seemingly  fabulous  records 
which  he  professed  to  have  received  tradition- 
ally, said,  that  there  would  be  a  thousand 
years  after  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  during 
which  Christ  was  to  reign  bodily  upon  the 
earth  ;  in  which  I  think  that  he  misunderstood 
the  apostolic  narrations,  not  penetrating  what 
was  mystically  spoken  by  them  ;  for  he  ap- 
pears to  have  been  exceedingly  liznited  in 
understanding  (arfitxQbg  jov  volv),  as  one 
may  conjecture  from  his  discourses.'  The 
historian  then  proceeds  to  attribute  the  gen- 
eral reception  of  this  opinion  among  ecclesi- 
astics, and  particularly  by  Irenaeus,  to  their 
respect  for  '  the  antiquity  of  the  man.'f     To 

Clean  and  Unclean  Animals  —  The  Lapsed,  or  those 
who  had  fallen  from  the  Faith  during  Persecution  — 
The  Millennium  ;  besides  numerous  books  against 
heretics. 

*  H.  E.  lib.  iii.  c.  39.  —  On  this  important  subject 
gee  Whitby's  excellent '  Treatise  on  the  Millennium,' 
at  the  end  of  vol.  ii.  of  his  '  Commentaries.'  This  ob- 
scure doctrine  was  probably  known  to  very  few  except 
the  Fathers  of  the  Church,  and  is  very  sparingly  men- 
tioned by  them  during  the  two  first  centuries.  And 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  it  scarcely  attained 
much  notoriety  even  among  learned  Christians  until  it 
was  made  matter  of  controversy  by  Origen,  and  then  re- 
jected by  the  great  majority.  In  fact,  we  find  Origen 
himself,  in  his  Prolegomena  to  the  Canticles  (69  B.  ), 
asserting  that  it  was  confined  '  to  those  of  the  simpler 
sort;'  and,  in  his  Philocalia  (c.  xxvi.  p.  99)  he  di- 
rectly declares  that  the  few  (t<  J'f  g\  who  held  it  did 
so  with  such  secrecy,  that  it  had  not  yet  come  to  the 

ears  of  the  heathen In  all  fairness,  then,  we  must 

consider  the  opposite  declarations  of  Origen  and  Euse- 
bius either  to  have  been  applied  to  different  parts  of 
Christendom,  or  to  qualify  each  other  :  always  recol- 
lecting that  the  latter  is  confined  to  ecclesiastics,  while 
the  former  extends  to  all  classes. 

t  The  words  are  these  —  nU]V  xal  jolg  /list' 
uvtov  nlsiazoTg  ocroig  ribv  lxxXt]a  laenix^v 
Trig  6/uotag  aiib)  do$r\g  naoalxiog  yiyove, 
xrjV  &Qxai6zrjTa  j&vdobg  nqo^e^ltj^ivolg- 
&aneg  ovv  Eionvaia  xal  el!  Jig  hllog  t&  ofioia 
(poovwv  uvenicprjVBV. 


Papias,  then,  we  may  attribute  the  origin  of 
the  belief.  It  was  first  adopted  by  Justin 
Martyr,  *  next  by  Irenaeus,  and  connected 
by  both  of  them  with  the  resurrection  of  the 
flesh.  But  the  passage  of  the  latter  f  plainly 
declares  'that  there  were  some  in  the  church, 
in  divers  nations  and  by  various  works,  who, 
believing,  do  consent  with  the  just,  who  do 
yet  endeavor  to  turn  these  things  into  meta- 
phors ;'  which  proves  that  even  the  orthodox 
were  divided  on  the  question  at  that  early  age, 
though  the  names  of  the  disputants  have  not 
reached  us.  The  first  distinguished  opponent 
of  the  doctrine  was  Origen,  who  attacked  it 
with  great  earnestness  and  ingenuity,  and 
seems,  in  spite  of  some  opposition,  to  have 
thrown  it  into  general  discredit ;  and,  proba- 
bly,  we  shall  not  have  occasion  to  notice  the 
opinion  again  until  we  arrive  at  the  tenth 
century. 

Dr.  Whitby  expresses  his  belief  that  the 
Fathers  who  adopted  that  doctrine  'received 
it  from  the  traditions  and  notions  of  the 
Jews ;'  and  he  proceeds  very  truly  to  assert 
that  that  error  '  will  not  invalidate  their  au- 
thority in  any  thing  delivered  by  them  as  wit- 
nesses of  what  they  have  seen,  or  declared  to 
have  been  then  the  practice  of  the  Church  of 
Christ.'  In  these  points,  indeed,  consists  a 
great  portion  of  the  direct  value  of  their  works. 
But  they  are  also  greatly,  perhaps  principally, 
useful  to  us,  as  they  prove,  by  numerous  quo- 
tations, the  early  existence  of  the  books  of  the 
New  Testament  as  we  now  read  them,  and 
their  reception  in  the  primitive  Church.  % 

*  Dial,  cum  Tryph. 

t  Adv.  Haer.  1.  v.  c.  33. 

J  The  Apologies  for  Christianity,  published  by  the 
early  Fathers,  however  imperfect  as  specimens  of 
reasoning  or  even  as  representations  of  religion,  were 
probably,  at  the  time,  the  most  useful  of  their  labors, 
not  only  because  they  brought  Christianity  into  notice, 
and  challenged  examination,  and  put  forward  some  of 
its  leading  excellences,  but  also  because  they  publicly 
assaulted  the  tottering  temples  of  Paganism,  and  expos- 
ed to  irresistible  contempt  aud  contumely  its  origin, 
its  rites,  its  morals,  and  its  mythology.  And  those 
Apologies  were  very  numerous  —  to  those  of  Justin, 
Athenagoras,  Tatian,  Melito,  Quadratus,  Aristides, 
and  Tertullian,  already  mentioned,  we  may  add  others 
by  Clemens  Apollinaris,  and  Theophilus  of  Antioch. 
—  Mosh.  G.  Hist.  c.  ii.  p.  ii.  chap.  3.  Fleury,  1.  iv 
sect.  4,  &c. 


PERSECUTIONS    OF   THE    EMPERORS. 


57 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Persecutions  of  several  Roman  Emperors. 

Claims  of  Roman  Paganism  to  the  character  of  tolerance 

—  examined  —  Theory  of  pure  Polytheism — Roman 
policy  —  Various  laws  of  the  Republic  —  continued  un- 
der the  emperors  —  Mecamas  —  Remarks — The  ten 
persecutions  —  how  many  general  —  That  of  Nero  —  its 
character  —  Of  Domitian  —  The  grandsons  of  St.  Jude 

—  The  epislle  of  Pliny  to  Trajan  —  His  answer  —  Real 
object  of  Trajan  —  Letter  of  SereniusGranianus  to  Ha- 
drian—  Antoninus  Pius  —  Marcus  Antoninus — Gib- 
bon's partiality  —  Real  character  of  this  persecution 
compared  with  those  preceding  it  —  His  principles  and 
knowledge,-and  superstition  —  His  talents  and  virtues 

—  Connexion  of  his  philosophy  and  his  intolerance  — 
Commodus  —  Decius  —  His  persecution  —  accounted  for 

—  its  nature  —  Valerian  —  Martyrdom  of  Cyprian  — 
Persecution  of  Diocletian  —  Its  origin  and  motives  — 
Influence  of  Pagan  priesthood  —  Progress  of  the  per- 
secution —  Its  mitigation  by  Constantius,  and  final 
cessation  at  the  accession  of  Constantine.  —  General 
Remarks  —  Unpopularity  of  the  Christians  —  accounted 
for — Calumnies  by  which  they  suffered  —  Their  con- 
tempt of  all  false  gods —  Change  in  the  character  of 
their  adversaries  —  Philosophy  —  Excuses  advanced 
for  the  persecutors —  their  futility —  General  character 
of  persecuting  emperors  —  Absurd  opinions  on  this  sub- 
ject—  Effect  of  the  persecutions — upon  the  whole  fa- 
vorable—  For  what  reasons. 

Certain  writers  have  industriously  exerted, 
themselves  to  display  the  mild  and  tolerant 
nature  of  the  religion  which  prevailed  in  the 
Roman  world  at  the  introduction  of  Christian- 
ity ;  and  then,  when  its  seeming  claims  to 
this  excellence  have  been  established,  they 
have  placed  it  in  contrast  with  the  persecuting 
spirit  which  has  occasionally  broken  out  from 
the  corruptions  of  our  faith ;  insomuch  that 
some  persons  may  possibly  have  been  per- 
suaded that  there  was  some  latent  virtue  in 
that  superstition,  which  Christianity  does  not 
possess.  We  shall  not  here  pause  to  show, 
what  none  can  seriously  deny,  that  the  intol- 
erance of  Christians,  like  all  their  other  vices, 
is  in  spite,  and  not  in  consequence,  of  their 
belief;  but  it  is  worth  while  shortly  to  ex- 
amine the  pretensions  of  Polytheism  to  one 
of  the  virtues  in  which  we  are  most  disposed 
to  exult,  and  which  we  are  accustomed  to 
consider  most  peculiarly  our  own. 

The  religion  called  Polytheism  means  '  the 
worship  of  many  gods.'  Now  the  observation 
which  first  occurs  to  us  is  this  —  that,  when 
the  number  of  gods  is  not  limited,  the  easy 
reception  of  an  additional  divinity  does  little 
more  than  satisfy  the  definition  of  the  word  ; 
it  is  not  the  endurance  of  a  new  religion,  but 
the  slight  extension  of  that  already  establish- 
ed. The  intrusion  of  one  stranger  would 
scarcely  be  noticed  in  the  numerous  synod 
of  Mount  Olympus ;  the  golden  portals  were 
ever  open  —  useful  virtue  or  splendid  vice 


gave  an  equal  claim  to  admission  ;  and  the 
policy  or  servility  of  Rome  bowed  with  the 
same  pliancy  to  the  captive  gods  of  her  ene- 
mies or  the  manes  of  her  imperial  tyrants. 
This  was  not  a  virtue,  but  a  part  of  Polythe- 
ism ;  the  new  deities  became  new  members 
of  the  same  monstrous  body  ;  they  assisted 
aud  sustained  each  other  ;  and  the  whole 
mass  was  held  together  by  ignorance,  and  an- 
imated by  the  gross  spirit  of  superstition.  It 
seems,  indeed,  that  a  Pagan  statesman,  who 
may  have  permitted  additions  to  the  calendar 
of  his  gods,  deserves  no  higher  description 
of  praise  than  that  which  we  should  bestow 
on  a  pope,  who  has  been  zealous  in  the  ca- 
nonization of  saints.  For  one  idol  will  pres- 
ently become  as  holy  as  another  idol ;  nor 
could  there  be  any  reason  why  Jove  should 
scorn  the  society  of  Serapis,  since  their  re- 
spective divinity  was  founded  on  the  same 
evidence,  and  their  worship  conducted  on  the 
same  principles. 

Such  is  the  real  theory  of  pure  Polytheism. 
But  we  should  be  doing  it  much  more  than 
justice,  if  we  were  to  confine  ourselves  to  its 
abstract  nature,  without  mention  of  the  po- 
litical uses  to  which  it  was  converted ;  and 
which,  indeed,  subjected  it  to  so  much  re- 
straint and  limitation,  that  we  shall  be  unable 
to  discover  in  its  practice  even  that  ambiguous 
virtue  which  some  have  supposed  to  be  in- 
herent in  it. 

The  belief  or  infidelity  of  the  statesmen  of 
antiquity,  who  were  left  to  wander  over  the 
fields  of  conjecture,  with  no  better  guide  than 
reason,  may  have  varied  in  individuals,  ac- 
cording to  the  understanding,  or  the  passions, 
or  the  wishes  of  each  ;  but  those  were  certain- 
ly very  rare,  who  admitted  into  their  closet 
the  various  and  irrational  worship  which  they 
encouraged  in  the  people.  They  supported 
religion  only  as  one  of  the  easiest  means  of 
governing  ;  and  valued  devotion  to  the  gods 
as  they  supposed  it  naturally  connected  with 
obedience  to  man  —  a  just  supposition,  in  a 
case  where  the  gods  were  little  removed  from 
the  nature,  and  generally  tainted  with  the 
vices,  of  humanity.  Our  short  inquiry  into 
the  manner  in  which  the  ancients  wielded 
this  engine  of  state  shall  be  confined  to  the 
History  of  Rome,  as  being  immediately  con- 
nected with  the  subject  of  the  present  chapter. 
Cicero  (de  Legibus,  c.  ii.  s.  8.)  gives  us  the 
following  extract  from  the  most  ancient  laws 
of  Rome.  'Let  no  one  have  any  separate 
worship,  nor  hold  any  new  gods  ;  neither  to 
strange  gods,  unless  they  have  been  publicly 
adopted,  let  any  private  worship  be  offered ; 


58 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH 


men  should  attend  the  temples  erected  by 
their  ancestors,'  &c.  From  Livy  (b.  iv.  c. 
30.)  we  learn  that  about  430  years  before 
Christ,  orders  were  given  to  the  iEdiles  to  see 
that  none  except  Roman  gods  were  worship- 
ped, nor  in  any  other  than  the  established 
forms.'  Somewhat  more  than  200  years  af- 
ter this  edict,  to  crush  certain  external  rites 
which  were  becoming  common  in  the  city, 
the  following  edict  was  published,  'that  who- 
ever possesses  books  of  oracle,  or  prayer,  or 
any  written  act  of  sacrifice,  deliver  all  such 
books  and  writings  to  the  Pretor  before  the 
Calends  of  April ;  and  that  no  one  sacrifice 
on  public  or  sacred  ground  after  new  or  for- 
eign rites.'  But  it  may  seem  needless  to  pro- 
duce separate  instances,  when  from  the  same 
historian  (b.  xxxix.  c.  16.)  we  learn,  that  it 
had  been  customary  in  all  the  early  ages  of  the 
republic  to  empower  the  magistrates  '  to  pre- 
vent all  foreign  worship,  to  expel  its  ministers 
from  the  forum,  the  circus,  and  the  city,  to 
search  for  and  burn  the  religious  books  (vati- 
cinos  libros),  and  to  abolish  every  form  of 
sacrifice  except  the  national  and  established 
form.' 

The  authority  of  Livy  is  confirmed  by  that 
of  Valerius  Maximus,  who  wrote  under  the 
emperor  Tiberius,  and  bears  testimony  to  the 
jealousy  with  which  all  foreign  religions  were 
prohibited  by  the  Roman  republic  (b.  i.  c.  3.). 
That  the  same  principle,  which  had  been 
consecrated  by  the  practice  of  seven  hundred 
years,  was  not  discontinued  by  the  emperors, 
is  clearly  attested  by  the  historian  Dio  Cassi- 
us  *  (p.  490-2.).  It  appears  that  Mecamas,  in 
the  most  earnest  terms,  exhorted  Augustus 
'  to  hate  and  punish'  all  foreign  religions,  and 
to  compel  all  men  to  conform  to  the  national 
worship  ;  and  we  are  assured  that  the  scheme 
of  government  thus  proposed  was  pursued 
by  Augustus  and  adopted  by  his  successors. 

Now,  from  the  first  of  the  passages  before 
us  it  appears  that  all  right  of  private  judgment 
in  matters  of  religion  was  explicitly  forbidden 
by  an  original  law  of  Rome  —  which  never 
was  repealed.  We  know  not  what  stronger 
proof  it  would  be  possible  to  adduce  of  the 
inherent  intolerance  of  Roman  Polytheism. 
The  four  next  references  prove  to  us  that  the 
ancient  law,  subversive  of  the  most  obvious 
right  of  human  nature,  was  strictly  acted  upon 
during  the  long  continuance  of  the  common- 
wealth. The  established  form  of  Paganism 
might  not  be  violated  by  individual  schism 
or  dissent ;  the  gods  whom  the  government 


*  In  the  year  U.  C.  701  the  temples  of  Isis  and 
Osiris  were  destroyed  by  order  of  the  Senate  (B.  40.). 


created  the  people  were  compelled  to  worship 
according  to  the  forms  imposed  by  the  gov- 
ernment. Under  the  early  emperors  the  same 
was  still  the  maxim  of  state  ;  and  if  the  influx 
of  idolaters  from  every  nation  under  Heaven 
made  it  difficult  to  preserve  the  purity  of  the 
Roman  religion,  that  religion  became  more 
domestic  and  (let  us  add)  more  Roman  by  the 
successive  and  easy  deification  of  some  of  the 
j  most  vicious  of  mankind. 

These  few  lines  may  suffice  for  the  present 
to  disprove  the  plausible  theory  of  the  toler- 
ance of  Paganism,  and  they  may  lead  us, 
perhaps,  to  discover  the  true  reason  why  the 
worship  of  Christ  was  forbidden  in  that  city 
which  acknowledged  the  divinity  of  Nero. 
At  least,  we  shall  have  learnt  from  them,  that 
the  religion  which  Christianity  supplanted 
was  very  far  from  possessing  the  only  point 
of  superiority  which  its  admirers  have  ever 
claimed  for  it.  And  we  shall  not  forget,  in 
the  following  pages,  to  direct  to  the  religious 
system  of  Rome  some  portion  of  the  abhor- 
rence which  is  usually  confined  to  the  indi- 
viduals who  administered  it. 

Number  of  persecutions.  Hitherto  we  have 
followed  the  progress  of  Christianity  through 
nearly  all  the  provinces  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire, and  some  countries  without  its  limits, 
as  if  we  had  been  attending  a  triumphal  pro- 
cession. The  less  pleasing  duty  remains  to 
describe  its  difficulties  and  its  afflictions. 
And  in  so  doing  it  is  not  easy  to  ascertain  the 
precise  path  of  truth,  entangled  as  it  is,  on 
one  side,  by  the  exaggerated  fictions  of  en- 
thusiasts, and  perplexed,  on  the  other,  by  the 
perversity  of  skepticism. 

Early,  though  not  the  most  ancient,  eccle- 
siastical historians,  followed  by  many  mod- 
erns, have  fixed  the  number  of  ^persecutions 
at  ten  ;  and  if  we  thought  proper  indiscrimin- 
ately to  designate  by  that  name  every  partial 
outrage  to  which  Christians  were  subjected 
from  the  reign  of  Nero  to  that  of  Constan- 
tine,  perhaps  even  this  number  might  be  con- 
siderably  extended.  *     On   the   other  hand, 

*  Mosh.  Gen.  Hist.  Cent.  i.  p.  i.  ch.  5.  Idem  de 
Chr.  Ant.  Const.  Ssec.  i.  sect.  xxvi.  The  number 
of  ten  persecutions  was  an  invention  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, derived  from  arbitrary  interpretation  of  proph- 
ecy rather  than  historical  evidence.  Lactantius,  in 
the  fourth  age  .enumerates  only  six.  Eusebius  specifies 
no  number,  though  he  appears  to  mention  nine.  The 
same  number  is  adopted  by  Sulpicius  Severus,  in  the 
fifth  century,  who  prepares  his  readers,  however,  for 
the  infliction  of  the  tenth  and  last  by  Antichrist  at  the 
end  of  the  world ;  from  this  time  ten  became  the  pop- 
ular computation. 


PERSECUTIONS    OF  THE  EMPERORS. 


59 


Gibbon  has  so  carefully  palliated  the  guilt, 
and  softened  down  the  asperity  of  those  suc- 
cessive inflictions,  that  in  his  representation 
not  one  of  them  wears  a  serious  aspect,  ex- 
cepting that  of  Diocletian  ;  though  he  admits 
that  some  transient  excesses  may  be  charged 
upon  Nero,  Domitian,  Decius,  and  perhaps 
one  or  two  others. 

Differing  in  many  respects  from  that  author 
in  our  view  of  this  portion  of  history,  and  an- 
imated, perhaps,  by  a  more  general  and  im- 
partial humanity,  we  are  still  willing,  in  this 
matter,  to  make  some  concessions  to  his 
opinion  ;  and  though  other  occasions  to  prove 
the  sincerity  and  constancy  of  Christians  were 
abundantly  presented,  yet  we  are  not  disposed 
to  impute  the  shame  of  deliberate  unrelenting 
persecution  to  more  than  four  or  five  among 
the  emperors  ;  but  in  one  important  respect 
our  estimate  of  these  events  will  still  differ 
from  that  of  the  philosophical  historian,  as 
we  shall  bestow  a  much  greater  share  of  at- 
tention on  the  conduct  of  Marcus  Antoninus. 
Our  reasons  will  appear  in  the  progress  of 
the  narrative. 

Nero.  The  persecution  of  Nero  was  the 
first  to  which  the  Christian  name  was  subject- 
ed, and  the  best  account  which  has  reached 
us  respecting  it  is  that  of  the  historian  Tacit- 
us, which  we  have  translated  in  a  former 
chapter.  From  his  description  it  appears, 
that  the  sufferings  of  the  Christians  did  not 
originate  in  any  evil  that  had  been  committed 
by  them,  nor  even  in  the  general  calumnies 
which  blackened  their  character,*  but  in  a 
specific  charge,  which  was  notoriously  false, 
that  they  had  occasioned  the  destructive  con- 
flagration so  generally  attributed  to  the  mad- 
ness of  the  Emperor  himself.  The  nature 
of  their  tortures  is  related,  and  the  very  spots 
particularized  on  which  they  were  inflicted. 
But  their  duration  is  not  mentioned,  nor  the 
extent  to  which  the  persecution  prevailed  (if 
it  at  all  prevailed)  in  other  parts  of  the  empire. 
The  fact,  that  it  arose  in  the  first  instance 
from  a  charge  which  was  necessarily  confined 
to  the  inhabitants  of  Rome,  is  certainly  not  a 
conclusive  argument  that  it  might  not  after- 
wards spread  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the 
city  ;  and  yet  both  the  words  and  the  silence 
of  Tacitus  are  such  as  indirectly  persuade  us, 
that  the  calamity,  which  he  is  describing,  was 

*  Suetonius,  Vit.  Neronis,  cap.  16.,  mentions  the 
same  event,  in'  the  midst  of  some  trifling  details  of 
sumptuary  restrictions,  in  these  few  words — 'Afflicti 
suppliciis  Christiani,  genus  hominum  superstitionis 
novae  et  maleficae.'  But  we  must  follow  the  circum- 
stantial narrative  of  Tacitus. 


both  local  and  transient.  The  imperfect  ac- 
count of  Eusebius  *  throws  little  more  ligh} 
on  these  questions,  which  have  in  vain  divid 
ed  the  opinions  and  exercised  the  ingenuity 
of  a  multitude  of  critics,  f  For  our  own 
part,  if  that  were  sufficiently  proved  which 
is  continually  asserted,  that  the  persecution 
lasted  for  four  years,  until  the  death  of  Nero,} 
we  should  very  readily  admit  the  probability 
that  it  was  general.  But  whatever  uncertain- 
ty may  rest  on  this  point,  the  expressions  of 
the  Pagan  historian  unhappily  convey  suffi- 
cient evidence  that  the  assault  was  exceed- 
ingly destructive  and  attended  by  every  cir- 
cumstance of  barbarity. 

Much  difference  has  also  existed  respecting 
the  laws  supposed  to  have  been  enacted  by 
Nero  against  the  Christians,  and  their  contin- 
uance or  repeal  §  by  subsequent  emperors. 
And  this  question  is  so  far  at  least  connected 
with  the  preceding,  that  the  mere  existence 
of  any  general  edicts  against  Christians  as 
such,  proves  that  the  particular  charge  on 
which  the  persecution  was  founded  had  been 
gradually  lost  in  more  general  accusations, 
which  had  been  followed  by  general  inflic- 
tions. But  even  in  this  case,  it  becomes  i 
question,  whether  Nero's  edicts  proceeded  any 
further  than  to  enforce  against  Christians 
specifically  the  ancient  statutes  universally  di- 
rected against  religious  innovation  —  whether 
it  was  not  rather  a  precedent  which  that 
emperor  established,  than  a  law  which  he 
enacted  —  a  precedent  which  would  be  fol- 
lowed or  disregarded  by  his  successors,  as 
their  character  and  religious  policy  might  lead 
them  to  execute  or  suspend  the  standing  stat- 
utes of  the  empire.  At  least  it  is  strange  that, 
when  his  other  laws  were  repealed,  that 
against  the  Christians  should  alone  remain  in 
force,  unless  we  conclude  that  that  alone  had 
existed  before  his  time,  and  had  been  applied 
or  perverted,  but  not  enacted,  by  him.|| 

*  Euseb.  H.  E.  lib.  ii.  c.  25. 

f  In  this  question,  which  involves  the  historical  ac- 
curacy of  Tertullian,  compare  the  reasoning  of  Sem- 
ler  (saec.  i.  cap.  6.)  with  that  of  Mosheim  (Gen.  Hist. 
Cent.  i.  p.  1.  ch.  5.)  The  forgery  of  the  Lusitanian 
inscription,  according  to  which  Nero  '  purged  that 
province  from  the  new  superstition,'  is  now  universal- 
ly admitted. 

%  In  the  year  68.  Mosh.  de  Re.  Christ,  ante 
Const,  saec.  i.  sect,  xxxiv. 

§  Some  declare  them  to  have  been  repealed  by  the 
Senate  (Mosh.  de.  R.  Christ,  ante  Const,  saec.  ii 
sect,  viii.),  and  Tertullian  (lib.  i.  ad  Nationes,  c.  7.; 
asserts  that  while  all  Nero's  other  institutes  were  re- 
pealed, that  against  the  Christians  alone  remained. 

||  Tertullian  (lib.  i.  ad  Nationes,  c.  7.)  calls  Nero's 
edict  Institutum  Neronianum,  and  in  other  places  (as 


60 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


Domitian.  After  this  first  affliction,  the 
Christians  passed  about  thirty  years  in  the 
silent  and  undisturbed  propagation  of  their 
religion.  In  the  year  94  or  95,  they  again  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  the  civil  power,  by 
exciting,  as  it  would  seem,  the  political  fears 
of  the  emperor.  Domitian  was  no  doubt  ac- 
quainted with  an  ancient  prophecy  prevalent 
throughout  the  east,  and  probably  an  imper- 
fect adumbration  of  the  prophecies  of  the 
Old  Testament,  that  the  imperial  sceptre  was 
destined  one  day  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  a 
Jew.  This  led  to  some  inquiries  into  the 
actual  condition  of  the  royal  family  of  Jeru- 
salem ;  and  the  grandsons  of  St.  Jude  the 
Apostle,  the  brother  of  the  Saviour,  are  said 
to  have  been  brought  before  the  throne  of  the 
tyrant:  but  his  jealousy  was  disarmed  by 
their  poverty  and  simplicity,  —  their  hands 
were  hardened  *  with  daily  labor,  —  and  their 
whole  property  consisted  in  one  small  farm 
of  about  twenty-four  acres.  And  when  the 
emperor  inquired  respecting  the  nature  of 
their  prophetic  hopes,  and  the  character  of 
the  monarch  who  was  to  rise  up  from  among 
them,  he  was  informed,  'that  his  kingdom 
was  not  of  earth,  but  heavenly  and  angelic- 
al ;  and  that  in  the  completion  of  time  he 
would  come  in  glory  to  judge  botli  the  liv- 
ing and  the  dead,  according  to  their  merits.' 
They  were  dismissed  without  injury  ;  and 
soon  after  this  event,  some  severities,  which 
had  lately  been  exercised  against  the  Christ- 


Apol.  cap.  5,  and  7,)  speaks  of  laivs  existing,  and 
occasionally  enforced  against  Christians ;  still  we  sus- 
pect him  of  error,  if  he  intended  to  attribute  to  Nero 
the  invention  of  those  laws — an  error  very  naturally 
rising  from  the  fact,  that  that  Emperor  was  the  first 
who  applied  them  to  Christianity.  See,  however, 
Bishop  Kaye  on  this  subject,  (Lee.  on  Tertull.  pp. 
115,  et  seq.)  Certainly  Gibbon  is  rather  presumptu- 
ous in  his  manner  of  concluding,  '  that  the  effects,  as 
well  as  the  cause,  of  Nero's  persecution  were  confined 
to  the  walls  of  Rome,  and  that  the  religious  tenets  of 
the  Christians  were  never  made  a  subject  of  punish- 
ment or  even  of  inquiry.'  (Chap.  16.)  Still  we  are 
disposed  to  assent  at  least  to  the  first  of  his  conclusions, 
as  we  are  aware  of  no  express  authority  for  the  contra- 
ry opinion  earlier  than  the  fifth  century.  (Sulp.  1.  ii. 
p.  146.;  Oros.  1.  vii.  c.  7,  &c.)  And  if,  on  the  one 
hand,  Tillemont  enumerates  a  great  variety  of  martyrs 
who  perished  in  that  persecution  (torn,  n  p.  71,  et 
fceq.)  ;  on  the  other,  Le  Clerc  has  anticipated  Gibbon 
in  both  his  positions,  and  argues  very  plausibly  in  fa- 
vor of  them.     (Hist.  Eccles.  ad  ann.  64.) 

*  Hegesippus  apud  Euseb.  iii.  20.  Le  Clerc, 
who  is  generally  and  justly  suspicious  of  the  authority 
of  Hegesippus,  is  persuaded  of  the  truth  of  this  narra- 
tive, by  its  simplicity  and  candor. — Hist.  Eccl.  ad 
ann.  96. 


ians,  were  suspended  by  the  prudence  *  or 
the  death  f  of  the  emperor. 

Trajan.  The  celebrated  epistle  of  Pliny  to 
Trajan  was  written  ten  or  twelve  years  after- 
wards, and  proves  that  the  Christians  in 
Bithynia  (and  probably  in  every  province  of 
the  east)  were  subjected  to  many  vexations 
and  sufferings.  The  emperor's  answer 
amounted  to  this  —  'that  the  Christians  are 
not  to  be  sought  for,  nor  molested  on  anony- 
mous information  ;  but  that  on  conviction 
they  ought  to  be  punished.'J  From  a  com- 
parison of  these  two  documents,  we  collect, 
first,  that  the  spirit  of  persecution  in  this  in- 
stance §  originated  rather  in  their  heathen 
fellow-subjects  than  in  the  character  of  the 
emperor;  and  secondly,  that  the  laws  by 
which  they  were  punished  were  not  any  re- 
cent edicts  issued  by  an  express  act  of  leg- 
islation against  Christians,  but  the  original 
statutes  of  the  republic  continued  and  applied 
to  them.  ||  The  object  of  Trajan,  in  this  re- 
script, was  their  mitigation  ;  it  is  probable 
that  he  knew  little  respecting  the  nature  and 
evidence  of  the  new  religion,  but  was  desir- 
ous somewhat  to  soften  the  practical  intol- 
erance of  his  own  ;  but  the  effect  was  not  in 
the  end  favorable  to  the  Christians,  1f  since  it 
gave  a  sanction  to  legal  persecution,  and  es- 


*  Tertull.  Apol.  c.  5.  This  author  is  the  rather  to 
be  believed  on  this  point,  because  it  does  not  go  to 
support  his  favorite  theory,  that  the  only  persecutors 
were  the  bad  emperors  —  a  fancy  to  which  he  has  un- 
fortunately sacrificed  many  indisputable  facts.  See 
also  Heg.  ap.  Euseb.  loc.  cit. 

t  Mosheim  (Gen.  Hist.  c.  i.  p.  i.  ch.  5.)  In 
another  place,  after  adducing  the  authorities  of  Lac- 
tantius  (cap.  iii.  De.  Hist.  Persec),  and  Xiphilinus 
in  Nerva  (De  Reb.  Clirist.  ante  Const.  skc.  i.  sect. 
36.),  he  leaves  the  question  doubtful. — Gibbon  follows 
the  opinion  which  shortens  the  persecution. 

%  Tertull.  Apol.  c.  ii.,  exposes  with  great  vehe- 
mence and  reason  the  injustice  and  inconsistency  ex- 
hibited in  this  rescript.  If  Christians  deserved  con- 
demnation, they  should  be  sought  after;  if  not  sought 
after,  they  should  not  be  condemned. — Si  damnas,  cur 
non  et  inquiris;   si  non  inquiris,  cur  non  et  absolvisl 

§  Euseb.  H.E.  lib.  iii.  c.  32.,  confirms  this  posi- 
tion. 

||  From  the  moment  that  a  precedent  existed  for 
the  application  of  those  statutes  to  the  religion  of  the 
Christians,  their  condition  would  at  all  times  be  very 
precarious,  as  being  dependent  not  only  on  the  policy 
of  the  emperor,  but  on  the  caprice  of  the  provin- 
cial governors;  since  it  would  naturally  seem  to  rest 
at  their  discretion  to  enforce,  or  not,  the  standing 
laws  against  a  sect  which  had  already  felt  their  se- 
verity. 

IF  Mosh.  de  Reb.  Christ,  ante  Const,  eaec.  ii. 
sect.  x. 


PERSECUTIONS  OF  THE  EMPERORS. 


61 


tablished  on  high  authority  the  fatal  maxim, 
that  the  mere  profession  of  Christianity  was 
a  criminal  offence.* 

The  truth  of  the  first  of  the  above  conclu- 
sions is  confirmed  by  the  annals  of  succeeding 
reigns.  About  the  year  120,  Serenius  Gran- 
ianus,  Proconsul  of  Asia,  wrote  to  Adrian, 
'that  it  seemed  to  him  unreasonable  that 
Christians  should  be  put  to  death  merely  to 
gratify  the  clamors  of  the  people,  without 
trial  and  without  any  crime  proved  against 
them.'  And  there  is  a  rescript  of  the  empe- 
ror, addressed  to  Minucius  Fundanus,  in 
which  this  letter  is  noticed,  and  in  which  it 
is  enjoined  that  Christians  should  not  be 
sacrificed  to  the  clamors  of  the  multitude. 

During  the  long  reign  of  Antoninus  Pius 
(from  138  to  161  a.  d.),  no  deliberate  injuries 
were  inflicted  upon  the  Christians  ;  and  it 
appears  that  they  suffered  much  more  from 
the  violence  of  popular  tumult  than  from  the 
operation  of  the  ancient  laws.  It  became 
common  about  this  time  to  attribute  national 
calamities  of  every  description  to  the  con- 
tempt of  the  national  religion  exhibited  by 
the  Christians.  '  If  the  Tiber  has  overflowed 
its  banks,'  (exclaimed  Tertullian  in  the  next 
generation,)  '  or  the  Nile  has  not  overflowed  ; 
if  heaven  has  refused  its  rain ;  if  the  earth 
has  been  shaken ;  if  famine  or  plague  has 
spread  its  ravages,  the  cry  is  immediately 
raised  —  Away  with  the  Christians  to  the 
lions.'f  The  emperor,  influenced,  as  some 
have  supposed,  by  the  Apologies  of  Justin 
Martyr,  published  one,  possibly  two,}:  edicts 
for  their  protection  against  such  outrage  ;  and 
during  this  reign  especially  they  grew  and 
extended  in  dignity  as  well  as  number,  and 
became  more  generally  known  by  writings 
not  devoid  of  energy  and  eloquence.  Pius 
was  succeeded  by  Marcus,  of  whom  Gibbon 
has  said,  that  '  during  the  whole  course  of 
his  reign  he  despised  the  Christians  as  a  phi- 
losopher, and  punished  them  as  a  Sovereign.'' 

Marcus  Antoninus.  Tt  seems  singular,  that 
a  historian,  who  makes  great  profession  of 
candor  and  universal  humanity,  should  al- 
most have  excepted  from  the  number  of  per- 
secutors the  only  name  (as  far  at  least  as  this 
part  of  our  inquiry)  to  which  that  ignomin- 

*  Illud  solum  expectatur,  confessio  nominis,  non 
examinatio  criminis.     Tertull.  Apol.  c.  ii. 

t  Tertull.  Apol.  cap.  40. 

$  That  mentioned  by  Justin  Martyr  at  the  end  of 
his  1st  Apol.,  and  hy  Eusebius,  1.  4,  c.  13.  (if  it 
could  establish  its  claims  to  be  genuine)  would,  with 
much  more  probability,  be  ascribed  to  Pius  than  to 
M.  Antoninus. 


ious  designation  appears  justly  and  certainly 
to  belong  :  for  under  all  the  preceding  empe- 
rors, the  injuries  inflicted  upon  the  Christians 
had  either  been  occasional,  as  arising  from 
some  casual  circumstance,  or  staining  only  a 
portion  of  their  reign  ;  or  partial,  as  confined 
to  a  few  provinces,  or  perhaps  cities  of  the 
empire.  Moreover,  they  had  been  sometimes 
excited,  and  generally  encouraged,  by  popu- 
lar irritation  ;  they  had  been  directed  against 
a  small  and  obscure  and  calumniated  sect, 
through  the  operation,  and  according  to  the 
seeming  intention,  of  the  ancient  statutes. 
And  the  efforts  of  individual  emperors  were, 
for  the  most  part,  turned  rather  to  the  suspen- 
sion or  mitigation  of  those  statutes  than  to 
the  rigid  enforcement  of  them.  In  addition 
to  this,  let  us  not  forget,  that  those  individu- 
als possessed  little  means  or  opportunity  to 
inform  themselves  respecting  the  peculiar 
principles,  doctrines,  or  habits  of  Christians; 
still  less  to  examine  the  foundation  of  their 
belief,  or  even  to  understand  that  it  had  any 
foundation : — if  they  permitted  the  work  of 
destruction  to  proceed,  it  was  in  ignorance 
and  blindness.  On  the  other  hand,  Marcus 
Antoninus  undertook  the  task  of  'punish- 
ment '  or  persecution  among  the  earliest  *  of 
his  imperial  duties,  and  he  continued  to  fulfil 
it  with  unremitting  diligence  throughout  the 
nineteen  f  years  of  his  splendid  administra- 
tion. He  acted  on  deliberate  principles,  and 
his  principles  were  not  of  partial  or  local  op- 
eration, but  were  equally  applicable  to  every 
province  of  his  empire.  And  thus  he  every 
where  enforced  the  laws  in  their  full  severi- 
ty ;  the  lives  J  and  the  property  of  the  con- 
victed were  forfeited  by  the  most  summary 
process  of  justice;   and  the  search  §  which 


*  Mosh.  de  Reb.  Ch.  ante  Const.  sa;c.  ii.  sect.  xv. 
xvi. 

t  From  161  a.  d.  to  180. 

^  Euseb.  H.  E.  lib.  v.  c.  1.  '  The  Emperor's  edict 
was,  that  those  who  denied  the  charge  of  Christianity 
should  be  spared,  but  the  rest  put  to  death  by  torture.' 

§  Movie  on  Marcus  Antoninus.  We  do  not  ac- 
cuse him  of  promulgating  any  new  laws  against  the 
Christians,  though  Melito  tells  us  of  a  violent  persecu- 
tion ia  this  reign  'by  new  edicts.'  In  fact,  such  a 
step  was  perfectly  unnecessary,  for  the  original  stat- 
utes, to  which  the  Christians  were  made  liable,  con- 
tained every  penalty.  His  letter  to  the  Assembly  of 
Asia  seems  indeed  to  be  a  forgery.  Moyle  certainly 
makes  out  this  point,  and  Jortin  is  of  the  same  opin- 
ion. It  is  attributed  by  Eusebius  to  Antoninus  Pius, 
and  his  rescript  it  must  be,  if  it  be  genuine  at  all. 
We  should  add,  that  Moyle  believes  Adrian's  letter  to 
Fandanus  to  be  '  as  arrant  a  juggle  as  that  of  Anto- 
ninus, though  the  conveyance  be  a  little  more  cleanly,' 
but  he  does  not  prove  this  opinion. 


62 


HISTORY  OF   THE    CHURCH. 


was  made  after  the  suspected,  and  which  the 
uninformed  humanity  of  Trajan  had  so  nobly 
discouraged,  sufficiently  proves  the  activity 
of  the  pursuit,  and  the  earnestness  of  the 
pursuer.  But  the  most  important  point  of 
distinction  is  probably  this :  Marcus  Antoni- 
nus knew  much  better  the  nature  of  the  evil 
which  he  was  committing:  he  was  acquaint- 
ed, to  a  certain  extent  at  least,  with  the  opin- 
ions of  the  Christians,  and  the  innocence  of 
their  character ;  and  it  is  not  likely  that  he 
had  entirely  neglected  to  examine  the  grounds 
of  their  faith.  He  watched  the  process  of 
his  own  inflictions,  and  when  he  perceived 
the  fortitude  with  which  all  endured,  and  the 
eagerness  with  which  many  courted  them,  he 
coldly  reproved  the  unphilosophic  enthusiasm 
of  the  Martyrs.*  And  yet,  perhaps,  his  own 
philosophy  was  not  quite  devoid  of  enthusi- 
asm, or,  at  least,  it  was  not  strictly  regulated 
by  reason,  when  it  led  him  to  labor  for  the 
destruction  of  the  most  moral  and  loyal  por- 
tion of  his  subjects,  only  because  they  dis- 
claimed the  very  superstitions  which  he 
placed  his  pride  in  despising.  Nor  again 
was  his  practice  consistent  with  his  professed 
contempt  of  these :  for  it  is  said,  and  seem- 
ingly on  good  foundation,  that  Marcus  Anto- 
ninus was  frequent  in  consultation  with  the 
Chaldaean  sages,  deeply  conversant  with  the 
mysteries  of  astrology,  credulously  attentive 
to  oracular  prophecy,  obedient  to  the  pre- 
monitions of  dreams,  which  he  believed  to 
descend  from  Heaven  —  assertions  not  in- 
credible, nor  inconsistent  with  his  studies  or 
his  principles  ;  and  there  is  ground  to  hesi- 
tate whether  we  should  not  rather  convict 
him  of  superstition  than  hypocrisy.  But  it 
is  certain  that  his  understanding  was  of 
the  broadest  and  most  comprehensive  de- 
scription ;  that  it  was  enlightened  by  every 
worldly  knowledge,  and  fortified  by  frequent 
meditation  ;  that  his  character  was  founded 
in  excellent  dispositions,  confirmed  by  the 
best  principles  which  were  known  to  the 
Pagan  world.  His  general  regard  for  justice 
has  never  been  questioned  ;  even  his  human- 
ity is  commonly  celebrated  ;  and  if  the  rep- 
resentations of  history  be  not  exaggerated,  he 
reached  as  high  a  degree  both  of  wisdom 

*  B.  xi.,  sec.  iii.  He  asserts  that  men  should  meet 
their  death,  '  not  through  mere  ostentation  as  do  the 
Christians,  but  considerately  and  with  dignity,  and 
without  theatrical  display.'  M-t\  xaiu  if/iX-r^v 
nagijCTa^v,  oSg  ol  XqkjticcvoI,  (xXlu  XsXoykj- 
fiivotg,  Kttl  aefii'wg,  xul  ujQayiodt'):.  The 
word  which  we  have  rendered  ostentation,  parade 
[nuqijiTa^vv^ ,  is  in  this  passage  usually  interpreted 
obstinacy. 


and  of  moral  excellence  as  is  attainable  by 
the  unassisted  faculties  of  man  —  and  yet 
this  prince  polluted  every  year  of  a  long 
reign  with  innocent  blood. 

In  our  natural  anxiety  to  honor  every  form 
of  human  excellence,  we  search  for  his  ex- 
cuse in  the  religious  policy  so  long  established 
in  the  empire.  But  we  find  that  those  of  his 
predecessors  who  were  disposed  to  soften  or 
suspend  its  operation  upon  Christians,  pos- 
sessed the  power  to  do  so;  and  we  cannot 
doubt  that  the  despotic  authority  of  Marcus 
would  have  enabled  him  to  revise  or  repeal 
those  oppressive  statutes,  if  he  had  learnt 
from  the  books  of  his  philosophers  the  virtue 
or  the  meaning  of  Toleration.  This,  indeed, 
is  the  real  and  only  ground  of  his  defence ; 
and  we  shall  regard  his  conduct  with  less  in- 
dignation, if  we  reflect  how  feeble  were  the 
mightiest  principles  of  conduct  with  which 
he  was  acquainted ;  on  what  a  loose  and 
shifting  foundation  they  rested ;  how  large 
was  the  class  of  virtues  which  they  did  not 
comprehend,  and  how  imperfect  were  the 
motives  which  they  proposed  for  the  practice 
of  any.  And  thus  considered,  we  shall  dis- 
cover, perhaps,  some  trace  of  heavenly  prov- 
idence in  the  circumstance,  that  the  imperial 
philosopher,  flourishing  in  the  maturity  of  his 
science,  and  deficient  in  nothing  which  na- 
ture or  man  could  bestow,  was  armed  with 
the  highest  temporal  authority  and  permitted 
to  direct  it  against  the  infancy  of  our  faith. 
From  the  splendid  imperfection  of  Marcus 
Antoninus,  from  the  perseverance  of  his 
powerful  enmity,  from  its  final  failure,  we 
may  learn  what  narrow  limits  have  been  as- 
signed to  the  virtue  and  wisdom  and  power 
of  unassisted  man  ;  and  we  derive  a  new  mo- 
tive of  gratitude  for  that  heavenly  aid,  which 
has  fixed  our  social  happiness  on  a  certain 
and  eternal  foundation. 

The  greatest  prince  of  antiquity  was  suc- 
ceeded by  a  son,  who  neither  inherited  his 
virtues,  nor  imitated  his  crime ;  so  far  from 
this,  that  we  might  almost  imagine  it  to  have 
been  the  object  of  Commodus  to  redeem  his 
numerous  vices  by  his  humanity  towards  the 
Christian  name. 

Severus  ascended  the  throne  in  the  year 
193,  and  is   represented   by  Tertullian  *  to 

*  Tertul.  ad  Scap.,  cap.  iv.  Sed  et  clarissimas 
feminas  et  clarissimos  viros  Severus  sciens  hujns 
seclse  esse  non  modo  non  krsit  verum  et  testimonio 
ornavit,  &c.  His  affection  for  the  Christians  is  at- 
tributed to  a  cure  formerly  performed  on  him,  by  the 
application  of  oil,  by  a  Christian  named  Proculus. 
We  must  be  careful  not  to  confound  this  medical  use 


PERSECUTIONS  OF   THE  EMPERORS. 


63 


have  bestowed  testimonies  of  approbation  on 
several  distinguished  Christians,  and  openly 
to  have  withstood  the  popular  fury  which  as- 
sailed the  sect.     But  this  account  will  apply 
only  to  the  earlier  part  of  his  reign ;  for  in 
the  year  202  (about  the  time  of  the  publica- 
tion of  Tertullian's  Apology)  he  issued  an 
edict,  which  indirectly  occasioned  a  variety 
of  inflictions,  the  most  barbarous  of  which 
appear  to  have  been  perpetrated  in  Egypt. 
The  professed  object  of  that  edict  was  only 
to  prevent  conversion  either  to  Judaism  or 
Christianity;    for  the  fears  of  the  emperor 
began  to  be  awakened  by  the  extraordinary 
progress  of  the  latter.     Its  effect  was  to  op- 
press and  torture  the  most  zealous  ministers 
of  the  faith,  and  to  inflame  the  prejudices  of 
the  people  against  all  believers.     This  enact- 
ment continued  in  force  for  about  nine  years, 
until  the  death  of  Severus ;  and  from  that 
period,  if  indeed  we  except  the  injuries  in- 
flicted by  Maximin  *  (from  235  to  238  a.  d.), 
and  directed  chiefly  against  the  instructers 
and  rulers  of  the  churches,  the  Christians, 
though  occasionally  liable  to  popular  outrage, 
had  not  much  reason  to  complain  of  the  in- 
justice of  the  government  until  the  accession 
of  Decius,  in  the  year  249. 

Decius.  Decius,  like  Marcus  Antoninus, 
is  also  ranked,  and  justly  ranked,  among  the 
most  virtuous  of  the  emperors.  The  virtues 
of  a  pagan  were  usually  connected  with  his 
philosophy,  and  his  philosophy  taught  him 
to  despise  every  form  of  worship.  Perhaps, 
too,  an  imperial  eye  might  view  with  natural 
distrust  the  free  and  independent  principles 
of  Christianity,  which  were  now  spreading 
into  more  general  operation  and  notice  — 
principles  which  acknowledged  an  authority 
superior  to  the  throne  of  man ;  and  though 
they  devoted  the  body  to  Csesar,  yet  set  apart 
the  soul  for  God.  It  would  be  observed,  too, 
with  some  jealousy,  that  the  progress  of  that 
worship  was  rapid  and  universal,  in  spite  of 
ancient  law,  popular  opposition,  and  imperial 
edict.  Its  truth  was  seldom  investigated,  be- 
cause it  was  not  yet  sufficiently  distinguished 
from  surrounding  superstitions,  which  laid  no 
claim  to  truth,  nor  even  professed  to  rest  on 
any  evidences;  and  thus  the  prejudices  of 
the  schools  at  once  assumed  that  the  worship 
of  Christ  was  no  better  founded  than  those 
of  Jove  and  Serapis.t 

of  oil  with  the  practice  of  extreme  unction,  which  did 
not  then  exist. 

*  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  lib.  vi.  c.  28.  Tillem.,  torn.  iii. 
p.  305. 

t  In  the  entire  pagan  scheme   (could  we  properly 


These  reasons,  carefully  considered,  wiB 
partly  account  for  the  peculiar  suspicion 
which  armed  itself  against  the  '  Christian  su- 
perstition,' and  at  the  same  time  will  exhibit 
to  us  the  motives,  through  the  influence  of 
which  some  of  the  wisest  and  best  among 
the  emperors  unhappily  numbered  them- 
selves among  our  adversaries.* 

The  persecution  of  Decius  proceeded  on  a 
broader  principle  than  that  of  Severus,  as  it 
pretended  no  less  than  to  constrain  all  sub- 
jects of  the  empire  to  return  to  the  religion 
of  their  ancestors  ;f  it  was  also  strictly  uni- 
versal, as  neither  confined  to  particular  prov- 
inces nor  classes,  but  extending  from  the 
lowest  confessors  to  the   highest  authorities 


of  the  Church.  Several  were  consigned  to 
exile  or  death :  Fabienus,  bishop  of  Rome, 
Alexander  of  Jerusalem,  Baby  las  of  Antioch, 
were  among  the  latter;  and  the  celebrated 
Origen  was  subjected  to  imprisonment  and 
torture.};  At  Alexandria,  in  the  year  preced- 
consider  it  as  one  scheme),  religion  and  philosophy 
together  professed  to  furnish  that,  which  Christianity 
supplies  to  us:  the  mysteries,  which  also  held  tb» 
place  of  doctrines,  the  ceremonies,  and  the  name  were 
provided  by  the  religion ;  the  ethics  by  philosophy. 
We  need  not  particularize  the  numerous  points  of  ad- 
vantage which  both  branches  of  the  Christian  system 
possess  over  the  corresponding  departments  of  pagan- 
ism. But  the  distinctions  chiefly  to  be  remarked,  are, 
that  the  religion  demanded  no  belief,  proposed  no 
creed,  inculcated  no  faith,  but  was,  in  fact,  identified 
with  its  ceremonies,  procession  and  sacrifice;  and 
that  'the  philosophy  which  undertook  the  whole 
charge  of  morals,  in  vain  proposed  an  elaborate  series 
of  barren  rules  and  lifeless  exhortations,  since  it  pos- 
sessed no  substantial  motive  whereby  to  enforce  them. 
When  we  reflect  how  essential  are  these  distinctions, 
we  shall  see  reason  sufficient  for  the  jealousy  with 
which  Christianity  was  assailed  both  by  the  one  and 
the  other.  But  their  incongruity  and  incoherence 
with  each  other  formed  the  most  striking  and  hope- 
less deformity  of  the  system;  for  philosophy  lived  in 
open  warfare  with  her  senseless  associate,  and  em- 
ployed a  great  portion  of  her  diligence  and  her  wit  in 
exposing  the  multiform  absurdities  of  polytheism. 
'  Quinimo  et  Deos  vestros  palam  destruunt.  .  .  .  laud- 
antibus  vobis!'     Tertul.  Apol.,  c.  46. 

*  Eusebius  (H.  E.,  lib.  vi.  c.  39.)  very  concisely 
attributes  the  persecution  of  Decius  to  the  hatred 
borne  by  that  emperor  to  his  predecessor  Philip 
Cyprian  considers  it  as  a  divine  chastisement  for  the 
sins  of  the  Church. 

t  Tillemont,  vol.  iii.  p.  310,  on  the  authority  of 
Greg.  Nyssensis,  who  gives  a  very  vivid  description 
of  the  effects  of  the  edict. 

|  Alexander  and  Babylaa  died  in  prison.  Some 
of  the  sufferings  of  Origen  are  particularized  in  Euse- 
bius, loc.  cit. ;  and  those  of  the  most  celebrated  mar- 
tyrs who  perished  on  this  occasion  occupy  above  a 
hundred  pages  in  the  Memoires  de  Tillem.  vol.  iii 
p.  325—428.  Ed.  2. 


64 


HISTORY  OF  THE    CHURCH. 


ing  the  accession  of  Decius,  some  Christians 
had  been  massacred  by  the  hatred  or  the  ava- 
rice of  the  Pagan  mob;  and  as  such  fatal 
outrages,  in  addition  to  authorized  injustice, 
were  rather  tolerated  than  promptly  repress- 
ed by  the  government  which  succeeded  that 
sanguinary  reign,  it  was  much  more  calami- 
tous to  the  faitli  than  its  short  duration  of 
three  years  would  lead  us  to  apprehend.  In- 
deed, the  unusual  number  of  those  who  fell 
away  from  their  profession  in  the  hour  of 
trial,  by  which  this  persecution  is  distinguish- 
ed from  those  preceding  it,  is  a  sufficient 
proof  of  its  intolerable  barbarity.* 

Valerian.  We  pass  over  the  comparatively 
lenient  inflictions  of  Gallus  and  Volusianus  ; 
but  the  sceptre  of  Valerian  was  more  darkly 
stained  by  the  blood  of  Cyprian,f  bishop  of 
Carthage,  a  man  of  learning  and  eloquence 
and  piety,  whose  blameless  life  and  final 
calmness  and  constancy  have  escaped  the 
censure  and  almost  the  sarcasm  of  history. 
It  will  be  instructive,  as  well  as  interesting, 
to  transcribe  the  simple  narrative  of  his  mar- 
tyrdom. 

On  the  13th  of  September,  258,  an  officer 
with  soldiers  was  sent  to  Cyprian's  gardens 
by  the  proconsul  to  bring  him  into  his  pres- 
ence. Cyprian  then  knew  his  end  was  near; 
and  with  a  ready  and  constant  mind  and 
cheerful  countenance  he  went  without  delay 
to  Sexti,  a  place  about  six  miles  from  Car- 
thage, where  the  proconsul  resided.  Cypri- 
an's cause  was  deferred  for  that  day.  He 
was  therefore  ordered  to  the  house  of  an 
officer,  where  he  was  detained  for  the  night, 
but  was  well  accommodated  and  his  friends 
had  free  access  to  him.  The  news  of  this 
having  been  brought  to  Carthage,  a  great 
number  of  people  of  all  sorts,  and  the  Christ- 
ians in  general,  flocked  thence  to  Sexti ;  and 
Cyprian's  people  lay  all  night  before  the  door 
of  the  officer,  thus  keeping,  as  Pontius  ex- 
presses it,  the  vigil  of  their  bishop's  passion. 

On  the  next  morning,  the  14th  of  Septem- 
ber, he  was  led  to  the  proconsul's  palace, 
surrounded  by  a  mixed  multitude  of  people 
and  a  strong  guard  of  soldiers.  After  some 
time,  the  proconsul  came  out  into  the  hall, 
and  Cyprian  being  placed  before  him,  he 
said,  'Art  thou  Thascius  Cyprian  ?  '  Cyprian 


*  The  fable  of  the  Seven  Sleepers  of  Ephesus  be- 
longs lo  this  persecution ;  the  supposed  martyrdom  of 
the  Theban  legion  to  the  reign  of  Diocletian. 

t  It  appears  from  Cyprian's  Epistles  that,  in  his 
Church  at  least,  the  full  severity  of  the  persecution 
scarcely  raged  for  more  than  one  year.  See  Tillem., 
vol.  iii.  p.  324. 


the  bishop  answered,  'I  am.'  Galerius  Max- 
imus  the  proconsul  said,  'The  most  sacred 
emperors  have  commanded  thee  to  sacrifice.' 
Cyprian  the  bishop  answered,  '  I  do  not  sac- 
rifice.' Galerius  Maximus  said,  'Be  well 
advised.'  Cyprian  the  bishop  answered,  'Do 
as  thou  art  commanded ;  in  so  just  a  cause 
thou  needest  no  consultation.'  The  procon- 
sul having  advised  with  his  council,  spoke  to 
Cyprian  in  angry  terms  as  being  an  enemy 
to  the  gods  and  a  seducer  of  the  people,  and 
then  read  his  sentence  from  a  tablet,  'It  is 
decreed  that  Thascius  Cyprian  be  beheaded.' 
Cyprian  the  bishop  said,  'God  be  praised;' 
and  the  crowd  of  his  brethren  exclaimed, 
'  Let  us  too  be  beheaded  with  him. 

This  is  the  account  given  in  the  acts  of 
Cyprian's  passion,  and  that  of  Pontius  is  to 
the  same  purpose.* 

Diocletian.  For  nearly  fifty  years  after  this 
outrage,  the  peace  and  progress  of  religion 
were  not  seriously  interrupted.  The  earliest 
portion  even  of  the  reign  of  Diocletian  was 
favorable  to  its  security,  and  it  was  through 
the  weakness  of  that  prince,  rather  than  his 
wickedness,  that  his  name  is  now  inscribed 
on  the  tablets  of  infamy  as  the  most  savage 
among  our  persecutors.  Two  circumstances 
may  be  mentioned  as  having  engaged  his 
tardy  consent  f  to  the  commencement  of  a 
plan  into  which  he  appears  to  have  entered 
with  the  most  considerate  calmness,  though 
it  is  also  true  that  during  its  progress  some 
incidents  occurred  which  enlisted  his  pas- 
sions in  the  cause,  and  even  so  inflamed 
them  that,  in  the  height  of  his  madness,  he 
certainly  proposed  nothing  less  than  the 
extermination  of  the  Christian  name.  The 
influence  of  the  Caesar,  Galerius,  who  was 
animated,  from  whatsoever  motive,  by  an 
unmitigated  detestation  of  the  worshippers 
of  Christ,  and  who  thirsted  for  their  destruc- 
tion, was  probably  the  most  powerful  of 
those  circumstances.  But  the  second  must 
not  be  forgotten.  In  the  disputes,  now  be- 
come general,  between  the  Christian  minis- 
ters and  the  pagan  priests,  the  teachers  of 


*  Lardner,  vol.  iii.  p.  141.  The  more  usual  date 
of  Cyprian's  martyrdom  is  257. 

t  Galerius  represented  to  him  that  the  permanence 
of  the  Roman  institutions  was  incompatible  with  the 
prevalence  of  Christianity,  which  should  therefore  be 
extirpated.  Diocletian  proposed  the  subject  to  a  sort 
of  Council,  composed  of  some  eminent  military  and 
judicial  officers.  They  assented  to  the  opinion  of 
Galerius ;  but  the  emperor  still  hesitated,  until  the 
measure  was  sanctioned  and  sanctified  by  the  oracle 
of  the  Milesian  Apollo. 


PERSECUTIONS    OF  THE   EMPERORS. 


65 


philosophy  are  almost  invariably  found  on 
the  side  of  die  latter ;  and  as  it  is  not  denied 
—  not  even  by  Gibbon  —  that  those  learned 
persons  directed  the  course  and  suggested  the 
means  of  persecution,  we  need  not  hesitate 
to  attribute  a  considerable  share  in  the  guilt 
of  its  origin  to  their  pernicious  eloquence. 

Diocletian  published  his  first  edict  in  the 
February  of  303.  Three  others  of  greater 
severity  succeeded  it ;  and,  during  a  shame- 
ful period  of  ten  years,  they  were  very  gen- 
erally and  rigorously  enforced  by  himself,  his 
colleagues,  and  successors.  It  is  needless  to 
particularize  the  degrees  of  barbarity  by 
which  those  edicts  were  severally  distin- 
guished ;  the  substance  of  the  whole  series  is 
this.*  The  sacred  books  of  the  Christians 
were  sought  for  aud  burnt;  death  was  the 
punishment  of  all  who  assembled  secretly 
for  religious  worship ;  imprisonment,  slavery, 
and  infamy  were  inflicted  on  the  dignitaries- 
and  presidents  of  the  Churches ;  every  ait 
and  method  was  enjoined  for  the  conversion 
of  the  believers,  and  among  those  methods 
were  various  descriptions  of  torture,  some  of 
them  fatal.  During  the  preceding  ninety 
years,  the  Church  had  availed  itself  of  the 
consent  or  connivance  of  the  civil  govern- 
ment to  erect  numerous  religious  edifices, 
and  to  purchase  some  landed  property  ;  these 
buildings  were  now  demolished,  and  the 
property  underwent  the  usual  process  of 
confiscation.  A  more  degrading,  but  less 
effectual,  measure  attended  these  ;  Christians 
were  excluded  from  all  public  honors  and 
offices,  and  even  removed  without  the  pale 
of  the  laws  and  the  protection  of  justice ; 
liable  to  all  accusations,  and  inviting  them 
by  their  adversity,  they  were  deprived  of 
every  form  of  legal  redress.  Such  were  the 
penalties  contained  in  those  edicts ;  and 
though  it  be  true  that  in  some  of  the  western 
provinces  of  the  empire,  as  in  Gaul  aud  per- 
haps Britain,  their  asperity  was  somewhat 
softened  by  the  character  and  influence  of 
the  Csesar,  Constautius,  we  are  not  allowed 
to  believe  that  their  execution  even  there 
was  generally  neglected,  and  we  have  too 
much  reason  to  be  assured  that  it  was  con- 
ducted with  very  subservient  zeal  throughout 
the  rest  of  the  empire.  In  process  of  time 
the  sufferings  of  the  Christians  were  partially 
dleviated   by   the   victories  of  Constantine ; 


*  Nearly  the  whole  of  Eusebius's  8th  book  is  de- 
rated to  this  subject;  on  which  he  possesses,  indeed, 
the  authority  of  a  contemporary,  as  he  is  believed  to 
have  been  born  about  the  year  270  a.  d.  See,  too, 
Lactant.  tie  Morte  Persecut.  cap.  13. 

9 


but  they  did  not  finally  terminate  till  his 
accession. 

Accession  of  Constantine.  That  event,  which 
took  place  in  the  year  313,  and  which  marks 
the  first  grand  epoch  in  ecclesiastical  history, 
ended  at  the  satne  time  both  the  fears  and 
the  sufferings  of  the  followers  of  Christ,  and 
established  his  worship  as  the  acknowledged 
religion  of  the  Roman  empire. 

As  the  account  here  given  of  the  persecu- 
tions of  the  early  Christians  differs  in  some 
respects  from  the  views  usually  taken  of  this 
important  portion  of  our  history,  it  may  be 
proper  to  close  this  chapter  with  a  few  addi- 
tional remarks. 

Unpopularity  of  Christians.  1st.  Contem- 
porary evidence  obliges  us  to  admit,  that  the 
Christian  name  was  for  many  years  (so  late 
at  least  as  the  reign  of  Decius)  an  object  of 
decided  aversion  to  many  of  those  who  did 
not  profess  it ;  whether  of  the  learned,  who 
scorned  the  origin,  were  ignorant  of  the  prin- 
ciples, and  feared  the  progress,  of  the  new 
religion,  or  of  the  vulgar,  who  believed  the 
calumnies  so  industriously  propagated  against 
its  professors.  Hence  proceeded  those  popu- 
lar tumults,  which,  during  the  first  two  cen- 
turies (if  we  except  from  them  the  reign  of 
Marcus  Antoninus),  may  have  destroyed  as 
many  victims  as  the  deliberate  policy  of  the 
emperors,  or  the  established  system  of  relig- 
ious government.  Still  it  must  appear  singu- 
lar that  a  body  of  persons,  distinguished  by 
the  moral  qualities  which  are  almost  univer- 
sally attributed  to  the  first  Christians,  should 
have  incurred  the  hatred  of  their  fellow- 
subjects,  rather  than  the  admiration,  or  at 
least  the  sympathy,  which  was  claimed  by 
the  character  of  their  virtues.  There  are 
several  reasons  by  which  we  may  account 
for  this  strange  circumstance.  The  prejudices 
and  passions  of  mankind  were  opposed  to  the 
new  religion  ;  it  contradicted  their  received 
ways  of  worship,  the  dictates  and  practices 
of  their  forefathers,  their  own  indulged  lusts 
and  evil  habits.  Even  the  fame  and  sem- 
blance of  peculiar  sanctity  are  ever  objects 
of  bitter  jealousy  to  those  who  are  incapable 
of  its  practice,  and  who  consequently  dispute 
its  reality.  Again,  when  it  was  observed  that 
Christians  were  not  contented  with  mere 
inactive  profession,  but  were  animated  with 
industrious  zeal  for  the  extension  of  their 
faith,  a  disposition  to  suspect  and  resist  it,  as 
it  were  in  self-defence,  was  excited  among 
many  ;  and  those  who  might  have  tolerated 


66 


HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


an  indifferent  or  merely  speculative  supersti- 
tion, armed  themselves  against  the  active  and 
converting  spirit  of  Christianity.  Another, 
perhaps  the  most  effective,  and  certainly  the 
original  cause  of  that  aversion,  was  the  perse- 
vering hostility  of  the  Jews  to  the  name  of 
Christ.  In  some  of  the  more  populous  and 
commercial  cities,  the  Jews  formed  no  incon- 
siderable portion  of  the  inhabitants,  and  they 
were  scattered  in  smaller  numbers  over  the 
whole  face  of  the  East.  The  destruction  of 
their  capital  increased  the  crowd  of  exiles, 
and  inflamed  the  angry  spirit  by  which  they 
were  animated.  It  is  true  that,  in  their  at- 
tempts at  open  outrage,  they  were  sometimes 
restrained  by  the  civil  power  ;  but  they  were 
more  successful  in  their  secret  endeavors  to 
excite  against  the  rising  sect  the  contempt  or 
malice  of  the  heathen.  To  their  malignity  we 
may  probably  attribute  those  monstrous  cal- 
umnies which  tainted  the  Christian  name,  at 
the  very  period  when  its  professors  were 
farthest  removed  from  corruption.  It  was 
rumored  and  believed  that  the  religious  meet- 
ings of  the  faithful  were  polluted  by  alternate 
excesses  of  superstition  and  debauchery ;  the 
mysteries  especially  were  invested  with  the 
most  revolting  character  ;  the  Eucharist  was 
said  to  be  celebrated  by  the  sacrifice  of  an 
infant,  and  the  Feast  of  Charity  was  repre- 
sented to  be  a  revel  of  cannibals.*  These 
stories  contained  nothing  incredible  to  a 
pagan,  whom  the  external  piety  of  the  new 
religionists  rendered  still  more  suspicious  of 
their  private  conversation.  Without  difficul- 
ty he  believed  in  the  perpetration  of  rites 
which  bore  some  resemblance  to  the  darker 
parts  of  his  own  superstition  ;  and  his  belief 
was  followed  by  insult  and  outrage. 

The  notorious  malevolence  of  the  Jews  did 
not  prevent  the  prevalence  of  another  very 
early  and  very  injurious  opinion  respecting 
Christianity — that  it  was  merely  a  form,  and 
a  rejected  form,  of  Judaism.  This  was  a  nat- 
ural error — since  the  religion  proceeded  from 
Judsea,  and  many  among  its  original  preach- 
ers, and  all  its  most  active  enemies  were  Jews 
— it  was  indeed  gradually,  though  slowly, 
removed  by  the  writings  of  the  early  fathers, 
and  the  progress  of  the  faith  ;  but  the  preju- 
dice arising  from  it  was  the  chief  cause  of 
that  contempt  with  which  the  worship  was 
regarded  for  above  one  hundred  years  both 
by  philosophers  and  statesmen. 

Again,  in  the  scenes  of  public  festivity,  in 
the  temples,  and  at  the  sacrifices  of  the  gods, 
the  Christian  was  never  present ;  he  partook 
*  See  Justin  Martyr,  Apol.  i.  35,  ii.  14. 


not  in  triumphs  and  rejoicings  of  which  relig- 
ion formed  any  portion,  and  appeared  not  at 
the  sports  of  the  amphitheatre,  except  as  a 
victim.  This  seclusion  from  the  amusements 
of  his  fellow-countrymen  was  mistaken  for 
indifference  to  the  happiness  and  interests  of 
his  country  ;  it  was  mistaken  for  disaffection 
to  the  government,  for  moroseness  or  misan- 
thropy ;  its  real  motive  was  never  estimated 
or  even  conceived  ;  for  the  careless  temper 
of  polytheism  was  unable  to  comprehend  an 
exclusive  religion,  or  to  understand  why  the 
worship  of  Jupiter  was  not  consistent  with 
that  of  Christ.  Another  difficulty  was  cre- 
ated by  the  spiritual  nature  of  our  religion. 
It  was  in  vain  that  the  Roman  magistrate 
inquired  for  the  images  and  statues  of  the 
God  of  the  Christians,  for  the  altars  and  tem- 
ples consecrated  to  him.  Unwilling,  or  una- 
ble to  believe  that  an  Invisible  Being  could 
be  the  immediate  object  of  adoration,  he 
pronounced  that  to  be  atheism,  which  differ- 
ed so  widely  from  the  general  appearance  of 
theism :  and  thus,  among  the  ignorant  at 
least,  the  Christians  were  liable  to  the  double 
imputation,  not  only  that  they  repudiated  the 
national  divinities,  but  that  they  substituted 
none  other  in  their  place.  It  was  probably 
this  last  charge  which  inflamed  and  enven- 
omed the  rest ;  for  the  same  moral  enormi- 
ties which  were  pardonable  in  the  devotee  of 
Apollo,  became  infamous  in  those  who  par- 
took of  no  devotion,  and  the  worshippers  of 
every  idol  under  heaven  united  their  clamors 
against  the  impiety  of  the  atheists ;  and  un- 
happily, among  the  impassioned  natives  of 
the  East,  clamors  are  seldom  unattended  by 
violence,  and  violence  is  only  satisfied  with 
blood. 

There  is,  perhaps,  no  characteristic  by 
which  Christianity  was  so  early  and  so 
strongly  distinguished,  as  the  pious  horror  of 
every  approach  to  idolatry  ;*  this  singularity 
would  be  more  commonly  forced  on  the  at- 
tention of  pagans  than  any  other,  and  no 
doubt,  in  the  opinion  of  the  vast  majority, 
with  whom  the  image  was  in  fact  the  object 
of  worship,  it  would  be  sufficient  alone  to 
constitute  irreligion.  Again,  it  led  them  into 
a  second  and  scarcely  less  dangerous  impu- 
tation, that  of  disloyalty ;  since  the  image 
of  the  emperor,  which  was  usually  exalted 
among  the  standards  and  in  public  places. 


*  This  extreme  aversion  from  every  form  of  idol- 
atry is  ascribed  to  a  prevalent  belief,  that  the  statues 
were  actually  animated  by  those  supposed  beings 
whom  the  pagans  worshipped  as  gods,  and  whom  the 
Christians  abominated  as  devils 


PERSECUTIONS   OF  THE   EMPERORS. 


67 


was  not  honored  by  the  devout  salutation  of 
the  Christian  ;  and  this  omission  naturally 
gave  pretext  to  a  political  charge. 

As  another  cause  of  the  early  unpopularity 
of  the  Christians,  we  may  mention  the  un- 
ceasing opposition  of  all  whose  personal  in- 
terests were  concerned  in  the  support  of 
paganism.  The  magnificent  temples  and 
gorgeous  ceremonies  of  that  superstition  were 
a  source  of  unfailing  profit,  not  only  to  a 
numerous  race  of  priests  and  hierodules,  of 
architects  and  statuaries,  but  to  multitudes 
of  citizens,  who  lived,  like  the  craftsmen  of 
Ephesus,  on  the  treasury  of  the  temple,  and 
were  engaged  by  their  most  immediate  ne- 
cessities to  maintain  the  worship;  and  not 
these  onljr,  but  the  whole  mass  of  the  popu- 
lace, were  in  some  degree  gainers  by  the 
sacrificial  profusion  which  distinguished  their 
religion  ;  to  say  nothing  of  the  share  which 
they  took  in  those  splendid  processions  and 
rites,  which  converted  the  practice  of  religion 
into  mere  sensual  enjoyment  and  careless 
festivity.  When,  in  the  place  of  this  pomp- 
ous pageantry,  it  was  proposed  to  substitute  a 
simple  spiritual  worship,  recommended,  not 
by  the  display  of  external  ceremony,  which  it 
scorned,  but  by  inward  purity  and  the  sanc- 
tity of  moral  excellence,  in  opposition  at  the 
same  time  to  the  passions  of  all  men,  and  to 
the  immediate  interests  of  many,  it  would 
have  been  strange  indeed  if  the  popular  voice 
had  not  been  raised  against  it. 

To  the  many  causes  of  excitement  already 
mentioned  we  may  add  one  more — the  sub- 
stantial motive  of  avarice ;  since  we  invaria- 
bly find  that  the  Christians,  who  were  the 
objects  of  these  popular  commotions,  sustain- 
ed, among  other  injuries,  the  loss  of  their 
property.  And  we  must  not  forget  that,  in 
many  instances,*  the  Roman  police  tolerated, 

*  During  the  whole  course  of  these  persecutions, 
with  the  exception  of  those  few  in  which  the  emperor 
pronounced  his  will  by  an  express  specification  of  the 
penalties,  very  much  rested  on  the  discretion  of  the 
magistrates,  and,  undoubtedly,  many  among  these 
were  guided  by  the  common  feelings  of  humanity. 
(Tertul.  Apol.,c.  27.  Ad  Scapulam,  c.  4.  Scorpiace, 
c.  1.)  But  the  clamors  of  an  importunate  populace 
also  demand  more  than  common  firmness,  to  be  inva- 
riably resisted.  Gibbon,  in  his  endeavor  to  exaggerate 
the  humanity  of  the  Roman  magistrates,  has  forgotten 
his  own: — 'They  were  far  from  punishing  with  death 
all  those  who  were  convicted  of  an  obstinate  adherence 
to  the  new  superstition;  contenting  themselves  for  the 
most  part  with  the  milder  chastisements  of  imprison- 
ment, exile,  or  slavery  in  the  mines,  they  left  the 
unhappy  victims  of  their  justice  some  reason  to  hope 
for  a  prosperous  event — the  accession,  the  marriage, 


perhaps  encouraged,  excesses  which  it  might 
possibly  consider  as  an  innocent  exercise  of 
popular  feeling,  or  as  a  part  of  a  religious 
ceremony. 

The  evils  which  we  have  here  noticed,  or 
at  least,  the  causes  which  produced  them, 
were  most  prevalent  in  the  earliest  age  of  the 
religion,  and  seem  gradually  to  have  died 
away  during  the  third  century.  For  they 
were  chiefly  founded  in  ignorance  of  the  real 
principles  of  Christianity,  aided  by  contempt 
for  the  weakness  of  its  professors ;  circum- 
stances which  were  gradually  removed  as  the 
members  of  the  Church  advanced  in  numbers 
and  its  ministers  in  learning.  But  this  pro- 
gress of  the  faith  (as  we  have  had  occasion  to 
observe)  did  not  immediately  reconcile  or 
disarm  its  adversaries,  but  rather  changed 
their  character  and  their  weapons.  For  in- 
stance, during  the  first  ages  we  do  not  ob- 
serve that  the  pagan  priesthood  were  distin- 
guished by  any  systematic  exertions  against 
the  new  worship,  and  they  may  possibly  have 
despised  and  overlooked  it ;  but  presently 
their  seeming  indifference  was  changed  into 
suspicious  jealousy,  and  then  into  active  and 
persevering  hatred  ;*  and  we  may  be  assured 
that  the  influence  which  they  possessed  over 
the  people  (whatsoever  that  may  have  been) 
was  exerted  to  the  prejudice  of  the  rival  re- 
ligion. In  the  next  place,  philosophy  de- 
scended from  the  contempt  with  which  she 
had  professedly  viewed  the  earliest  efforts  of 
Christianity,  and  proceeded  to  distinguish  it 
from  all  other  '  superstitions '  by  her  malice 
and  enmity;  and  she  knew  not  in  so  doing 
how  honorable  a  distinction  she  had  confer- 
red on  it.  This  coalition  of  philosophy  with 
paganism,  though  strange,  was  not  unnatural ; 
nor  would  any  evil  consequences  have  fol- 
lowed it,  had  it  not  engaged  the  concurrence, 
and  advanced  under  the  banners,  of  civil  au- 
thority.f  And  if  it  be  true  that  from  her 
numerous  chastisements  and  inflictions  our 
religion  may  have  somewhat  profited  in 
purity,  we  must  admit  that  she  learnt  one 
hateful  lesson   in  the  school  of  adversity, 


or  the  triumph  of  an  emperor,  which  might  restore 
them  by  a  general  pardon  to  their  former  state.' — 
Chap.  xvi. 

*  See  Mosh.  de  Reb.  Christ.  Ant.  Const.  Stec.  iv. 
sec.  1. 

1  There  seems  reason  to  believe  that  this  alliance 
was  fortified  by  the  powerful  addition  of  the  Roman 
bar ;  at  least  we  are  assured  that  the  proconsuls  felt 
themselves  so  interested  in  the  defence  of  ancient  laws, 
during  Ulpiau's  time,  as  to  endeavor  to  excite  Alex- 
ander Severus  against  an  illegal  religion.  This  took 
place  about  223.     Baron.  Ann.  t.  ii.  p.  367,  369. 


68 


HISTORY    OF   THE   CHURCH. 


which  in  after  ages  sne  did  not  forget  to 
practise ;  it  was  deeply  ingrafted  on  her  in- 
fancy by  her  sufferings,  and  it  brought  forth 
in  her  maturity  the  bitter  fruits  of  crime  and 
misery.  However,  the  poisonous  plant  was 
not  the  native  of  her  own  vineyard,  and  it  is 
now,  for  the  most  part,  rooted  up  and  cast 
away ;  and  she  accounts  it  the  severest 
among  the  wrongs  of  her  pagan  oppressors 
that  they  instructed  her  in  the  maxims,  and 
accustomed  her  to  the  spectacle,  of  persecu- 
tion. 

II.  As  an  excuse  for  the  rigor  of  the  Ro- 
man government,  it  has  been  argued  that  the 
Christians  were  not  punished  for  their  wor- 
ship of  Christ,  but  for  their  refusal  to  sacrifice 
to  the  gods  of  their  ancestors  and  their  gov- 
ernment;* and  that  the  crime  for  which 
they  suffered  was  not  in  fact  their  religion, 
but  their  contumacy ;  and  some  set  great 
value  on  this  argument.  In  our  opinion  it 
amounts  to  nothing  more  than  this  :  the  laws 
of  Rome  punished  all  religious  dissent  with 
death ;  openly  to  oppose  those  laws  was  sedi- 
tion ;  and  thus  the  punishment  was  inflicted 
on  the  sedition,  not  on  the  dissent.  This  is 
foolish  and  unworthy  sophistry ;  and  its 
utmost  consequence  could  go  no  farther  than 

*  The  dialogue,  which  is  supposed  to  have  taken 
place  during  the  reign  of  Severus  (about  200)  be- 
tween Satuminus,  proconsul  of  Africa,  and  Speratus, 
one  of  the  famous  Scyllitan  martyrs,  whether  genuine 
or  not,  is  very  ancient  and  perfectly  consistent  with 
probability.  '  You  may  hope  for  the  pardon  of  the 
emperors  our  masters,  if  you  come  to  your  senses  and 
observe  the  ceremonies  of  the  gods.'  '  We  have  never 
done  any  evil,  nor  partaken  in  injustice.  We  reed- 
ed not  to  have  injured  anyone;  on  the  contrary, 
when  we  suffer  we  render  thanks  to  God:  in  which 
respect  we  obey  our  Emperor,  who  has  ordained  that 
rule  for  us.'  '  We  also  have  a  very  simple  religion; 
we  swear  by  the  genius  of  the  emperors,  and  make 
vows  for  their  health;  you  must  do  as  much.'  'If 
you  will  listen  to  me  calmly,  I  will  tell  you  the  myste- 
ry of  Christian  simplicity.'  'I  will  not  thus  allow 
insults  to  be  introduced  1  Swear  rather  by  the  ge- 
nius of  the  emperors  our  masters,  that  you  may  con- 
tinue to  live.'  '  I  recognise  not  the  genius  of  the 
emperor  of  this  world,  but  I  serve  the  God  of  Heaven, 
whom  no  man  hath  seen  or  can  see.  I  have  never 
committed  any  crime  punishable  by  the  laws.'  They 
were  remanded,  and  on  the  following  day  brought  up 
again.  '.  Do  you  persevere  in  being  a  Christian  V 
'Yes,  I  persevere:  I  call  you  all  to  witness — I  am  a 
Christian.'  All  those  who  had  been  arrested  with 
him  heard  him,  and  cried,  '  We  also  are  Christians.' 
•You  will  neither  deliberate  then  nor  receive  pardon.' 
•We  need  no  pardon  with  justice  on  our  side;  do 
what  you  will;  we  die  with  joy  for  Jesus  Christ.' 
&c.  &c.  Art.  Mart.  Scyll.  p.  87.  Fleury,  H.  E., 
I  v  sect  2. 


to  excuse  the  individual  who  executed  the 
laws,  and  to  throw  the  whole  odium  upon 
the  system.*  But  to  allow  it  even  this  weight 
is  too  much  concession  ;  for  we  perceive,  by 
the  very  different  manner  in  which  the  law 
was  enforced  by  different  emperors,  that  they 
possessed,  in  fact,  an  authority  superior  to  it, 
and  power  to  suspend  or  revise  it  ;  and  that 
there  was  not  one  of  whom  it  can  be  truly  said 
that  he  was  barbarous  on  compulsion.  But 
on  the  other  hand,  if  any  will  persist  to  justify 
the  personal  character  of  certain  emperors  at 
the  expense  of  the  religious  policy  of  the  em- 
pire, they  give  us  only  additional  reason  to 
rejoice  at  the  triumph  of  Christian  principles 
over  the  inherent  depravity  of  the  pagan 
system. 

Another  and  a  very  fruitless  dispute  has 
been  raised  respecting  the  general  virtues  or 
vices  or  fortunes  of  those  sovereigns  who  are 
most  remarkable  for  severity  towards  the 
Christians ;  and  while  some  have  asserted 
that  our  persecutors  are  to  be  found  only 
among  the  most  odious  and  vicious  of  the 
emperors,  and  while  others  endeavor  to  es- 
tablish a  sort  of  temporal  retribution  which 
overtook,  by  violent  or  untimely  deaths,  all 
who  were  hostile  to  our  name  ;  there  are 
again  other  writers  who  have  been  willing  to 
insinuate  that  the  wisest  and  most  virtuous 
monarchs  were  those  most  sensible  of  the  ne- 
cessity to  repress  the  growing  religion.  All 
these  writers  are  almost  equally  remote  from 
truth.  The  former  are  obliged  to  qualify  the 
unrelenting  injustice  of  Marcus  Antoninus 
out  of  respect  to  his  various  virtues  and  his 
natural  end  ;  and  the  last  must  extenuate  the 
outrages  of  Nero  only,  or  Domitian,  or  Max- 
imin,  but  of  Galerius  and  the  stupid  barbarian 
Licinius.  But  if  the  insinuation  were  really 
founded  in  fact,  the  only  important  conclu- 
sion which  could  be  derived  from  it  is  one 
which  we  are  not  anxious  to  dispute ;  that 
the  noblest  human  wisdom  was  not  exempt 
from  shameful  folly,  and  that  the  highest 
principles  of  justice  discoverable  by  man 
permitted  the  perpetration  of  revolting  enor- 
mities. In  the  mean  time,  the  truth  appears 
to  be  nearly  this:  that,  in  the  want  of  any 
fixed  and  substantial  rule  of  action,  the  impe- 
rial character  fluctuated  between  the  extreme 


*  Precisely  of  the  same  value  is  another  excuse, 
derived  from  the  admission  that  it  was  difficult  or  im- 
possible for  a  pagan  to  comprehend  even  the  meaning 
of  toleration,  according  to  the  latitude  which  we  give 
to  it.  Its  only  effect  can  be  to  turn  away  our  indigna- 
tion from  the  individuals  upon  the  system  which  made 
them  tyrants  and  persecutors. 


PERSECUTIONS  OF  THE  EMPERORS. 


69 


limits  of  depravity  and  (what  was  called) 
virtue ;  that  the  motives  of  all  our  enemies 
(except  M.  Antoninus  and  Diocletian)  and  of 
many  of  our  protectors  are  to  be  sought  either 
in  accidental  circumstances  or  in  their  own 
caprices  ;  and  that  in  both  those  classes  we 
may  number  princes  of  the  highest  moral  and 
intellectual  excellence  and  of  the  lowest  im- 
aginable turpitude.* 

III.  Without  giving  our  universal  assent 
to  the  popular  paradox,  that  the  effect  of  per- 
secution is  to  nourish  that  which  it  seems  to 
consume,  we  may  admit  that  the  pagan  per- 
secutions were  not,  peril aps,  upon  the  whole 
unfavorable  to  the  progress  of  our  religion.f 
Among  many  reasons  for  this  opinion,  there 
are  three  which  appear  to  us  important. 

1.  The  first  of  these  is  tlie  nature  of  the 
persecutions  themselves  ;  which,  in  the  first 
place,  were  usually  of  short  duration,  and  re- 
lieved by  longer  intermissions,  if  not  of  secu- 
rity, at  least  of  repose  and  hope,  so  that  the 
survivors  had  space  to  refit  their  shattered 
vessel  against  the  tempests  which  were  still 
in  the  horizon  ;  and  which,  in  the  next,  were 
generally  signalized  by  such  extreme  barbar- 
ity, and  such  obvious  injustice  as  civil  pun- 
ishments, as  not  only  to  revolt  whatever 
humanity  might  be  found  among  the  specta- 
tors, but  to  harden  and  fortify  the  obstinacy 

*  Another  question  has  been  raised  concerning  the 
probable  number  of  the  martyrs ;  and  this  has  led  to 
wider  difference,  as  it  is  less  capable  of  accurate 
determination.  (Dodwell,  Dissert,  in  Cypr.  XL 
Ruinart,  Pref.  Act.  Martyr.)  The  spirit  of  exag- 
geration or  credulity  on  the  one  hand  has  excited  that 
of  disparagement  or  skepticism  on  the  other;  and  the 
truth,  if  it  could  be  ascertained  at  all,  would  be  found 
to  lie  between  them.  It  is  certain,  however,  that 
when  Gibbon  estimates  the  whole  number  of  Diocle- 
tian's victims  throughout  the  provinces  of  the  Eastern 
empire  according  to  the  trifling  portion  who  perished 
in  Palestine,  he  infers  neither  very  fairly  nor  very  con- 
sistently; for  in  other  places  he  is  forward  enough  to 
acknowledge  the  narrow  limits  and  to  extenuate  the 
population  of  Palestine,  and  he  was  not  ignorant  that 
even  the  proportion  of  Christians  in  that  country  was 
less  than  in  any  other  province.  Sender  (sec.  1.  c.  6.) 
inclines  to  the  opinion  of  Dodwell,  admitting  the  dif- 
ficulty of  the  question;  and  Bishop  Kaye  (Lect.  on 
Tertull.  p.  138.)  remarks  that  'though  the  number 
may  have  been  greater  than  Dodwell  was  willing  to 
allow,  it  is  certain  that  his  opinion  approaches  much 
nearer  to  truth  than  that  of  his  opponents.'  It  has 
been  one  cause  of  the  exaggeration,  that  the  term 
martyr  (witness)  was  in  the  early  Church  indiscrim- 
inately extended  to  all  whose  religion  had  exposed 
ihem  to  any  infliction,  as  loss  of  property  or  liberty — 

class  of  sufferers  now  usually  called  confessors. 

■f-  The  same  was  the  professed  opinion  even  of  Ter- 
tull ian  himself. 


of  the  sufferers.  2.  The  noble  and  devoted 
constancy  with  which  martyrdom  was  gene- 
rally endured,  excited  the  admiration  of  the 
best  portion  of  the  Gentile  world;  and  not 
their  admiration  only,  for  those  who  reflected 
on  what  they  beheld  were  persuaded,  first, 
of  the  piety  of  the  sufferers,  and  next  of  their 
sincerity ;  and  this  persuasion  led  some 
among  them  to  examine  the  foundation  of 
those  motives  and  principles  which  seemed 
to  infuse  an  original  energy  into  the  human 
soul.  If  a  new  crime  was  invented  for  the 
affliction  of  the  Christians,  a  new  virtue  ap- 
peared to  be  sent  down  to  them  for  their 
support;  and  it  became  a  serious  question, 
whether  that  virtue  could  otherwise  have 
sustained  them,  than  by  the  direct  interfer 
ence  of  Heaven.  3.  Several  driven  from 
their  country  by  persecution,  carried  with 
them  into  distant  and  barbarous  exile  the 
faith  of  the  Christian,  and  the  zeal  of  the 
missionary  and  the  martyr.  And  thus  the 
victims  of  man's  blind  and  insensate  impiety 
became  instruments  in  the  scheme  of  Provi- 
dence for  the  advancement  of  his  great 
purposes  in  the  propagation  of  faith  and 
knowledge. 


CHAPTER  V. 

On  the  Heresies  of  the  first  three  Centuries. 

Meaning  of  the  word  Heresy  —  Charges  of  immorality 
brought  against  Heretics —  Their  treatment  by  early 
Church  —  Number  of  early  Heresies  —  Moderation  of 
the  primitive  Church  —  Three  classes  of  Heretics.— 
1.  Two  kinds  of  philosophy  —  Gnosticism  —  Origin 
and  nature  of  that  doctrine  —  its  association  with 
Christianity  —  Moral  practice  of  the  Gnostics —  Their 
martyrs  —  Various  forms  of  Gnosticism  — Basilides  — 
Carpocrates  —  Valentinus  —  Cerdo  and  Marcion  —  Ta- 
tian  and  the  Encratites.  2.  The  Ebionites  — Euse- 
bius's  account  of  them  — Conclusions  from  it  —  The 
Heresy  of  Artemon  — revived  by  Paul  of  Sarnosata  — 
his  sentence  and  expulsion  —  how  finally  enforced  — 
Heresy  of  Praseas  —  Doctrines  of  the  Church  stated  by 
Tertullian  —  Sabellius  —  his  opinions  —  Patropassians. 
3.  Simon  Magus  — Montanus —his  preaching  and 
success  — Controversy  on  the  Baptism  of  Heretics  — 
The  Novatians  — their  schism  and  opinions  — Conclu- 
sions respecting  the  general  character  of  the  early  Her- 
esies, and  the  manner  of  opposing  them  —  On  the 
Fathers  of  the  primitive  Church— Real  importance  of 
their  writings  — Shepherd  of  Hernias  — Epistle  of  St 
Barnabas  —  Ignatius—  Poly  carp  —  Clement  of  Koine 
Respecting  their  doctrine— Irenreus 

The  original  meaning  of  the  word  heresy  is 
choice ;  it  was  long  used  by  the  philosophers 
to  designate  the  preference  and  selection  of 
some  speculative  opinion,  and  in  process  of 


70 


HISTORY  OF   THE    CHURCH. 


time  *  was  applied  without  any  sense  of  re- 
proach to  every  sect — a  term  with  which  it 
thus  became  nearly  synonymous.  From 
philosophy  it  passed  into  the  service  of  relig- 
ion, and  we  find  it  applied  both  by  St.  Luke 
and  Josephus  f  to  the  Pharisees  and  Saddu- 
cees,  with  no  imputation  of  censure  or  error. 
Next  we  observe,  that  it  was  employed  by 
the  Jews  to  distinguish  the  new  opinions  of 
the  Christians ;  St.  Paul  is  accused  of  being 
the  'ringleader  of  the  heresy  of  the  Naza- 
renes,'  and  confesses  that  he  'worships  the 
God  of  his  fathers,  after  the  way  which  they 
call  heresy ' — an  expression  which  indicates, 
that  some  reproach  had  been  intended  by  the 
term.  The  word  was  then  adopted  by 
Christians  ;  and  though  it  still  continued  for 
some  ages  to  be  used,  in  its  first  and  most 
general  sense,  to  designate  every  denomina- 
tion, not  only  of  sects  but  of  false  religions^ 
yet  for  the  most  part  it  was  employed  in 
speaking  of  those  who,  professing  Christiani- 
ty, had  departed  from  the  doctrine  which 
was  taught  by  the  Apostles.  In  the  mouth 
of  an  orthodox  Christian  it  could  not,  in  any 
of  these  senses,  be  a  term  of  indifference ; 
since,  according  to  the  necessary  exclusive- 
ness  of  our  principles,  the  faith  which  was 
revealed  through  Christ  and  interpreted  by 
his  Apostles  is  alone  truth ;  every  other  be- 
lief is  error. 

We  next  observe,  that  the  notion  of  wilful- 
ness and  perversity  (perhaps  a  much  worse 
notion)  was  very  early  attached  to  it ;  and 
even  by  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  it 
is  sometimes  so  used,  that  a  somewhat  indefi- 
nite idea  of  evil  appears  to  have  been  affixed 
to  it.  Some,  indeed,  have  supposed  that  it 
was  understood  by  early  Christian  writers  to 
contain  the   imputation  of  immorality,^  and 

*  Cicero.  (Paradox  I.  vol.  vii.  p.  845.  Ed.Oxon.) 
Philo  Judaens.  (Fragm.  e  lib.  II.  in  Exod.)  Burton, 
Bampt.  Lect.  I. 

■f  Acts  of  Apostl.  v.  17.  xv.  5.  Joseph.  Antiq. 
xiii.  5.  9. 

$  Epiphanius,  in  his  Book  on  Heresies,  men- 
tions BaQ^aqiafxbg,  2xvdio(.ibg,  'Elfajviaiiiuc, 
Iovdaia/jvc ,  Su^uQEnia^oQ,  all  under  the  name 
of  heresy.  Balsamon  (Comment.  14th  Can.  Council 
of  Chalcedon)  expresses  himself  thus: — 'Heretics  are 
divided  into  two  kinds:  1.  Those  who  receive  the 
Christian  religion,  but  err  in  points,  who,  when  they 
come  over  to  the  Church,  are  anointed  with  oil; 
2.  those  who  do  not  receive  it  at  all,  and  are  unbe- 
lievers, such  as  Jews  and  Greeks;  and  these  we  bap- 
tize.'    See  Burton's  Bampt.  Lect.  I. 

§  The  argument  amounts  to  this;  heresy  is  opposed 
by  St.  Paul  to  faith,  and  is  commensurate  with  it; 
and  as  faith  comprehends  as  its  essence  and  sends 
forth  a6  its  emanation  purity  of  heart  and  excellence 


thus  we  may  partly  account  for  the  exceeding 
zeal  with  which  many  of  them  labored  for 
its  extirpation,  and  the  language  which  they 
applied  to  those  who  had  deviated  into  it. 
Charges,  indeed,  or  insinuations  of  the  gross- 
est impurities  are  sometimes  thrown  out  by 
the  orthodox  writers  against  the  early  here- 
tics ;  but  we  are  bound  to  receive  them  with 
great  caution;  because  the  answers  which 
may  have  been  given  to  them  are  lost ;  and 
because  they  are  not  generally  justified  by 
any  authentic  records  which  we  possess 
respecting  the  lives  of  those  heretics.  The 
truth  appears  to  be  this ;  that  some  flagrant 
immoralities  were  notoriously  perpetrated  by 
some  of  the  wildest  among  their  sects,  and 
that  these  have  given  coloring  to  the  charges 
which  have  been  thrown  upon  them  too  in- 
discriminately. 

But  whatsoever  uncertainty  may  rest  on 
this  inquiry,  it  cannot  be  disputed,  first,  that 
the  Apostolical  Fathers,  following  the  foot- 
steps of  the  Apostles  themselves,  regarded 
with  great  jealousy  the  birth  and  growth  of 
erroneous  opinions ;  and  next,  that  they  did 
not  authorise,  either  by  instruction  or  exam- 
ple, any  severity  on  the  persons  of  those  in 
error.  They  opposed  it  by  their  reasoning 
and  their  eloquence,  and  they  avoided  its  con- 
tagion by  removing  from  their  communion 
those  who  persisted  in  it ;  but  they  were  also 
mindful  that  within  these  limits  was  confined 
the  power  which  the  Church  received  from 
the  Apostle  who  founded  it  over  the  spiritual 
disobedience  of  its  members. 

The  heretics  or  seceders  from  the  primitive 
Church  were  extremely  various,  at  least  in 
name,  and  there  is  no  period  in  ecclesiastical 
history  in  which  dissent  has  appeared  under  so 
many  denominations  as  the  earliest.  But  it 
seems  doubtful  whether  many  of  those  sects 
had  very  numerous  adherents,  or  were  at  all 
generally  dispersed  over  the  surface  of  Chris- 
tendom ;  some  of  them  were  merely  local, 
scarcely  extending  beyond  the  spot  which 
gave  them  birth,  and  others  were  chiefly  con- 
fined to  the  controversial  writers,  as  the  differ- 
ence was  on  points  too  abstruse  to  create  much 
interest  in  those  days  among  the  body  of  the 
people.  Many,  again,  have  left  behind  them  no 
traces  of  their  existence,  and  their  veiy  names 
have  only  been  preserved  through  the  labors 
of  their  adversaries ;  so  that  we  may  fairly 
presume,  in  spite  of  the  display  and  parade  of 
denominations,  that  the  great  majority  of  the 
early   Christians  remained   attached    to   the 


of  conduct,  so  heresy  must  contain,  of  necessity,  the 
contrary  qualities. 


THE  EARLY  HERESIES. 


71 


primitive  faith.  In  the  meantime,  the  mere 
fact  of  the  existence  of  so  many  different 
forms  of  Christianity  certainly  proves,  not 
only  the  zeal,  hut  also  the  numbers  of  the  ear- 
ly converts ;  for  if  these  had  been  inconsid- 
erable, we  should  have  heard  little  either 
about  dissenters  from  the  orthodox  body,  or 
of  their  divisions  among  themselves.  The 
paucity  and  weakness  of  the  faithful  would 
have  been  a  sufficient  guarantee  for  their  una- 
nimity. 

That  many  of  those  errors  gained  footing 
at  a  very  early  period,  long  before  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  first  century,  has  not  been  disputed 
with  any  probability  ;*  and  the  fact  is  attrib- 
uted with  great  appearance  of  truth  to  the 
twelve  or  perhaps  fifteen  years  which  inter- 
vened between  the  ascension  of  Christ  and 
the  departure  of  the  Apostles  from  Judaea. 
During  this  period,  partly  through  the  disper- 
sion of  the  converts  after  the  martyrdom  of 
Stephen,  partly  through  the  periodical  reli- 
gious communications  of  foreign  Jews  with 
their  native  country,  some  imperfect  accounts 
of  the  history  and  doctrine  of  the  Saviour 
were  spread  abroad,  even  before  the  fulness 
of  the  truth  was  delivered  by  the  Apostles. 
This  circumstance  will  assist  us  in  account- 
ing for  the  great  variety  of  forms  in  which 
error  presented  itself,  especially  if  we  consid- 
er the  vast  extent  of  country  and  the  widely 
separated  regions  over  which  the  faith  was 
diffused.  But  the  cause  to  which  we  should 
more  directly  ascribe  the  multiplicity  of  her- 
esies is  the  philosophical  subdivisions  of  the 
heathen  world,  and  the  facility  of  combining 
opinions  the  most  incongruous.  Thus,  while 
all  parties  were  desirous  to  adapt  the  particu- 
lar tenets  of  Christianity  to  their  own  precon- 
ceived opinions,  which  again  materially  dif- 
fered in  different  sects,  the  forms  created  by 
such  associations  were  necessarily  very  nu- 
merous, and  frequently  very  monstrous. 

Again,  the  manner  in  which  the  differences 
between  the  Church  and  those  at  variance 
with  it  were  conducted,  was  not  entirely  free 
from  violence  of  feeling  and  invective ;  the 
contrary  would  have  been  wonderful  indeed, 
when  we  consider  the  situation  and  character 
of  the  parties.  For,  in  the  first  place,  as  we 
shall  presently  see,  a  very  large  proportion  of 

*  Tinman,'  De  Vestig.  Gnosticorum,'  &c.  has,  in 
our  opinion,  entirely  failed  in  his  learned  attempt  to 
fix  the  origin  of  the  Gnostic  heresies  in  the  second 
century.  The  passages  which  seem  most  in  his  favor 
are  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  1.  vii.  p.  764.  Ed.  Sylburg. 
Hegisipp.  ap.  Euseb.  1.  iii.  c.  32.  But  the  general 
voice  of  history  is  on  the  other  side. 


the  early  heresies  were  divided  from  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Gospel,  not  by  slight  or  partial 
deviations,  but  by  delusions  so  extravagant 
and  irrational  as  to  place  them  almost  in  di- 
rect opposition  to  the  true  spirit  of  Christiani- 
ty. But  this  was  not  all  ;  in  themselves  they 
were  pitiable  and  pardonable,  but  in  their 
effects  on  the  Church  they  were  fraught  with 
injury  and  danger.  Because  the  real  charac- 
ter of  the  religion  was  not  yet  generally  com- 
prehended, and  the  heathens  formed  their 
estimation  of  it  according  to  the  specimen 
which  was  presented  to  them ;  and  when 
they  observed  that  absurdities  were  professed, 
and  perhaps  immoralities  practised,  in  the 
name  of  Christ,  they  extended  their  contempt 
and  indignation  to  the  whole  body  of  his  fol- 
lowers.* The  individual  expression  of  those 
sentiments  would  naturally  retard  the  pro- 
gress of  the  faith  ;  but  neither  was  this  the 
whole  evil,  for  calumnies  springing  from  that 
origin  not  only  tainted  the  Christian  name, 
but  contributed  to  call  down  upon  it,  during 
the  moments  of  its  most  perilous  weakness, 
those  visitations  of  popular  fury  and  imperial 
injustice,  which  threatened  to  crush  and  ex- 
terminate it.  Under  such  circumstances  we 
shall  scarcely  condemn  some  intemperance 
of  expression  into  which  the  early  defenders 
of  the  apostolical  doctrine  were  occasionally 
betrayed.  At  the  same  time  we  may  remark, 
that  as  the  controversies  of  those  days  were 
at  least  exempt  from  personal  infliction,  so 
religious  dissent,  being  unrepressed  by  civil 
penalties,  Avas  less  rancorous,  as  well  as  less 
consistent  and  less  permanent. 

The  great  multitude  of  those  heresies  was 
not  only  reconcilable  with  the  moderation  of 
the  primitive  Church,  but  may,  in  some  de- 
gree, have  proceeded  from  it.  For  as  the 
imperfection  of  human  nature  will  not  allow 
us  to  hope,  under  any  circumstances,  for  per- 
fect unanimity  in  religious  opinion,  so  the 
names  of  dissent  will  generally  become  more 
numerous  as  its  expression  is  less  discouraged. 
But  as  the  differences  of  dissenters  from  each 
other  are  generally  greater  than  their  devia 
tions  from  the  Church,  from  which  they 
branch  out  in  all  directions  as  from  a  common 
centre,  so  any  lasting  coalition  is  little  to  be 

*  See  Orig.  Contr.  Celsum.lib.  iii.  p.  119.  1.  v.  p 
271.  Le  Clerc,  H.  E.,  ad  aim.  83.  Notwithstand- 
ing, Gibbon  supposes  the  exertions  of  the  heretics  to 
have  promoted,  upon  the  whole,  the  progress  of 
Christianity;  because  (as  he.  thinks)  the  heathen,  to 
whom  they  communicated  an  imperfect  knowledge  of 
the  faith,  subsequently  threw  off  their  errors  and  melt- 
ed into  the  body  of  the  Church. 


72 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


apprehended,  and  least  so,  when  no  temporal 
authority  is  exerted  to  chastise,  and  by  chas- 
tisement to  multiply  and  unite  them. 

It  would  be  tedious  and  unprofitable  suc- 
cessively to  enumerate  all  the  heresies  and 
dissensions  of  the  early  Christians  ;  and  it  is 
very  difficult  to  classify  them  with  accuracy  ; 
for  several,  which  were  distinct  in  their  ori- 
gin, arrived  by  different  roads  so  nearly  at 
the  same  conclusions,  that  they  may  there 
seem  to  be  identified  ;  while  others  are  so  ob- 
scure in  their  own  nature,  or  from  defects  in 
our  information,  as  to  make  it  neither  very 
certain,  nor  perhaps  very  important,  to  which 
class  they  most  properly  belong. 

Mosheim  distinguishes  three  classes  of  ear- 
ly heretics :  1.  those  who  associated  Christ- 
ianity with  Judaism,  who  were  the  Nazarenes 
and  Ebionites  ;  2.  those  who  engrafted  some 
of  its  doctrines  on  the  system  of  the  orien- 
tal philosophy,  among  whom  are  accounted, 
of  the  Asiatic  school,  Elxai,  Simon  Magus, 
Menander,  Saturninus,  Cerdo,  and  Marcion  ; 
of  the  Alexandrian,  Basilides,  Carpocrates, 
and  the  perfecter  of  the  system,  Valentinus  ; 
3.  those  who  endeavored  to  explain  certain 
of  the  Christian  mysteries  by  the  principles 
of  the  Grecian  philosophy,  among  whom 
are  placed  Praxeas,  Arteinon,  Theodotus, 
and  others.  It  has  been  objected  to  this  di- 
vision, that  it  is  not  supported  by  the  author- 
ity of  the  ancient  fathers,  who,  in  no  instance, 
derive  the  opinions  which  they  combat  from 
the  oriental  philosophy.  Tertullian,  indeed, 
expressly  calls  the  philosophers  the  parents 
•or  '  patriarchs  of  the  heretics,'  but  it  is  to  the 
Grecian  school  that  he  intends  to  confine  that 
charge,  and  especially  to  the  sects  of  Pytha- 
goras and  Plato,  against  which  heconstantly 
alleges  it.  Other  writers  hold  the  same  lan- 
guage, and  Irenseus  goes  so  far  as  to  derive 
the  doctrine  of  the  succession  of  iEons,  pro- 
mulgated by  Valentinus,  from  the  Greek  The- 
ogonics,  not  from  the  speculations  of  the 
eastern  sages.  From  this  circumstance  we 
are  at  liberty  to  infer,  either  that  the  eastern 
philosophy  had  no  share  in  the  origin  of  the 
early  heresies,  or  that  those  fathers  were  en- 
tirely unacquainted  with  its  existence. 

A  different  view  is  taken  of  this  subject  by 
Dr.  Burton.*  He  ascribes  the  rise  of  all  the 
oldest  heresies  to  the  Gnostic  philosophy. 
But  at  the  same  time  under  that  comprehen- 
sive name,  we  understand  him  directly  or 
indirectly  to  combine  almost  every  form  of 
philosophy  which  was  professed  throughout 

*  See  Bampt.  Lect.  II.  and  III.  and  note  7 


the  whole  extent  of  the  eastern  and  western 
empire.  The  three  sources  which  contribut- 
ed to  form  this  heterogeneous  mixture,  were, 
1.  the  eastern  doctrine  of  the  two  princi- 
ples ;  2.  the  Jewish  Cabala ;  3.  the  Platonic 
philosophy :  the  last  of  these,  under  its  vari- 
ous modifications,  supplied  the  most  abundant 
stream  ;  and  the  point  of  their  conflux  and 
commixture  is  naturally  supposed  to  have 
been  that  vast  emporium  of  commerce  and  lit- 
erature, Alexandria.  In  this  city  principally 
Gnosticism,  such  as  it  is  here  described,  is 
believed  to  have  been  amalgamated  into  one 
substance,  and  hence  distributed  over  the 
various  provinces  of  the  Roman  empire  not 
very  long  before  the  birth  of  Christ. 

We  have  no  space  to  state  the  learned  ar- 
guments by  which  that  opinion  is  supported, 
nor  those  which  might  reasonably  be  urged 
against  it ;  but  the  fact  is  indisputable,  that, 
before  the  period  of  which  we  are  treating, 
the  theological  speculations  of  the  eastern 
philosophers  had  been  received  in  Europe 
with  favor  and  attention,  in  so  far  that  even 
the  worship  which  was  founded  on  them  was 
in  very  common  practice.  But  whether  we 
should  still  continue  to  distinguish  the  Gre- 
cian from  the  Oriental,  as  peculiarly  the 
Gnostical  philosophy,  or  whether  we  should 
employ  the  term  Gnosticism  to  designate  a 
single  system  formed  from  their  union,  is  a 
question  which  it  is  not  necessary  for  us  to 
discuss,  since  it  is  admitted  that  Gnosticism, 
in  its  more  extended  sense,  embraced  a  mul- 
titude of  ill-assorted  opinions,  impregnated 
more  or  less  deeply  with  the  character  of  the 
soil  out  of  which  they  respectively  rose. 

For  our  own  part,  in  the  concise  view 
which  we  are  here  enabled  to  present  of  the 
multiform  family  of  heresies,  we  shall  rather 
be  directed  by  their  subject  than  by  their 
supposed  origin — by  the  common  character 
which  runs  through  them,  than  by  the  source 
whence  that  character  may  have  been  deriv- 
ed. And  with  this  intent,  we  shall^rsi  men- 
tion those  wherein  some  of  the  Christian 
doctrines  were  corrupted  by  association  with 
that  extended  philosophical  system  which 
took  its  root  in  the  vain  inquiry  respecting 
the  origin  of  evil ;  secondly,  we  shall  notice 
those  which  laid  the  foundation  of  the  great 
controversies  respecting  the  Trinity  and  In- 
carnation, which  broke  out  in  succeeding 
ages;  and,  lastly,  we  shall  mention  one  or 
two  of  those  which  appear  to  have  been  ex- 
cited by  mere  individual  enthusiasm  or  mad- 
ness. In  the  meantime,  we  readily  admit 
the  imperfection  of  this  division  in  the  ligh* 


THE   EARLY  HERESIES. 


73 


of  an  absolute  distinction,  since  some  of  the 
opinions  held  by  those  whom  we  shall  place 
in  the  second  class,  might  be  traced  to  the 
principles  which  will  be  treated  in  the  first ; 
and  there  is  so  much  wildness  in  the  ravings* 
of  certain  in  both  those  classes,  that  they 
might  perhaps,  without  much  error,  be  ad- 
judged to  the  third.  The  mention  of  the 
Mauichseans  we  shall  entirely  defer  until  a 
later  period  in  our  history. 

I.  The  Oriental  philosophy,  which  is  com- 
monly confounded  with  Gnosticism,f  proceed- 
ed from  the  hopeless  inquiry  into  the  nature 
and  origin  of  evil.  Convinced  that  this  could 
not  possibly  be  ascribed  to  the  divine  agen- 
cy, the  speculators  embraced  what  appear- 
ed to  be  the  only  alternative,  and  attributed 
it  to  matter;  and  matter  must  of  consequence 
be  eternal.  And  then,  when  they  proceeded 
to  consider  the  various  forms  of  matter,  sense- 
less and  animal,  exhibited  in  the  visible 
world,  and  their  seeming  imperfections,  they 
found  it  impossible  to  account  for  so  many 
modifications  of  evil,  except  by  the  supposed 
agency  of  some  being,  superior  indeed  to 
man,  but  subordinate  to  the  Author  of  all 
good.  At  this  point  ceased  the  uniformity  of 
the  fanciful  theory,  and  it  branched  off  into 
inquiries  like  the  following :  What  ivas  this 
mighty,  though  inferior,  being  ? — of  what 
origin,  power,  attributes  ? — one  and  alone,  or 
assisted  or  served  by  others,  equal  or  inferior  ? 

All  these  poiuts  were  disputed  ;  all  how- 
ever agreed  as  to  the  independent  existence  of 
the  two  principles,  good  and  evil ;  and  nearly 
all  that  the  latter  was  the  Creator  of  the 
world.  Such  were  the  philosophical  notions 
of  these  persons  ;  and  such  was  their  attach- 
ment to  them,  that  even  when  they  became 
persuaded  of  the  divine  mission  of  Christ, 
they  were  unwilling  entirely  to  sacrifice  them, 
but  rather  strove  to  associate  them  with  the 
doctrines  and  engraft  them  on  the  history  of 
the  Bible.  The  first  consequence  of  so  per- 
verse a  misapplication  of  human  reason  was 
this — the  monstrous  conclusion  that  the  God 
of  the  Jews  was  the  evil  principle,  and  that 
Jesus  Christ  was  sent  down  by  the  good  prin- 
ciple to   put  an  end  to  his  reign  on  earth ; 


r 


*  See  Irenoeus,  lib.  i.  c.  29,  et  seq.  Le  Clerc,  H. 
E.,  aim.  76- 

f  The  word  is  derived  from  yvuxriq,  signifying 
merely  knowledge, ..erudition.  But  its  later  sense 
among  Christian  writers*implies  some  acquaintance 
with  mysterious  doctrines  or  occult  interpretations, 
not  possessed  by  ordinary  persons.  See  Le  Clerc  on 
the  subject  of  Gnosticism,  Hist.  Eccl.  ad  aim.  76. 

10 


that  the  former  was  the  God  of  the  Old,  and 
the  latter  that  of  the   New  Testament.     At 
this  point  the  philosophy  of  the  Gnostics  end- 
ed, and  their  heresy  began;  and  the  errors 
which  we  have  mentioned,  speedily  led  them 
into  others:    after  rejecting — such  was  the 
necessary  consequence  of  their  opinions — the 
inspiration  and  authority  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, they  applied  themselves  to  the  misrep- 
resentation of  the  New.    They  denied  the 
humanity  of  Christ,  asserting  that  he  came 
not  in  the  flesh  ;  that  he  suffered  not,  that  he 
died  not ;  that  what  seemed  to  be  material  in 
his  nature  was   a  fantastic,  incorporeal  sub- 
stance.    The  same  principles  obliged   them 
also  to  dispute  the  resurrection  of  the  body, 
a  substance  too  gross  for  an  eternal  destiny. 
This  opinion  again  variously  affected  their 
moral  practice ;  for  while  there  were  undoubt- 
edly some  who  mortified  the  sensual  portion 
of  our  nature,  for  the  greater  pe/ection  of  the 
soul,  there  are  also  said  to  have  been  others, 
of  more  violent  enthusiasm  or  fiery  tempera- 
ment, who  permitted  every  license  of  impuri- 
ty to  that  which  lay  so  far  beneath  considera- 
tion and  respect.     It  is  chiefly  to  the  Gnostic 
heretics  of  Egypt  (who  were  distinguished 
from   their  brethren  by  greater  wildness  in 
their  speculations)   that  these    excesses   are 
attributed ;   we  cannot  now  determine   how 
truly.    But  on  the  other  hand  it  is  just  to  men- 
tion that,  in  professing  the  Christian  name, 
those  heretics  did  not  always  shrink  from  the 
dangers  which  surrounded  it ;  and  we  have 
evidence  that  many  among  them  encounter- 
ed persecution  with  the  same  courage  which 
distinguished  their   brethren  of  the   Church, 
and   endured   it  with   the   same   unbending 
constancy.* 

Among  the  Gnostic  heretics  (thus  we  shall 
continue  to  denominate  those  who  associated, 
however  variously  and  diversely,  the  Eastern 
or  Persian  system  with  some  belief  in  Christ) 
it  is  usual  to  account  the  followers  of  Simon 
Magus,  f  the  first  corrupter  of  the  Christian 


*  In  Diocletian's  persecution,  Peter  and  Asclepias, 
the  former  a  member  of  the  Church,  the  latter  a  Mar- 
cionite  Bishop,  were  burnt.  '  Peter,'  says  Tille- 
mont, '  went  to  Heaven,  and  Asclepias  to  hell-fire.' 
That  intemperate  bigot  might  have  taken  a  lesson  of 
moderation  even  from  the  language  of  Eusebius  :- 
'With  Peter  suffered  Asclepias  ;  through  a  zeal,  as 
he  thought,  for  piety,  but  not  for  that  which  is  accord- 
ing to  knowledge  ;  however,  they  were  consumed  in 
one  and  the  same  fire.' — Jortiti,  Rem.  Eccl.  Hist.,  book 
ii.  p.  ii. 

f  'Simon  Magus  taught  in  Samaria   that  he  was 
the  Father,  in  Judaea  that  he  was  the  Son,  among  the 


74 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


doctrine:  these  are  said  to  have  been  numer- 
ous, especially  at  Rome  ;  and  the  celebrity 
of  their  master  has  been  considerably  in- 
creased by  an  error  of  Justin  Martyr,  re- 
peated by  several  of  the  fathers,  who  mistook 
a  statue  inscribed  to  Semo,  a  Sabine  deity, 
for  a  proof  of  the  deification  of  that  heresi- 
arch.  *  Nicolas,  one  of  the  seven  deacons 
mentioned  in  the  Acts,  is  asserted  to  have 
misled  the  sect  called  Nicolaitans  ;f  Menan- 
der,  the  pupil  of  Simon,  perpetuated  his 
teacher's  errors,  and  through  him  they  were 
transmitted  to  Saturniuus,  who  disseminated 
them  in  the  Asiatic,  and  to  Basilides,  J  who 
may  have  introduced  them  into  the  Egyptian 
school.  In  this  prolific  soil,  equally  favorable 
to  the  growth  of  evil  and  of  good,  they  be- 
came, among  the  gross  disciples  of  Carpocra- 
tes,§  the  principles  of  deliberate  immorality, 
while  ||  they  received  from  the  ingenuity  of 
Valentinus  such  refinement,  as  to  call  on  that 
writer  the  particular  attention  both  of  Irense- 
us  and  Tertullian.  IT  Cerdo,  and  after  him 
Marcion,  the  most  distinguished  among  the 
heretics  of  his  day,  introduced  the  same  de- 
lusion, with  certain**  variations,  into  Rome 
during  the  reign  of  Antoninus   Pius.     Here 


Gentiles  that  he  was  the  Holy  Spirit.'  Iren.,  i.  c. 
20.  Tertull.  de  Praescr.  Her.,  c.  45.  Simon  Magus 
ausus  est  summam  se  dicere  virtutem,  i.  e.  summurn 
Deum,  post  liunc  Menander,  discipnlus  ipsius,  eadem 
dicensqure  Simon  ipse.  He  denied  that  any  one  could 
be  saved  unless  baptized  in  his  name. 

*  Justin  asserts  that  a  statue  was  erected  in  his 
honor  bearing  the  following  inscription  in  Latin, 
Simoni  Deo  Sancto.  This  was  generally  believed 
until,  iu  the  year  1574,  a  statue  was  discovered  in  the 
island  of  the  Tiber  having  an  inscription  beginning 
thus  : — '  Semoni  Sanco  Deo  Fidio  Sacrum.'  We 
cannot  think  Dr.  Burton  successful  in  his  attempt  to 
defend  Justin. 

f  This  appears  to  have  been  the  same  with  the 
heresy  of  Cerinthus,  against  which  St.  John  is  by 
many  believed  to  have  written  his  Gospel. 

%  See  Le  Clerc,  H.  E.,  ad  aim.  78  and  118. 

§  Iren.  lib.  i.  c.  25.  Euseb.  lib.  iv.  c.  7.  This 
reproach  is  shared  with  the  Nicolaitans.  Burton, 
Banipt.  Lect.  V.,  conclusion. 

||  Le  Clerc  places  Carpocrates  at  the  year  120  A.  D., 
and  Valentinus  in  the  year  following — aut  non  miilto 
serins. 

IT  Our  information  respecting  Gnosticism  is  chiefly 
collected  from  the  writers  who  opposed  Valentinus, 
and  especially  from  Irenaeus. 

**  Cerdo  and  Marcion  appear  to  have  asserted  the 
doctrine  of  the  two  principles  with  more  boldness 
than  the  Valentinians  ;  but  both  parties  agreed  in 
teaching  that  die  Father  of  Jesus  Christ  was  not  the 
Creator  of  the  world  nor  the  God  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. Tertull.  c.  Marc,  lib.  i.  c.  15,  16.  Iren.,  lib. 
i.  c.47.     Burton,  Bampt.  Lect.,  p.  50. 


the  doctrines  *  were  immediately  disclaimed 
by  the  prelates  of  that  Church,  and  confuted 
by  the  ablest  Christian  writer,  Justin  Martyr. 
They  were  afterwards  made  the  subject  of  a 
separate  treatise  by  Tertullian.  It  has  been 
inferred  from  the  discovery  of  some  Gnostic 
medals  in  France  that  the  heresy  was  at  one 
time  generally  disseminated  in  the  western 
provinces.  But  this  fact,  liable  as  it  is  to 
some  dispute,  is  not  sufficient  to  counterbal- 
ance the  silence  of  history  confirmed  by  the 
certainty  of  the  early  disappearance  of  the 
sect.  In  the  mean  time  we  do  not  dispute 
that  the  philosophy  of  the  Gnostics  had  some 
prevalence  throughout  that  part  of  the  em- 
pire during  the  first  and  second  centuries, 
but  it  was  not  until  the  end  of  the  second  that 
Christianity  can  be  said  to  have  made  any 
progress  there. 

Soon  afterwards,  in  the  year  172,  Tatian,  a 
man  of  some  learning,  and  a  disciple  of  Justiu 
Martyr,  built  on  the  basis  of  Gnosticism  the 
heresy  of  the  Encratites.  These  sectarians 
professed  the  simplest  principles  of  the  mo- 
nastic life,  meditation  and  bodily  austerity. 
It  may  be  said,  perhaps,  that  under  the  names 
of  Essenes  and  Therapeutse  such  enthusiasts 
existed  in  the  very  earliest  ag£  of  Christian- 
ity, and  even  before  its  foundation ;  but  it  is 
certain  that  it  was  at  this  period,  and  under 
this  designation,  that  they  first  attracted  seri- 
ous attention  ;  and  it  is  not  disputed  that  they 
met  with  utter  discouragement  and  condem- 
nation from  the  Church.  For  the  birth  of 
monasticism  was  not  destined  to  take  place 
in  an  age  of  piety  and  sincere  devotion  ;  and 
when  at  length  it  was  produced  by  fanaticism 
infuriated  by  persecution,  its  growth  was  still 
slow  and  unequal,  keeping  pace  with  the 
corruption  of  religion  and  the  degradation 
of  the  Church. 

It  is  a  strong,  but  scarcely  exaggerated  ex- 
pression of  St.  Jerome,  f  that  the  body  of 
our  Lord  was  declared  to  be  a  phantom  while 
the  Apostles  were  still  in  the  world,  and  the 
blood  of  Christ  was  still  fresh  in  Judaea. 
The  Phantastics,  under  the  denomination  of 


*  It  appears  that  one  of  the  grounds  on  which 
Marcion  resisted  was  the  refusal  of  the  Church  to 
make  any  concession  to  the  Jews,  or  conciliate  them 
by  any  compromise  of  the  pure  faith.  This  appears 
to  prove  that  the  principal  success  of  the  Gnostic 
heresy  had  been  among  the  Jewish  converts.  Proba- 
bly it  was  most  prevalent  in  Judrea  and  -<Egypt;  but 
we  also  learn  that  the  Church  of  Ephesus  was  early 
tainted  by  it,  and  probably  it  had  gained  some  foot- 
ino-  throu°hout  Asia  Minor.  Marcion  w-as  a  native 
of  Pontus.     The  work  of  Justin  is  lost. 

t  Advers.  Lucif.  c.  viii.  vol.  ii.  p.  203. 


THE   EARLY    HERESIES. 


75 


Docetse,  were,  indeed,  a  sect  of  very  early 
origin,  and  we  connect  their  opinions  with 
one  peculiarity  of  the  Gnostic  system  which 
we  have  not  yet  mentioned.  Certain  among 
those  philosophers,  in  order  to  remove  the 
Author  of  good  to  an  immeasurable  distance 
from  the  contact  of  matter,  imagined  a  vast 
succession  of  created  but  superhuman  beings, 
as  the  agents  of  communication  between  the 
Supreme  God  and  the  world,  or  at  least  its 
Creator.  These  were  emanations  from  the 
Deity  ;  and  they  appear,  when  their  office  was 
discharged,  to  have  been  restored  to  the  Ple- 
roma,  to  the  presence  of  Him  who  sent  them 
— these  beings  were  called  ^Eons.  Among- 
them  a  very  high  rank,  possibly  the  highest, 
was  assigned  to  Christ ;  but  from  this  point 
the  Gnostics  broke  off  into  two  different  and 
almost  opposite  theories  :  many  imagined  that 
Jesus  was  a  mere  man,  and  maintained  that 
the  Eeon  Christ  descended  upon  the  man  Je- 
sus at  his  baptism  and  left  him  immediately 
before  his  crucifixion,  so  that  Christ  was  not, 
in  fact,  subjected  to  pain  and  death ;  while 
others  held  that  the  body,  with  which  Christ 
appeared  to  be  invested,  was  not  really  human 
and  passible,  but  unsubstantial  or  sethereal, 
or  at  least  immaterial :  these  last  were  called 
Docetse.  At  the  same  time,  both  parties 
alike  misunderstood  that  which  the  Church 
considered  to  be  the  peculiar  doctrine  and 
object  of  Christianity;  for  they  agreed  in  be- 
lieving that  the  mission  of  Christ  had  no  fur- 
ther intention  than  to  reveal  the  knowledge 
of  the  true  God ;  they  denied  the  resurrection 
and  the  final  judgment,  and  by  explaining 
away  the  death  of  Christ  they  deprived  his 
religion  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement. 

From  the  above  brief  and  very  general  out- 
line of  the  Gnostic  Heresies — which  differed 
again  widely  from  each  other  in  many  subor- 
dinate opinions — we  perceive  how  very  far 
they  were  removed  from  the  precincts  of  rea- 
son and  truth.  Indeed,  they  retained  so  much 
more  of  Gnosticism  than  they  assumed  of 
Christianity,  that  it  was  only  in  the  ancient 
and  very  broad  acceptation  of  the  term  that 
they  could  be  fairly  denominated  Heresies, 
and  thus  we  are  less  disposed  to  censure  the 
severity  of  those  Fathers  who  refused  them 
the  name  of  Christian.  For  however  cau- 
tious we  should  be  in  withholding  that  appel- 
lation from  those  whose  errors  are  founded 
on  the  mere  perversion  of  reason,  we  may 
safely  disclaim  our  fraternity  with  men,  who 
substitute  for  the  fundamental  doctrines  and 
the  clearest  truths  of  the  Gospel,  wild  visions 
and  theories  which  have  not  any  ground  or 


existence,  except  in  vain  and  lawless  imagi- 
nation. We  shall  do  well  to  conclude  this 
subject  in  the  words  of  Le  Clerc — one  of  the 
most  rational  and  faithful  among  our  histori- 
cal guides.  '  I  am  weary  of  the  Valentinians, 
(thus  he  begins  his  account  of  the  year  145,) 
and  so  I  imagine  are  my  readers ;  but  the 
history  of  the  second  century  is  so  crammed 
with  them,  and  the  Fathers,  both  of  those 
and  of  later  times,  so  often  refer  to  them,  that 
it  is  necessary  to  expose  monstrous  opinions, 
which  in  themselves  do  not  merit  one  mo- 
ment's attention.'  In  truth,  their  principal, 
if  not  their  only  claim  on  our  attention,  is, 
that  the  Books  of  the  New  Testament  appear 
to  contain  some  allusions  to  them,  which  it 
is  our  duty  to  examine  and  understand.  * 

II.  We  have  just  observed,  that  among  the 
earliest  corrupters  of  the  Christian  doctrines, 
there  were  some  who  disputed  the  human 
nature  of  Christ.  It  appears  to  us  equally 
clear  there  were  also  others  who  denied  his 
divinity.  The  oldest  and  perhaps  the  most 
numerous  among  these  were  the  Ebionites. 

Ebionites.  Tertullian  considers  them  as 
a  sect  of  Judaizing  Christians,  named  from 
their  founder  Ebion,  who  strictly  maintained 
the  observance  of  the  ceremonial  law,  and 
rejected  the  miraculous  conception  and  the 
divine  nature  of  the  Saviour,  f  Eusebius,  in 
his  Ecclesiastical  History,  (book  iii.  c.  xxvii.) 
describes  them  in  these  words : — 

'The  Ebionites  were  so  called  from  the 
poverty  and  meanness  with  which  they  dog- 
matized concerning  Christ ;  for  they  consid- 
ered him  as  a  mere  man  born  of  the  connex- 
ion of  a  man  and  Mary.  And  they  thought 
too  that  the  ceremonial  law  (vouixi)  dgriaxtia} 
was  to  be  followed  ;  as  neither  faith  in  Christ, 
nor  the  life  led  through  that  faith,  was  suf- 
ficient for  salvation.  But  there  were  others 
bearing  the  same  appellation,  who  escaped 
the   extravagant   absurdity  of  these   former, 

*  Any  one  desirous  of  more  ample  details  respect- 
ing the  Gnostic  Heresies  may  safely  consult  the  learn- 
ed author  in  the  Encycl.  Britan.,  pp.  24,  25,  26. 

t  De  Prescript.  Heret.  c.  33.;  De  Virgin.  Veland. 
c.  6.  *  Quam  utique  Virginem  fuisse  constat,  licet 
Ebion  resistat.'  De  Carne  Christi,  c.  14.  18,  19. 
The  Ebionites  are  classed  by  Mosheim  among  the 
Judaizing  sects;  and  Ebion,  if  he  existed  at  all,  was 
probably  a  Jew:  the  numbers  and  influence  of  those 
sects  diminished  so  rapidly  during  the  second  century, 
after  the  promulgation  of  Adrian's  Edict,  and  are 
consequently  so  little  noticed  by  the  fathers  of  the 
third  and  following  ages,  that  it  seems  unnecessary  to 
bestow  a  separate  notice  on  them. 


76 


HISTORY  OF  THE    CHURCH. 


since  they  did  not  deny  that  the  Lord  was 
born  of  a  virgin  and  the  Holy  Spirit.  But 
neither  did  these,  acknowledging  his  preex- 
istence,  and  that  he  was  Logos  and  Sophia, 
(the  Word  and  the  Wisdom,)  turn  entirely 
away  from  the  unrighteousness  of  the  former, 
chiefly  because  they  too  were  careful  about 
the  bodily  service  (aaifiaiixr^p  Idcigecav)  of 
the  law.  These  then  did  not  receive  the 
epistles  of  the  apostle,  calling  him  an  apostate 
from  the  law,  and  only  used  the  gospel  ac- 
cording to  the  Hebrews  ;  but  they  observed 
Sunday  in  commemoration  of  the  resurrec- 
tion, keeping  the  Jewish  sabbath.'* 

This  description  agrees  in  all  material 
points  with  the  account  of  Tertullian  ;  and 
without  proceeding  to  deeper  investigation, 
we  may  safely  infer  from  it  two  historical 
truths — that  the  peculiar  opinions  of  the 
Ebiouites  were  confined  (or  nearly  so)  to  the 
Jewish  converts — and  that  they  were  neither 
wholly  nor  in  part  the  doctrines  of  the  ante- 
Nicene  Church. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  high  antiquity  of 
the  opinions  of  the  Ebionites  has  been  held 
by  some  to  be  an  evidence  of  their  truth  ;  but 
the  same  inference  might  be  drawn,  with  the 
same  reason,  respecting  the  delusions  of  the 
Phantastics,  which  had  at  least  as  early  an 
origin.  The  Ebionites  probably  arose  after 
the  publication  of  three  of  the  gospels.  The 
Gnostic  errors  of  the  Docetae  may  even  have  * 
preceded  the  preaching  of  the  Apostles  ;  they 
were  certainly  contemporary  with  it.  Again, 
if  it  be  admitted  that  the  Apostles  were  the 
interpreters  of  God's  word,  and  if  it  be  not 
proved  that  the  sect  of  the  Ebionites  was 
founded  by  any  one  of  them,  and  if  it  be 
certain  that  the  fathers  who  subsequently 
directed  the  Church,  and  explained  its  doc- 
trine, did  invariably  disclaim  that  sect,  we 
may  fairly  conclude,  that  its  opinions  were 
neither  favorably  received,  nor  at  all  com- 
monly adopted.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  en- 
deavored, by  confounding  the  Ebionites  with 
the  Gnostic  Heretics,  to  make  them  in  some 
degree  accountable  for  all  the  absurdities  of 
the  latter;  and  these,  it  is  truly  urged,  had  all 

*  Le  Clerc  distinguishes  the  early  from  the  more 
recent  Ebionites,  placing  them  respectively  at  ami.  72 
and  103.  The  former  he  considers,  on  the  authority 
of  Jerome,  to  have  been  merely  Judaizing  Christians 
— who,  as  that  Father  remarks,  in  their  wish  to  be 
both  Jews  and  Christians,  were  neither.  Le  Clerc 
considers  the  Nazarenes  to  have  been  the  same  sect  as 
the  early  Ebionites,  aim.  72.  Mosheim  (De  Reb. 
Christ,  ant.  Const.  Sec  I.  sect,  lviii.  and  Sec.  II., 
sect,  xxxix.,  xl.  &c.)  refers  the  rise  of  the  Ebion- 
ites to  the  second  century. 


a  tendency  to  the  opposite  extreme,  to  spirit- 
ualize  the  body  rather  than  to  degrade  the 
divine  nature  of  Christ.  And  it  is  hence  in- 
ferred, that  it  was  Jesiis  alone  to  whom  the 
Ebionites  attributed  a  human  nature,  while 
they  acknowledged  the  uncontaminated  di- 
vinity of  Christ.  It  is  possible  that  there 
were  some,  calling  themselves  Ebionites,  who 
were  in  fact  merely  Gnostics.  But  in  the 
face  of  our  direct  authorities  we  cannot  ad- 
mit the  hypothesis  in  question.  What  Ter- 
tullian and  Eusebius  *  expressly  tell  us  to 
have  been  the  Ebionitical  opinions  respect- 
ing Christ,  we  cannot  suppose  to  be  meant 
of  Jesus  as  opposed  to  Christ.  And  we  feel 
obliged  to  believe,  that  those  are  as  far  re- 
moved from  truth  on  the  one  hand,  who  dis- 
pute the  early  existence  of  the  Unitarian  opin- 
ions, as  those  are,  on  the  other,  who  assert 
their  early  reception  by  the  Church  ;  they 
have  existed  from  the  beginning,  and  from 
the  beginning  they  have  been  condemned. 

Again,  the  doctrine  of  the  mere  humanity 
of  Christ,  separated  from  the  Judaism  of  the 
Ebionites,  was  advanced  towards  the  end  of 
the  second  century  by  Theodotus  and  Arte- 
mon ;  and  during  the  episcopacy  of  Victor, 
the  former  was  expelled  from  the  Church  of 
Rome  for  that  error.  Eusebius  in  this  place 
designates  him  as  the  'father  of  an  impious 
apostasy,' — and  in  so  far  as  he  had  divested 
the  old  opinion  of  its  Judaism,  and  advanced 
it  nakedly  in  the  very  face  of  the  Church, 
the  assertion  is  true.  For  any  claim,  which 
it  may  have  advanced  to  a  previous  existence 
at  Rome,  or  in  any  of  the  European  Church- 
es, is  sufficiently  answered  by  reference  to 
the  writings  of  Justin,  and  Miltiades,  and 
Tatian,  and  Clement,  and  Irenaeus,  and  Melito, 
'  by  all  of  whom  (says  Eusebius)  the  divinity 
of  Christ  is  asserted.'  f 

Jlrtemon.  In  the  next  century  the  heresy 
of  Artemon  (it  became  more  generally  known 
by  his  name)  was  revived  by  Paul  of  Samos- 
ata,  Bishop  of  Antioch.  \  A  synod  of  Bish- 
ops, Presbyters  and  deacons  was  convoked  at 
Antioch  in  the  year  269,  to  take  cognizance 


*  See  also  Irenaeus  L.  iii.  c.  24,  and  Epiphanius. 
Hseres.  30. 

f  if  olg  dnaat  ■&EoXoysliub  6  A'o/cttoj. 
End.  of  ch.  5. 

$  We  follow  in  this  statement  the  authority  of  Eu- 
sebius, and  the  opinion  almost  universally  received. 
But  it  is  fair  to  mention  that  Dr.  Burton  ingeniously 
aro-ues,  from  a  careful  examination  of  contemporary 
evidence,  compared  chiefly  with  the  assertions  of 
Athanasius,  that  '  Paul  believed  Jesus  to  be  a  mere 
human  being,  but  conceived  him  to  become  Christ, 


THE  EARLY  HERESIES. 


77 


of  the  offence ;  and  Eusebius  notices  the 
eagerness  with  which  they  hurried  'from  all 
directions  against  the  defiler  of  Christ's  flock.' 
In  a  numerous  assembly,  in  his  own  metrop- 
olis, the  Bishop  found  many  defenders,  but 
he  was  at  length  convicted  and  sentenced  to 
expulsion  from  his  throne.  But  as  he  resist- 
ed the  execution  of  the  sentence,  and  as  the 
Church  was  not  yet  able  to  enforce  its  own 
judgments,  application  was  made  to  the  Em- 
peror Aurelian,  whose  authority  finally  re- 
moved the  refractory  offender.  *  These  facts 
are  sufficient  to  prove  beyond  controversy, 
that  the  opinion  in  question,  whatever  may 
have  been  the  zeal  or  number  of  its  indi- 
vidual supporters,  was  not  at  any  period  ac- 
knowledged by  the  Church. 

Praxeas.  The  controversy  respecting  the 
nature  of  Christ's  existence  on  earth,  which 
presently  so  branched  out,  as  to  involve  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  as  well  as  the  Incar- 
nation, may  be  said  to  have  first  assumed  a 
tangible  form  under  the  pen  of  Praxeas,  a 
writer  of  the  Grecian  school.  He  published 
his  opinions  about  the  year  200  a.  d.,  and  was 
answered  very  soon  afterwards  by  the  great 
champion  of  the  church,  Tertullian.  The 
opinions  of  Praxeas  (as  is-  natural  in  a  ques- 
tion capable  of  so  much  metaphysical  sub- 
tilty)  are  variously  represented  ;f  but  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Church  is  very  clearly  stated  in 
the  following  words  of  his  antagonist.^    '  We 


oy  being  united  to  the  eternal  Logos  of  God.' — 
(Bampt.  Lect.  viii.  notes  99.  102.)  It  does  not  ap- 
pear that  the  contemporaries  of  the  Heretic  placed 
that  construction  upon  his  doctrine.  And  Eusebius 
(H.  E.  L.  vii.  c.  27)  expressly  says — loviov  8k 
Turreivu  xul  /u/nuineiri  negl  iov  Xqicttov 
7T(iqu  lijv  inxXi^cnaaTixr^v  diSuaxakiuv 
(pgorriauvTog,  wg  xoivov  ii\v  q>tioiv  arthQionov 
jFVOfiii'OV,  &c.  &c.  See  Mosheim,  De  R.  Christ, 
ante  Const.  Saec.  ill.  sect.  35. 

*  This  was  the  first  instance  of  the  interference  of 
Ihe  secular  power  in  the  internal  affairs  of  the  Church ; 
and  consequently  Baronius  is  warm  in  his  praise  of 
Aurelian — '  He  was  the  first  to  point  out,  that  the  im- 
perial authority  should  be  called  in  to  chastise  those 
who  did  not  acquiesce  in  episcopal  decision.'  Ad 
ann.  314.  Sect.  xxxv.  We  shall  have  occasion  to 
recur  to  this  subject  hereafter. 

■f  They  are  chiefly  to  be  divined  from  the  treatise 
^*       written  against  Tertullian.     It  should  be  mentioned 

•  ■    ^        I  ■■       I  fc 

also,  that  Praxeas  had  declared  very  strongly  against 
Montanism,  before  Tertullian  attacked  him. 

%  To  us  it  is  the  great  use  of  these  controversies, 
that  we  learn  from  them  the  original  doctrine  of  the 
Church.  Thus  during  that  respecting  Paul  of  Sam- 
osata,  the  Council  declared,  (as  we  learn  from  Athan- 
asius.)  '  that  the  Son  existed  before  all  tilings,  and 


believe  in  one  God,  but  under  the  following 
dispensation  or  economy — that  there  is  also  a 
Son  of  God,  his  Word,  who  proceeded  from 
Him  ;  by  whom  all  things  were  made,  and 
without  whom  nothing  was  made  ;  who  was 
sent  by  him  into  the  Virgin,  and  was  born  of 
her;  being  both  man  and  God,  the  son  of 
man  and  the  son  of  God,  and  called  Jesus 
Christ ;  he  suffered,  died  and  was  buried, 
according  to  the  Scriptures ;  and  was  raised 
up  again  by  the  Father ;  and  was  taken  up 
into  Heaven,  there  to  sit  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  Father  ;  and  thence  to  come  to  judge  the 
quick  and  the  dead  ;  who  sent  from  Heaven, 
from  his  Father  according  to  his  promise,  the 
Holy  Ghost,  the  Comforter,  the  Sanctifier  of 
the  faith  of  all  who  believe  in  the  Father, 
Son  and  Holy  Ghost.'  Such,  according  to 
this  author,  was  the  faith  handed  down  in 
the  Church,  from  the  first  preaching  of  the 
Gospel ;  and  we  consider  this  to  be  historical 
truth  of  no  small  importance.* 

Sabellius.  The  heresy  of  Praxeas  was  suc- 
ceeded, (or  revived,)  in  the  course  of  about 
fifty  years,  by  that  of  Sabel litis.  Both  pro- 
ceeded, in  appearance,  from  the  difficulty  of 
reconciling  the  trinity  with  the  unity  of  the 
Godhead — in  reality,  from  our  human  and 
necessary  incapacity  to  comprehend  the  na- 
ture of  the  union.  But  Greek  philosophy 
was  too  vain  to  admit  any  limits  to  the 
human  comprehension,  and  too  disputatious 
to  quit  so  fine  a  field  for  sophistry  as  was 
opened  to  it  by  an  abstruse  and  inexplicable 
question.  And  certainly  that  philosophy  lost 
nothing  cither  in  minuteness  or  pertinacity, 
when  it  ascended  to  the  climate,  and  em- 
ployed the  genius  of  Africans,  f  Sabellius 
was  an  African,  and  seemingly  either  Bishop, 
or  Presbyter  at  Barce,  the  capital  of  the  Cy- 
renaica ;  he  denied  the  distinct  personality 
of  the  second  and  third  persons  of  the  Trin- 
ity, and  maintained  that  a  certain  energy 
only,  proceeding  from  the  supreme  Parent, 

that  he  did  not  become  God  from  being  human,  but 
that  being  God  he  took  upon  him  the  form  of  a  ser- 
vant, and  being  the  Logos  he  became  flesh.' 

*  It  appears  too  from  the  examination  of  Irenaeus' 
writings  against  the  Valentinians,  that  that  more  an- 
cient Father  maintained,  as  far  as  he  particularizes 
them,  the  same  opinions.  It  has  been  observed,  that 
Tertullian  was  the  first  author  who  used  the  words 
Trinitas  and  Persona  in  the  theological  sense. 

f  See  Mosheim,  De  R.  Christ,  ante  Const.  Saec. 
III.  sect.  33.  The  different  opinions,  or  rather  the 
different  shades  of  the  same  opinion,  which  have 
been  ascribed  to  Sabellius,  are  there  accurately 
treated. 

\ 


78 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


or  a  certain  portion  of  the  divine  nature,  was 
united  to  the  son  of  God,  the  man  Jesus.* 
And  in  the  same  manner  he  considered  the 
Holy  Ghost  to  be  a  portion  of  the  everlasting 
Father.  This  error,  into  which  he  was  led  by 
an  excessive  fear  of  Tritheism,  (the  acknow- 
ledgment of  three  Gods.)  was  liable  to  the  in- 
ference, that  the  Being  who  suffered  on  the 
Cross  was  in  fact  the  Father;  hence  his  fol- 
lowers were  called  Patripassians.  He  was 
confuted  by  Dionysius,  Bishop  of  Alexan- 
dria. 

III.  We  shall  not  dwell  upon  the  varying 
shapes  of  mere  frenzy.  The  deliberate  er- 
rors of  an  informed  and  serious  mind,  how- 
ever in  appearance  remote  from  reason,  al- 
ways merit  some  sort  of  consideration  ;  but 
the  dreams  of  an  ignorant  fanatic  can  have 
no  claims  on  our  time  or  reflection.  Perhaps 
we  should  place  under  this  head  some  of  the 
wilder  of  those  heresies  usually  called  Gnos- 
tic ;  and  some  would  refer  to  the  same  origin 
the  opinions  of  the  Manichsean  sect ;  but  we 
shall  here  confine  ourselves  to  those  of  the 
Moutanists.  About  the  year  JpO  a.  d.,  a  vain 
and  superstitious  enthusiast,  named  Montan- 
us,  began  to  prophesy  in  Phrygia  and  other 
provinces  of  Asia  Minor — he  professed  to  be 
the  Paraclete  or  Comforter^the  same  f  who 
had  descended  upon  the  Apostles,  and  whose 
return  on  earth  before  the  second  coming  of 
Christ,  for  the  purpose  of  completing  the  di- 
vine Revelation,  was  expected  by  many  of 
the  faithful ;  and  his  trances,  and  ecstatic 
raptures,  and  fanatic  ravings,  were  probably 
^  regarded  by  the  credulous  and  wondering 
multitude  as  the  surest  signsj^t-diyine  inspi- 
ration. Certainly  there  were  many  in  those 
regions  who  followed  him  ;  and  his  success 
was  promoted  by  his  association  with  two 
prophetesses,  named  Maximilla  and  Priscilla, 
who  confirmed  his  mission,  and  shared  his 
spirit.  Another  cause  of  the  temporary 
fame  of  Montanism  was  the  severity  of  the 
morality  inculcated  by  it ;  the  strictest  celiba- 
cy and  the  most  rigid  fasts  were  exacted  from 
the  proselytes,  and  this  circumstance  threw 
an  appearance  of  sanctity  round  the  sect, 
which  seems  to  have  deadened  the  penetra- 


*  We  perceive  how  nearly  this  opinion  approaches 
to  the  old  Gnostic  heresy,  which  considered  Christ  as 
an  JEon  or  Divine  Emanation  united  for  a  time  to 
the  man  Jesus — but  for  a  time  only — the  Gnostics 
withdrew  the  JEon  before  the  Crucifixion,  and  thus 
voided  the  conclusion  charged  against  the  Patripas- 
sians. 

1   Set  Bishop  Kaye  on  Tertullian,  p.  23.  et  feq. 


tion  of  Tertullian,  for  he  presently  professed 
himself  its  advocate.  To  that  circumstance 
perhaps  this  heresy  may  be  indebted  for  most 
of  its  celebrity ;  for  it  was  condemned  by 
certain  Asiatic  councils  at  the  time  of  its 
eruption  and  it  appears  to  have  made  very 
little  progress  after  the  second  century,  and  at 
no  time  to  have  found  general  reception  be- 
yond the  precincts  of  its  birth-place,  though 
some  remains  of  it  subsisted  there  for  two 
or  three  ages.* 

Before  we  quit  the  subject  of  Heresy,  we 
must  mention  a  controversy  which  divided 
the  Church  during  the  third  century,  respect- 
ing the  form  of  receiving  a  converted  here- 
tic into  the  number  of  the  orthodox.  The 
Churches  of  the  westf  were,  for  the  most 
part,  of  opinion,  that  the  baptism  of  Here- 
tics was  valid,  and  that  the  mere  imposition 
of  hands,  attended  by  prayer,  was  form  suf- 
ficient to  solemnize  their  introduction  within 
the  pale :  whereas  the  less  moderate  Chris- 
tians of  Asia  decided  in  council,  that  their 
admission  must  be  preceded  by  repetition  of 
baptism  ;  and  this  decision  was  approved  and 
enforced  by  Cyprian  in  the  Churches  of  Af- 
rica. {  Stephen,  Bishop  of  Rome,  who  was 
at  the  head  of  those  who  held  the  contrary 
opinion,  conducted  his  opposition  with  in- 
judicious violence ;  he  excommunicated  all 
who  differed  from  him,  and  discovered,  even 
thus  early,  the  germs  of  papal  arrogance. § 
The  mention  of  this  controversy  is  impor- 
tant, at  least  on  one  account,  as  it  gives 
us  an  additional  proof  of  the  very  serious 
view  in  which  Heresy  was  regarded  by  the 
Churchmen  of  those  days,  and  the  scrupu- 
lousness of  their  care  to  preserve  the  purity 
of  the  true  faith. 

Novations.  We  may  conclude  with  some 
notice  of  the  sect  of  the  Novatians,  who 
were  stigmatized  at  the  time,  both  as  schis- 

*  We  observe  the  name  of  Montanism  among  die 
heresies  stigmatized  in  the  Theodosian  Code. 

f  We  may  account  for  this  greater  moderation  of 
the  western  Churches,  by  their  having  escaped  some 
of  the  most  extravagant  and  revolting  among  the  early 
heresies — these,  as  they  chiefly  originated  in  the  fa- 
natic imaginations  of  the  east,  were  for  the  most  part 
confined  to  those  regions. 

%  The  council  of  Carthage  heldjiy  Cyprian,  on 
this  question,  was  in  the  year  256.  Mosh.  Gen.  H. 
c.  iii.  p.  ii.  chap.  iii. 

§  This  controversy  resembles,  in  two  points, 
that  before  mentioned,  respecting  the  celebration 
of  Easter.  The  Roman  was  right  perhaps  in  the 
principle,  but  overbearing  and  insolent  in  the 
manner. 


THE    EARLY    HERESIES. 


79 


matics  and  heretics ;  *  but  who  may  perhaps 
be  more  properly  considered  as  the  earliest 
body  of  ecclesiastical  reformers.  They  arose 
at  Rome  about  the  year  250  a.  d.  ;  and  sub- 
sisted until  the  fifth  century  throughout  every 
part  of  Christendom,  f  No vatian,  a  Presby- 
ter of  Rome,  |  was  a  man  of  great  talents 
and  learning,  and  of  character  so  austere, 
that  he  was  unwilling  under  any  circumstan- 
ces of  contrition,  to  readmit  those  who  had 
been  once  separated  from  the  communion 
of  the  Church.  And  this  severity  he  would 
have  extended  not  only  to  those  who  had 
fallen  by  deliberate  transgression,  but  even 
to  such  as  had  made  a  forced  compromise 
of  their  faith  under  the  terrors  of  perse- 
cution. He  considered  the  Christian  Church 
as  a  society,  where  virtue  and  innocence 
reigned  universally,  and  refused  any  longer 
to  acknowledge,  as  members  of  it,  those  who 
had  once  degenerated  into  unrighteousness.  § 
This  endeavor  to  revive  the  spotless  moral 
purity  of  the  primitive  faith  was  found  incon- 
sistent with  the  corruptions  even  of  that  early 
age:  it  was  regarded  with  suspicion  by  the 
leading  prelates,  ||  as  a  vain  and  visionary 
scheme ;  and  those  rigid  principles,  which 
had  characterized  and  sanctified  the  Church 
in  the  first  century,  were  abandoned  to  the 
profession  of  schismatic,  sectaries  in  the  third. 
From  a  review  of  what  has  been  written 
on  this  subject,  some  truths  may  be  derived 
of  considerable  historical  importance ;  the 
following  are  among  them :  1.  In  the  midst 
of  perpetual  dissent  and  occasional  contro- 
versy, a  steady  and  distinguishable  line,  both 

*  Cornel,  ap.  Cypr.  Ep.  50  (or  48);  Cyprian, 
Ep.  54.  As  to  the  latter  charge,  even  their  adversa- 
ries do  not  advance  any  point  of  doctrine  on  which 
they  deviated  from  the  Church.  See  Note  4,  or  p. 
33.    supr. 

t  (Mosh.  Gen.  Hist.  Cent.  iii.  end) — Especially,  as 
it  would  seem,  in  Phrygia — where  their  rigid  prac- 
tices brought  them  into  danger  of  being  confounded 
with  the  Montanists.  Lardner,  Cred.  Gosp.  Hist.  p. 
ii.  ch.  47. 

X  Euseb.  H.  E.  L.  vi.  c.  43. — Jerom.  de  Vir.  Illust. 
c.  70.  He  is  believed  to  have  been  a  convert  from 
some  sect  of  philosophy,  probably  the  Stoic.  Lard- 
ner perseveres  in  calling  him  Novatus;  not,  however, 
intencTTiig  to  confound  him  with  an  unworthy  associate, 
presbyter  of  Carthage,  also  named  Novatus — and 
severely  censured  by  Cyprian. — See  Tillem.  Mem.  H. 
Eccles.  vol.  iii.  p.  433,  435,  ad.  ann.  251. 

§  His  followers  called  themselves  Cathari — Puri- 
tans. 

||  It  should  be  mentioned  that  Cornelius,  Bishop 
of  Rome,  the  principal  opponent  of  Novatian's  opin- 
ions, had  motives  for  personal  enmity  against  that 
Ecclesiastic. 


in  doctrine  and  practice,  was  maintained  by 
the  early  Church,  and  its  efforts  against  those, 
whom  it  called  Heretics,  were  zealous  and 
persevering,  and  for  the  most  part  consistent. 
Its  contests  were  fought  with  the 'sword  of 
the  Spirit,'  with  the  arms  of  reason  and  elo- 
quence ;  and  as  they  were  always  unattended 
by  personal  oppression,  so  were  they  most 
effectually  successful — successful,  not  in  es- 
tablishing a  nominal  unity,  nor  silencing  the 
expression  of  private  opinion,  but  in  main- 
taining the  purity  of  the  faith,  in  preserving 
the  attachment  of  the  great  majority  of  the 
believers,  and  in  consigning,  either  to  imme- 
diate disrepute,  or  early  neglect,  all  the  un- 
scriptural  doctrines  which  were  successively 
arrayed  against  it.  2.  The  greater  part  of 
the  early  heresies  was  derived  from  the  im- 
pure mixture  of  profane  philosophy  with  the 
simple  revelation  of  the  Gospel.  Hence  pro- 
ceeded those  vain  and  subtle  disputations 
respecting  things  incomprehensible,  which 
would  indeed  have  been  less  pernicious,  had 
they  only  exercised  the  ingenuity  of  men, 
without  engaging  their  passions ;  their  bitter 
fruits  were  not  fully  gathered  until  a  later 
age  :  but  they  served,  even  in  their  origin,  to 
perplex  the  faith,  and  disturb  the  harmony 
of  many  devout  Christians.  3.  No  public 
dispute  had  hitherto  risen  respecting  the 
manner  of  salvation — for  the  conclusions  de- 
ducible  from  the  Gnostic  hallucinations  are 
not  worthy  of  serious  consideration ;  the 
great  questions  respecting  predestination  and 
grace  had  not  yet  become  matter  of  contro- 
versy, nor  had  any  of  the  fundamental  doc- 
trines of  Christianity  been  assailed,  excepting 
the  Trinity  and  the  Incarnation.  4.  There 
was  yet  no  dissent  on  the  subject  of  Church 
Government.  It  was  universally  and  undis- 
putedly  Episcopal ;  even  the  reformer  Nova- 
tian,  after  his  expulsion  from  the  Church, 
assumed  the  direction  of  his  own  rigid  sect 
under  the  title  of  Bishop  ;  and  if  any  dissatis- 
faction had  existed  as  to  the  established 
method  of  directing  the  Church,  it  would 
certainly  have  displayed  itself  on  the  occa- 
sion of  a  schism,  which  entirely  respected 
matters  of  practice  and  discipline. 

Early  Fathers.  As  we  have  made  frequent 
mention  of  the  principal  writers,  commonly 
called  Fathers,  of  the  ancient  Church,  we 
shall  subjoin  to  this  chapter  a  very  short  ac- 
count of  some  of  the  earliest  among  them. 
We  do  not  profess  any  blind  veneration  for 
their  names,  or  submission  to  their  opinions  ; 
but  we  are   very  far  removed  from  the  con- 


80 


HISTORY    OF   THE   CHURCH. 


tempt  of  either.  For  if  we  are  to  bend  to 
any  human  authority  (as  in  such  matters  some 
of  us  must  always  do,  and  all  of  us  some- 
times,) those  are  assuredly  the  safest  objects 
of  our  reverence,  who  stood  nearest  to  the 
source  of  revelation,  and  received  the  cup  of 
knowledge  from  the  very  hands  of  the  Apos- 
tles. They  were  erring  and  feeble  mortals, 
like  ourselves ;  much  inferior  in  intellectual 
discipline,  and  vitiated  by  early  prejudices 
necessarily  proceeding  from  the  oblique  prin- 
ciples and  perverse  systems  of  their  day. 
Nevertheless  the}'  were  earnest  and  ardent 
Christians ;  in  respect  at  least  to  their  religion 
they  had  access  to  infallible  instructors,  and 
the  lessons  which  they  have  transmitted  to 
us,  howsoever  imperfectly  transmitted,  should 
be  received  with  attention  and  respect. 

The  Apostolical  Fathers  are  those  who 
were  contemporary  with  the  Apostles ;  some 
of  whom  are  known,  and  all  of  whom  may 
be  reasonably  believed,  to  have  shared  their 
conversation,  and  profited  by  their  instruction. 
These  are  St.  Barnabas,  Clement  of  Rome, 
Hennas,  Ignatius  and  Polycarp.  They  were 
all  (excepting  probably  Clement)  natives  of 
the  east,  and  all  originally  wrote  in  the  Greek 
language.  The  works  which  have  reached 
us  under  their  names  are  not  numerous  ;  and 
though  the  genuineness  of  some  of  them  has 
been  justly  suspected,  there  is  no  reason  to 
doubt  the  very  high  antiquity  of  all.  They 
were  composed  with  various  objects,  accord- 
ing to  the  dispositions  or  circumstances  of 
their  writers.  The  design  of  the  epistle  at- 
tributed to  St.  Barnabas  was  to  abate  the  res- 
pect for  the  peculiar  rites  and  institutions  of 
the  Jewish  laws,  and  to  show  that  they  were 
not  binding  upon  Christians.  The  '  Shepherd 
of  Hermas '  consists  of  three  books,  in  the 
first  of  which  are  four  visions,  in  the  second 
twelve  commands,  in  the  third  ten  similitudes. 
The  first  and  third  parts  are  of  course  very 
fanciful,  yet  were  they  not  perhaps  unsuited 
to  the  genius  of  the  countries  and  the  age  to 
which  they  were  addressed  ;  the  second  con- 
tains some  excellent  moral  precepts  ;  and  all 
abound  with  paraphrastical  allusions  to  the 
cooks  of  the  New  Testament.  The  epistles 
of  Ignatius  have  suffered  many  obvious  in- 
terpolations and  corruptions ;  but  learned 
and  candid  critics,  who  have  distinguished 
and  rejected  these,  still  leave  us  much  behind 
of  undisputed  origin.  The  author  was  Bish- 
op of  Antioch  ;  he  suffered  martyrdom  about 
me  year  107  a.  d.,  and  the  opinion  that  he 
invited,  rather  than  shunned  this  fate,  seems 
to  be  consistent  with  the  ardor  of  his  charac-  i 


ter.  The  genuineness  of  Polycarp's  epistle 
to  the  Philippians  has  scarcely  been  ques- 
tioned ;  *  it  was  written  (soon  after  the  death 
of  Ignatius)  in  the  spirit  of  sincere  piety  ;  it 
abounds  with  scriptural  expressions  and  fre- 
quent quotations  of  the  recorded  words  of 
Christ.  Polycarp  was  Bishop  of  Smyrna  on 
the  appointment  (as  is  asserted  without  any 
improbability)  of  the  Apostle  St.  John  :  and 
he  suffered  martyrdom,  as  we  have  already 
described,  ia  the  reign  of  Marcus  Antoninus. 
But  the  most  important  record  of  the  apos- 
tolical age  remaining  to  us  is  the  'Epistle  of 
the  Church  of  Rome  to  the  Church  of  Co- 
rinth,' written  about  the  year  96  a.  d.  by  Cle- 
ment Bishop  of  Rome.  Its  object  was  to 
allay  some  internal  dissensions  of  the  Corin- 
thians, and  it  contains  many  useful  and  noble 
truths,  flowing  from  a  vigorous  mind  and 
purely  Christian  spirit,  in  language  never 
feeble,  and  occasionally  eloquent. 

Those  pious  persons  wrote  before  any  as- 
sociation had  taken  place  between  philosophy 
and  religion,  and  were  better  instructed  in 
the  knowledge  of  Scripture  than  in  the  les- 
sons of  the  Schools ;    and  their  method  of 
reasoning,  no  less  than  their  style,  attests  the 
want  of  profane  education  ;  still  it  possesses 
a  persuasive  simplicity  well  suited  both  to  the 
character  of  the  writers,  and  the  integrity  of 
their  faith.     The  fundamental  doctrines  of 
Christianity  are  clearly  and  scripturally  incul- 
cated by  them  ;  and  these  are  every  where 
so  interwoven  with  the  highest  precepts  of 
morality,  as  to  prove  to  us  that  the  belief  of 
those  men  was  inseparable  from  their  prac- 
tice, and  that  it  had  not  ever  occurred  to  them 
to  draw  any  verbal  distinction  between  these  ; 
they  delivered  the  truths  which  had  been  en- 
trusted to  them,  and  associated  their  moral 
and  doctrinal  instructions  as  inseparable  parts 
of  the  same  scheme.     This  perhaps  is  the 
most  peculiar  feature  in  their  compositions, 
and  that  in  which  they  most  resemble  the 
inspired  writings.     Another  is  the  utter  neg- 
lect of  formal  arrangement  in   the   display 
of  their  arguments,  or  the  delivery  of  their 
rules  of  conduct ;  a  neglect  which  unques- 
tionably exposed  them  to  the  contempt  of  the 
philosopher,  who  sought  in  vain  for  a  system 
in  their  lore,  but  which  well  accorded  with 
the  plain  and  unpretending  character  of  truth. 
But  that  merit  by  which  they  have  conferred 
the  most  lasting  advantage  on   Christianity, 
(at  least  the  three  last  of  them,)  and  which 
will  make  them  very  valuable  monuments,  in 
every  age,  is  their  frequent  reference  to  al- 


*  Lardner.  Cred.  of  Gosp.  Hist.  p.  ii.  cb   vi. 


THE  EARLY  HERESIES. 


81 


most  all  the  books  of  the  New  Testament, 
such  as  we  now  possess  them.  Thus  they 
furnish  us  with  decisive  evidence  of  the  gen- 
uineness of  those  books  ;  and  their  testimony 
is  liable  to  no  suspicion,  because  it  was  not 
given  with  any  such  view. 

The  principal  Greek  writers,  who  imme- 
diately succeeded  the  apostolical  Fathers, 
were  Justin  Martyr  and  Irenaeus.  Justin 
Martyr  was  a  learued  Samaritan,  who,  after 
having  successively  attached  himself  to  the 
Stoics,  the  Peripatetics,  the  Pythagoreans, 
and  the  Platonists,  discovered  the  insufficien- 
cy and  emptiness  of  philosophy.  His  atten- 
tion was  called  to  Christianity  by  the  suffer- 
ings inflicted  upon  its  profession,  and  the 
firmness  with  which  he  had  beheld  them  en- 
dured. He  inferred  that  men  so  contemptu- 
ous of  death  were  far  removed  from  the 
moral  degradation  with  which  they  were 
charged ;  and  that  the  faith  for  which  they 
died  so  fearlessly  must  stand  on  some  foun- 
dation. He  examined  that  foundation,  and 
discovered  its  stability.*  The  sincerity  of 
his  conversion  is  attested  by  his  martyrdom. 
He  was  executed  by  the  Emperor,  whose 
philosophy  he  had  deserted  ;  and  he  perhaps 
never  was  so  strongly  sensible  of  the  superi- 
ority of  that  which  he  had  preferred,  as  at 
the  moment  when  he  died  for  it.f  He  wrote 
two  apologies  for  Christianity,  the  first  proba- 
bly addressed  to  Antoninus  Pius,  the  second 
to  Marcus ; — and  a  (supposed)  dialogue  with 
a  Jew  named  Trypho.  This  last  contains 
many  weak  arguments,  and  trifling  and  even 
erroneous  interpretations  of  Scripture,  mixed 
up  with  some  useful  matter.  The  two  form- 
er are  more  valuable  compositions  ;  they  were 
so  in  those  days — because  they  contained  the 
best  defence  of  religion  which  had  then  been 
published,  maintained  by  arguments  very 
well  calculated  to  persuade  those  to  whom 
they  were  addressed  ;  and  they  are  still  so, 
because  we  find  in  them  many  quotations 
from  the  same  four  Gospels  which  we  now 
acknowledge ;  they  relate  many  interesting 
facts,  respecting  the  religious  customs  and 
ceremonies  of  the  Christians  of  those  times  ; 
and  they  prove  the  general  acceptance  of  all 
the  fundamental  articles  of  our  belief.    As 


*  See  Jortin — Remarks,  &c.  B.  ii.  p.  i.  A.  D. 
150.     Also  supra  pp.  30,  31. 

|  It  has  been  often  asserted,  and  we  believe  without 
contradiction,  that  no  man  ever  died  in  attestation  of 
the  truth  of  any  philosophical  tenet.  But  those  who 
lay  much  stress  on  this  fact  should  show,  that  an  op- 
portunity for  martyrdom  has  ever  been  afforded  to  any 
philosophical  sect. 

11 


Justin  flourished  only  one  century  after  the 
preaching  of  Christ,  (his  conversion  is  usually 
placed  at  the  year  133  from  the  birth  of  our 
Saviour,)  we  are  not  extending  the  value  of 
tradition  beyond  its  just  limits,  when  we  con- 
sider his  opinions  as  receiving  some  addition- 
al weight  from  their  contiguity  to  the  apos- 
tolical times  ;  and  if  it  were  possible  to  mark 
by  any  decided  limit  the  extent  of  tradition- 
ary authority,  we  should  be  disposed  to  trace 
the  line  immediately  after  his  name  ;  for  ad- 
mitting that  Irenaeus,  who  presently  succeed- 
ed him,  by  his  oriental  birth  and  correspond- 
ence may  have  received  some  uncorrupted 
communications  transmitted  through  two  gen- 
erations from  the  divine  origin,  we  shall  still 
find  it  very  difficult  to  distinguish  these  from 
the  mere  human  matter  with  which  they  may 
be  associated  ;  and  this  difficulty  will  increase, 
as  we  descend  lower  down  the  stream ;  so 
that  we  may  safely  detach  the  notion  of  pe- 
culiar sanctity  or  conclusive  authority  *  from 
the  names  and  writings  of  the  succeeding 
Fathers,  though  they  contain  much  that  may 
excite  our  piety,  and  animate  our  morality, 
and  confirm  our  faith. 

Irenaeus  was  Bishop  of  Lyons,  about  the 
year  178  a.  d.  He  is  chiefly  celebrated  for 
his  five  books  '  Against  Heresies  ; '  containing 
confutations  of  most  of  the  errors  which  had 
then  appeared  in  the  Church.  Though  the 
language  which  he  employs  in  this  contest  is 
not  always  that  best  adapted  either  to  per- 
suade or  to  conciliate,  his  sincere  aversion 
from  religious  dissension  is  not  questioned. 
It  is  proved  indeed  by  the  epistle  which  he 
addressed  to  Victor,  Bishop  of  Rome,  on  his 
insolent  demeanor  in  the  controversy  respect- 
ing Easter,  and  which  breathes  a  generous 
spirit  of  Christian  moderation.  And  in  good 
truth  the  individual  exertions  of  Churchmen 
against  the  progress  of  unscriptural  opinions 
were  in  those  days  the  more  necessary,  and 
their  warmth  the, more  excusable,  as  there 

*  We  might  divide  the  first  313  years  of  the  Christ- 
ian rera  into  three  periods,  in  respect  to  its  internal 
history.  The  first  century  was  the  age  of  Christ  and 
the  Apostles,  of  miracles  and  inspiration  inherent  in 
the  Church ;  the  next  fifty  years  we  may  consider  as 
that  of  the  Apostolical  Father?,  enlightened  by  some 
lingering  rays  of  the  departed  glory,  which  were  suc- 
cessively and  insensibly  withdrawn ;  the  third  was 
the  period  of  severe  probation  and  bitter  anxiety, 
unalleviated  by  extraordinary  aids,  and  so  far  removed 
from  human  consolation,  that  the  powers  of  the  earth 
might  seem  to  have  conspired  with  the  meanest  of  its 
progeny,  in  order  to  oppress  and  desolate  the  Church 
of  Christ — yet  even  this  was  not  without  the  Spirit  of 
God. 


82 


HISTORY  OF   THE   CHURCH. 


were  yet  no  articles  of  faith  to  trace  out  the 
limits  of  orthodoxy,  nor  any  acknowledged 
head,  nor  any  legally  established  system  of 
ecclesiastical  government.  The  unity  and 
purity  of  the  Church  were  chiefly  preserved 
by  the  independent  labors  of  its  most  em- 
inent and  influential  ministers,  divided  as 
they  were  both  by  language,  and  manners, 
and  distance,  and  entirely  unsupported  by 
any  temporal  authority.     So  that,  if  we  were 


PAR 


still  disposed  to  feel  any  surprise  at  finding 
such  numerous  forms  of  heresy,  so  very  near 
both  to  the  time  and  place  where  the  Reve- 
lation was  delivered,  the  above  considerations 
would  tend  to  remove  it ;  while  they  certain- 
ly teach  us,  that  such  errors  cannot  perma- 
nently or  generally  prevail  against  scriptural 
truth,  as  long  as  they  are  steadily  opposed 
by  temperate  and  reasonable  argument,  and 
by  no  other  weapon  than  argument  only. 

>  c 


X 


T    I  I 


FROM  THE  ACCESSION  OF  CONSTANTINE  TO  THE  DEATH  OF 
CHARLEMAGNE. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Constantine  the  Great. 

Victory  over  Maxentius  —  supposed  conversion  —  the 
miracle  of  the  luminous  Cross — evidence  for  and 
against  it  —  the  latter  conclusive  —  The  Edict  of  Milan 

—  its  nature  and  effects  —  union  of  the  whole  Empire 
under  Constantine  —  His  moral  character — sincerity 
of  his  conversion — unjustly  disputed — Remarks  on 
his  policy — power  of  the  Christians — Alterations  in- 
troduced into  the  constitution  of  the  Church  — Its  na- 
ture at  Constantine's  accession  —  spiritual  and  tempo- 
ral power  —  union  and  strength  of  the  early  Church  — 
how  cemented  —  View  of  the  Church  probably  taken 
by  Constantine  —  he  sought  its  alliance  — Three  periods 
of  the  ecclesiastical  life  of  Constantine — How  circum- 
stanced with  regard  to  the  state  Conslantine  found  the 
Church — He  assumes  the  supremacy — Rights  of  the 
Church  —  Its  Internal  administration  —  little  altered  in 
theory  —  permission  to  bequeath  property  to  the  Church 

—  Independent  jurisdiction  of  the  Bishops — on  what 
founded  —  External — subject  to  the  Emperor  —  what 
particulars  included  in  it — General  observations  — 
Constantine  usurped  nothing  from  the  Church  —  Inde- 
terminate limits  of  the  civil  and  spiritual  authority  — 
Alterations  in  the  titles  and  gradations  of  the  Hierarchy 

—  preeminence  unattended  by  authority — Conclusion 

—  Note  on  Eusebius. 

During  the  early  part  of  Diocletian's  per- 
secution Constantius  Chlorus  ruled,  with  as 
much  humanity  as  circumstances  permitted 
him  to  exercise,  the  provinces  of  the  West. 
On  his  death,  at  York,  in  the  year  306,  the 
army  proclaimed  Constantine,  his  son,  Em- 
peror. In  the  meantime,  the  provinces 
eastward  of  Gaul  were  distracted  by  the 
dissensions  of  rival  emperors  which  favored 
the  growing  strength  of  Constantine.  In 
311,  Galerius,  the  fiercest  among  the  assail- 
ants of  Christianity,  died,  and  his  dominions 
were  divided  between  Maximin  and  Licini- 
us;  Maxentius  had  already  usurped  the 
government  of  Italy  and  Africa.  Presently 
Constantine,  justified,  as  most  assert,  by  suf- 


ficient provocation,  marched  into  Italy  and 
overthrew  Maxentius  in  the  immediate  neigh- 
borhood of  Rome ;  that  tyrant  (as  all  admit 
him  to  have  been)  was  drowned  in  the  Tiber, 
and  his  dominions  were  added  to  the  posses- 
sions of  the  conqueror.  This  event  took 
place  in  the  year  312  ;  and  it  has  been  usually 
assigned  as  marking  the  period  of  Constan- 
tine's conversion  to  Christianity.  A  mirac- 
ulous story  *  is  connected  with  this  epoch  in 
our  history.  As  the  Emperor  was  marching 
toward  Rome,  at  the  head  of  his  army,  he 
beheld  a  luminous  Cross,  suspended  about 
noonday  in  the  air,  and  inscribed  with  the  fol- 
lowing words — Tovto)  vlxa — 'Uj/  this  conquer? 
The  phenomenon  confirmed  his  uncertain 
faith,  and  afforded  him  the  surest  omen  of 
victory.  But  this  was  not  all:  during  the 
ensuing  night  the  form  of  Christ  himself 
presented  itself  with  the  same  Cross,  and 
directed  him  to  frame  a  standard  after  that 
shape.  And  it  is  certain  that,  about  that 
period,  and  possibly  on  that  occasion,  a 
standard  was  so  framed,  and  continued  for 
many  following  years  to  be  displayed,  when 
ever  it  became  necessary  to  excite  the  en- 
thusiasm of  the  Christian  soldiers — but  the 
extraordinary  appearances  to  which  its  adop 
tion  is  ascribed  demand  the  most  rigid  exam 
ination. 

In  the  first  place,  the  story  which  we  have 
shortly  given  is  related  by  no  contemporary 
author,  excepting  Eusebius  ;  next,  it  is  relat- 


*  In  the  relation  of  this  story  we  have  ventured  to 
omit  the  dream  published  by  the  uncertain  author  of 
the  book  De  Mortibus  Persecutorum,  as  well  as  Naz- 
arius's  army  of  divine  warriors.  We  confine  our- 
selves to  that,  which  appears  under  the  more  respec- 
table authority  of  Eusebius.    See  Gibbon,  chap.  xx. 


CONSTANTINE. 


83 


ed  in  his  Life  *  of  Constantine,  and  not  in 
his  Ecclesiastical  History  ;  it  is  related  in  the 
year  338,  or  six-and-twenty  years  after  the 
supposed  appearance ;  it  is  related  on  the 
authority  of  Constantine  alone,  though  it 
must  have  been  witnessed  by  his  whole  army, 
and  notorious  throughout  his  whole  empire; 
and  lastly  it  was  published  after  the  death 
of  Constantine.  In  an  age,  wherein  pious 
frauds  had  already  acquired  some  honor ;  by  a 
writer,  who,  respectable  as  he  undoubtedly  is, 
and  faithful  in  most  of  his  historical  records, 
does  not  even  profess  those  rigid  rules  of  ve- 
racity which  command  universal  credit ;  f  in 
a  book,  which  rather  wears  the  character  of 
partial  panegyric,  than  of  exact  and  scrupu- 
lous history — a  flattering  fable  might  be  pub- 
lished and  believed ;  but  it  can  claim  no 
place  among  the  authentic  records  of  history, 
and  by  writers,  whose  only  object  is 'truth,  it 
may  very  safely  be  consigned  to  contempt 
and  oblivion.  J 

The  defeat  of  Maxentius  was  followed  by 
a  conference  between  Constantine  and  Licin- 
ius,  which  led  to  the  publication,  in  the 
March  of  313,  of  the  celebrated  Edict  of 
Milan. 

Edict  of  Milan.  This  Edict  was  a  proc- 
lamation of  universal  toleration ;  but  its  ad- 
vantages were  of  course  chiefly  or  entirely 
reaped  by  the  Christians,  as  theirs  had  been 
the  only  religion  not  already  tolerated.  It 
gave  back  to  them  the  civil  and  religious 
rights  of  which  they  had  been  deprived ;  it 
restored  without  dispute,  delay  or  expense, 
the  places  of  worship  which  had  been  de- 


*  Euseb.  Vit.  Const.  1.  1.,  c.  28,  29,  30,  31. 

■f  Eusebius  says,  that  Constantine  related  the  story 
to  himself  on  oath.  May  we  not  believe  Eusebius  in 
this  1  And  may  we  not  also  suppose,  that  the  Empe- 
ror deceived  him  in  some  moment,  when  enthusiasm, 
or  indisposition,  or  mere  human  weakness  had  brought 
him  first  to  deceive  himself?  He  may  really  have  re- 
collected some  uncommon  appearance  about  the  Sun, 
not  strongly  noticed  at  the  moment,  but  which  the  im- 
agination of  memory  heated  by  exciting  events,  or 
by  passion,  or  by  feverish  sickness,  may  have  convert- 
ed into  a  miracle.  The  story  of  the  vision  (which 
stands  indeed  on  rather  better  authority)  might  be 
merely  the  exaggeration  of  a  dream.  At  least  this 
supposition  has  nothing  in  it  unnatural ;  and  it  is  the 
only  supposition  which  can  save  both  the  intention 
of  the  Emperor  and  the  veracity  of  the  historian. 
See  Note  at  the  end  of  the  chapter. 

%  It  is  somewhat  singular,  that  on  this  same  occasion, 
Maxentius  is  related  by  the  Pagan  historian,  Zosimus, 
(who  makes  no  mention  of  the  Christian  miracle,  lib. 
ii.,)  to  have  carefully  consulted  (he  Sibylline  books, 
and  credulously  applied  to  his  own  circumstances  a 
orediction  which  he  found  there. 


molished,  and  the  lands  which  had  been 
confiscated — and  free  and  absolute  power 
was  granted  to  the  Christians,  and  to  all  oth- 
ers, of  following  the  religion  which  every 
individual  might  think  proper  to  follow. 

Immediately  afterwards,  Licinius,  who  was 
no  friend  to  Christianity,  overthrew  the  east- 
ern Emperor  Maximin,  who  had  been  its 
savage  adversary,  and  became  master  of  the 
empire  of  the  east.  A  war  followed  between 
the  conqueror  and  Constantine,  which  ter- 
minated, in  315,  to  the  advantage  of  the 
latter,  who  on  that  occasion  extended  his 
empire  to  the  eastern  limits  of  Europe  ;  eight 
years  of  peace  succeeded,  which  were  em- 
ployed by  the  Christian  Emperor  in  securing 
the  real  interests  and  legislating  for  the  hap- 
piness of  his  subjects.  This  period  of  rare 
tranquillity  was  succeeded  by  a  second  war* 
with  Licinius,  which  terminated  in  324  by 
his  submission  and  death,  and  by  the  conse- 
quent union  of  the  whole  empire  under  the 
sceptre  of  Constantine. 

The  year  which  followed  the  final  success 
of  Constantine  was  disgraced  by  the  execu- 
tion of  his  eldest  son  ;  and  it  is  not  disputed, 
that  the  progress  of  his  career  was  marked 
by  the  usual  excesses  of  intemperate  and 
worldly  ambition.  Some  of  his  laws  f  were 
severe  even  to  cruelty,  and  the  general  pro- 
priety of  his  moral  conduct  cannot  with  any 
justice  be  maintained.  Hence  a  suspicion 
has  arisen  as  to  the  sincerity  of  his  conver- 
sion— chiefly,  as  it  appears  to  us,  or  entirely 
founded  on  the  inadequacy  of  his  character 
to  his  profession.  But  is  there  any  page  in 
Christian  history,  or  any  form  of  Christian 
society,  which  does  not  mournfully  attest  the 
possibility  of  combining  the  most  immoral 
conduct  with  the  most  unhesitating  faith? 
Or  is  this  a  condition  of  humanity,  from 
which  monarchs  are  more  exempt  than  their 
subjects  ?  We  should  recollect,  moreover, 
that  the  character  of  Constantine,  notwith- 
standing its  grevious  stains,  will  bear  a  com- 

*  This  is  considered  by  Eusebius  (Vit.  Constant, 
lib.  ii.)  almost  in  the  light  of  a  religious  war — the 
first,  if  it  was  so,  among  the  many  by  which  the  name 
of  Christ  has  been  profaned. 

+  Nevertheless,  the  general  spirit  of  his  laws  was 
decidedly  humane  and  favorable  to  the  progress  of 
civilisation — for  instance,  he  made  decrees  tending  to 
the  termination  of  slavery;  he  abolished  some  barba- 
rous forms  of  punishment,  as  branding,  for  instance; 
he  restrained  exorbitant  usury,  and  endeavored  to 
prevent  the  exposure  of  children,  by  relieving  the 
poor.  See  Jortin,  Ecc.  Hist,  book  iii.  Fleury. 
Hist.  Eccl.  L.  X.  Sect.  21.  Baronius,  ad  ann,  315. 
Sect.  30. 


84 


HISTORY    OF   THE  CHURCH. 


parison  with  some  of  the  best  among  his 
pagan  predecessors  ;  while  it  was  free  from 
those  monstrous  deformities  which  distin- 
guished not  a  few  of  them,  and  which  have 
indeed  been  rarely  paralleled  in  Christian 
history.  But  even  had  his  conduct  been 
more  reprehensible,  than  in  truth  it  was,  it 
would  have  furnished  very  insufficient  evi- 
dence against  the  sincerity  of  his  belief. 
Again,  it  was  usual  in  those  days,  in  contin- 
uance of  a  practice  of  which  we  have  men- 
tioned the  cause  and  origin,  to  defer  the  sac- 
rament of  Baptism  until  the  approach  of 
death,  and  then  once  to  administer  it,  as  the 
means  of  regeneration  and  the  assurance  of 
pardon  and  grace.  In  compliance  with  this 
custom*  the  emperor  was  not  baptized  (he 
did  not  even  become  a  Catechumen  f)  until 
his  last  illness  ;  but  no  argument  can  hence 
be  drawn  against  his  sincerity,  which  would 
not  equally  apply  to  a  large  proportion  of  the 
Christians  in  his  empire.  In  his  favor  the  fol- 
lowing facts  should  be  observed.  For  many 
years  he  had  publicly  and  consistently  pro- 
fessed his  belief  in  Christianity:  in  a  long 
discourse,  which  is  still  extant,  he  even  expa- 
tiated on  its  various  proofs ;  he  began  his 
reign  by  protecting  the  believers ;  in  its  pro- 
gress he  favored  and  honored  them ;  he 
inscribed  the  cross  on  the  banners  of  the 
empire  ;  he  celebrated  the  festivals  of  the 
Church  ;  he  associated  in  the  closest  intima- 
cy with  Christian  writers  J  and  prelates ;  he 
inquired  into  all  the  particulars  of  their  faith, 
and  displayed  what  some  have  thought  an 
inconsiderate  zeal  for  its  purity.  By  such 
reasons,  according  to  every  fair  principle  of 
historical  inference,  we  are  precluded  from 
any  reasonable  doubt  on  this  subject ;    nor 

*  Constantius  in  like  manner  put  off  his  Baptism 
till  his  last  illness,  (Athanas.  lib.  de  Synodis)  so  did 
Theodosius  the  Great,  until  the  illness  which  he  mis- 
took for  his  last.     Socrat.  1.  v.  c.  6. 

t  From  Euseb.  de  Vit.  Const,  lib.  iv.  c.  61.,  it 
appears  that  the  Emperor,  just  before  his  baptism,  re- 
ceived for  the  first  time  the  imposition  of  hands,  usual 
in  making  a  Catechumen.  But  in  the  same  work, 
(lib.  i.  c.  32,)  it  would  seem  that  he  was  xaT7]/i]delg 
on  his  first  profession  of  Christianity,  immediately 
after  the  vision.  We  are  disposed  to  attach  greater 
credit  to  the  former  account.  See  Fleury,  1.  xi. 
sect.  60. 

X  Lactantius  possessed  his  confidence,  while  his 
command  was  confined  to  the  West,  and  Eusebius  en- 
joyed throughout  his  life  great  influence  at  the  Court 
of  Constantinople.  The  respect  which  he  paid  to  the 
festivals  of  the  Church,  his  '  diligence  in  prayer,'  the 
issuing  of  medals  throughout  the  Empire,  in  which  he 
is  represented  in  the  attitude  of  devotion,  are  facts 
mentioned  by  Euseb.  Vit.  Const.  1.  iv.  c.  15  &  22. 


need  we  hesitate  for  a  moment  to  acquit  a 
wise  and,  in  many  respects,  a  virtuous  Prince 
of  the  odious  charge  of  the  foulest  descrip- 
tion of  hypocrisy.* 

At  the  same  time,  we  are  willing  to  ad 
mit  that  his  conduct  to  the  Christians  was 
strictly  in  accordance  with  his  interests  ;  and 
it  is  very  probable,  that  the  protection  with 
which  he  distinguished  them  may  in  the  first 
instance  have  originated  in  his  policy.  But 
this  is  perfectly  consistent  with  his  subse- 
quent conversion.  And  we  may  here  re- 
mark, that  those  who  assign  policy  as  his 
chief  or  only  motive,  bear  the  strongest  evi- 
dence to  the  power  and  real  importance 
which  the  Church  of  Christ  had  acquired 
before  his  time ;  they  attest,  that  its  stability 
had  not  been  shaken  by  the  sword  of  Diocle- 
tian ;  that  by  its  own  unassisted  and  increas- 
ing energy  it  had  triumphed  over  the  fury  of 
the  most  determined  of  its  persecutors,  and 
that  its  claims  on  the  justice  and  respect  of 
the  Throne,  though  only  urged  by  perse- 
verance in  suffering,  could  no  longer  be  over- 

*  A  vain  dispute  has  been  raised  as  to  the  proba- 
ble moment  of  his  conversion,  into  wnich  we  shall  not 
enter,  because  the  truth  is  not  discoverable,  and  if  it 
were,  would  still  be  unprofitable.  Gibbon  affects  to 
set  some  value  on  it,  because  he  would  willingly  prove 
that  Constantine  was  no  real  proselyte.  Two  facts  he 
mentions  in  support  of  his  suspicion — that  Constantine 
'  persevered  till  he  was  near  forty  years  of  age  in  the 
practice  of  the  established  religion,'  especially  in  the 
worship  of  Apollo;  and  that  in  the  same  year  (321) 
he  published  two  Edicts,  the  first  of  which  enjoined 
the  solemn  observance  of  Sunday,  (Euseb.  Vit.  Const. 
1.  iv.  c.  IS,)  and  the  second  directed  the  regular  con- 
sultation of  aruspices.  Both- are  literally  true;  but 
the  inferences  drawn  from  both  are  false — Constantine 
did  not  profess  his  religion,  perhaps  he  did  not  adopt 
it,  until  the  campaign  against  Maxentius  in  312 — he 
had  previously  protected  and  favored  the  Christians, 
but  till  then  he  did  not  proclaim,  nor  could  he  perhaps 
safely  have  proclaimed,  his  own  belief;  but  he  seized 
die  earliest  moment  to  do  so,  and  during  the  twenty- 
five  following  years,  he  maintained  his  profession  with 
ardent  and  active  perseverance.  By  bringing  for- 
ward the  second  fact  as  an  argiunent  against  his  belief, 
the  historian  has  forgotten  that  the  Edict  of  Milan 
was  an  Edict  of  universal  toleration,  protecting  all 
Pagan,  as  well  as  all  Christian,  ceremonies;  so  that 
the  two  proclamations,  which  he  is  willing  to  expose 
as  inconsistent,  were  only  the  necessary  consequence 
of  that  generous  policy,  which  had  been  so  little  un- 
derstood by  the  Pagan  Emperors.  Before  we  quit 
this  subject  we  should  mention,  that  Zosimus  (lib.  ii.) 
attributes  Constantine's  change  of  faith  to  the  persua- 
sion, instilled  into  him  by  one  ^Egyptius,  a  Spaniard, 
that  the  remission  of  sins  attended  the  act  of  conver- 
sion to  Christianity.  Thus  it  appears,  at  least,  that 
the  Pagan  Historian  did  not  doubt  the  reality  of  the 
conveision,  though  he  may  have  mistaken  its  motive. 


CON  STAIN  TINE. 


86 


looked  with  safety.  And  this  fact  is  of  much 
greater  historical  importance,  than  the  mo- 
tives or  sincerity  of  any  individual  can  possi- 
bly be. 

Let  us  now  proceed  to  ascertain  what  was 
the  condition  and  constitution  of  the  Church, 
as  Constantine  found  it ;  what  were  the  prin- 
cipal alterations  introduced  by  him,  and  in 
what  form  and  attitude  he  left  it. 

Constitution  of  the  Church.  We  have  al- 
ready described  the  free  and  independent 
constitution  of  the  primitive  Church ;  the 
Bishops  and  teachers  were  chosen  by  the 
clergy  and  people ;  the  Bishop  managed  the 
ecclesiastical  affairs  of  his  diocese,  in  council 
with  the  Presbyters,  and  '  with  a  due  regard 
to  the  suffrages  of  the  whole  assembly  of  the 
people.'  Again,  the  great  ecclesiastical  di- 
visions of  the  empire  appear  from  the  ear- 
liest period  naturally  to  have  followed  the 
political ;  and  thus  for  the  regulation  of  mat- 
ters relating  to  the  interests  of  a  whole  Pro- 
vince, whether  they  were  religious  contro- 
versies, or  the  forms  and  rites  of  divine  ser- 
vice, or  other  things  of  like  moment,  the 
Bishops  of  the  Province  assembled  in  coun- 
cil, and  deliberated  and  legislated. 

We  have  also  remarked,  that  during  the 
course  of  the  third  century  this  constitution 
was  so  far  changed,  that  the  episcopal  au- 
thority was  somewhat  advanced,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  that  of  the  inferior  ministers  and 
the  people.  But  in  all  other  respects  the 
government  of  the  Church  remained  in  real- 
ity the  same,  and  perhaps  even  in  this  respect 
it  was  apparently  so  ;  for  the  forms  of  the  les- 
ser or  diocesan  councils  were  still  preserved, 
though  the  relative  influence  of  the  three  par- 
ties composing  them  had  undergone  a  change. 

And  here  it  will  be  proper  to  examine  how 
far  those  are  correct  who  consider  the  Church 
at  that  period,  as  a  separate  Republic  or  Bo- 
dy-politic distinguished  from  the  empire.  In 
the  first  place — the  synods  which  we  have 
mentioned,  local  as  well  as  provincial,  as- 
sumed the  office  and  power  to  arrange  ec- 
clesiastical affairs,  and  to  punish  ecclesiastical 
offences.  But  neither  was  their  power  ac- 
knowledged by  the  civil  Government,  nor 
were  their  awards  or  censures  enforced  by  it. 
Again,  the  Bishop,  through  an  authority 
which  professed  to  be  derived  from  Scripture, 
and  which  may  certainly  be  traced  to  the 
earliest  age,  exerted  a  kind  of  mcdiative  in- 
terference throughout  his  diocese,  in  the  civil 
disputes  of  the  Christians,  to  which  they  very 
frequently  appealed,  and  admitted  his  decis- 
ions as  conclusive  ;  but  no  such  jurisdiction 


was  recognised  by  the  Government,  nor  were 
any  such  decisions  legally  valid.  Moreover, 
some  of  the  Churches  had  become  possessed, 
as  corporate  bodies,  of  considerable  property 
in  land  or  buildings  purchased  from  the  com- 
mon fund,  and  applied  to  the  purposes  of  the 
society  ;  but  the  Government  never  formally 
acknowledged  the  legality  of  those  acquisi- 
tions, and  availed  itself,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  of  the  first  pretext  to  confiscate  them. 

It  is  in  this  condition  of  ecclesiastical  af- 
fairs, that  we  may  discover  perhaps  the  ear- 
liest vestige  of  the  distinction,  which  will 
hereafter  become  so  familiar  to  us,  between 
spiritual  and  temporal  power — though  in  the 
present  indefinite  shape  and  imperfect  de- 
velopement  of  the  former,  we  can  scarcely 
trace  any  intimation  of  its  future  proportions 
and  magnitude.  We  perceive  also,  on  how 
strange  and  irregular  a  foundation  the  secu- 
rity of  the  early  Church  was  established — in 
fact,  to  a  statesman  of  those  days,  before  the 
force  of  religious  union  and  the  intensity  of 
religious  attachment  were  generally  known 
and  understood,  the  society  or  communion 
which  rested  not  on  a  political  basis,  would 
naturally  appear  to  possess  no  principle  of 
stability.  To  the  eye  of  a  Pagan  its  strength 
was  imperceptible,  as  the  elements  which 
composed  it  were  concealed  from  him ;  and 
it  was  this  circumstance  which  encouraged 
Diocletian  to  an  aggression,  of  which  the 
barbarity  indeed  shocked  him,  but  of  which 
he  never,  perhaps,  doubted  the  success,  since 
the  power  which  resisted  it  was  unseen  and 
incomprehensible.  In  the  mean  time,  the 
public  discipline,  which  had  been  made  ne- 
cessary by  the  neglect  of  the  civil  power,  was 
cemented  and  fortified  by  its  opposition ;  and 
the  private  sincerity  of  belief,  which  could 
not  be  understood  by  a  Pagan,  because  Pa- 
ganism had  nothing  to  do  with  Truth,  was 
animated  info  contumacy  by  the  sense  of  in- 
justice and  injury. 

It  is  even  probable,  that  the  union  of  the 
scattered  Churches  was  facilitated  by  the  in- 
crease of  the  episcopal  authority  in  each  ;  for 
they  thus  acquired  that  decision  and  steadi- 
ness of  continuous  exertion,  which  marks 
individual  superintendence,  and  which  would 
scarcely  have  been  so  constant,  and  uniform, 
had  the  government  of  the  dioceses  retained, 
in  its  utmost  strictness,  its  original  popular 
character.  The  power  of  the  Bishops  made 
them  formidable  only  to  the  persecutor ;  their 
interests  demanded  their  union  and  their 
union  was  then  the  only  security  for  that  of 
the  whole  Church,  and  thereby  (without  the 


86 


HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


direct  interposition  of  Providence)  for  its  ac- 
tual preservation. 

To  us,  indeed,  it  seems  nearly  certain,  that 
these  powerful  but  latent  principles  of  eccle- 
siastical stability,  which  repelled  the  assault 
of  Diocletian,  would  have  preserved  the 
Church  through  a  much  severer  trial,  if  the 
genius  of  Constantine  had  not  discovered  its 
real  strength,  and  courted  its  friendship  and 
alliance.  It  is  true,  that  in  becoming  ac- 
cpiaiuted  with  its  strength,  he  also  discovered 
its  virtues;  in  the  excellence  of  the  Christian 
system,  he  perceived  a  great  omen  of  its  per- 
petuity— he  saw  too,  that,  as  a  rule  for  civil- 
ized society,  it  was  more  efficient  than  any 
human  law,  because  more  powerful  in  its 
motives  to  obedience;  and  perhaps  he  re- 
marked also,  that  the  energy  of  Christians 
had  hitherto  been  confined  to  submission  and 
endurance — to  unoffending,  unresisting  per- 
severance— and  this  outward  display  of  loy- 
alty might  lead  him  to  overlook  that  free 
spirit,  which  pervaded  both  the  principles 
of  the  religion  and  the  government  of  the 
Church,  and  which  in  later  ages  was  so  com- 
monly found  in  opposition  to  despotism. 

Constantine  admired  the  morality  of  the 
Christians,  he  loved  their  submission  to  arbi- 
trary power,  and  he  respected  that  internal 
and  advancing  vigor,  which  had  triumphed 
over  so  many  persecutors.  These,  we  doubt 
not,  were  the  motives  which  induced  him  to 
seek  the  alliance  of  the  Church,  and  to  con- 
fer on  it  advantages,  not  more  substantial, 
perhaps,  than  those  which  he  received  from 
it. 

We  are  disposed  to  divide  the  ecclesiastical 
life  of  Constantine  into  three  periods.  In 
the  first  of  these  he  confined  himself,  at  least 
ostensibly,  to  the  impartial  toleration  of  all 
religions,  though  he  legally  established  that 
of  the  Christians.  This  extends  from  the 
Edict  of  Milan  to  the  council  of  Nice  in  the 
year  325.  His  next  occupation  was  to  define 
the  doctrines,  and  thus  to  preserve  the  unity 
of  the  Church,  which  he  had  established.  It 
was  not  till  the  third  and  latest  period  of  his 
life,  that  he  attacked  the  superstition  of  his 
forefathers,  by  edicts  directly  levelled  against 
Paganism.  The  Arian  controversy  and  the 
overthrow  of  Paganism  will  form  the  sub- 
jects of  separate  chapters — at  present  we  shall 
endeavor  to  point  out  the  most  important 
alterations  introduced  during  this  reign  into 
the  constitution  of  the  Church,  and  their  im- 
mediate effects  upon  its  ministers  and  mem- 
bers. Constantine  found  the  Church  an  in- 
dependent body,  a  kind  of  self-constituted 


commonwealth,  which  might  sometimes  be 
at  peace,  and  sometimes  at  variance  with  the 
civil  government,  but  which  was  never  ac- 
knowledged as  any  part  of  the  whole  body 
politic  ;  it  had  a  separate  administration,  sep- 
arate laws,  and  frequently  (through  the  per- 
versity of  its  persecutors)  separate  interests 
also.  The  Christian,  as  a  citizen  of  the  em- 
pire, was  subject  of  course  to  the  universal 
statutes  of  the  empire — as  a  member  of  the 
Church,  he  owed  a  distinct  allegiance  to  the 
spiritual  directors  of  the  Church  ;  and  though 
this  allegiance  was  never  inconsistent  with 
his  civil  obedience,  except  when  that  obedi- 
ence would  have  deprived  him  of  his  relig- 
ion, it  was  founded  on  more  commanding 
motives,  and  was  one  from  which  no  earthly 
authority  was  sufficient  to  absolve  him.  Thus 
far,  and  thus  far  only,  his  ecclesiastical  divid- 
ed him  from  his  civil  duties ;  to  this  extent 
they  placed  him,  at  all  times,  in  divergency 
from  the  State,  and,  in  times  of  persecution, 
in  actual  opposition  to  it.  And  so  long  as 
the  Church  which  he  honored  was  disclaimed 
as  a  part,  or  associate,  of  the  State  ;  so  long 
as  the  space  between  them  was  broad  and 
distinguishable,  so  long  the  limits  of  his  al- 
legiance to  either  were  very  clearly  marked. 
Constantine  comprehended  the  nature,  and 
perceived  the  inconveniences  and  the  danger, 
of  this  disunion  ;  and  he  therefore  employed 
the  earliest  exertion  of  his  power  and  policy  to 
acknowledge  the  existence,  to  consolidate  the 
elements,  to  establish  the  authority,  and  to 
diminish  the  independence  of  the  Church. 
To  accomplish  the  first  of  these  three  objects, 
he  received  that  body  into  strict  alliance  with 
the  state — to  effect  the  last,  he  so  received  it, 
as  to  constitute  himself  its  director  as  well 
as  its  guardian,  and  to  combine  in  his  own 
person  the  highest  ecclesiastical  with  the 
highest  civil  authority.  His  right  to  this 
authority  (if  he  condescended  to  consider 
that  point)  he  might  derive  with  some  plausi- 
bility from  the  original  institutions  of  Rome. 
From  the  earliest  ages  of  its  history,  the 
chief  magistrate  of  the  nation  had  been  en- 
trusted with  the  superintendence  of  the  na- 
tional religion;  and  it  seemed  fair  that  he 
should  impose  the  same,  as  the  condition  of 
the  establishment  of  Christianity.  And  yet  a 
great  distinction  is  to  be  observed  even  in 
this  point.  For,  according  to  the  principles 
of  Polytheism,  the  most  sacred  functions  of 
religion  might  be  performed  by  the  hands  of 
the  civil  magistrates ;  but  the  consecration 
of  a  separate  order  to  those  purposes  by  the 
Christian  system  excluded  the  Emperor  from 


CONSTANTINE. 


87 


the  administration  of  the  rites  of  religion  ; 
and  the  Prince  and  the  Priest  became  hence- 
forward characters  wholly  distinct,  and  inde- 
pendent. It  was  perhaps  by  this  restriction, 
that  the  first  avowed  and  legal  limitation  was 
imposed  upon  the  authority  of  the  former; 
and  it  was  not  a  trifling  triumph  to  have  ob- 
tained from  a  Roman  Emperor  the  acknow- 
ledgment of  any  right  in  a  subject,  or  any 
restraint  upon  himself. 

Notwithstanding  this  assumption  of  ec- 
clesiastical supremacy  by  the  Emperor,  the 
Church  retained  in  many  respects  its  separate 
existence,  or  at  least  the  freedom  of  its  au- 
tonomous constitution — indeed,  had  not  this 
been  so,  the  term  Alliance,  which  is  used  to 
designate  the  union  of  Church  and  State  un- 
der Constantine,  as  it  implies  a  certain  degree 
of  independence  in  both  parties,  would  be 
unmeaning  and  out  of  place.  Some  imme- 
diate advantages  were  also  reaped  by  the 
Church  ;  much  that  it  had  formerly  held  by 
sufferance,  it  now  possessed  by  law ;  many 
privileges,  which  had  hitherto  existed  through 
the  connivance  only,  or  the  ignorance,  of  the 
Government,  were  now  converted  into  rights, 
and  as  such  confirmed  and  perpetuated. 

Constantine  divided  the  administration  of 
the  Church  into  1.  Internal,  and  2.  External. 

1.  The  former  continued,  as  heretofore,  in 
the  hands  of  the  Prelates,  individually  and  in 
Council — little  or  no  alteration  was  intro- 
duced into  this  department ;  and  it  compre- 
hended nearly  every  thing  which  was  really 
tangible  and  available  in  the  power  of  the 
Church  before  its  association  with  the  State, 
now  confirmed  to  it  by  that  association.  The 
settlement  of  religious  controversies  was  re- 
commended to  the  wisdom  of  the  Hierarchy;* 
the  forms  of  Divine  worship,  the  regulation 
of  customary  rites  and  ceremonies,  or  the 
institution  of  new  ones,  the  ordination  and 
offices  of  the  priesthood,  which  included  the 
unrestrained  right  of  public  preaching,  and 
the  formidable  weapon  of  spiritual  censure 
were  left  to  the  exclusive  direction  of  the 
Church.  The  freedom  of  episcopal  election 
was  not  violated ;  and  the  Bishops  retained 
their  power  to  convoke  legislative  synods 
twice  a  year  in  every  Diocese,  uncontrolled 
by  the  civil  magistrate.  We  have  already 
mentioned,  that,  by  the  Edict  of  Milan,  the 
possessions  of  the  Church  were  restored,  and 


*  A  rescript  of  Constantine  to  the  Provincial  Bish- 
ops on  the  disputes  between  Athanasius  and  Eusebius 
of  Nicodemia,  admits — Vestri  est,  non  mei  judicii, 
de  ea  re  cognoacere.  See  Baronius  ad  aim.  329, 
sect.  8. 


its  legal  right  to  them  for  the  first  time  ac- 
knowledged ;  and  this  act  of  justice  was  fol- 
lowed, in  the  year  321,  by  another  Edict 
which  permitted  all  subjects  to  bequeath 
property  to  that  Body.*  Exemption  from  all 
civil  offices  was  granted  to  the  whole  body 
of  the  clergy  ;f  and,  perhaps,  a  more  impor- 
tant privilege,  about  the  same  time  conferred 
on  the  higher  orders,  was  that  of  independent 
jurisdiction,  even  in  capital  charges,  over 
their  own  members :  so  that  the  Bishop,  alone 
among  the  myriads  of  the  subjects  of  the  em- 
pire, enjoyed  the  right  of  being  tried  by  his 
Peers.  This  was  not  granted,  however,  with 
an,y  intention  of  securing  his  impunity ;  for, 
though  degradation  was  the  severest  punish- 
ment which  could  be  inflicted  by  a  spiritual 
court,  the  penalty  was  liable  to  increase,  after 
condemnation,  by  the  interference  of  the  sec- 
ular authority.  While  we  may  consider  the 
free  trial  of  the  Bishops,  in  a  political  light, 
as  another  important  inroad  into  the  pure 
despotism  of  the  imperial  system,  we  are  also 
assured  that  on  the  Body,  thus  exclusively 
possessing*  it,  it  conferred  no  inconsiderable 
advantages.  But  another  privilege,  even 
more  valuable  than  this,  and  one  which  will 
more  constantly  be  present  to  us  in  the  histo- 
ry of  succeeding  ages,  is  traced  with  equal 
certainty  to  the  legislation  of  Constantine. 
The  arbitration  of  Bishops  in  the  civil  differ- 
ences referred  to  them  hi  their  diocese  was 
now  ratified  by  law  ;  and  their  decisions,  of 
which  the  validity  had  formerly  depended  on 
the  consent  of  the  parties,  were  henceforward 
enforced  by  the  civil  magistrate,  f  On  this 
foundation  was  imperceptibly  established  the 
vast  and  durable  edifice  of  ecclesiastical  ju- 
risdiction ;  from  this  simple  legalization  of 
an  ancient  custom,  in  process  of  time,  the 
most  substantial  portion  of  sacerdotal"  power 
proceeded,  and  the  most  extravagant  preten- 
sions of  spiritual  ambition.  But  those  conse- 
quences convey  no  reflection  on  the  wisdom 
of  Constantine,  since  they  were  produced 
by  circumstances  which  he  could  not  possi- 
bly foresee  ;  and  which,  besides,  never  influ- 


*  Constantine's  personal  generosity  to  the  Church 
as  well  as  his  deference  to  the  Episcopal  Order,  is 
mentioned  by  Eusebius,  (Vit.  Const.,  lib.  i.  c.  42., 
lib.  ii.,  and  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  x.)  and  was  continued 
throughout  his  whole  reign.  The  Pagan  Zosimus 
(lib.  ii.)  mentions  the  profusion  which  he  wasted  upon 
'  useless  persons.' 

•f-  Baronius,  ad  ann.  319.  sect.  30. 

J  Fleury,  Hist.  Eccl.  1.  x.  sect.  27.  on  authority  of 
Sozomen  (1.  i.  c.  8  and  9)  and  Const.  Apostol.  (lib 
ii.  c.  46)  Baronius,  ad  ann.  314.  sect.  38,  with  refer- 
ence to  Cod.  Theodos. 


88 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


enced,  to  any  great  extent,  the  eastern  division 
of  Christendom. 

In  the  separate  view,  which  we  have  taken 
of  the  internal  constitution  of  the  Church, 
we  perceive  a  powerful,  self-regulated  body, 
armed  with  very  ample  and  extensive  author- 
ity, and  supported,  when  such  support  was 
necessary,  by  the  secular  arm.  Let  us  pro- 
ceed to  the  second  division,  or  the  external 
administration  of  the  Church. 

2.  Of  this  department  the  Emperor  as- 
sumed the  entire  control  to  himself.  *  It 
comprehended  every  thing  relating  to  the 
outward  state  and  discipline  of  the  Church  ; 
and  was  understood  to  include  a  certain  de- 
gree of  superintendence  over  such  contests 
and  debates  as  might  arise  among  the  minis- 
ters, of  whatsoever  rank,  concerning  their 
possessions,  their  reputation,  their  rights  and 
privileges,  as  well  as  then*  political,  or  other 
offences  against  the  laws  of  the  Empire. 
Even  the  final  decision  of  religious  contro- 
versies was  subjected  to  the  discretion  of 
judges  appointed  by  the  Emperor:  f  the 
same  terminated  any  differences  which  might 
arise  between  the  Bishops  and  people,  fixed 
the  limits  of  the  ecclesiastical  provinces,  took 
cognizance  of  the  civil  causes  subsisting  be- 
tween ministers,  and  lent  his  power  to  the  ex- 
ecution of  the  punishment  due  to  their  crim- 
inal offences.  And  though  the  right  of  con- 
voking local  and  provincial  synods  remained 
with  the  Church,  that  of  assembling  a  General 
Council  was  exercised  only  by  the  Prince. 

When  we  consider  in  succession  these  ar- 
ticles of  imperial  supremacy,  we  perceive,  in 
the  first  place,  that  Coustantine  did  not  trans- 
fer to  himself  from  the  Church  any  power 
which  had  before  belonged  to  it:  most  of 
the  cases,  there  provided  for,  must  by  neces- 
sity have  always  fallen  under  civil  cognizance 
— for  whenever  it  happened,  either  that  the 
external  encroachments  of  the  Church,  or 
the  differences  among  Christians,  or  their 
ministers,  proceeded  to  endanger  public  tran- 
quillity, such  offences  fell,  of  course,  under 
the  cognizance  of  the  secular,  which  was 
then  the  only  acknowledged,  jurisdiction. 

There  appear,  indeed,  to  be  two  cases  m 
which  the  Emperor  assumed  a  power  not 
before  belonging  to  the  State — interference 
for  the  arrangement  of  religious  controver- 
sies by  the  appointment  of  judges,  and  the 
convocation  of  General  Councils.    Respect- 


*  The  authority  assumed  by  the  Emperors  appeai-s, 
under  various  titles,  in  the  16th  book  of  the  TJieodo- 
sian  Code,  as  also  in  the  Code  of  Justinian. 

t  Mosheim,  Cent.  iv.  part  ii.  ch.  ii. 


ing  the  first  of  these — which  proved  indeed 
the  least  effectual  part  of  his  ecclesiastical 
authority— it  was  not  probable  that  the  Em- 
peror would  be  anxious  to  exert  it,  unless 
called  upon  to  undertake  the  office  by  one  or 
both  of  the  parties  in  controversy.  If  invited 
to  enforce  the  sentence  of  the  Church  against 
a  condemned  Heretic,  he  might  reasonably 
plead  the  interference  of  Aurelian  in  the 
affair  of  Paul  of  Samosata ;  if  solicited  to 
decide  between  two  opinions  dividing  the 
Body  of  the  Church  itself,  he  would  natural- 
ly have  recourse  to  the  second  of  the  methods 
intrusted  to  him,  the  calling  of  a  General 
Council.  But  the  authority  to  do  so  was  not 
the  usurpation  of  a  power  before  possessed 
by  another,  but  the  creation  of  a  new  power. 
For  as  a  General  Council  of  all  the  leading 
ministers  of  the  Church  neither  had  been, 
nor  could  have  been,  assembled  in  times 
when  the  Church,  if  haply  not  persecuted, 
was  at  least  unacknowledged,  so  the  new 
condition  of  its  establishment  gave  birth  to 
new  circumstances,  for  the  regulation  of 
which  a  new  authority  was  necessary ;  and 
that  authority  was  properly  vested  in  the 
highest  civil  magistrate. 

In  the  next  place,  in  comparing  the  privi- 
leges remaining  to  the  Church  with  those 
assumed  by  the  Emperor  in  his  connexion 
with  it,  and  in  tracing  the  consequences  to 
which  either  might  be  extended,  we  cannot 
fail  to  observe,  that  their  limits  are  often 
vague  and  indeterminate  ;  and  that,  when 
they  are  not  so,  the  points  of  contact  and 
intersection  are  very  numerous,  offering  fre- 
quent means  and  temptations  to  mutual  inno- 
vation. We  shall  see  that,  in  after  ages,  they 
led  to  much  aggression  and  injustice  in  both 
parties  ;  but  as  matters  then  stood,  with  so 
large  a  portion  of  the  population  still  uncon- 
verted, and  even  adverse  to  the  Faith,  under 
an  Emperor  possessed  of  undivided  and 
seemingly  unbounded  authority,  we  should 
be  surprised,  perhaps,  to  find  so  many  privi- 
leges confirmed  to  a  distinct  religious  com- 
munity, if  we  were  not  acquainted  with  the 
bold  and  vigorous  character  of  Constantine, 
and  also  persuaded  of  his  attachment  to 
Christianity. 

We  should  not  omit  to  mention  some 
changes  at  that  time  introduced  into  the  titles 
and  gradations  of  the  Hierarchy,  in  order  to 
associate  their  administration  more  intimate- 
ly with  that  of  the  civil  officers.  To  the 
three  Prelates  of  Rome,  Antioch  and  Alex 
andria,  who  enjoyed  a  certain  degree  of  pre- 
eminence in    the  Church,  was    added   the 


CONSTANTINE 


89 


Patriarch  of  Constantinople — these  four  cor- 
responded with  the  four  Praetorian  Prefects 
then  also  created.  After  those  followed  the 
Exarchs,  *  who  had  the  inspection  over 
several  provinces,  and  answered  to  the  ap- 
pointment of  certain  civil  officers  of  the  same 
name.  The  Metropolitans  had  the  govern- 
ment of  one  province  only,  and  under  them 
were  the  Archbishops,  whose  inspection  was 
confined  to  certain  districts.  The  Bishops 
were  the  lowest  in  this  gradation,  but  many 
of  them  possessed  ample  extent  of  authority 
and  jurisdiction.  Their  number  at  this  tune 
was  one  thousand  eight  hundred,  of  whom 
a  thousand  administered  the  Eastern,  eight 
hundred  the  Western  Church.  In  this  whole 
Body,  the  Bishop  of  Rome  possessed  a  cer- 
tain indeterminate  precedence,  or  preemi- 
nence, unattended  by  any  authority  ;  and  this 
precedence  is  attributed,  first,  to  the  Imperial 
name  of  Rome,  and  next  to  the  superiority 
in  wealth,  which  he  seems  to  have  acquired 
at  a  very  early  period ;  to  the  splendor  and 
extent  of  his  religious  administration,  and  the 
influence  naturally  rising  from  these  causes. 

The  simple  establishment  of  the  Church, 
such  as  we  have  now  described  it  without 
anticipating  the  measures  of  State  afterwards 
applied,  or  misapplied,  to  the  support  of  it, 
was  favorable  not  only  to  the  progress  of 
Christianity,  but  also  to  the  concord  of  Chris- 
tians; the  former  has  never  been  disputed; 
as  to  the  latter,  we  have  seen  by  what  a 
cloud  of  heresies  the  religion  was  overshad- 
owed before  its  establishment ;  and  no  one 
can  reasonably  doubt,  that  the  additional 
sanction  given  to  the  gospel  by  imperial 
adoption,  and  the  greater  dignity  and  influ- 
ence and  actual  power  thus  acquired  by  its 
regular  ministers  in  every  province  of  the 
Empire,  would  conduce  to  dissolve  and  dis- 
perse them.  They  did  so — but.  while  the 
numerous  forms  of  error,  of  which  we  have 
treated,  fell  for  the  most  part  into  silence 
and  disrepute,  there  was  one,  of  which  we 
have  yet  made  no  mention,  which  grew  up 
into  such  vigor  and  attained  so  much  consis- 
tency, that  there  seemed  to  be  danger  lest  it 
should  possess  itself  of  the  high  places,  and 
occupy  the  sanctuary  itself.  Its  progress, 
and  the  means  adopted  to  oppose  it,  form  the 
subject  of  the  following  chapter.  We  shall 
conclude  the  present  with  one  or  two  obser- 
vations. 

It  is  one  favorite  opinion  of  most  skep- 
tical writers,  that  Christianity  is  entirely  in- 
debted for  its  general  propagation  and  stability 


Mosheioi,  loc.  cit. 

12 


to  the  Imperial  patronage  of  Constantine ; 
it  is  another,  that  the  establishment  of  the 
Church  led  to  the  disunion  of  its  mem- 
bers, and  its  prosperity  to  its  corruption. 
The  first  of  those  theories  is  falsified  by  the 
history  of  the  three  first  centuries — during 
which  we  observe  the  religion  to  have  been 
gradually  but  rapidly  progressive  throughout 
the  whole  extent  of  the  Roman  Empire,  in 
spite  of  the  persecution  of  some  Emperors, 
the  suspicious  jealousy  of  others,  and  the 
indifference  of  the  rest.  We  need  not  dwell 
longer  on  this  fact ;  especially  as  it  is  virtu- 
ally admitted  by  those  same  writers,  when  it 
suits  them  to  attribute  Constantinti's  pretended 
conversion  to  his  policy.  The  second  of 
their  assertions  has  a  greater  show  of  truth, 
but  is,  in  fact,  almost  equally  erroneous.  A 
fairer  view  of  that  question,  and,  if  we  mis- 
take not,  the  correct  view,  is  the  following — 
the  establishment  of  the  Church  was  in  itself 
highly  beneficial  both  to  the  progress  of  reli- 
gion, and  to  the  happiness  of  society — the 
mere  pacific  alliance  of  that  Body  with  the 
State  was  fraught  with  advantage  to  the 
whole  Empire,  with  danger  to  no  member  of 
it.  Many  evils  indeed  did  follow  it,  and 
many  vexations  were  inflicted  by  Christ- 
ians upon  each  other  in  the  perverse  zeal  of 
religious  controversy.  But  such  controver- 
sies, as  we  have  sufficiently  shown,  had  ex- 
isted in  very  great  abundance,  very  long 
before  Christianity  was  recognised  by  law; 
and  the  vexations  were  not  at  all  the  neces- 
sary consequence  of  that  recognition.  They 
originated,  not  in  the  system  itself,  but  in  the 
blindness  of  those  who  administered  it ;  they 
proceeded  from  the  fallacious  supposition — 
that  which  afterwards  animated  the  Romish 
Church,  and  which  has  misled  despots  and 
bigots  in  every  age — that  unanimity  in  reli- 
gious belief  and  practice  was  a  thing  attain- 
able ;  and  they  were  conducted  on  a  notion 
equally  remote  from  reason,  that  such  una- 
nimity, or  even  the  appearance  of  it,  could 
be  attaiued  by  force.  Many  ages  of  bitter 
experience  have  been  necessary  to  prove  the 
absurdity  of  these  notions,  and  the  fruitless 
wickedness  of  the  measures  proceeding  from 
them.  But  a  candid  inquirer  will  admit  that 
they  were  not  at  all  inseparably  connected 
with  the  establishment  of  the  Church;  and 
that  that  Body  would  not  only  have  continued 
to  exist  and  to  flourish,  without  any  interfer- 
ence of  civil  authority  to  crush  its  adversa- 
ries, but  that  it  would  have  subsisted  in  that 
condition  with  more  dignity,  and  more  honor 
and  much  more  security. 


90 


HISTORY   OF   THE   CHURCH. 


The  prosperity  of  the  Church  was  unques- 
tionably followed  by  an  increase  in  the  num- 
ber and  rankness  of  its  corruptions.  But 
unhappily  we  have  already  had  occasion  to 
observe,  that  several  abuses  had  taken 
root  in  all  its  departments,  during  at  least 
that  century  which  immediately  preceded 
the  reign  of  Constantine — to  the  fourth  we 
may  undoubtedly  assign  the  extravagant  hon- 
ors paid  to  Martyrs,  and  the  shameful  super- 
stitions which  arose  from  them.  But  we 
should  also  recollect,  that  many  among  the 
Romish  corruptions  are  of  a  much  later  date, 
and  that  several  may  be  directly  referred  to 
the  influence  of  expiring  Paganism,  not  to 
the  gratuitous  invention  of  a  wealthy  and 
degenerate  priesthood.  Indeed,  we  should 
add,  that  in  respect  to  the  moral  character  of 
the  clergy  of  the  fourth  century,  they  seem 
rather  chargeable  with  the  narrow,  conten- 
tious, sectarian  spirit,  which  was  encouraged 
and  inflamed  by  the  capricious  interference 
of  the  civil  power,  than  with  any  flagrant  de- 
ficiency in  piety  and  sanctity  of  life.  (Euseb. 
H.  E.lib.vii.  c.  i.) 

Note  on  Eusebius.  The  name  of  Eusebi- 
us  has  been  so  frequently  referred  to  in  this 
History,  that  being  now  arrived  at  the  age  in 
which  he  flourished,  we  are  bound  to  give 
some  account  of  his  life  and  character.  He 
is  believed  to  have  been  born  at  Caesarea  in 
Palestine,  about  the  year  270  ;  he  was  raised 
to  that  See  about  315,  and  died  in  339,  or  340; 
being  thus  (within  two  or  three  years)  con- 
temporary with  his  Emperor,  and  his  friend, 
in  the  three  circumstances  of  his  birth,  his 
dignity,  and  his  death.  He  was  extremely 
diligent  and  learned,  and  the  Author  of  '  in- 
numerable volumes.'*  And  among  those 
which  still  exist,  his  Ecclesiastical  History, 
and  his  Life  of  Constantine,  furnish  us  with 
the  best  lights  which  we  possess  respecting 
his  own  times,  and  with  our  only  consecutive 
narrative  of  the  previous  fortunes  of  Christi- 
anity. Eusebius  admits,  in  the  first  chapter 
of  his  History,  that  he  has  '  entered  upon  a 
desoLate  and  unfrequented  path;'  and  in 
gleaning  the  scattered  records  of  preceding 
writers,  and  presenting  them  for  the  most  part 
in  their  own  language  and  on  their  own  au- 
thority, he  has  indeed  very  frequently  dis- 
covered to  us  the  scantiness  of  the  harvest 
and  the  poverty  of  the  soil.  Still  in  that 
respect  he  has  faithfully  discharged  his  histo- 
rical duties,  and  has  rescued  much  valuable 
matter  from  certain  oblivion.  In  this  indeed 
consists  one  peculiar  merit  of  his  History, 
*  Jerome  de  Vir.  Illust.  c.  xxxi. 


that  it  unfolds  to  us  a  number  of  earlier 
memoirs,  written  immediately  after  the  events 
which  they  describe,  and  on  all  of  which  we 
are  at  liberty  to  exercise  our  critical  judg- 
ment, as  to  the  credit  which  may  be  due  to 
them,  without  also  involving  that  of  Eusebi- 
us in  our  conclusion.  But  respecting  the 
historical  candor  of  the  Author,  when  he 
speaks  in  his  own  person,  and  the  fidelity  with 
which  he  has  delivered  such  circumstances 
as  were  well  known  to  him,  a  few  words  are 
necessary,  because  the  question  is  not  usually 
stated  with  fairness. 

In  describing  the  sufferings  of  the  Chris- 
tians during  the  last  persecution,  Eusebius* 
(H.  E.  lib.  viii.  c.  ii.)  admits  '  that  it  does  not 
agree  with  our  plan  to  relate  their  dissensions 
and  wickedness  before  the  persecution,  on 
which  account  we  have  determined  to  relate 
nothing  more  concerning  them  than  may 
serve  to  justify  the  Divine  Judgment.  We 
have  therefore  not  been  induced  to  make 
mention,  either  of  those  who  were  tempted 
in  the  persecution,  or  of  those  who  made 
utter  shipwreck  of  their  salvation,  and  were 
sunk  of  their  own  accord  in  the  depths  of  the 
storm  ;  but  shall  only  add  those  things  to  our 
General  History,  which  may  in  the  first  place 
be  profitable  to  ourselves,  and  afterwards  to 
posterity.'  And  in  another  passage  he  asserts, 
that  the  events  most  suitable  to  a  '  History  of 
Martyrs '  are  those  which  redound  to  their 
honor.  From  these  two  passages  it  appears 
that  Eusebius  in  his  relation  of  that  persecu- 
tion has  suppressed  the  particulars  of  the 
dissensions  and  scandals  which  had  prevail- 
ed among  the  faithful,  because  he  judged 
such  accounts  less  productive  of  immediate 
edification  and  future  profit,  than  the  cele- 
bration of  their  virtues  and  their  constancy. 
We  may  remark  that  in  this  determination,  his 
first  error  was  one  of  judgment — if  indeed 
he  imagined  that  the  great  lessons  of  History 
were  more  surely  taught  by  the  records  of 
what  is  splendid  and  glorious,  than  by  the 
painful,  but  impressive  story  of  human  im- 
perfection, and  of  the  calamities  which  man 
has  gathered  from  his  own  folly  and  wicked- 
ness. But  his  second  and  less  pardonable 
deviation  was  from  principle — there  is  a  di- 
rect and  avowed  disregard  of  the  second  fun- 
damental precept  of  historical  composition. 
However,  the  crime  is  less  dangerous  because 
it  is  avowed,  and  more  excusable  because 
less  dangerous ;  and  at  any  rate,  if  we  shall 
perceive,  in  the  general  course  and  character 

*  In  Vit.  Constant,  cap.  ix.,  he  makes  the  same 
sort  of  profession. 


CONSTANTLNE. 


91 


of  the  work,  a  disposition  to  investigate  dili- 
gently, and  represent  faithfully,  we  shall  be 
disposed  to  confine  our  doubts  to  those  por- 
tions only,  which  the  writer  has  not  even 
professed  to  treat  with  entire  fidelity  ;  and  in 
the  vast  multitude  of  circumstances,  in  which 
the  honor  of  the  Martyrs  is  not  concerned, 
we  shall  approach  our  only  fountain  of  infor- 
mation with  a  confidence  not  much  impaired 
by  a  partial  dereliction  of  principle,  which  is 
fairly  admitted. 

But  that  delinquency  of  Eusebius  which 
we  have  just  mentioned  is  confined  to  the 
suppression  of  truth — it  does  not  proceed  to 
the  direct  assertion  of  falsehood  —  we  shall 
now  notice  a  still  more  serious  suspicion, 
to  which  he  has  rendered  himself  liable. 
The  thirty-first  chapter  of  the  twelfth  book 
of  his  Evangelical  Preparation  bears  for  its  ti- 
tle this  scandalous  proposition* — '  How  it  may 
be  lawful  and  fitting  to  use  falsehood  as  a 
medicine,  for  the  advantage  of  those  who  re- 
quire such  a  method.'  We  have  already  de- 
plored, with  sorrow  and  indignation,  the  fatal 
moment,   when    fraud    and  falsehood   were 


*  We  purposely  copy  the  language  of  Gibbon 
(Vindication,  p.  137,  2d  ed.)  Still  we  should  fail  in 
doing  perfect  justice  to  Eusebius,  if  we  did  not  pub- 
lish, together  with  the  proposition,  the  very  short 
chapter  in  which  it  is  treated.  It  begins  with  a  quo- 
tation from  Plato  (De  Leg.  2.)  'A  legislator  of  any 
value — even  if  the  fact  were  not  such  as  our  discourse 
has  just  established  it — if  in  any  case  he  might  make 
bold  to  deceive  young  persons  for  their  advantage; 
could  he  possibly  inculcate  any  falsehood  more  profit- 
able than  this,  or  more  potent  to  lead  all  without  force 
or  compulsion  to  the  practice  of  all  justice  1 '  '  Truth, 
my  friend,  is  honorable  and  permanent;  but  not,  it 
would  seem,  verveasy  of  persuasion.'  To  this  some- 
what hypothetical  passage  of  Plato,  Eusebius  adds — 
'  You  may  find  a  thousand  such  instances  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, where  God  is  described  as  jealous,  or  sleeping, 
or  angry,  or  liable  to  other  human  affections,  so  ex- 
pressed for  the  advantage  of  those  who  require 
such  a  method  (t7i  ojqneAf  i'a  Tar  deofiivdv  tov 
TOiovinu  Toonov.y  This  is  all  that  is  said  on  the 
subject,  and  it  shows  us  perhaps  to  what  limits  Euse- 
bius intended  to  confine  the  application  of  his  propo- 
sition. And  thus  Gibbon's  account  of  the  chapter, 
though  it  may  be  literally  true,  is  calculated  to  mis- 
lead. '  In  this  chapter  (says  he)  Eusebius  alleges  a 
passage  of  Plato,  which  approves  the  occasional  prac- 
tice of  pious  and  salutary  frauds ;  nor  is  he  ashamed 
to  justify  the  sentiments  of  the  Athenian  Philosopher 
by  the  example  of  the  sacred  writers  of  the  Old 
Testament.' 


first  admitted  into  the  service  of  religion. 
Philosophy,  in  the  open  array  of  her  avowed 
hostility,  was  not  so  dangerous  as  when  she 
lent  to  her  undisciplined  adversaries  her  own 
poisoned  weapons,  and  placed  them  in  unskil- 
ful hands,  as  implements  of  self-destruction. 
It  was  disgraceful  to  the  less  enlightened  fa- 
thers of  the  second  and  third  centuries,  that, 
even  in  the  midst  of  trial  and  tribulation,  they 
borrowed  a  momentary  succor  from  the  pro- 
fession of  falsehood — but  the  same  expe- 
dient was  still  more  shameful  to  Eusebius, 
who  flourished  during  the  prosperity  of  the 
Church,  whose  age  and  more  extensive  learn- 
ing left  him  no  excuse  in  ignorance  or  inex- 
perience, and  whose  great  name  and  unques- 
tionable piety  gave  sanction  and  authority  to 
all  his  opinions.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
then,  that  the  publication  of  that  detestable 
principle  in  any  one  of  his  writings,  however 
modified  and  limited  by  his  explanation, 
must,  to  a  certain  extent,  disturb  our  confi- 
dence in  the  rest — the  mind  which  does  not 
profess  to  be  constantly  guided  by  truth  pos- 
sesses no  claim  to  our  implicit  submission. 
Nevertheless,  the  works  of  Eusebius  must  at 
last  be  judged  by  the  character  which  seve- 
rally pervades  them,  not  by  any  single  prin- 
ciple which  the  Author  has  once  only  laid 
down ;  to  which  he  has  not  intended  (as  it 
would  seem)  to  give  general  application,  and 
which  he  has  manifestly  proposed  rather  as 
a  philosophical  speculation,  than  as  a  rule  for 
his  own  composition.  At  least  we  feel  con- 
vinced, that  whoever  shall  calmly  peruse  his 
Ecclesiastical  History  will  not  discover  in  it 
any  deliberate  intention  to  deceive — in  the 
relation  of  miraculous  stories,  he  is  more 
sparing  than  most  of  the  Church  Historians 
who  succeeded  him,  and  seemingly  even 
than  those  whom  he  has  copied — and  upon 
the  whole,  we  shall  not  do  him  more  than 
justice,  if  we  consider  him  as  an  avowed, 
but  honest  advocate,  many  of  whose  state- 
ments must  be  examined  with  suspicion, 
while  the  greater  part  bear  direct  and  incon- 
testable marks  of  truth.* 

*  Dr.  Jortin  (vol.  i.  p.  209)  has  corrected  a  mis- 
take of  Dr.  Middleton,  who  had  attributed  to  Eusebi- 
us an  absurd  respect  for  the  Erythrean  Sibyl — which 
seems,  in  fact,  to  have  been  entertained  by  Constan- 
tine. 


92 


HISTORY  OF   THE   CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Arian   Controversy. 

Controversies  among  Christians — their  origin — how- 
distinguished  from  philosophical  disputations  —  their 
character — accounted  for.  Constantine's  conduct  to- 
wards Heretics  and  origin  of  the  Arian  controversy- 
Alexander  —  Arius  —  his  opinions  —  followers  —  Inter- 
ference of  the  Emperor  —  Council  of  Nice  —  various 
motives  of  those  assembled — their  proceedings  and 
decision  —  Proposal  of  Eusebius  of  Cssarea  —  Gib- 
bon's account  of  this  Council  —  Temporal  Penalties  — 
to  what  extent  carried.  Conduct  of  the  successors  of 
Conslantine  —  Constantius.  Athanasius  —  his  history 
— twice  exiled  —  his  triumphant  restoration  —  contests 
with  Constantius—  methods  taken  by  the  latter  to  se- 
cure success  — remarks  on  them  —  third  banishment 
of  Athanasius—  Council  of  Rimini  —  progress  of  Ari- 
anism.  —  Theodosius  —  Council  of  Constantinople.— 
Arianism  of  the  Northern  Barbarians  —  the  conquerors 
of  the  West  —  its  effects.  Justinian  —  Spain  —  Council 
of  Toledo.  Termination  of  the  controversy.  Obser- 
vations—examination of  Arian  claims  to  greater  puri- 
ty of  faith  —  to  greater  moderation  —  Progress  of  Ari- 
anism in  the  West  to  what  cause  attributable—  confu- 
sion of  sectarian  and  national  enmity  —  conduct  of 
Catholics  and  Arians  under  persecution  —  Note  on  cer- 
tain Christian  AVriters. 

When  Constantine  established  Christianity 
as  the  religion  of  the  Empire,  he  probably 
did  not  foresee  liovv  soon  he  should  be  called 
upon  to  interpose  his  authority,  in  order  to 
prescribe  and  define  the  precise  tenets  of 
that  religion,  which  he  had  established. 
Doubtless  he  was  well  acquainted  with 
the  numerous  opinions  by  which  Christians 
had  ever  been  divided  ;  but  he  saw  that,  in 
spite  of  them,  the  Body  had  continued  to  ad- 
vance in  vigor  and  magnitude,  with  the  show 
of  health  and  unity.  The  Church  was  strong 
in  the  midst  of  heresy,  as  well  as  of  oppres- 
sion— and  when  he  gave  her  his  protection 
against  the  latter,  he  imagined,  perhaps  rea- 
sonably, that  she  could  have  nothing  to  ap- 
prehend from  the  former.  But,  whether  it 
was,  as  some  suppose,  that  the  evil  passions 
of  Christians  were  inflamed  by  their  present 
security,  or,  as  we  rather  believe,  that  the 
expression  of  dissent  had  been  softened  by 
the  impunity  which  attended  it  during  form- 
er reigns,  it  is  certain  that  scarcely  ten  years 
from  the  Edict  of  Milan  had  elapsed,  before 
the  Christian  world  beheld  the  beginning 
of  a  convulsion,  which  continued  for  some 
years  to  increase  in  violence,  and  which  was 
not  finally  composed  without  a  long  and  des- 
olating struggle. 

It  had  been  the  vice  of  the  Christians  of 
the  third  century,  to  involve  themselves  in 
'certain  metaphysical  questions,  which,  if 
considered  in  one  light,  are  too  sublime  to 
become  the  subject  of  human  wit ;  if  in  an- 
other, too  trifling  to  gain  the  attention  of  rea- 


sonable men.'  *  The  rage  for  such  disputa- 
tions had  been  communicated  to  religion,  by 
the  contagion  of  philosophy  ;  but  the  manner 
in  which  it  operated  on  the  one  and  on  the 
other  was  essentially  different.  With  the 
philosopher  such  questions  were  objects  of 
the  understanding  only,  subjects  of  com- 
paratively dispassionate  speculation,  whereon 
the  versatile  ingenuity  of  a  minute  mind 
might  employ  or  waste  itself.  But  with  the 
Christian  they  were  matters  of  truth  or  false- 
hood, of  belief  or  disbelief;  and  he  felt  assur- 
ed that  his  eternal  interests  would  be  influ- 
enced, if  not  decided,  by  his  choice.  Hence 
arose  an  intense  anxiety  respecting  the  result, 
and  thus  the  passions  were  awakened,  and 
presently  broke  loose  and  proceeded  to  every 
excess. 

From  the  moment  that  the  solution   of 
these  questions  was  attempted  by  any  other 
method   than  the   fair   interpretation  of  the 
words  of  Scripture ;  as  soon  as  the  copious 
language  of  Greece  was  vaguely  applied  to 
the  definition  of  spiritual  things,  and  the  ex- 
planation of  heavenly  mysteries,  the  field  of 
contention  seemed  to  be  removed  from  earth 
to  air — where  the  foot  found  nothing  stable 
to  rest  upon ;  where  arguments  were  easily 
eluded,  and  where  the  space  to  fly  and  to 
rally  was  infinite  ;  so  that  the  contest  grew 
'  more  noisy  as  it  was  less  decisive,  and  more 
angry  as  it  became  more  prolonged  and  com- 
plicated.    Add  to  this  the  nature  and  genius 
of  the  disputants ;    for  the   origin   of  these 
disputes  may  be  traced,  without  any  excep- 
tion, to  the  restless  imaginations  of  the  East. 
The  violent  temperament  of  orientals,  as  it 
was  highly  adapted  to  the  reception  of  reli- 
gious impressions,  and  admitted  them  with 
fervor  and  earnestness,  intermingled  so  close- 
ly passion  with  piety,  as  scarcely  to  conceive 
them  separable.     The  natural  ardor  of  their 
feelings  was  not  abated  by  the  natural  subtil- 
ty  of  their  understanding,  which  was  sharp- 
ened in  the  schools  of  Egypt ;  and  when  this 
latter  began  to  be  occupied  by  inquiries  in 
which  the  former  were  also  deeply  engaged, 
and  when  the  nature  of  those  inquiries  as- 
sumed   an    indeterminate    and    impalpable 
form,  it  was  to  be  expected  that  many  extrav- 
agances would  follow.     We  must  also  men- 
tion the  loose  and  unsettled  principles  of  that 
age,  which  had  prevailed  before  the  appear- 
ance of  Christianity,  and  had  been  to  a  certain 
extent  adopted  by  its  professors — those,  for 
instance,  which  justified  the  means  by  the 


*  Warburton,  Post,  to  4th  ed.  of  the  Alliance  of 
Church  and  State. 


THE   ARIAN    CONTROVERSY. 


93 


end,  and  admitted  fraud  and  forgery  into  the 
service  of  religion.  From  these  considera- 
tions we  perceive,  that  disputations  on  such 
subjects,  conducted  by  minds  such  as  have 
been  described,  and  on  the  worst  principles, 
could  not  possibly  hope  for  moderation,  and 
could  not  speedily  terminate ;  and  it  is  not 
useless  to  have  premised  them  to  our  ac- 
count of  those  controversies,  for  thus  we  shall 
neither  attribute  them  (as  some  have  done) 
to  mistaken  causes ;  nor  be  so  much  scandal- 
ized by  their  intemperance,  as  to  take  any 
offence  against  religion  itself,  because  such 
evils  have  been  done  in  its  name. 

Constantine  appears  to  have  enlisted  him- 
self very  early  under  the  banners  of  the 
Church  which  he  had  established  ;  very  soon 
after  the  Edict  of  Milan,  we  find  him  pub- 
lishing Laws  against  Heresy,  which  went  so 
far,  in  menace  at  least,  as  to  transfer  the 
property  of  heretical  bishops  or  ministers  to 
the  orthodox.  In  the  list  of  the  proscribed 
we  find  the  followers  of  Paul  of  Samosata, 
the  Unitarians  of  those  days ;  we  find  the 
Montanists,  who  were  the  Enthusiasts,  the 
Novatians,  who  were  the  Reformers,  and  two 
denominations  of  Gnostics  ;  *  but  the  opin- 
ions of  the  Arians  were  not  yet  attacked  ; 
perhaps  they  had  not  yet  assumed  a  tangible 
form,  or  at  least  were  not  distinguished  and 
stigmatized  by  a  name. 

In  the  freedom  exercised  by  individual 
opinion  on  abstruse  mysteries  under  the  early 
Church,  it  is  possible  that  many  may  have  held 
the  doctrine  afterwards  called  Arian  ;  but  the 
controversy  seems  to  have  been  awakened 
about  the  year  319,  by  the  zeal  of  a  Bishop 
of  the  Church,  and  the  scene  of  its  explosion 
was  that  hot-bed  of  heresy  and  dissension, 
Alexandria,  f  Alexander  was  the  Bishop, 
Alius  a  Presbyter,  in  that  city ;  and  the 
former,  in  au  assembly  of  his  clergy,  felt  it 

*  The  M arcionites and  Valentinians — See  Sozomen, 
lib.  ii.  c.  32;  and  the  beginning  of  Gibbon's  21st 
chapter — we  should  rather  conclude,  however,  from 
Eusebius's  account  (Vit.  Const.  1.  iii.  c.  63 — 66) 
that  Constantine's  Edict  against  those  Heretics  was 
posterior  to  the  Council  of  Nice.  Sozomen  asserts 
(not  very  accurately)  that  the  effect  of  the  Edict  was 
the  destruction  of  all  excepting  the  Novatians,  against 
whom  it  was  not  seriously  enforced. 

t  Even  after  the  Council  of  Nice  we  learn  from 
Eusebius  (Vit.  Const.  1.  iii.  c.  23)  that'  while  all  the 
rest  of  the  world  was  disposed  to  concord,  among  the 
Egyptians  alone  there  prevailed  immitigable  dissen- 
sion.'— Some  anecdotes  respecting  the  character  of 
this  people,  which  had  engrafted  Greek  principles  on 
African  character,  are  given  by  Jortin.  Eccl.  Hist., 
aook  iii.  a.  d.  364. 


his  duty  strongly  to  impress  on  them  hia 
sentiments  respecting  the  nature  of  the  God- 
head ;  maintaining,  among  other  things,  * 
that  the  Son  was  not  only  of  the  same  emi- 
nence and  dignity,  but  also  of  the  same  es- 
sence with  the  Father.  Arius  disputed  this 
doctrine,  and  this  dispute  led  him  to  the 
promulgation  of  his  own  opinions:  they  were 
these,  or  nearly  these  f — that  the  Son  had 
been  created  by  the  Father  before  all  things; 
but  that  time  had  existed  before  his  creation, 
and  that  he  was  therefore  not  coeternal  with 
the  Father ;  that  he  was  created  out  of  noth- 
ing ;  that  he  was  not  coessential  with  the 
Father;  that,  though  immeasurably  supe- 
rior in  power  and  in  glory  to  the  highest 
created  beings,  he  was  still  inferior  in  both  to 
the  Father.  These  opinions  found  many  and 
respectable  advocates  J  in  Asia  as  well  as 
Egypt,  among  the  clergy  as  well  as  the  laity, 
and  even  in  the  highest  ranks  of  the  clergy  ; 
and  their  number  was  probably  increased, 
when  the  Bishop,  after  condemning  the  tenets 
of  Arius  in  two  Councils  held  at  Alexandria, 
pronounced  against  him  the  sentence  of  ex 
communication. 

The  quarrel  now  became  so  violent,  that  it 
was  judged  necessary  to  invite  the  interfer- 
ence of  the  Emperor.  Constantine  viewed 
the  whole  question  as  trifling  and  utterly  un- 
important ;  §  he  regretted  that  the  peace  of 
the  Church  should  be  so  vainly  disturbed  ; 
he  lamented  that  the  harmony  of  Christians, 

*  The  opinions  of  Alexander  himself  have  not  es- 
caped the  charge  of  heresy — his  notions  respecting  the 
distinct  persons  of  the  Trinity  were  so  imperfect, 
that  Arius  accused  him,  with  seeming  justice,  of  in- 
clination to  the  error  of  Sabellius.  And  again,  some 
of  his  expressions  respecting  the  nature  of  the  second 
person  place  him  upon  the  very  borders  of  the  error 
subsequently  denominated  semi-Arianism.  So  diffi- 
cult was  it  in  those  days  even  for  the  most  pious  pre- 
late to  discover,  and  preserve  undeviatingly,  the 
precise  path  of  orthodoxy. 

|  Mosh.  Gen.  Hist.  c.  iv.  p.  ii.  ch.  5.  Maimb. 
Hist.  Arian.  book  i.  p.  16.  Gibbon,  chap.  21. 
The  original  materials  from  which  the  history  of  Ari- 
ani.sm  is  chiefly  composed,  are  Eusebius's  Life  of 
Constantine,  the  writings  of  Athanasius  (particularly 
the  first  volume)  and  the  Ecclesiastical  Histories  of 
Socrates,  Sozomen  and  Theodoret.  We  may  also 
mention  the  69th  (or  49th)  Heresy  of  Epiphanius. 

|  Sozomen  i.  15.  iii.  IS. 

§  Constantine's  epistle  appears  in  Euseb.  Vit. 
Const.  1.  ii.  c.  64 — 72.  In  c.  69  the  Emperor  de- 
scribes the  origin  of  the  controversy,  and  exposes  its 
dangerous  tendency;  and  in  c.  71  he  rebukes  the  par- 
ties for  disputing  i<n;o  /uxoior  xal  Xlav  D.ayloTwv 
— '  about  trifling,  and  most  truly  insignificant  matters.' 
This  account  is  confirmed  by  Sozomen,  H.  E.  1.  i.  c. 
15  and  16.     Socrates,  H.  E.  lib.  i.  c.  7. 


94 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


who  were  united  on  so  many  subjects  of  infi- 
nite weight,  should  be  interrupted  by  such 
unprofitable  speculations— and  in  the  Epistle 
containing  those  sentiments  he  enjoined  peace 
to  both  parties.  Constantine  knew  not  the 
nature  *  of  the  tempest  which  was  excited, 
for  neither  experience  nor  history  had  yet 
presented  to  him  any  thing  resembling  it. 
However  he  had  adopted  the  only  measure 
which  offered  any  hope  of  appeasing  it,  and 
had  he  persisted  in  his  neutrality,  it  is  proba- 
ble that  the  Arian  controversy,  after  some 
noisy  debates  and  angry  invectives,  would 
have  discharged  its  passion  in  words,  and  the 
heresy  itself  would  have  fallen  into  dishonor, 
almost  into  oblivion,  like  so  many  others,  f 
But  the  firmness  of  the  Emperor  was  not 
proof  against  the  importunity  of  the  orthodox 
prelates,  seconded,  as  some  think,  by  his  own 
theological  vanity ;  a  General  Council  was 
suggested  as  the  only  remedy  for  the  evil,  and 
the  Emperor  would,  of  course,  preside  over 
its  deliberations.  Still  the  matter  was  some 
little  time  in  suspense  ;  and  that  was  perhaps 
the  most  critical  moment  in  ecclesiastical 
history,  in  which  Constantine  determined  to 
convoke  the  Council  of  Nice. 


*  It  would  appear  indeed  from  the  following  pas- 
sage in  his  Epistle,  that  he  was  very  imperfectly  in- 
formed even  respecting  the  nature  of  the  question 
controverted.  '  Wherefore,  says  he,  let  an  unguarded 
question,  and  an  inconsiderate  answer  mutually  excuse 
each  other — for  neither  does  the  cause  of  your  conten- 
tion regard  the  chief  among  the  commandments  of  the 
law,  nor  has  any  nexo  heresy  been  introduced  by 
you  respecting  the  worship  of  God,  but  both  of  you 
hold  one  and  the  same  opinion — so  that  there  is  noth- 
ing to  prevent  your  concord  and  communion.'  Vit. 
Const.  1.  ii.  c.  70.  There  was  nothing,  indeed,  to  pre- 
vent their  concord  and  communion — yet  the  opinions 
which  they  held  were  widely  and  essentially  different. 

f  Jortin  has  suggested  another  method  in  the  follow- 
ing very  rational  passage — (Eccles.  Hist.  B.  iii.) 
'  If,  when  the  quarrel  between  Alexander  and  Arius  was 
grown  to  such  a  height  as  to  want  a  remedy,  the  Fa- 
thers of  the  Church  had,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  agreed 
to  draw  up  a  Confession  of  Faith  in  words  of  Scrip- 
ture, and  to  establish  the  divinity  of  Christ  on  the  ex- 
pressions used  by  the  Apostles,  every  one  might  have 
assented  to  it,  and  the  Arian  party  would  most  certainly 
have  received  it.  The  difference  of  sentiments,  in- 
deed, and  of  interpretation,  would  not  have  ceased,  but 
the  controversy  would  have  cooled  and  dwindled  away, 
after  every  champion  had  discharged  his  zeal  upon  pa- 
per and  written  to  his  heart's  content.  The  Arian  no- 
tion that  the  Son  was  created  in  time,  and  that  there 
was  a  time  ivhen  he  existed  not,  would  probably  have 
sunk,  as  not  being  the  language  of  the  New  Testament ; 
and  the  Macedonian  notion,  that  the  Holy  Ghost  was 
created  in  lime,  would  have  sunk  with  the  other  for 
the  same  reason;  at  least  these  opinions  would  never 
have  been  obtruded  upon  us  as  Articles  of  Faith.' 


Council  of  Nice.  In  the  year  325  a.  u. 
about  three  hundred  and  eighteen  *  Bishops 
assembled  at  Nice  (Nicrea)  in  Bithynia,  for  the 
purpose  of  composing  the  Arian  Controversy 
'Let  us  consider  (says  Dr.  Jortin)  by  what 
various  motives  these  various  men  might  be 
influenced;  by  reverence  to  the  Emperor,  or 
to  his  counsellors  and  favorites,  his  slaves  ana. 
eunuchs  ;  by  the  fear  of  offending  some  great 
prelate,  who  had  it  in  his  power  to  insult, 
vex  and  plague  all  the  Bishops  within  and 
without  his  jurisdiction  ;  by  the  dread  of 
passing  for  Heretics,  and  of  being  calumniat- 
ed, reviled,  hated,  anathematized,  excommu- 
nicated, imprisoned,  banished,  fined,  beggar- 
ed, starved,  if  they  refused  to  submit;  by 
compliance  with  some  active,  leading  and  im- 
perious spirits  ;  by  a  deference  to  the  majori- 
ty; by  a  love  of  dictating  and  domineering,  of 
applause  and  respect ;  by  vanity  and  ambition  ; 
by  a  total  ignorance  of  the  question  in  debate 
or  a  total  indifference  about  it ;  by  private 
friendship,  by  enmity  and  resentment,  by  old 
prejudices,  by  hopes  of  gain,  by  an  indolent 
disposition,  by  good-nature,  by  the  fatigue  of 
attending,  and  a  desire  to  be  at  home,  by  the 
love  of  peace  and  quiet,  and  a  hatred  of  con- 
tention, &c.  &c.'  To  these  considerations, 
which  comprehend  perhaps  the  usual  mo- 
tives of  human  action,  we  should  add  that 
among  so  many  assembled,  many  there  must 
have  been  of  sincere  intention  and  earnest 
piety,  and  certainly  several  well  instructed  in 
the  learning  of  that  age  ;  and  the  excellence 
of  these  persons  doubtless  so  influenced  the 
general  character  of  the  Council,  that,  though 
unable  to  repress  the  intemperate  violence  of 
some  of  its  members,  they  were  sufficient  to 
conduct  it  to  that  decision,  which  has  now 
been  followed  by  the  great  majority  of  Chris- 
tians for  fifteen  centuries. 

The  Bishops  began  by  much  personal  dis- 
sension, and  presented  to  the  Emperor  a 
variety  of  written  accusatious  against  each 
other ;  the  Emperor  burnt  all  their  libels,  and 

*  '  Persons  not  more  widely  separated  and  diversi- 
fied in  sentiments,  than  in  person,  residence  and  race, 
here  met  together;  and  one  City  received  them  all, 
as  it  were  an  ample  garland  variegated  with  beautiful 
flowers.'  Such  is  the  light  in  which  this  assembly  ap- 
peared to  Eusebius,  who  was  one  of  its  members.  Vit. 
Const.  I.  iii.  cap.  6.  Respecting  the  number  of  Bish- 
ops, Eusebius,  as  the  passage  has  come  down  to  us, 
makes  it  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty.  Socrates 
(lib.  i.  c.  8.),  professing  to  follow  Eusebius,  describes 
it  in  one  place  as  above  three  hundred,  in  another  as 
three  hundred  and  eighteen.  And  that  number  is 
generally  received  by  modern  writers,  on  the  additional 
authority  of  Athanasius,  Hilary,  Jerome  and  Rufinus. 


THE  ARIAN    CONTROVERSY. 


95 


exhorted  them  to  peace  and  unity.  They 
then  proceeded  to  examine  the  momentous 
question  proposed  to  them.  It  was  soon  dis- 
covered that  the  differences,  which  it  was  in- 
tended to  reconcile,  might  in  their  principle 
be  reduced  to  one  point,  and  that  that  point 
might  be  expressed  by  one  word — and  thus 
the  question  appears  to  have  been  speedily 
simplified  (as  indeed  was  necessary,  that  so 
many  persons  might  come  to  one  conclusion 
on  so  mysterious  a  subject)  and  reduced  to 
this — whether  the  Son  was,  or  was  not,  con- 
substantial  with  the  Father. . .  .Many  of  the 
leading  Bishops  hesitated,  or  even  held  in  the 
first  instance  the  negative  opinion,  and  among 
them  were  Eusebius*  of  Caesarea,  the  histo- 
rian of  Constantine,  and  Eusebius  of  Ni- 
comedia,  from  whose  hands  the  Emperor 
afterwards  received  baptism.  The  former 
proposed  to  the  assembly  a  Creed,  in  which 
the  word  consubstantial f  (Homoousian)  was 
omitted :  but  in  which  he  anathematized 
every  irtipious  heresy,  without  particularizing 
any.  His  advice  was  not  followed.  Then 
arose  subtile  disceptations  respecting  the 
meaning  of  the  word,  'about  which  some 
conflicted  with  each  other,  dwelling  on  the 
term  and  minutely  dissecting  it ;  it  was  like 
a  battle  fought  in  the  dark  ;  for  neither  party 
seemed  at  all  to  understand  on  what  ground 
they  vilified  each  other.'  J  However,  the 
result  was  perfectly  conclusive ;  they  finally 
decided  against  the  Arian  opinions,  and  es- 
tablished, respecting  the  two  first  persons  of 
the  Trinity,  the  doctrine  which  the  Church 
still  professes  in  the  Nicene  Creed.§ 

*  Jortin  (Eccl.  Hist.  b.  iii.)  has  discussed  the  reli- 
gious opinions  of  Eusebius  very  reasonably. 

f  He  objected  to  the  term  as  unscriptural — and  to 
the  use  of  such  terms,  he  attributed  nearly  all  the  con- 
fusion and  disorder  of  the  Churches  (See  Socrates, 
lib.  i.  c.  viii.  near  the  end.)  We  may  observe  that 
this  was  the  most  tenable  ground  in  which  the  Arians 
of  every  denomination  intrenched  themselves  in  the 
course  of  their  subsequent  disputes  with  the  Consub- 
stantialists. — See  Maim.  Hist.  Arian.  b.  iv.  (vol.  i. 
p.  223.)  The  distrust  of  tradition  which  they  ven- 
tured to  express  even  in  that  early  age,  was  closely 
connected  with  it — yet  it  proved  also,  that  the  early 
tradition  of  the  Church  was  favorable  to  the  Catholic 
opinion. 

X  See  Socrates,  I.  i.  c.  xxiii.  This  passage  has 
rather  reference  to  the  differences  on  the  same  subject 
which  continued  after  the  Council;  but  it  well  des- 
cribes the  nature  of  the  disputations.  Sit  ista  in 
Grrecorum  levitate  perversitas  qui  maledictis  insectan- 
tur  eos  a  quibus  de  veritate  dissentiunt.     Cic.  Fin.  11. 

§  Gibbon's  account  of  this  Council  does  not  seem 
to  rest  on  evidence  sufficient  to  counteract  its  im- 
probability.     He   divides   the   Christian   world,   as 


Their  labors  being  completed,  the  Bishops 
dispersed  to  their  respective  provinces — be- 
sides the  solemn  declaration  of  their  opinion, 
on  a  most  important  point  of  doctrine  (since 
it  established  the  equal  divinity  of  the  Son,) 
they  finally  set  at  rest  the  question  respecting 
the  celebration  of  Easter,  and  enacted  some 
profitable  regulations  relating  to  Church  dis- 
cipline.* Tbua  for,  then,  we  can  have  no 
just  reason  to  condemn  the  result  of  their 
meeting,  or  to  pronounce  such  assemblies 
either  pernicious  or  useless.  The  doctrine 
of  the  majority  of  Christendom  was  proclaim- 
ed by  a  public  act,  on  a  subject  hitherto  un- 
controverted,  and  henceforward  it  was  reason- 
ably considered  the  doctrine  of  the  Church. 
And  if  matters  had  rested  here,  perhaps  the 
dissentients  would  either  have  concealed  their 
opinions,  or  gradually  melted  away  into  the 
mass  of  the  orthodox.  But  Constantine 
thought  the  work  of  ecclesiastical  legislation 
incomplete,  until  the  spiritual  edict  was  en- 
forced by  temporal  penalties.  Immediate 
exile  was  inflicted  on  those  who  persisted  in 
error — and  the  punishment  of  a  Heretic  by  a 
Christian  Prince  was  defended  by  the  same 


represented  at  Nice,  into  three  classes  or  parties, 
fill  Heretical — Arians,  Sabellians  and  Tritheists; 
and  then  he  asserts  that  the  two  last  (professing  opin- 
ions diametrically  opposite  to  each  other)  combined 
against  the  Arians.  Without  affecting  to  believe, 
that  the  majority  of  the  Nicene  Bishops  would  have 
explained  the  mystery  of  the  Trinity  in  the  precise 
language  of  the  Athanasian  Creed,  we  think  it  very 
irrational  to  suppose,  that  there  were  none  (that  there 
were  not  many)  among  them,  impressed  with  notions 
of  the  Trinity  very  far  removed  either  from  Sabellian- 
ism  or  Tritheism.  Those,  who  know  the  pertinacity 
with  which  men  adhere  to  their  own  previous  notions 
on  such  matters,  will  not  easily  believe,  that  two  nu- 
merous parties,  professing  opinions  not  only  contrary 
but  adverse,  should  immediately  waive  those  opinions, 
and  assume,  and  persist  in,  other  opinions  essentially 
different  from  either,  and  then  unite,  merely  for  the 
sake  of  outvoting  a  third  party,  against  which  they 
were  not  inflamed  by  any  personal  animosity.  It  is 
possible  that  there  may  have  been  some  Sabellians  as 
well  as  Tritheists  among  the  members  of  the  Council, 
notwithstanding  the  repeated  condemnations  of  those 
heresies  by  the  Church  writers ;  but  it  is  impossible 
to  believe,  that  the  opinions,  which  were  finally  sanc- 
tioned by  the  great  majority  of  the  Bishops,  and  were 
ever  afterwards  followed  as  the  rule  of  orthodoxy, 
were  not  previously  very  general  among  the  ministers 
of  the  Church. 

*  The  three  written  monuments  of  this  Council  were 
the  Rule  of  Faith — a  number  of  Canons — and  the 
Synodical  Epistle  which  was  addressed  to  the  Church- 
es on  its  dissolution.  Socrates,  E.  Hist.  lib.  i.,  c. 
ix.  See  Semler,  Cent.  iv.  cap.  iii.  De  Conciliis 
Mosheim.  E.  H.  Cent.  iv.  p.  ii.  c.  v. 


96 


HISTORY    OF   THE   CHURCH. 


plea  of  rebellious  contumacy,  which  is  urged 
by  the  apologists  of  his  Pagan  predecessors 
to  justify  the  execution  of  a  Christian.* 

In  justice,  however,  to  the  character *of 
Constantine,  we  must  admit,  that  he  was  ani- 
mated throughout  these  perplexing  dissen- 
sions not  by  any  private  or  sectarian  animosi- 
ty against  the  Arian  party,  but  by  a  sincere 
desire  to  restore  peace  to  the  Church.  It 
was  his  object  to  correct  and  chastise  the 
perversity  of  the  Heretics,  and  thus  to  force 
them  into  communion  with  the  great  body  of 
his  Christian  subjects ;  but  he  had  no  design 
or  wish  for  their  extermination.  And  as  soon 
as  he  discovered  that  his  first  severities  were 
ineffectual ;  that  the  Arians,  under  the  epis- 
copal guidance  of  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia,f 
lost  little  strength  in  Asia  and  even  maintain- 
ed the  contest  in  Alexandria  itself,  and  that 
they  were  not  without  support  in  his  own 
Court  and  Household,  he  perceived  the  inu- 
tility of  his  measures,  and  chose  rather  to  re- 
trace the  steps  which  he  had  taken,  than  to 
advance  more  deeply  into  the  paths  of  per- 
secution. He  therefore  recalled  Eusebius  in 
the  year  330,  and  six  years  afterwards  Arius 
himself,  after  presenting  to  the  Emperor  a 
modified  profession  of  faith,  was  released 
from  the  sentence  of  banishment.  J  That 
Heresiarch  perished  soon  afterwards  by  a 
sudden,  but  probably  a  natural,  death — and 
so  far  from  joining  in  the  anathemas,  which 
are  commonly  heaped  upon  him,  we  shall 
perform  a  more  grateful  office  in  bearing 
testimony  to  the  purity  of  his  moral  life,  and 
the  probable  sincerity  of  his  religious  opin- 


*  In  a  formal  Edict  addressed  to  the  Bishops  and 
People,  Constantine  compares  the  blindness  of  Arius 
to  that  of  Porphyry,  and  commands  his  followers  to 
be  designated  by  the  ignominious  name  of  Porphyri- 
ans.  He  then  proceeds  to  consign  the  books  of  Arius 
to  the  flames,  nearly  in  the  following  terms: — 'If  any 
man  be  found  to  have  concealed  a  copy  of  those  Books, 
and  not  to  have  instantly  produced  it  and  thrown  it 
into  the  fire,  he  shall  be  put  to  death.  The  moment 
he  is  convicted  of  this  he  shall  be  subjected  to  capital 
punishment.  The  Lord  continue  to  preserve  you.' 
Socrates,  Hist.  E.,  lib.  i.,  p.  32. 

t  Philostorgius,  the  Arian  historian,  attributes  mi- 
racles to  this  Eusebius;  and  Athanasius  (Oral.  .2,) 
seems  to  consider  him  rather  as  the  master  than  the 
disciple  of  Arius.  See  Tillemont.  Sur  Ies  Ariens. 
Art.  vi. 

X  It  is  another,  perhaps  a  more  probable  opinion, 
that  Eusebius  was  recalled  in  328,  and  Arius  even 
sooner;  but  that  the  Emperor  did  not  invite  Arius  to 
Constantinople  until  336  Mosh.  Ecc.  Hist.,  Cent, 
iv,  p.  ii.  c.  v.  See  also  Tillern.  loc.  cit.,  who  dates 
the  real  rancor  of  the  contest  from  the  refusal  of 
Athanasius  still  to  communicate  with  his  adversary. 


ions.  Respecting  the  less  important  circum- 
stances of  his  manners  and  conversation,  we 
shall  be  contented  to  adopt  the  language  of  a 
writer  who  has  seldom  treated  either  him  or 
his  followers  with  any  show  of  candor  or 
justice.*  'Arius  matle  use  of  the  advanta- 
ges he  was  master  of,  by  art  and  by  nature, 
to  gain  the  people — for  it  is  certain  that  he 
had  a  great  many  talents,  which  rendered 
him  capable  of  nicely  insinuating  himself  into 
their  good  opinion  and  affections.  He  was 
tall  of  stature  and  of  a  very  becoming  make, 
grave  and  serious  in  his  carriage,  with  a  cer- 
tain air  of  severity  in  his  looks,  which  made 
him  pass  for  a  man  of  great  virtue  and  aus- 
terity of  life.  Yet  this  severity  did  not  dis- 
courage those  who  accosted  him,  because  it 
was  softened  by  an  extraordinary  delicacy  in 
his  features  that  gave  lustre  to  his  whole  per- 
son, and  had  something  in  it  so  sweet  and 
engaging,  as  was  not  easily  to  be  resisted. 
His  garb  was  modest,  but  withal  neat,  and 
such  as  was  usually  worn  by  those  who  were 
men  of  quality  as  well  as  learning.  His 
manner  of  receiving  people  was  very  cour- 
teous, and  very  ingratiating,  through  his 
agreeable  way  of  entertaining  those  who 
came  to  him  upon  any  occasion.  In  short, 
notwithstanding  his  mighty  seriousness,  and 
the  severity  and  strictness  of  his  mien,  he 
perfectly  well  understood  how  to  soothe  and 
flatter,  with  all  imaginable  wit  and  address, 
those  whom  he  had  a  mind  to  bring  over  to 
his  opinion,  and  engage  in  his  party.' 

On  the  death  of  Constantine  in  336  a.  d. 
the  Empire  was  partitioned  among  his  sons. 
Constautius  occupied  the  eastern  throne,  and 
Constantino  and  Constans  divided  that  of  the 
west.  These  two  Princes  (in  compliance 
perhaps  with  the  inclinations  of  their  sub- 
jects) supported  the  Nicene  faith  in  their 
dominions ;  but  Constantius  loudly  proclaim- 
ed his  adhesion  to  the  Arian  or  Eusebian  f 
doctrine ;  and,  perceiving  that  a  numerous 
sect  already  professed  it,  he  proceeded  by 
every  art  to  impose  it  upon  the  body  of  his 
people.  It  is  admitted  that  Constantius  pos- 
sessed 'a  vain  and  feeble  mind,  alike  inca- 
pable of  being  moderated  by  reason  or  fixed 
by  faith.J  Instead  of  reconciling  the  parties 
by  the  weight  of  his  authority,  he  cherished 
and  propagated  by  verbal  disputes  the  differ- 

*  Maimbourg,  Hist.  Arian.,  b.  i.  Epiphanius, 
Ha; res.  69. 

■f  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia  died  in  the  year  342,  af- 
ter gaining  some  advantages  over  his  great  antagonist 
Athanasius. 

%  Gibbon,  c.  21 


THE  ARIAN  CONTROVERSY. 


97 


ences  which  his  vain  curiosity  had  excited.' 
And  it  is  the  complaint  of  Ammianus,  a  con- 
temporary historian,  that  the  highways  were 
covered,  and  the  establishment  of  posts  almost 
exhausted,  by  the  troops  of  Bishops,  who  were 
perpetually  hurrying  from  synod  to  synod. 
These  measures  served  only  to  animate  dis- 
sension ;  and  the  evils  and  the  odium  which 
it  produced  are  more  justly  charged  upon  the 
Prince  who  inflamed,  than  upon  the  parties 
who  blindly  waged  it. 

In  the  year  350  Constans  was  assassinated, 
and  soon  afterwards  Rome  and  Italy,  with  a 
great  part  of  the  western  Empire,  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Constantius.  Hitherto  the  Church- 
es of  the  West  had  not  been  deeply  agitated 
by  the  controversy,  but  having  willingly  em- 
braced, had  steadily  maintained,  the  doctrine 
of  Nice  ;  but  the  first  attention  of  the  Empe- 
ror was  directed  to  the  disturbance  of  their 
repose  and  their  faith. 

Athanasius.  In  the  meantime,  an  adversa- 
ry, dangerous  to  the  opinions,  and  not  wholly 
subject  even  to  the  power,  of  the  Sovereign, 
had  been  raised  up  in  the  person  of  Athana- 
sius. That  great  champion  of  Catholicism, 
the  most  distinguished  among  the  Fathers  of 
the  Church,  not  by  his  writings  only  but  by 
his  adventures  and  his  sufferings,  steadily  de- 
fended the  Nicene  doctrine  during  forty-six 
years  of  alternate  dignity  and  persecution.* 
He  succeeded  Alexander  in  the  See  of  Alex- 
andria in  the  year  326  ;  he  succeeded  also  to 
his  enmity  against  the  opinions  and  person 
of  Arius,  and  boldly  raised  his  voice  against 
his  recall  from  banishment  by  Constantine. 
Some  intemperance  in  his  zeal  seems  soon 
afterwards  to  have  given  a  pretext  to  the 
Asiatic  Bishops,  many  of  whom  were  still 
Arian  ;  and  in  a  Synod  held  at  Tyre,  f  they 
pronounced  the  sentence  of  degradation  and 
exile,  which  was  enforced  by  the  Emperor. 
At  the  end  of  twenty-eight  months,  soon  after 
the  death  of  Constantine,  he  was  restored  ;  but 
in  341  he  was  once  more  exiled  by  the  Synod 
of  Antioch,|  acting  under  the  influence  of 


*  His  character  is  admirably  described  by  Gibbon 
(chap.  21,)  and  the  history  of  his  constancy  and  his 
misfortunes  is  written  with  splendor  and  impartiality, 
even  when  Julian  becomes  his  persecutor. 

t  It  was  held  in  the  year  335.  The  most  important 
of  the  charges  brought  against  Athanasius  were  mani- 
festly confuted,  and  the  justice  of  his  sentence  is  at 
least  very  questionable. 

%  At  this  time,  or  soon  afterwards,  the  Arians  drew 
up  a  Creed  in  which  they  omitted  the  offensive  word 
Consubstantial ;  but  the  terms  which  they  applied  to 
the  Son,  calling  him  ar^nrov  rs  xai  araXXoiurtov 
T^s  6e6rrjToc,  ovola?  T*   y.ai   fiovXijs   xai   Svvafiiwg 

13 


Constantius.  The  place  of  his  former  ban- 
ishment was  France  ;  that  of  his  second  was 
Italy,  and  chiefly  Rome ;  so  that  he  became 
familiar  with  the  language  of  the  West,  with 
the  discipline  and  Primates  of  its  Church,  and 
with  the  Court  of  its  Emperor.  He  profited 
by  all  these  advantages,  and  availed  himself 
so  effectually  of  the  last,  that  Constans*  at 
length  prepared  to  interfere  with  arms  in  his 
favor.  Threatened  by  the  horrors  of  a  reli- 
gious war,  Constantius  reluctantly  consented 
to  his  restoration.!  In  the  year  349  he  reoc- 
cupied  his  former  throne.  '  The  entrance  of 
the  Archbishop  into  his  capital  was  a  trium- 
phal procession  ;  absence  and  persecution  had 
endeared  him  to  the  Alexandrians;  his  au- 
thority, which  he  exercised  with  rigor,  was 
more  firmly  established,  and  his  fame  was 
diffused  from  ^Ethiopia  to  Britain,  over  the 
whole  extent  of  the  Christian  world.' 

It  was  immediately  after  this  event  that 
Constantius  succeeded  to  the  Western  Em- 
pire; and  in  his  zeal  for  the  propagation  of  Ari- 
anism  he  presently  renewed  his  attacks  on 
Athanasius.  He  summoned  J  Councils  of  the 
Western  Bishops ;  he  menaced  and  caressed 
and  corrupted  the  Bishops  whom  he  had 
summoned,  and  at  length  (in  the  year  356) 
with  great  difficulty  succeeded  in  deposing  for 
the  third  time  his  spiritual  adversary. 

This  struggle  must  not  be  passed  over  with 


y.ai  $uc,i]$  uTiaouXXay.rov  it/.uva,  yal  ttqwtotoxov 
naa^Q  xrutseig — are  such  as  might  have  been  sub- 
scribed by  the  most  zealous  Catholic  See  Le  Clerc, 
ap.  Jortin,  E.  H.  b.  iii.;  and  Tillemont.  Sur  les 
Ariens.  Article  xxxn.  Also,  Sozomen,  1.  3.  c.  5; 
and  Athanas.  de  Synodis. 

*  The  celebrated  Council  held  at  Sardica,  in  Thrace, 
in  347,  in  which  the  great  majority  were  Catholics, 
probably  encouraged  the  Emperor  of  the  West  to  this 
resolution. 

•f  It  was  on  this  occasion,  that  Constantius  request- 
ed Athanasius  to  grant  to  the  Arians  one  Church  at 
Alexandria.  This  request  the  Patriarch  answered  by 
another,  proposing  a  similar  concession  to  the  Catho- 
lics at  Antioch.  From  this  Conference  we  learn  not 
only  what  high  ground  was  assumed  by  the  Prelate,  in 
his  transactions  with  the  Emperor,  but  also  with  what 
different  success  the  measures  of  the  latter  had  been 
attended  in  the  Capitals  of  Syria  and  of  Egypt. 

%  The  most  numerous  Council  assembled  on  this  oc 
casion  appears  to  have  been  that  of  Milan  in  355, 
which  was  attended  by  above  300  Western,  as  well  as 
many  Eastern  Bishops.  (See  3faimb.,  Hist.  Arian., 
b.  iv.  vol.  i.,  p.  174.,  et  seq.)  In  the  same  year  Li- 
berius,  Bishop  of  Rome,  was  banished  for  his  faithful 
attachment  to  the  doctrine  and  cause  of  Athanasius; 
but  he  was  presently  recalled,  through  the  intercession 
first  of  the  matrons,  and  afterwards  of  the  populace,  ot 
Rome.     Sozom.,  lib.  iv.  c.  2.    Theod.  lib.  ii.  c.  17. 


98 


HISTORY   OF   THE  CHURCH. 


slight  notice,  since  it  presents  to  us  an  event, 
of  which  there  had  yet  been  no  experience  in 
the  history  of  the  Church,  or  in  the  history 
of  Rome,  or  perhaps  in  the  history  of  man. 
Hitherto,  at  least  till  a  very  short  time  pre- 
vious, the  Church  had  been  a  despised  and 
seemingly  defenceless  community,  subject,  as 
a  Body,  to  the  capricious  insults  of  every  ty- 
rant, and  liable,  in  its  individual  members,  to 
his  arbitrary  inflictions.  Until  very  lately, 
the  Emperor  of  the  Roman  world  possessed 
authority  uncontrolled  over  the  liberty  and  life 
of  his  subjects,  undisputed  by  any,  except  as 
rebels,  or  rivals  for  the  throne.  And  certainly 
the  monstrous  evils  of  despotic  government 
have  never  been  more  signally  displayed,  than 
during  the  dreary  interval  which  separated 
Augustus  and  Constantine.  Still  at  the  end 
of  that  period  the  rules  of  government  re- 
mained the  same  as  at  the  beginning — no  civil 
revolution  had  assigned  limits  to  the  authority 
of  the  Prince,  or  introduced  any  counteract- 
ing power — no  political  change  had  given 
weight  to  popular  opinion  or  honor  to  free 
principles.  And  yet  scarcely  forty  years  from 
the  accession  of  Constantine  had  elapsed, 
when  we  behold  his  son  and  successor  reduc- 
ed to  the  employment  of  intrigue  and  artifice, 
for  the  deposition  of  a  Magistrate  whom  he 
detested.  The  singularity  of  this  circum- 
stance is  even  increased  by  two  other  consid- 
erations— one  of  which  is,  that  the  Emperor 
had  the  cordial  support  of  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  his  subjects,  the  Arian  party,  in  this 
contest — and  the  other,  that  his  adversary  was 
not  sustained  by  any  armed  force  of  soldiers 
or  followers ;  nor  is  it  probable  even  that  his 
violent  execution  would  have  been  followed 
by  any  serious  insurrection.*  Yet  Constan- 
tius,  with  a  prudent  respect  both  for  the  spi- 
ritual authority  of  the  Bishop  and  the  rights 
of  the  Church,  proceeded  to  the  accomplish- 
ment of  his  object  by  indirect  and  tedious  and 
unworthy  methods.  Such  circumstances  be- 
come indeed  familar  to  us  in  the  pages  of  lat- 
er history  ;  but  we  should  not  for  that  reason 
overlook  their  first  occurrence,  nor  fail  to  re- 
cord with  pleasure  and  gratitude  the  earliest 
proof  we  possess  of  the  political  effect  of 
Christianity  in  moderating  the  despotism 
with  which  it  was  associated. 

The  third  banishment  of  Athanasius  lasted 
six  years,  until  the  death  of  his  persecutor  in 

*  It  is  true  that  some  popular  commotions  did  at 
last  attend  the  execution  even  of  the  legal  order  for  the 
deposition  of  the  Bishop,  which  were  suppressed  by 
force;  but  they  were  of  very  short  duration,  and  en- 
tirely confined  to  Alexandria. 


362.*  They  were  passed  in  the  deserts  of 
Upper  Egypt,  in  concealment  and  depen- 
dence ;  and  they  were  consoled  by  the  pious 
exertions  of  the  exile  for  the  opinions  for 
which  he  suffered — exertions,  which  the  vi- 
gilance of  the  Imperial  police  could  neither 
prevent  nor  neutralize.  After  his  final  resto- 
ration he  enjoyed  his  See  without  interrup- 
tion for  eleven  years,  and  at  length  died  in 
peace  and  dignity. 

Divisio7is  of  the  Arians.  In  the  tneantime, 
as  is  natural  among  those  who  indulge  in  any 
laxity  of  speculation  respecting  mysteries 
really  inscrutable,  the  Arians  were  divided 
among  themselves  almost  as  widely  as  the 
more  moderate  among  them  varied  from  the 
Church.  The  original  and  pure  Arians,  fol- 
lowing the  opinions  of  their  founder,  main- 
tained not  only  that  the  substance  of  the 
Word  was  different  from  that  of  the  Father, 
but  that  it  did  not  even  resemble  it ;  while 
others,  pretending  the  authority  of  Eusebius 
of  Nicomedia,  denied  with  equal  confidence 
the  Consubstautiality  of  the  two  Persons,  but 
at  the  same  time  affirmed  their  perfect  likeness. 
These  last  are  commonly  called  Semiarians ; 
and  their  doctrine  appears  to  have  been  first 
proclaimed  at  the  Synod  of  Ancyra  in  Galatia, 
held  by  Basil,  the  Bishop  of  that  place,  in  the 
year  358 ;  but  the  Council  of  Seleucia,  by 
which  their  tenets  were  sanctioned  in  the  fol- 
lowing year,  holds  a  more  prominent  place  in 
ecclesiastical  annals.f  They  were  very  nu- 
merous during  the  reign  of  Constantius,  who 
was  their  protector  and  proselyte ;  but  they 
afterwards  yielded  in  some  measure  to  the 
pure  Arianism  of  Valens  and  his  Patriarch, 
Eudoxius.  Again  the  Semiarians  were  not 
themselves  entirely  united;  several  among 
them  maintained  the  preeternity  of  the  Word  ; 
while  others  believed  that,  though  it  had  sub- 
sisted before  all  ages,  it  had  once  had  a  begin- 
ning ;  and  that  party:):  was  not  inconsiderable 
which,  admitting  a  general  likeness  between 
the  Father  and  the  Son,  denied  that  there  was 
any  similarity  of  substance.  §     Athanasius,  in 

*It  is  asserted  by  Tillemont  (Sur  les  Ariens,  Art. 
10S)  that  during  the  neutrality  of  Julian,  the  Catholics 
gained  considerable  ground  upon  their  adversaries. 

t  In  the  fourth  century  were  held  thirteen  Councils 
against  Arius,  fifteen  for  him,  and  seventeen  foi  the 
Semiarians;  in  all  forty-five.  Jortin,  Ecc.  Hist.,  b. 
iii. 

X  It  would  appear  that  Constantius  himself  belonged 
to  this  sect  of  the  Semiarians.  See  Gibbon,  chap.  21. 

§  The  Consubstantialists  are  known  in  history  by 
the  Greek  term  Homoousians;  those  who  asserted 
the  similarity  of  the  substances,  by  the  name  of  Ho- 


THE  ARIAN  CONTROVERSY. 


99 


his  Epistle  respecting  the  Synods  of  Seleucia 
and  Rimini  exposes  the  great  variety  of  the 
Arian  Creeds,  and  the  subject  has  been  en- 
larged upon  by  Catholic  Historians,  to  show 
the  inevitable  perplexities  of  those  who  have 
once  permitted  themselves  to  deviate  from  the 
established  doctrine. 

Council  of  Rimini.  Having  succeeded  in 
his  attack  on  the  Consubstantialists  (and,  we 
might  add,  on  the  pure  Arians)  of  the  East, 
Constantius  removed  the  scene  of  action  to 
the  Western  Provinces,  and  convoked  a  Coun- 
cil at  Rimini  in  the  year  360:  by  nearly  the 
same  arts  which  he  had  employed  to  procure 
the  condemnation  of  Athanasius,*  supported 
by  a  moderate,  but  firm  exertion  of  the  civil 
authority,  he  succeeded  in  influencing  the 
members  to  the  subscription  of  a  Creed,  con- 
taining some  expressions  capable  of  heretical 
interpretation.  'The  whole  world  groaned 
(says  St.  Jerome)  and  wondered  to  find  itself 
Arian ! '  But  this  conversion  was  neither 
sincere  nor  lasting ;  and  however  opinions 
may  have  been  divided  in  the  East — for  even 

moiocsians;  those  who  denied  any  sort  of  resem- 
blance were  called  Anomoians  ;  and,  to  complete  the 
confusion,  the  last  mentioned  Sectarians  are  some- 
times denominated — from  the  name  of  one  of  their 
most  popular  teachers — Eunomians.  The  unimpor- 
tance of  the  verbal  difference  might  provoke  our  ridi- 
cule, did  we  not  reflect  how  much  the  angry  applica- 
tion of  those  terms  tended  to  prolong  and  imbitter 
the  controversy.  See  Sender,  cent.  iv.  chap.  4.,  ad 
finem.  The  distinction  which  Tillemont  (Sur  les 
Ariens,  Art.  66)  draws  between  the  Arians  and  Euse- 
bians  refers  rather  to  their  situation  in  respect  to  the 
Church  than  to  their  doctrine.  '  By  the  Arians  we 
mean  those  who  were  expelled  from  the  Church  by  the 
Council  of  Nice — by  the  Eusebians  those  who  remain- 
ed in  communion  with  the  Church,  but  who  bent 
themselves  insidiously  to  min  its  doctrine,  by  the  in- 
vention of  new  formularies,  who  endeavored  to  expel 
Athanasius,  and  who  communicated  with  the  original 
Arians.  So  that  these  two  formed  only  one  sect  in 
intrigue,  and  perhaps  in  belief  too — though  the  one 
party  appeared  in  the  Church,  and  the  other  was  visi- 
bly separated  from  it.'  The  word  uuoor'oiog  is  in- 
terpreted— habens  simul  essentiam,  i.  e.  eandem  es- 
sentiam. 

*  He  directed  Taurus,  the  Governor  of  the  Pro- 
vince, to  confine  the  Bishops,  until  they  should  be  all 
of  one  mind,  that  is,  until  they  should  be  all  of  the 
Emperor's  mind.  The  conditions  of  concord  on 
which  they  at  length  agreed  amounted  to  this:  that 
the  Catholics  conceded  the  offensive  term  (Consub- 
stantialism,)  and  the  Arians  to  all  appearance  the 
doctrine;  at  least  all  parties  agreed  in  anathematiz- 
ing the  name  of  Arius,  while  they  professed,  as  it 
would  seem,  the  Semiarian  opinions.  Sulpic.  Sever, 
lib.  ii.  Maimb.  Hist.  Arian.,  b.  iii.  Gibbon,  chap. 
21. 


there,  though  the  majority  of  the  Bishops  * 
followed  the  faith  of  the  Emperor,  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  many  among  the  peo- 
ple remained  Catholic  f — we  may  safely  infer 
from  the  small  number  of  Arian  prelates  who 
were  found  willing  to  proclaim  that  doctrine, 
even  under  an  Arian  Emperor,  that  it  had  yet 
made  little  progress  in  the  Latin  Church.J 
For  we  should  always  bear  in  mind,  that  any 
sudden  change  in  the  opinions  of  the  vulgar 
respecting  an  abstruse  mystery  must  neces- 
sarily be  preceded  by  the  same  change  in  their 
spiritual  directors. 

The  path  of  intolerance,  which  had  been 
pointed  out  and  abandoned  by  Constantine, 
but  so  steadily  followed  by  his  heretical  suc- 
cessor, was  trodden  with  equal  diligence  in 
the  Eastern  Empire  by  Valens.  That  Prince, 
who  is  believed  to  have  been  converted  to 
Arianism  by  the  influence  of  his  Empress  § 
Dominica,  in  the  year  367,  permitted  consid- 
erable license  against  the  Catholics  to  his 
Patriarch  Eudoxius,even  during  the  beginning 
of  his  reign,  and  proceeded,  after  a  few  years, 
to  more  direct  and  intemperate  measures.  || 


*  The  throne  and  principal  Churches  of  Constanti- 
nople were  occupied  by  Arian  Patriarchs  from  the  year 
342  till  their  restoration  to  the  Catholics  by  Theodo- 
sius  nearly  40  years  afterwards.  Semler,  Epit.  sec.  iv. 

f  At  Antioch  at  least  the  dissent  of  the  people  from 
the  established  Arianism  was  strongly  and  violently 
expressed,  and  at  Constantinople  itself,  the  very  cita- 
del of  the  heresy,  in  spite  of  the  savage  edicts  of  Con- 
stantius, some  very  sanguinary  tumults  still  proved  the 
steady  perseverance  of  many  Catholics.  In  one  of 
these  3150  persons  were  killed. 

%  Of  the  four  hundred  Bishops  assembled  at  Rimini 
eighty  only  were  Arians. 

§  The  Arians  had  no  cause  to  blush  at  the  obliga- 
tions which  they  likewise  owed  to  two  preceding  Em- 
presses. Constantia  protected  their  infancy  and  their 
misfortunes  during  the  reign  of  Constantine,  and  Eu- 
sebia  promoted  their  prosperity  under  the  sceptre  of 
Constantius.  The  Catholics  could  also  boast  of  simi- 
lar patronage;  but  Maimbourg  (Book  vi.)  establishes 
a  very  broad^distinction  as  to  the  agency  by  which 
such  aid  was  in  each  case  administered;  'as  the  devil 
(says  that  very  rigid  Catholic)  had  employed  the  as- 
sistance of  Princesses  to  introduce  Arianism  into  the 
Court  of  Constantine,  of  Constantius  and  Valens,  so 
God  made  use  of  the  Empress  JEYia.  Flaccilla  in  order 
to  prevent  it  from  creeping  into  the  Coart  of  Theodo- 
sius.'  In  a  later  page  (b.  xii.  a.  d.  590)  the  same 
author  again  alludes  to  the  diabolical  agency  '  which 
introduced  the  Arian  heresy  into  the  East  by  the  means 
of  three  women,'  and  which  was  afterwards  compen- 
sated by  the  divine  benevolence  in  raising  up  three 
Princesses,  Clotilda,  Indcgonda,  and  Theodelinda  for 
the  purification  of  France,  Spain  and  Italy. 

||  They  are  enlarged  upon  by  Tillemont,  Snr  les 
Ariens,  Art.  115. 


100 


HISTORY    OF   THE   CHURCH. 


Alexandria,  by  whose  pernicious  fertility  the 
controversy  was  first  engendered,  remain- 
ed however,  through  the  influence  of  Alex- 
ander and  Athanasius,  strongly  attached  to 
the  Nicene  faith.  It  became  the  scene  of 
frightful  disorder,  as  soon  as  the  civil  authori- 
ties added  strength  to  the  malignity  of  the 
Arians,  and  proceeded  again  to  expel  Peter, 
the  othodox  Patriarch.  The  calamities  thus 
occasioned  were  undoubtedly  heightened  by 
the  zealous  interference  of  the  Jews  and 
Pagans,  who  derived  their  best  argument 
against  Christianity  from  the  furious  dissen- 
sions of  its  professors,  and  who  were,  on  all 
occasions,  anxious  from  other  motives  to  join 
in  the  assault  on  the  stronger  and  wealthier 
party.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Monks,  a  new 
but  numerous  Body,  continued  faithful  to  the 
doctrine  of  Athanasius,  and  loved  it  the  more 
because  they  suffered  for  it.  Peter  avoided 
the  tempest  by  a  hasty  retreat  to  Rome,  and 
the  success  of  the  Arians  does  not  appear 
permanently  to  have  increased  either  their 
numbers  or  their  popularity.  However,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  profession  of  Arian- 
ism  was  common,  and  even  general,  through- 
out the  East  during  the  reign  of  Valens,  and 
that  in  some  of  the  Asiatic  Provinces,  espe- 
cially Syria,  such  may  have  been  the  real  be- 
lief of  the  majority;  but  its  progress  was 
attended  with  perpetual  tumults,  and  at  the 
death  of  Valens  in  378  it  had  reached  the 
highest  point  of  prevalence  which  it  was  des- 
tined in  those  regions  to  attain. 

Theodosius  the  Great.  Two  years  after- 
wards, Theodosius  the  Great  proclaimed  his 
adhesion  to  the  doctrine  of  Nice,  and  imme- 
diately prepared  to  establish  it  as  the  Creed 
of  his  subjects.  'I  will  not  permit  (thus  he 
addressed  certain  Arians  in  the  year*  383) 
throughout  my  dominions  any  other  religion 
than  that  which  obliges  us  to  worship  the  Son 
of  God  in  unity  of  essence  with  the  Father 
and  Holy  Ghost  in  the  adorable  Trinity — as 
I  hold  the  Empire  of  Him,  and!  the  power 
which  I  have  to  command  you,  he  likewise 
will  give  me  strength,  as  he  hath  given  me 
the  will,  to  make  myself  obeyed  in  a  point  so 
absolutely  necessary  to  your  salvation,  and  to 
the  peace  of  my  subjects.'  The  peace  of  his 
subjects  was  not  indeed  the  immediate  re- 
ward of  his  violent  measures,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, general  confusion  and  much  individual 
suffering  was  occasioned  by  them.  Still,  as 
he  persevered  inflexibly,  as  he  was  supported 
even  in  the  East  by  the  more  zealous,  and,  in 

*  See  Maimb.,  Hist.  Arian.,  b.  vi. 


some  places,  the  more  numerous  party,  and 
as  he  was  seconded  almost  by  the  unanimity 
of  the  Western  Empire,  his  severities  were 
attended  by  general  and  lasting  success,  and 
the  doctrine  of  Arius,  if  not  perfectly  extir- 
pated, withered  from  that  moment  rapidly 
and  irrecoverably  throughout  the  Provinces 
of  the  East. 

The  work  of  Theodosius  was  considerably 
promoted  by  the  Council  which  he  assembled 
at  Constantinople  in  the  year  381,  and  which 
stands  in  the  history  of  the  Church  as  the 
Second  General  Council.  Its  object,  besides 
the  regulation  of  several  points  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal discipline,  was  to  confirm  the  decision  of 
Nice  against  the  Arians,  and  especially  to  pro- 
mulgate the  doctrine  of  the  Divinity  of  the 
Third  Person,  against  the  Macedonian  *  Here- 
tics. The  Doctrine  on  those  fundamental 
points,  which  was  then  established,  is  the 
same  (if  we  except  the  manner  of  the  Holy 
Procession)  which  is  still  professed  in  our 
Church:  by  the  Oriental  Church  it  has  been 
unceasingly  maintained,  without  any  varia- 
tion, to  the  present  moment. 

Arianism  of  the  Barbarians.  We  turn  to 
the  consideration  of  the  Western  Empire. 
Wrhile  Valens  was  disturbing  his  subjects  with 
fruitless  persecution,  the  Western  Empire  was 
administered  by  his  brother  Valentinian  with 
justice  and  moderation.  Those,  and  they 
were  few  in  number,  among  the  Western 
Bishops,  who  had  openly  deserted  to  the  faith 
of  Constantius,  were  now  concealed  in  ob- 
scurity, or  removed  by  death ;  Damasus,  the 
Bishop  of  Rome,  was  an  ardent  supporter  of 
the  Nicene  doctrine,  and  the  Church  pre- 
served the  general  appearance,  if  it  could  not 
quite  secure  the  reality,  of  concord.  At  Mi- 
lan, during  the  reign  of  Theodosius,  the  cele- 
brated St.  Ambrose  exerted  his  genius  in  the 
same  cause,  and  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury the  proselytes  of  Arianism  formed  an 
inconsiderable  and  a  declining  party.  Sud- 
denly it  received  a  new  and  extraordinary 
impulse  from  a  quarter  which  could  not  have 
been  suspected,  from  accidents  which  could 
not  be  averted,  nor  immediately  controlled  ; 
and  which  prolonged  the  existence  of  that 
heresy   beyond  the  duration  which   seemed 

*  Macedonius,  in  common  with  other  Arians  (or 
rather  Semiarians,)  denied  the  Consubstantiality,  and 
affirmed  the  likeness  of  the  two  first  Persons;  but  he 
positively  asserted  that  the  Holy  Ghost  was  xtlOtov, 
created.  He  is  said  to  have  published  this  notion 
twenty  years  before  the  General  Council  which  con- 
demned it.  Le  Clerc,  Compend.  Hist  ,  ap.  Jort.,  b, 
iii.     Mosh.  H.  E.,  Cent.  iv.  p.  ii.  ch.  v 


THE  ARIAN   CONTROVERSY. 


101 


otherwise  to  have  been  assigned  to  it.  Dur- 
ing the  course  of  the  fifth  century  numerous 
tribes  of  Barbarians,  Goths,  Hams,  and  Van- 
dals, Suevi  and  Alani  and  Salii,  overran  and 
occupied  the  provinces  of  the  west.  Of  these 
60ine  had  been  previously  converted  to  Christ- 
ianity in  their  native  forests,  before  their  emi- 
gration to  the  south,  though  others  for  the 
most  part  adopted  the  religion  of  the  van- 
quished ;  and  while  they  professed  generally 
the  name  of  Christianity,  they  followed  in  its 
particular  tenets  the  faith  of  their  Prince  or 
leader.  Now  it  so  happened  that  all  these 
tribes,  excepting  probably  the  Salii,  imbibed 
in  the  first  instance  the  notions  of  Arius. 
This  circumstance  is  thus  accounted  for : — 
The  Goths,  who  were  the  earliest  and  most 
zealous  among  the  converts,  were  directed  in 
their  religious  creed  by  their  Bishop  Ulphilas, 
a  man  of  great  talents  and  influence.  This 
prelate,  in  the  course  of  two  missions  to  Con- 
stantinople, during  the  reigns  of  Constantius 
and  Valens,  accommodated  his  opinions 
(whether  sincerely  or  not,  is  questionable)  to 
those  of  the  Imperial  Court,  and  he  returned, 
at  least  from  his  second  embassy,  the  zealous 
proselyte  of  Arianism.  This  doctrine  he 
rapidly  propagated  among  his  compatriots, 
and  diffused  it  through  the  whole  nation. 
The  example  of  the  Goths  was  respected  by 
the  leaders  of  tribes  of  subsequent  invaders 
and  converts  ;  in  embracing  the  religion  of 
the  provinces  which  they  conquered  they 
preferred  that  form  of  it  which  was  professed 
by  their  predecessors  in  conquest ;  and  thus 
the  tenets  of  Arius  were  disseminated  among 
the  barbarian  colonists  in  every  province  of 
the  western  empire.  Other  means  of  spread- 
ing those  tenets  were  the  persecutions  of  the 
orthodox  Emperors,  especially  Theodosius  : 
by  scattering  the  followers  of  the  heretic 
among  distant  and  populous  nations  they  dif- 
fused to  the  same  extent  the  knowledge  of 
his  doctrine,  and  multiplied  the  number  of 
its  professors. 

Again,  those  of  the  barbarian  princes  who 
embraced  Christianity  after  their  success, 
when  they  saw  the  great  controversy  by 
which  the  Christian  world  was  divided, 
would  be  guided  also  by  political  motives  as 
to  the  side  they  chose  in  it,  and  one  of  these 
would  probably  be  opposition  to  the  Eastern 
throne  ;  and,  as  they  were  little  versed  in  the 
arguments  by  which  the  question  was  contest- 
ed, and  probably  blind  even  to  its  real  nature 
and  importance,  the  mere  effect  of  their  igno- 
rance would  be  to  direct  them  to  what  might 
seem  the  simpler  creed.    Their  soldiers  and 


followers,  still  blinder  than  themselves,  nat 
urally  acquiesced  in  their  belief;  and  even 
among  the  vanquished  natives,  the  many  who 
were  indifferent  would  turn  to  the  same  pro- 
fession. On  the  other  hand,  the  Church  re- 
mained firm  ;  the  exertions  of  its  most  eminent 
directors  were  bent  almost  without  exception 
on  the  maintenance  of  the  Nicene  faith,  and 
with  such  success,  that  the  great  majority  of 
zealous  and  influential  Christians  probably 
retained,  even  under  foreign  and  Arian  rule, 
their  attachment  to  the  established  doctrine. 

This  reaction  in  favor  of  Arianism,  as  it 
was  sudden  and  somewhat  violent,  was  not 
of  long  duration  ;  indeed  we  may  fairly  con- 
sider the  sixth  century  as  having  brought 
about  its  termination.  The  conversion  of 
Clovis  to  the  Catholic  faith  in  the  year  496, 
and  his  subsequent  zeal  in  its  favor,  are 
commonly  mentioned  as  having  first  opened 
the  path  to  the  conclusion  of  the  dispute  ;  and 
as  it  is  sometimes  the  pleasure  of  Divine 
Providence  to  select  the  vilest  instruments  for 
the  accomplishment  of  His  mysterious  de- 
signs, so  we  may  believe  without  astonish- 
ment that  He  deigned  to  bring  about  a  great 
good  even  by  the  impure  and  flagitious  min- 
istry of  Clovis.  A  more  effective  agent  in 
the  same  work  was  Justinian.  That  Emper- 
or began  his  long  and  active  reign  in  527,  and 
his  rigid  orthodoxy  was  disgraced  by  the 
most  violent  proceedings  against  every  de- 
scription of  heresy.  His  victories  extended 
his  means  of  extirpation  into  the  West,  and 
before  his  death  he  had  very  generally 
strengthened,  though  he  had  not  universally 
restored,  the  authority  of  the  Church. 

The  Arians  still  retaiued  a  very  powerful 
party  in  Spain,  which  was  not  destined  to  be 
otherwise  extinguished  than  by  the  accession 
of  an  orthodox  monarch.  In  the  year  585 
Recared  assembled  the  leaders  of  the  two- 
parties  in  a  conference,  which  concluded  in 
the  triumph  of  the  Catholics  ;  and  that  Prince 
pursued  his  victory  both  in  Spain  and  Nar- 
bonese  Gaul,  with  so  much  diligence  and 
rigor,  that  after  some  sanguinary  tumults  and 
barbarous  executions,*  the  great  body  of  his 
subjects  ranged  themselves  under  his  doc- 
trine, and  never  afterwards  relapsed  into 
heresy.  The  celebrated  Council  of  Toledo, 
which  was  held  by  the  same  King  in  589, 
may  be  considered  as  having  completed  the 

*  Maimb.  Hist.  Arian.,  b.  xi.  The  fact  is  admit- 
ted and  justified  by  Mariana,  Hist.  Hispin.,  lib.  v., 
ch.  xiv.  See  Bayle's  Diet.,  Arius.  The  facility 
with  which  the  Arians  yielded  to  this  persecution  has 
given  great  matter  of  exultation  to  Catholic  writers. 


102 


HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


extirpation  of   Arianism   from   the    soil  of 
Spain. 

The  Lombards.  In  Italy  the  victories  ob- 
tained by  the  Generals  of  Justinian  gave 
strength  and  confidence  to  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  weakened  the  opposition  of  its 
adversaries;  and  the  heresy  appears  to  have 
been  falling  into  discredit,  when  it  received 
a  fresh  but  momentary  impulse  from  the 
invasion  and  triumphs  of  the  Lombards. 
Those  Arian  warriors  crossed  the  Alps  in  the 
year  569,  and  presently  became  masters  of 
the  greater  part  of  the  country.  Their  con- 
quests were  attended  by  unusual  circumstan- 
ces of  barbarity,  and  the  necessary  horrors  of 
uncivilized  warfare  were  inflamed  by  sectari- 
an animosity.  But  the  sufferings  of  the  Cath- 
olics were  not  of  long  duration ;  they  were 
speedily  and  effectually  terminated  by  the 
conversion  of  the  conquerors.  This  event  is 
ascribed,  in  the  first  instance,  to  the  diligence 
and  fidelity  of  the  orthodox  Bishops,*  who 
availed  themselves  of  the  first  moments  of 
tranquillity  to  recommend  the  Nicene  doc- 
trine to  the  conscience  of  the  victors.  It  is 
at  least  probable  that  their  exertions  prepar- 
ed and  facilitated  the  success  of  a  Catholic 
Queen,  Theodelinda,  who  appears  to  have 
completed  the  overthrow  of  Arianism  even 
among  her  Lombard  subjects  before  the  con- 
clusion of  the  sixth  century.  The  triumph 
of  that  Princess  may  be  read  by  the  Catholic 
without  a  blush,  and  recorded  by  the  histo- 
rian without  a  sigh  ;  since  it  was  accomplish- 
ed, if  not  by  the  process  of  rational  convic- 
tion, at  least  without  the  savage  inflictions  by 
which  sudden  religious  changes  are  usually 
effected. 

It  was  thus  that  this  lamentable  controver- 
sy, after  perplexing  the  faith,  and  animating 
the  malice,  and  disturbing  the  happiness  of 
the  Christian  world  for  more  than  two  hun- 
dred and  fift/  years,  was  at  length  extin- 
guished ;  an''  at  this  moment  the  very  name 
of  Arius  is  almost  forgotten  in  the  Eastern 
world  ;  and  in  the  West  his  opinions  are  con- 
fined to  the  breasts  of  a  very  inconsiderable 
proportion  of  the  Christian  community. 

We  shall  close  this  account  with  a  few  ad- 
ditional observations.  The  Arians  have  laid 
claim  to  the  greater  moderation,  both  in  the 
origin  and  in  the  conduct  of  this  controversy, 
and  they  moreover  assert  that  their  commu- 
nion was  free  from  many  of  the  superstitious 
corruptions,  which,  at  that  time,  were  grow- 


*  Maimbourg  (Hist.  Arian., b.  xii.)  is  the  more  to 
be  believed  in  this  point,  as  he  mentions  the  fact  al- 
most incidentally. 


ing  up  so  rapidly  in  the  Catholic  church. 
This  latter  assertion  is,  at  least,  founded  in 
probability ;  because  the  principle  of  their 
faith,  by  disparaging  the  dignity  of  the  Re- 
deemer, removed  them  farther  from  religious 
excess.  Their  tendency  was  rather  towards 
too  little,  than  towards  too  much  belief;  and 
we  can  readily  suppose  that  those  who  were 
so  averse  from  the  worship  of  Christ,  would 
certainly  refuse  any  adoration  to  the  Virgin 
or  other  created  beings.  But  notwithstand- 
ing this,  we  find  that  Constantius  had  a  su- 
perstitious veneration  for  relics,  and  was  the 
first  to  encourage  their  transfer  from  place  to 
place,  with  the  miraculous  qualities  attached 
to  them ;  and  when  that  Arian  disturbed  the 
(real  or  supposed,)  bodies  of  Timothy,  St.  An- 
drew, and  St.  Luke,  and  conveyed  them  to 
Constantinople,  he  assuredly  introduced  into 
the  Church  of  Christ  one  of  its  most  degrad- 
ing corruptions.*  But  their  claims  to  supe- 
rior moderation  are  still  more  disputable,  ex- 
cept, indeed,  as  far  as  it  might  be  the  fruit  of 
their  weakness.  In  the  East,  the  reign  of 
Constantius  was  the  sera  of  their  triumph, 
and  it  was  polluted  by  constant  and  sanguina- 
ry persecution.  That  of  Valens  was  not  less 
distinguished  by  the  same  spirit  and  prin- 
ciple, and  the  same  oppression  ;  and  as  the 
Arian  Bishops  were  then  exceedingly  nume- 
rous and  powerful,  at  least  in  Asia,  it  would 
be  unfair  to  impute  the  whole  criminality  to 
the  Emperor.  Athanasius,  the  continual  ob- 
ject of  their  hostility,  has  the  following  pas- 
sage concerning  them.  '  Whenever  any  man 
differs  from  them,  they  have  him  before  the 
Governor  or  the  General ;  him  whom  they 
cannot  subdue  by  reason  and  argument,  they 
take  upon  them  to  convince  by  whippings 
and  imprisonments ;  which  is  enough  to  show 
that  their  principles  are  any  thing  rather  than 
religion  ;  for  it  is  the  property  of  religion  not 
to  compel,  but  to  persuade.'  On  the  other 
hand,  Athanasius  himself  either  had  not  yet 
learnt,  or  had  wholly  forgotten,  this  excellent 
truth  when  he  appealed  to  Constantine  against 
the  recall  of  Arius  ;  nor  was  it  generally  either 
practised  or  acknowledged  afterwards  by  the 
Catholic  Emperors  of  the  East.f  Gradually 
the  faith  of  the  prelates  submitted  itself  to  the 
injunctions  of  those  monarchs  ;  the  people 
were,  upon  the  whole,  always  favorable  to 


*  This  took  place  in  356.  See  Jortiu,  Eccl.  His.. 
vol.  iv.j  p.  xii. 

t  There  is  one  distinction,  however,  which  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  is  true,  that  the  Arians  were  more  lenient 
in  their  treatment  of  other  heretics;  whereas  the 
Catholics  persecuted  universally. 


THE   ARIAN    CONTROVERSY. 


103 


Catholicism ;  and  thus  before  the  middle  of 
the  sixth  century  the  Nicene  doctrine  was 
very  firmly  established  throughout  that  part 
of  the  Empire. 

In  the  west  Arianisin  would  never  have 
taken  any  deep  i-oot,  except  through  the  in- 
fluence of  the  barbarian  conquerors  ;  for  the 
Church  was  steadily  and  zealously  opposed  to 
it,  and  so  was  the  most  religious,  if  not  the 
most  nu  merous,  part  of  the  conquered.  It  was 
probably  confined  to  the  courts  of  the  victors, 
to  their  armies,  and  to  such  of  the  natives 
as  were  in  most  immediate  intercourse  with 
them.  In  Gaul,  in  Spain,  and  in  Italy,  the 
Gothic  Princes  appear  seldom  to  have  perse- 
cuted their  Catholic  subjects,  except  in  retali- 
ation for  some  outrage  exercised  against  the 
Arians  by  the  Catholic  Emperors  of  Constan- 
tinople. But  in  Africa  the  Vandal  Arians 
were  guilty  of  horrible  excesses  during  the 
last  half  of  the  fifth  century,  which  were  not 
terminated  until  their  expulsion  by  Belisarius 
in  the  year  530.  On  the  other  hand,  in  all 
those  provinces  the  Catholic  population, 
whether  persecuted  or  not,  seems  always  to 
have  been  equally  disposed  to  rise  in  favor 
of  a  Catholic  invader.  But  we  should  here 
recollect  that  the  distinction  of  Arian  and 
Catholic  was  in  general  so  closely  conuected 
with  that  of  Barbarian  and  Roman,  conquer- 
or and  conquered,*  that  we  can  scarcely  say 
how  much  of  this  we  should  attribute  to  reli- 
gious, how  much  to  national,  animosity.  Up- 
on the  whole,  we  have  little  reason  to  give  the 
praise  of  moderation,  or  even  humanity,  to 
either  party ;  much  depended  on  the  personal 
character  of  the  Princes  on  either  side,  and 
on  the  principles  or  prejudices  in  which  they 
had  been  educated.  But  in  as  far  as  the  sec- 
tarian feeling  was  concerned,  we  may  discov- 
er on  both  sides  an  equal  disposition  to  give 
loose  to  it. 

The  Arian  was  more  flexible,  the  Catholic 
more  rigid  under  persecution  ;  f  the  former 
finally  submitted  •  to  conversion  ;  the  latter 
would   probably  never  have  yielded  to  any 

*  See  Maiinb.,  Hist.  Arian.,  b.  xi.  passim.  In 
the  mouth  of  an  Arian,  the  terms  Catholic  and  Roman 
were  synonymous. 

t  Bayle  (in  his  Life  of  Arius)  observes  this  incon- 
sistency in  Roman  Catholic  writers,  that  they  urge 
generally  the  obstinate  perversity  of  heretics  as  a  proof 
of  their  errors;  and  yet  press  their  flexibility  in  par- 
ticular cases  to  the  same  conclusion.  Yet  the  Roman 
Catholics  endeavored  to  accommodate  their  practice 
to  both  their  suppositions;  which,  indeed,  could  only 
be  reconciled  by  the  assumption,  that  heretics  were 
obstinate  until  they  were  persecuted,  and  no  longer; 
and  on  this  ground  they  erected  the  Inquisition. 


infliction  short  of  extirpation :  and  this  dis- 
tinction is  attributed  by  some  to  the  undoubt- 
ed circumstance,  that  it  is  easier  to  extend 
the  belief  of  the  multitude,  than  to  contract 
it ;  a  circumstance  which  proceeds  from  the 
false  but  prevalent  notion,  that  too  much  be- 
lief is  at  least  an  error  on  the  safe  side,  and 
that  Jesus  Christ  would  more  readily  inter- 
cede for  those  who  might  have  paid  Him 
excessive  honor,  than  for  those  who  had 
fallen  short  in  their  worship.  Others  imagine, 
that  the  Arian  always  felt  in  his  heart  some  la- 
tent consciousness  of  error,  which  undermined 
his  constancy  in  the  hour  of  trial,  and  depriv- 
ed him  of  that  energy  of  invincible  endurance 
which  is  inconsistent  with  the  very  shadow 
of  insincerity. 

NOTE  ON  CERTAIN  EARLY  ECCLESIASTICAL, 
HISTORIANS. 

Three  Greek  writers,  Socrates,  Sozomen, 
and  Theodoret,  take  up  the  annals  of  the 
Church  about  the  time  of  its  establishment 
by  Constantine,  nearly  where  the  history  of 
Eusebius  terminates,  and  carry  them  on  as 
far  as  the  reign  of  Theodosius  the  younger, 
through  a  space  of  about  one  hundred  and 
twenty  years.  It  is  necessary  to  give  a  short 
account  of  them. 

1.  Socrates  was  a  native  of  Constantinople  ; 
he  was  carefully  instructed  in  grammar  and 
rhetoric,  and  presently  assumed  the  profession 
of  a  scholastic  or  advocate.     Much  time,  how- 
ever, and  very  considerable  diligence  he  di- 
rected to  the  compilation  of  his  historical  ma- 
terials, and  no  scanty  judgment  is  shown  in 
their   arrangement   and   composition.      The 
epistles  of  Bishops,  the  acts  of  Councils,  the 
works  of  preceding  or  contemporary  ecclesi- 
astics are  consulted  with  care,  and  seemingly 
cited  with  fidelity,  and  the  principal  events 
are   chronologically  distinguished   by  olym- 
piads or  consulates.      His  impartiality  is  so 
strikingly  displayed,  as  to  make  his  ortho- 
doxy questionable  to  Baronius,  the  celebrated 
Roman  Catholic  historian  ;  but  Valesius  in 
his   life  has  clearly  shown  that   there  is  no 
reason   for  such  suspicion.     We  may  men- 
tion another  principle,  which  he  has  followed, 
which  in  the  mind  of  Baronius  may  have 
tended  to  confirm  the  notion  of  his   hetero- 
doxy— that  he  is  invariably  adverse  to  every 
form  of  persecution  on  account  of  religious 
opinions  —  <  dioiyubv    Ss    liyat    to    SnaxrovV 
xnq&neiv   jov;   i\arvx6Z.ovxag — and   I  call    it 
persecution  to  offer  any  description  of  moles- 
tation to  those  who  are  quiet.'     Some  credu- 
lity respecting  miraculous  stories  is  his  prin- 
cipal failing. 


104 


HISTORY  OF   THE    CHURCH. 


2.  Hermias  Sozomen  was  also  an  advocate, 
resident  at  Constantinople  ;  but  he  was  a  na- 
tive of  Palestine,  born  near  Gaza,  and  was 
educated  in  a  monastery  in  that  country.  In 
his  writings  we  perceive  a  great  ardor  for  the 
monastic  life,  and  a  concomitant  tendency  to 
superstitious  extravagance.  Superior  in  style 
to  his  contemporary,  he  is  below  him  in  judg- 
ment and  discrimination  ;  still  his  work  con- 
tains much  valuable  matter;  though  some  of 
it  is  probably  borrowed  from  that  of  Socrates, 
which  seems  to  have  been  published  some 
little  earlier. 

3.  Theodoret,  like  Sozomen,  received  a  mo- 
nastic education  ;  but  he  entered  into  the  ec- 
clesiastical profession,  and  became  Bishop  of 
Cyrus,  in  Syria.  He  was  remarkable,  not 
only  for  his  learning  and  piety,  but  for  his 
absolute  and  voluntary  poverty.  '  I  was  or- 
dained Bishop  against  my  will ;  for  twenty- 
five  years  (says  he,  in  an  epistle  still  extant)  I 
have  so  lived  in  that  station,  as  never  to  be  at 
variance,  never  to  prosecute  any  one  at  law  or 
to  be  prosecuted.  The  same  I  can  say  of  all 
the  pious  clergy  who  are  under  my  inspec- 
tion, none  of  whom  was  ever  seen  in  any  court 
of  justice.  Neither  I  nor  my  domestics  ever 
received  the  smallest  present  from  any  per- 
son, not  even  a  loaf  or  an  egg.  My  patrimo- 
ny I  gave  long  ago  to  the  poor,  and  I  have 
made  no  new  acquisitions.  I  have  neither 
house,  nor  land,  nor  money,  nor  a  sepulchre 
where  my  friends  may  lay  my  body  when  I 
die.  I  am  possessor  of  nothing  save  the  poor 
raiment  which  I  wear.'  As  a  writer,  howev- 
er, he  is  inferior  to  his  two  fellow-laborers, 
both  in  judgment  and  moderation  ;  he  is  more 
violent  against  schism  and  heresy,  more  big- 
oted, and  more  absurdly  credulous.  Yet  he 
did  not  himself  escape  the  charge  of  heresy, 
and  was  certainly  attached  to  the  party,  prob- 
ably to  the  opinions,  of  Nestorius.  His  style 
is  pronounced  by  Photius  to  be  clear  and 
lofty  without  redundancy. 

To  this  list  we  may  \  enture  to  regret  that 
we  cannot  add  the  name  of  Philostorgius. 
This  writer  was  an  Arian;  his  history  ex- 
tended from  the  year  300  to  425,  and  he  had 
witnessed  much  of  what  he  described.  But 
of  his  works  nothing  remains,  except  an  epi- 
tome by  Photius,  and  some  fragments.  Pho- 
tius assures  us  that  he  betrayed  great  partial- 
ity for  the  sect  to  which  he  belonged,  and 
this  may  have  been  so  ;  yet  such  is  the  nar- 
rative which  we  would  willingly  confront 
with  the  probable  misrepresentations  of  his 
adversaries. 

We  have  also  referred  to  the  authorities  of 


Epiphanius,  Hilary,  and  Rufinus,  but  have 
been  very  sparing  in  our  use  of  them.  Epiph- 
anius was  bred  a  monk,  and  became  Bishop 
of  Salamis,  in  Cyprus.  He  was  the  author 
of  a  voluminous  book  against  all  the  heresies 
which  had  hitherto  arisen.  But  his  work  is 
disfigured  by  so  many  marks  of  levity  and 
ignorance,  that  we  can  follow  him  with  no 
general  confidence.  Hilary  was  Bishop  of 
Poictiers,  for  the  most  part  a  copyist  of  Ter- 
tullian  and  Origen,  but  celebrated  for  '  Twelve 
Books  concerning  the  Trinity,'  written  against 
the  Arians.  Rufinus  was  a  Presbyter  of  Aqui- 
leia,  a  translator,  and  not  always  a  faithful 
one,  of  Origen  and  other  Greek  writers.  He 
was  engaged  in  a  violent  contest  with  St.  Je- 
rome, and  was  assailed  by  the  virulence  of 
that  intemperate  writer ;  and  he  had  the  addi- 
tional misfortune  of  being  excommunicated 
by  Anastasius,  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  for  his 
attachment  to  the  opinions  of  Origen.  These 
three  writers  belong  to  the  fourth  century. 
Jortin,  H.  E.,  b.  ii.,  p.  ii.,  p.  96. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  Decline  and  Fall  of  Paganism. 

Condition  of  the  two  Religions  on  the  accession  of  Con- 
stantine — Progress  of  Christianity  during  his  reign — 
His  successive  measures  against  Paganism — Remarks 
on  them — Proceedings  of  his  sons — Accession  of  Julian 
— Reasons  given  for  his  Apostasy — His  enthusiasm  for 
Paganism — His  character  compared  with  that  of  M. 
Antoninus — his  policy  contrasted  with  that  of  Constan- 
tine — his  successive  measures  against  Christianity — 
His  attempts  to  reform  Paganism — directed  to  three 
points — his  attack  on  the  truth  of  Christianity — tn  the 
attempt  to  rebuild  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem — defeated 
— by  what  means — whether  miraculous  or  nof> — exam- 
ination of  a  late  opinion — His  death.  Rapid  decline  of 
Paganism — Valentinian  I. — Gratian. — Theodosius  I. 
his  edict  against  Paganism — extremely  effectual.  Im- 
perfect faith  of  many  of  the  Converts — corruptions  in- 
troduced from  Paganism.  Synesius.  Arcadijs  and 
Honorius — abolition  of  Gladiatorial  Games.  Theodo- 
sius II. — subversion  of  Paganism — in  the  East — in  the 
West.    Note  on  certain  Pagan  writers. 

From  the  dissensions  of  Christians,  and  the 
calamities  occasioned  by  them,  we  turn  to  a 
more  pleasing  subject — the  final  triumph  of 
the  Faith  over  the  superstition  Avhich  had 
heretofore  prevailed  throughout  the  Roman 
empire  ;  and  in  proceeding  to  this  investiga- 
tion, that  which  first  strikes  us  as  most  re- 
markable is,  that  the  very  period  during  which 
the  Christian  world  was  most  widely  and 
angrily  divided  by  the  Arian  controversy,  the 


\ 


DECLINE  AND  FALL  O        AGANISM. 


10a 


middle  and  conclusion  of  the  fourth  century, 
was  that  precisely  during  which  the  Religion, 
as  if  invigorated  by  internal  agitation,  over- 
threw her  most  powerful  adversary — a  cir- 
cumstance which  is  the  more  to  be  remark- 
ed, as  strongly  indicative  of  her  own  heavenly 
energy,  because  the  spectacle  of  Christian  dis- 
sension has  afforded  to  infidels  in  every  age, 
as  it  does  at  this  moment,  the  most  plausible 
argument  for  unbelief.  Let  us  endeavor 
then  to  trace  the  measures  by  which  this  ex- 
traordinary revolution  was  brought  about. 

At  the  accession  of  Constantino,  the  Chris- 
tians, though  very  numerous,  formed  no  doubt 
the  smaller  portion  of  his  subjects,  since  the 
multitude,  who  were,  in  fact,  of  no  religion, 
were  accounted  among  the  votaries  of  pagan- 
ism ;  and  among  the  lower  classes,  the  pa- 
rade of  a  splendid  superstition  was  more 
attractive  than  the  simplicity  of  the  true  wor- 
ship, to  persons  both  ignorant  and  incurious 
about  the  truth  of  either;  while  in  many  oth- 
ers, a  latent  inclination  towards  the  new  re- 
ligion would  be  repressed  by  the  sight  of  the 
worldly  afflictions  which  so  frequently  pursu- 
ed it.  The  conversion  of  the  Emperor  was 
naturally  followed  by  a  great  increase  in  the 
number  of  nominal*  Christians  ;  the  faith  of 
many,  who  were  nearly  indifferent,  would  be 
decided  by  that  event;  and  many  also,  of 
more  serious  minds,  would  thus  be  led  to  ex- 
amine with  respect  the  nature  of  the  religion 
which  in  its  adversity  they  had  contemptuous- 
ly neglected.  Honor  and  emoluments  were 
annexed  to  the  dignities  of  the  Church,  which 
were  thus  made  objects  of  ambition  to  the  no- 
ble and  the  learned  ;  and  since  many,  through 
the  exercise  of  the  religion,  would  gradually 
imbibe  those  sentiments  and  principles  of  pi- 
ety, which  they  had  not  perhaps  carried  into 
it,  we  may  believe  that,  while  the  name  of 
Christianity  was  rapidly  extended  over  the 
Roman  world,  its  essential  doctrines  and 
moral  influence  made  a  considerable,  though 
by  no  means  an  equal,  progress. 

Constantine.  Constantine's  first  measure 
was  the  famous  edict  of  universal  toleration, 
which  established  Christianity  without  mo- 
lesting any  other  religion,  and  as  late  as  the 
year  321  he  published  a  proclamation  favor- 
able to  the  maintenance  of  one  of  the  grossest 
impostures  of  paganism,  the  art  of  divination. 
Until  this  period,  and  perhaps  for  some  few 
years  longer,  he  held  with  tolerably  equal 
hand  the  balance  of  the  two  religions,!  and 


*  See  a  note  on  Dr.  Arnold's  seventh  Sermon,  p.  88. 
•J  In  book  iii.  of  Eusebinc's  Life  of  Constantine, 

14 


in  the  rivalry  thus  established  between  them 
Christianity  was  daily  gaining  some  weight 
at  the  expense  of  its  opponent.  This  crisis 
was,  indeed,  of  short  duration,  and  the  atten- 
tive eye  of  the  Emperor  immediately  perceiv- 
ed to  which  side  the  victory  was  inclining. 
It  was  then  that  he  threw  into  the  prepon- 
derating scale  the  decisive  addition  of  his 
civil  authority.  In  the  year  333  he  began  * 
to.  overthrow  the  temples  and  idols  of  the 
Gentiles,  and  to  invade  their  property;  he 
suppressed  some  of  the  writings  most  hostile 
to  Christianity,  and  proclaimed  his  opposition 
to  the  sacred  rites  of  paganism.  He  con- 
demned them  as  detrimental  to  the  State  ; 
and  whatever  may  have  been  the  sincerity  of 
his  faith,  he  was  at  least  convinced  that  forms 
of  worship  so  contrary  to  each  other  in  all 
their  principles  could  not  long  coexist  in  the 
same  empire,  and  he  gave  his  support  to  that 
which  most  conduced  to  the  virtue  and  hap- 
piness of  his  subjects. 

The  sons  of  Constantine  followed  their 
father's  footsteps.  During  the  Arian  rule  of 
Constantius  the  severity  of  the  laws  against 
Paganism  was  rather  increased  than  relaxed, 
and  sacrifice,  together  with  idolatrous  wor- 
ship, was  visited  by  capital  punishment.  This 
system  lasted  until  his  death  ;  so  that,  for  a 
space  of  about  thirty  years,  the  ancient  super- 
stition was  restrained  by  perpetual  discour- 
agement, and  afflicted  with  frequent  perse- 
cution. The  number  of  its  followers  was 
thus  considerably  reduced :  but  the  triumph 
was  not  yet  complete,  and  many  were  there 
still  in  every  province  of  the  empire,  who 
hailed  the  accession  of  Julian. 

Julian.  Julian,  who  is  commonly  men- 
tioned in  history  by  the  name  of  Apostate, 
was  the  nephew  of  the  great  Constantine  ;  he 
abandoned  in  early  youth  the  faith  in  which 

the  44th  and  45th  chapters  mention  some  prohibitions 
against  sacrifice  and  idol-worship,  addressed  first  to 
Pagan  Magistrates,  and  then  to  the  people  ;  but  in  his 
prayer,  or  doxology,  published  in  the  55th  and  follow- 
ing chapters,  he  accords  alike  '  both  to  believers  and 
those  in  error  the  enjoyment  of  peace  and  tranquillity ; 
as  such  friendly  communion  has  most  tendency  to  lead 
men  into  the  straight  path.' 

*  Sender,  tab.  sec.  quarti,  on  author,  of  Julian, 
Orat.  7.  Mosheim  (cent,  iv.,  p.  i.,  c.  i.)  dates  the 
exertions  of  Constantine  from  the  overthrow  of  Licin- 
ius.  See  Euseb.  Vit.  Const,  lib.  iv.  c.  23,  25, 
&c.  Flenry  (lib.  xi.,  sect.  33)  assigns  the  destruction 
of  the  Temples  of  Venus,  in  Syria,  and  of  ^Escula- 
pius  and  Apollo,  in  Cilicia,  to  the  year  which  follow- 
ed the  Council  of  Nice.  See  Euseb.  Vit.  Const., 
lib.  iii.,  chap.  54  ;  and  Sozomen,  Hist.  Eccl.,  lib. 
ii.,  c.  5. 


106 


HISTORY  OF  THE    CHURCH. 


he  had  been  educated,  and  betook  himself 
with  great  zeal  to  the  practice  of  paganism. 
The  motive  to  which  this  change  is  usually 
attributed,  is  the  hatred  which  he  indulged 
towards  the  name  and  sons  of  Constantine, 
owing  to  the  cruelties  which  they  had  inflict- 
ed on  his  family  ;  hatred  which  a  young  and 
impetuous  disposition  might  easily  extend  to 
their  religion.  Another  reason  alleged  is, 
that  when  he  saw  the  dissensions  of  the  Chris- 
tians, and  their  rancor  against  each  other, 
his  faith  was  perplexed ;  he  found  it  hard  to 
distinguish  the  excellence  of  the  religion  from 
the  vices  of  those  who  professed  it,  and  was 
unable  to  prevent  his  judgment  from  being 
blinded  by  his  indignation.  Both  of  them 
may  be  true  ;  for  it  is  clear  from  some  parts 
of  his  subsequent  conduct,  that  his  enmity  to 
Christianity  was  founded  on  passion  more 
than  on  reason,  and  his  hatred  of  the  faith 
is  more  prominent  than  his  disbelief  of  it.* 
Hence  it  is,  that,  having  renounced  one  reli- 
gion, he  flew  with  ardor  to  the  exercise  of 
the  other,  and  sought  its  aid  and  alliance 
against  the  common  adversary.  This  enthu- 
siasm for  paganism  carried  him  into  some 
ridiculous  excesses.  It  is  true  that  the  affec- 
tion which  he  professed  for  processions  and 
ceremony,  and  the  profuse  splendor  of  his 
sacrifices,  may  have  proceeded  from  a  wish 
to  seduce  and  allure  the  vulgar  ;  but  his  pri- 
vate devotion  to  magical  rites  and  the  prac- 
tice of  divination,  in  which  his  sincerity  is 
not  doubted,  has  no  such  excuse,  and  could 
only  have  proceeded  from  an  irregular  and 
superstitious  mind.  And  yet  to  this  weak- 
ness he  united  many  extraordinary  qualities 
— 'he  was  eloquent  and  liberal,  artful,  insin- 
uating and  indefatigable  ;  which,  joined  to  a 
severe  temperance,  an  affected  love  of  jus- 
tice,f  and  a  courage  superior  to  all  trials,  first 
gained  him  the  affections,  and  soon  after  the 
peaceable  possession  of  the  whole  empire.' 
A  strong  attachment  to  literature  distinguish- 
ed his  character,  and  may  have  tended  to 
nourish  his  heathen  prejudices  ;  and  the  pas- 
sion for  glory  which  sometimes  misled  him 
was  probably  the  strongest  among  his  pas- 
sions, and  his  leading  motive  of  action. 

If  we  compare  the  character  of  Julian 
with  that  of  the  other  great  enemy  of  the 
religion,  Marcus  Antoninus,  we  shall  find  all 

*  See  note  at  the  end  of  the  chapter. 

tThe  passage  is  quoted  from  Warburton;  but  we 
have  no  reason  to  question  the  sincerity  of  that  prin- 
ciple in  Julian,  though  it  was  sometimes  overpowered 
by  his  religious  antipathy. 


the  advantages  of  a  thoughtful,  consistent, 
and  sober  understanding  on  the  side  of  the 
latter.  His  conduct  was  invariably  guided 
by  his  principles,  and  his  principles  were  the 
best  which  heathen  philosophy  could  sug- 
gest to  him.  His  knowledge  of  Christianity 
was  too  partial,  and  the  power  of  its  professors 
too  inconsiderable,  to  command  his  belief  or 
respect ;  and  he  was  too  deeply  sensible  of 
the  absurdities  of  paganism  to  feel  any  regard 
for  that  worship  ;  so  that  he  was  contented 
rigorously,  but  not  intemperately,  to  maintain 
that  which  happened  to  be  the  established 
religion.  But  Julian  had  more  of  passion 
than  philosophy  in  his  constitution  and  in 
his  principles;  and  even  his  philosophy  (that 
of  the  new  Academy)  tended  much  more  to 
speculation  than  to  practice.  Indifference, 
to  which  his  temperament  would  never  have 
led  him,  was  precluded  by  the  situation  of 
the  empire.  Impetuous,  and  restless,  and 
fearless,  he  converted  into  love  for  the  one 
religion  that  which  at  first  was  only  hatred 
for  the  other,  and  he  proceeded  daringly  to 
accomplish  what  he  ardently  projected  ;  yet 
his  daring  was  tempered  by  so  much  address 
and  knowledge,  that  it  was  not  far  removed 
from  consummate  prudence. 

But  if  we  had  space  for  such  disquisitions, 
a  more  interesting  and  perhaps  more  profita- 
ble contrast  might  be  drawn  between  the  sit- 
uation and  conduct  of  Julian  and  of  Con- 
stantine. Both  arrived  at  the  possession  of 
unlimited  power,  through  great  difficulties, 
chiefly  by  means  of  their  personal  talents 
and  popularity;  both,  on  arriving  at  the 
throne,  found  the  religion  of  the  state  differ- 
ent from  their  own,  and  followed  by  the  ma- 
jority of  their  subjects ;  and  both  determined 
to  substitute  that  which  himself  professed. 
The  grand  difference  was  this — the  religion 
of  Constantine  (we  may  be  permitted  for  one 
moment  to  treat  the  subject  merely  political- 
ly) was  young  and  progressive;  it  stood  on 
principles  which  proved  its  excellence,  and 
ensured  its  durability;  the  only  weakness 
which  it  acknowledged  was  that  of  immatu- 
rity. The  religion  of  Julian  had  long  been 
held  in  derision  by  all  reasonable  men ;  its 
energy  had  long  passed  away  from  it,  and 
its  feebleness  was  the  decrepitude  of  old  age. 
So  that  the  one  led  on  to  certain  victory  an 
aspiring  assailant ;  the  other  endeavored  to 
rally  a  shattered,  undisciplined,  dispirited 
fugitive. 

Let  us  next  examine  the  manner  in  which 
Julian  proceeded  to  the  accomplishment  of 
his  hopeless  enterprise.     His  first  step  was  ill 


DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  PAGANISM. 


107 


direct  imitation  of  the  first  act  of  Constan- 
tine.  He  published  edicts  which  established 
the  religion  of  the  Emperor  as  that  of  the 
state,  and  which  tolerated  every  other.  By 
such  decrees  he  placed  Christianity  in  a  very 
similar  situation  to  that  in  which,  about  fifty 
years  before,  his  uncle  had  placed  paganism  ; 
and  he  further  increased  this  resemblance  by 
inviting  the  mos.  eminent  philosophers  to  his 
court,  admitting  them  to  his  confidence,  and 
raising  them  to  the  highest  dignities  and  offi- 
ces in  their  religion.  His  second  step  was 
the  natural  consequence  of  the  first ;  he  took 
away  the  immunities,  honors,  and  revenues, 
which  had  been  bestowed  on  the  Christian 
clergy,  and  transferred  them  to  the  service  of 
the  established  religion — and  though  great 
individual  injustice  was  thus  perpetrated,  no 
one  can  reasonably  complain  of  the  principle 
of  this  transfer,  since  such  advantages  are 
necessarily  conferred  by  the  state  on  those 
who  profess  the  religion  of  the  state.  His 
first  edicts,  while  they  restored  to  Pagans 
their  civil  rights,  do  not  appear  to  have  vio- 
lated those  of  the  Christians:  but  by  a  sub- 
sequent regulation  he  disqualified  the  Chris- 
tian laity  from  office  in  the  state.  This 
measure  was  attended  by  another,  founded 
on  a  deeper  principle,  and  of  much  more  dan- 
gerous consequence — he  forbade  any  Chris- 
tian to  lecture  in  the  public  schools  of  science  or 
literature ;  and  this  prohibition  not  only  obli- 
ged the  Christian  youth  to  have  recourse  to 
Pagan  instructers,  but  also  deprived  them  of 
one  of  the  greatest  encouragements  to  profi- 
ciency. Julian  was  sufficiently  instructed  in 
the  nature  of  his  project,  to  perceive  that  it 
would  be  of  little  avail  to  oppress  the  dissen- 
tients by  vexatious  restraints,  unless  at  the 
same  time  he  could  degrade  them  by  igno- 
rance.* His  last  measure  (for  which  we 
have  the  authority  of  the  historian  Socrates) 
was  the  direct  imposition  of  a  tax  on  all  who 
refused  to  sacrifice  to  the  Gods  of  the  Em- 
pire. 

Considering  that  the  reign  of  Julian  lasted 
not  two  years,  we  must  admit  that,  while  he 
developed  a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  theory 


*  A  contemporary  Christian  writer  (Gregory  Naz- 
ianzen)  tells  us  of  another  method  adopted  by  Julian  ii 
order  to  bring  the  religion  into  disrepute,  which  proves 
how  low  his  enmity  was  contented  to  descend,  for  the 
sake  of  inflicting  one  additional  and  ignoble  wound. 
He  commanded  by  edict  (i'ohoS.sti/W?,)  that  Chris- 
tians should  no  longer  be  called  Christians,  but  Gali- 
leans. There  was  some  art  in  this  attack ;  for  the 
value  of  a  name,  which  is  every  where  of  some  influ- 
ence, has  especial  importance  among  orientals. 


of  persecution,  he  made  very  rapid  progress 
in  the  practice  of  it;  and  had  he  been  suffer- 
ed by  Providence  much  longer  to  persist  in 
his  aggression,  with  proportionate  increase 
of  severity,  it  is  probable  that  the  final  tri- 
umph of  Christianity  would  not  otherwise 
have  been  achieved  than  by  the  means  of  a 
religious  war.  But  the  provinces  of  the  civ- 
ilized world  were  saved  from  that  severest 
infliction  by  the  death  of  the  Emperor. 

Reform  of  Paganism.  As  Julian  was  either 
too  sincere  a  religionist,  or  at  least  too  wise 
a  politician,  to  wish  to  deprive  his  subjects 
of  all  religion,  he  accompanied  his  labors  for 
the  subversion  of  Christianity  by  some  judi- 
cious attempts  to  render  paganism  more  dura- 
ble ;  but  this  scheme  could  scarcely  have 
hoped  for  any  great  success,  even  had  it  been 
undertaken  at  an  earlier  period,  when  the 
vices  of  that  religion  had  been  less  openly  ex- 
posed and  acknowledged  ;  when  its  shrines 
were  less  generally  deserted ;  and  when  the 
mere  moral  superiority  of  its  rival  was  less 
manifestly  and  notoriously  exhibited.  He  ap- 
pears to  have  directed  his  exertions  to  three 
points, —  viz. :  1.  To  conceal  or  disguise  the 
absurdity  of  its  origin  and  nature  by  moral 
and  philosophical  allegories ;  2.  To  establish 
ecclesiastical  discipline  and  policy  on  the 
model  of  the  Christian  church ;  3.  To  correct 
the  morals  of  the  priesthood. 

For  the  first  of  these  purposes  he  found 
materials  already  provided  by  the  philosophers 
of  his  own  sect,  the  Platonists  ;  who  had  been 
employed,  especially  since  the  appearance  of 
Christianity,  in  refining  the  theology  of  pagan- 
ism. In  pursuance  of  the  second,  he  planned 
an  establishment  for  readers  in  that  theology  ; 
for  the  order  and  parts  of  the  divine  office  ; 
for  a  regular  and  formal  service,  with  days 
and  hours  of  worship  ;  and  with  respect  to  the 
third,  he  enjoined  'to  the  priesthood,  (whom 
he  seemingly  would  have  established  as  a 
separate  order,)  as  well  as  to  their  household, 
great  severity  of  personal  behavior,  and 
strictly  to  withhold  themselves  from  all  vul- 
gar amusements  and  ignoble  professions. 
While  he  imitated  the  discipline  of  the  Church 
he  was  willing  also  to  emulate  her  moral  ex- 
cellences; and  therefore  he  decreed  the 
foundation  of  hospitals  and  other  charitable 
institutions,  and  particularly  recommended  to 
the  ministers  of  religion  the  virtues  of  charity 
and  benevolence.  He  did  not  live  to  com- 
plete, or  probably  to  mature,  these  designs; 
but  the  above  sketch  is  sufficient  to  prove  the 
extent  of  the  beneficial  influence  which  Chris- 
tianity had  already  exerted,  even  over  those 


108 


HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


who  were  not  persuaded  of  its  truth  ;  and  to 
show  that  the  only  art  by  which  its  formidable 
adversary  could  affect  to  supplant  it,  was  by 
an  ungraceful  endeavor  to  resemble  it. 

Attempt  to  rebuild  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem. 
But  Julian,  with  all  his  authority  and  address, 
could  scarcely  hope  to  substitute  that  which 
was  known  to  be  a  shadow  for  that  which 
was  believed  to  be  real  and  substantial.  It 
therefore  became  necessary  for  his  design  to 
overthrow  the  foundations  on  which  Chris- 
tianity rested,  or  at  least  to  disclose  their 
weakness.  One  of  the  most  important  and 
influential  of  these  was  the  accomplishment 
of  so  many  ancient  prophecies,  tending,  as  it 
were,  to  a  common  centre,  to  the  establish- 
ment of  its  truth.  Among  those  prophecies, 
there  was  no  one  which  excited  such  general 
admiration,  and  so  strangely  perplexed  the 
unbelieving,  as  that  which  related  to  the  de- 
struction of  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem;  not 
only  as  it  had  been  once  and  signally  fulfilled 
by  the  arms  of  Titus,  but  as  the  consequent 
dispersion  of  the  nation  and  abolition  of  the 
law  had  already  continued  for  nearly  three 
hundred  years  to  be  a  subject  of  appeal  and 
triumphant  argument  with  the  defenders  of 
Revelation.  Julian  doubtless  perceived  that 
if  he  could  remove  that  ground  of  faith,  many 
would  be  persuaded  that  the  ancient  Books 
of  the  Christians  had  no  better  title  to  divine 
inspiration  than  the  Homeric  rhapsodies,  or 
the  Orphic  hymns  ;  and  that  the  exclusive 
claim  to  truth,  which  distinguished  the  re- 
ligion from  every  superstition,  had  in  fact  no 
solid  foundation.  We  can  scarcely  be  mis- 
taken in  considering  this  to  have  been  his 
leading  object,  when,  in  the  year  363,  he  un- 
dertook to  rebuild  the  Temple. 

This  was  indeed  to  attack  Christianity  on 
the  only  ground  on  which  any  lasting  ad- 
vantage could  be  obtained,  or  on  which  its 
overthrow  could  possibly  have  been  effected. 
The  persecution  of  its  professors  was  certain 
to  terminate  in  a  reaction  favorable  to  them  ; 
the  reform  and  adornment  of  paganism  was 
only  a  ridiculous  and  contemptible  mockery  ; 
but  the  falsification  of  one  prophecy  would 
have  reduced  the  worship  of  Christ,  as  far  as 
its  origin  was  concerned,  to  a  level  with  that 
of  Jove:  so  that  we  need  not  wonder  at  the 
ardor  with  which  its  adversaries  engaged  in 
this  attempt,  at  the  suspicion  with  which  some 
wavering  Christians  beheld  it,  at  the  joy  of 
anticipated  triumph  which  it  excited  in  true 
believers.* 


*  Twice  previously,  during  the  reigns  of  Adrian  and 
Constantine,  the  Jews  had  expressed  a  disposition  to 


The  historical  facts  are  simply  these  : — the 
work  was  undertaken  with  some  parade,  un- 
der the  superintendence  of  Alypius,  an  officer 
of  rank  and  reputation,  a  pagan,  and  a  per- 
sonal friend  of  the  Emperor  ;  and  the  work- 
men were  proceeding  to  clear  away  the  ruins, 
and  lay  bare  the  old  foundations,  when  an 
earthquake  and  tempest,  accompanied  by  fire 
from  below,  and  a  strange  appearance  in  the 
heavens,  tore  the  foundations  asunder,  de- 
stroyed or  dispersed  those  engaged  in  the 
labor,  and  consumed  the  materials;  and  this, 
it  clearly  appears,  not  once  only,  but  on  re- 
peated attempts.  Many  of  those  who  surviv- 
ed bore  about  with  them  lasting  marks  of  fire, 
and  the  work  was  immediately  suspended, 
and  never  afterwards  renewed.  These  facts 
are  the  result  of  the  combined  evidence  of 
four  contemporary  authors,*  one  of  whom, 
Ammianus  Marcellinus,  was  a  pagan,  a  zeal- 
ous admirer  of  the  Emperor,  and  resident  with 
his  master  at  Antioch  when  the  event  took 
place.  To  the  circumstances  above  narrated 
others  of  a  more  extraordinary  nature  were 
at  different  periods  f  appended,  some  of  which 

rebuild  the  Temple  with  their  own  hands;  but  the 
Imperial  permission  was  withheld  from  political  caus- 
es in  the  first  instance,  and  from  religious,  or  from 
both,  in  the  second. 

*  Amiuian.  Marc,  lib.  xxiii.,c.  i.  Ambrose,  Epist. 
xi.,t.  ii.  Chrysostom  adv.  Jud.  et  Gentiles.  Gregory 
Nazianzen,  Orat.  iv.  adv.  Julian.  The  passage  of 
Ammianus  at  least  requires  insertion;  and  we  should 
observe,  that  alone  it  does  not  go  to  the  full  extent  of 
the  account  which  we  have  given.  '  Diligentiam  ubi- 
que  dividens  imperiique  sui  memoriam  magnitudine 
operum  gestiens  propagare,  ambiliosum  quoddam  apud 
Hierosolvmam  Templuin,  quod  post  multa  et  interne- 
civa  certamina  obsidente  Vespasiano  posteaque  Tito 
regre  est  expugnatum,  instaurare  stimptibus  cogitabat 
immodicis;  negotiumque  maturanduin  Alypio  dedit 
Antiochensi,  qui  oliin  Britannias  curaverat  pro  pne- 
fectis.  Cum  ilaqucrei  idem  fortiter  instaret  Aly- 
pius, juvaretque  provincic?  Rector,  metuendi  glo- 
bi  flammarum  prope  fundamenta  crebris  adsultibus 
erumpentes  fecere  locum  exustis  aliquoties  oper- 
antibus  inaccessum;  kocque  modo  elemento  desti- 
natius  repellente  cessavit  inceptum.'  The  epistle 
of  Ambrose  is  addressed  to  the  Emperor  Theodosius, 
and  Chrysostom  was  uot  far  distant  from  the  spot 
when  the  event  took  place.  Both  these  writers  speak 
of  it  with  brevity  as  notorious,  and  undisputed.  But 
Gregory  enters  into  more  detail;  and,  besides  the  cir- 
cumstances mentioned  in  the  text,  relates  a  miracu- 
lous closing  of  the  doors  of  a  church  in  which  the 
workmen  would  have  taken  refuge,  and  the  impression 
of  the  figure  of  the  Cross  on  the  dress  and  persons  of 
those  present.  This  "last  phenomenon  is  very  inge- 
niously, and  even  probably  explained  by  Warburton. 

t  The  miracle  is  related  about  half  a  century  after- 
wards, with  the  addition  of  various  particulars,  by 
Rufinus,  Socrates,  Sozomen,  and  Theodorit. 


DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  PAGANISM. 


109 


are  indeed  consistent  with  physical  probabil- 
ity, but  others  are  manifestly  the  superstitious 
exaggerations  of  later  ages.  The  truth  of  the 
outline  which  we  have  given  cannot  reason- 
ably be  contested,  nor  is  it  at  all  affected  by 
some  variations  in  the  details,  implying  diver- 
sity, but  no  contradiction. 

But,  though  the  facts  be  undisputed,  the 
question  has  still  been  moved  and  argued  with 
much  ingenuity,  whether  the  convulsion  in 
question  was  a  phenomenon  merely  natural, 
or  occasioned  by  divine  interposition  ;  and  as 
that  question  is  usually  proposed,  the  fairest 
method  of  stating  it  appears  to  be  this.  In  a 
very  critical  period  of  the  history  of  Chris- 
tianity, the  highest  earthly  authority,  having 
declared  against  it,  proceeded  to  apply  the 
severest  test,  not  only  to  the  constancy  of  its 
professors,  but  to  the  truth  of  the  faith  itself; 
(and  in  this  respect  the  attempt  of  Julian  dif- 
fers in  character  from  those  of  any  preceding 
persecutor.)  The  trial  was  made  in  the  most 
public  manner,  in  the  very  birth-place  of  the 
religion,  in  the  eyes  of  the  whole  civilized 
world ;  and  as  the  world  was  still  divided  (and 
perhaps  not  very  unequally  divided)  between 
the  rival  religions,  the  result  would  be  neces- 
sarily expected  with  attentive  anxiety  by  the 
votaries  of  both.  Under  these  circumstances 
Julian  undertook  to  falsify  the  prophecies  of 
God,  and  thus  most  assuredly  to  overthrow 
the  belief  which  rested  on  them.  Again,  the 
mountain  on  which  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem 
had  stood  was  not  so  constituted,  as  either 
from  its  frame  or  situation  to  be  probably  the 
scene  of  a  natural  eruption  ;  history  speaks 
but  of  one  other  commotion,  confined  partic- 
ularly to  that  hill,  which  took  place  at  anoth- 
er critical  conjuncture,  the  moment  of  the 
Crucifixion ;  and  from  the  days  of  Julian  to 
this  time,  the  convulsion  has  not  ever  been 
repeated.  It  remains  then  for  us  to  consider, 
whether  it  be  less  improbable,  that  God 
should  have  interposed  for  the  confirmation 
of  his  religion  at  the  moment  when  its  truth 
was  put  to  a  most  public  and  insulting  proof; 
than,  that  a  mountain  hitherto  quiescent,  and 
ever  since  so,  should  have  undergone  a  natu- 
ral convulsion,  and  thrown  forth  destructive 
fire  from  physical  causes,  at  that  very  crisis 
(and  at  that  crisis  only)  when  the  test  was  ap- 
plied, and  the  insult  offered  ;  that  the  eruption 
should  have  been  confined  to  the  particular 
spot  in  question  ;  that  it  should  have  continu- 
ed as  long  as  the  attempts  were  repeated  ;  and 
that  it  should  have  ceased,  when  they  ceased, 
when  its  seeming  purpose  was  effected,  for- 
ever: and  thus  we  might  fairly  leave  it  to 


any  unprejudiced  mind  to  decide,  whether 
such  a  concurrence  of  fortuitous  circumstan- 
ces at  such  a  conjuncture  were  more  or  less 
credible  than  a  miracle. 

But  the  question  is  not  yet  exhausted  ;  a 
very  plausible  explanation  of  the  phenomenon 
has  been  recently  published,  and  received 
with  an  attention,  of  which,  perhaps,  it  is  not 
undeserving.*  The  greater  part  of  the  city 
of  Jerusalem  was  undermined  by  very  exten- 
sive subterranean  vaults  and  passages,f  which 
were  used  as  cisterns,  or  magazines,  or  places 
of  refuge,  or  sepulchres,  according  to  political 
circumstances,  or  their  own  form  and  situa- 
tion. We  learn  that  the  cisterns  alone  fur- 
nished water  during  the  siege  to  the  eleven 
hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  for  whom  the 
fountain  of  Siloa  was  insufficient ;  and  we 
find,  that  when  resistance  became  hopeless, 
the  most  active  among  the  insurgents  form- 
ed the  project  of  secreting  themselves  in  those 
recesses  until  the  Romans  should  have  eva- 
cuated the  city.  Some  remains  of  such  ex- 
cavations may  still  be  observed  both  in  the 
city  and  in  the  adjacent  mountains.  Now  it 
may  reasonably  be  supposed,  that  during  the 
Ions  period  of  desolation  which  intervened 
between  Titus  and  Julian,  those  vast  caverns, 
being  obstructed  by  rubbish  and  ruins,  would 
remain  untenanted,  and  probably  unexplored  ; 
and  thus  the  workmen  of  Alypius,  when  they 
proceeded  with  torches  to  examine  and  pen- 
etrate the  gloomy  labyrinths,  might  be  terrifi- 
ed, and  expelled  by  frequent  explosions  of 
inflammable  air.  On  a  spot  singularly  con- 
genial to  superstitious  apprehensions,  under 
circumstances  peculiarly  calculated  to  awaken 
and  encourage  them,  such  natural  detonations 
might  readily  be  ascribed,  even  by  some  of 
those  who  witnessed  them,  to  extraordinary 
interposition  ;  and  certainly  the  multitude  of 
the  Christians  who  heard  the  story,  being  as 
familiar  with  miraculous  tales  as  they  were 
ignorant  of  the  mysteries  of  nature,  would  re- 
ceive it  unhesitatingly,  as  an  especial  proof  of 
divine  protection.  Such  might  naturally  be 
the  case ;  and  suspicious  as  we  should  always 
be  of  any  attempt  to  substitute  plausible  con- 
jecture for    facts    historically    proved,  how 

*  It  appears  to  have  been  first  proposed  by  Michae- 
lis,  quoted  by  Guizot  in  his  translation  of  Gibbon's 
History.  It  is  very  reasonably  treated  by  the  judi- 
cious writer  in  the  Encyclop.  Metiopol.  (Life  of 
Julianus,)  and  still  more  lately  has  been  adopted,  with 
too  little,  hesitation  or  comment,  by  the  author  of '  Tho 
History  of  the  Jews.' 

f  See  Tacit,  v.  12.  Dio,  66.  p.  747.  Josephua, 
Bell.  Jud.  vii.  2.,  and  Antiq.  Jud.  xv.  c.  xi.  sect.  7 


110 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


marvellous  soever  their  character,  we  are  not 
prepared  to  reject  the  above  explanation, 
though  by  no  means  impatient  to  embrace  it. 
At  least  we  should  observe,  that,  if  it  satisfies 
the  description  of  Ammianus,  it  is  not  appli- 
cable to  some  of  the  circumstances  mentioned 
by  the  Christian  authorities  ;  so  that  these 
must  be  condemned  and  sacrificed  to  it,  and 
our  belief  entirely  confined  to  the  pagan  ac- 
count ;  and  even  then  it  will  remain  with 
many  a  matter  of  wonder,  that  Alypius,  a  dig- 
nified and  enlightened  pagan,  assisted  by  the 
presence  of  the  Governor  of  the  province,  and 
acting  almost  under  the  eyes  of  the  Emperor 
himself,  should  have  finally  abandoned  a  pro- 
ject esteemed  by  his  master  of  immense  im- 
portance, through  a  fortuitous  impediment, 
of  which  the  cause  could  scarcely  be  conceal- 
ed from  him,  or  the  facility  of  overcoming 
it.  And  after  all,  it  will  remain  at  least  ques- 
tionable, whether  the  gases  generated  in 
those  caverns  were  not  of  a  nature  more 
likely  to  extinguish,  thau  to  produce,  com- 
bustion. 

A  few  months  after  this  event  Julian  was 
killed  in  battle ;  and  the  succession  of  Chris- 
tian Emperors  was  then  restored,  and  never 
afterwards  disturbed.  Henceforward  the  ad- 
vance of  religion  upon  the  receding  ranks  of 
paganism  encountered  little  resistance,  and 
was  conducted  with  singular  rapidity ;  still  we 
do  not  observe  in  the  religious  policy  of  the 
immediate  successors  of  Julian  any  violent 
disposition  to  direct  the  pursuit. 

Valentinian  I.  placed  his  pride  in  the  most 
impartial  and  universal  toleration.  We  may 
have  observed  indeed  that  some  of  the  pagan 
Emperors  commenced  with  the  same  pro- 
fessions, a  reign  which  ended  in  persecution  ; 
and  we  have  seen  that  both  Constantine  and 
Julian  hastened  to  deviate  from  the  generous 
principles  which  they  first  proclaimed.  But 
Valentinian  is  scarcely,  if  at  all,  liable  to  this 
reproach  ;  and  though  in  other  matters  he  was 
guilty  of  some  passionate  exertions  of  unne- 
cessary severity,  and  though  he  neglected  to 
restrain  the  Arian  intolerance  of  his  brother 
Valens,  which  afflicted  the  Catholics  in  the 
East,  he  appears  himself  to  have  maintained 
thoughout  the  whole  Western  empire  a  per- 
fect civil  equality,  as  well  between  the  reli- 
gions which  divided  it,  as  among  the  sects  of 
each  religion.* 


*  '  Iuclaruit  hoc  moderamine  principatus  quod  inter 
religionum  diversitates  medius  stetit,  nee  qtlenquam 
inquietavit,  neque  ut  hoc  colerelur  imperavit,  aut  ill- 
ud  ;  nee  interdictis  minacibus  subjectorum  cervicern 
ad  id  quod  ipse  coluit  inclinabat,  sed  intemeratas  reli- 


The  short  reign  of  Gratian,  which  likewise 
commenced  with  great  professions  of  mode- 
ration, was  rather  remarkable  for  some  laws 
against  heretics,  than  for  any  deliberate  at- 
tack on  paganism.  Nevertheless  that  wor- 
ship was  unable  to  survive  the  political  pa- 
tronage by  which  alone  it  had  so  long  sub- 
sisted ;  it  seemed  to  have  lost  its  only  prin- 
ciple of  existence  as  soon  as  it  ceased  to 
form  a  part  of  the  system  of  Government ;  * 
left  to  its  own  energies  it  discovered  the 
secret  of  its  decrepitude,  and  so  easy  and 
uninterrupted  was  the  process  of  its  disso- 
lution, that  it  seemed  patiently  to  await  the 
final  blow  from  any  hand  disposed  to  inflict  it. 

Theodosius  the  Great.  Theodosius  I.  is  the 
Emperor  to  whom  that  achievement  is  usu- 
ally, and,  if  to  any  individual,  justly,  attribut- 
ed. He  ascended  the  throne  in  the  year 
379,  but  he  does  not  appear  to  have  pub- 
lished his  famous  law  until  thirteen  years 
afterwards.  It  was  to  this  effect — 'that  no 
one,  of  whatever  rank  or  dignity  or  fortune, 
whether  hereditary  or  acquired,  high  or  hum- 
ble, in  what  place  or  city  soever  he  may 
dwell,  shall  either  slay  a  victim  to  senseless 
images ;  or,  while  he  addresses  in  private 
expiation  the  Lar,  the  Genius  and  the  Pe- 
nates, with  fire,  or  wine,  or  odors,  light 
torches,  or  burn  incense,  or  suspend  gar- 
lands in  their  honor  ;  but  if  any  one  shall 
immolate  a  victim  in  sacrifice,  or  consult  the 
panting  entrails,  that  any  man  may  become 
his  informer,  until  he  receive  competent  pun- 
ishment, &c.  &c.'  The  execution  of  this 
law,  and  of  others  to  the  same  effect,  was  no 
doubt  much  facilitated  by  the  zeal  of  Chris- 
tian informers  ;  and  there  could  be  few  who 
would    suffer    martyrdom    for  a    religion,! 

quit  has  partes,  ut  repent.' — Ammianus  Marcellinus. 
Was  there  any  Emperor  of  those  days  (if  we  except 
the  short  rule  of  Jovian)  who  can  share  this  honor 
with  Valentinian  1 

*  We  may  remark  that  by  some  of  the  earliest  laws 
against  paganism  Divination  was  permitted,  while 
Magic  was  forbidden  ;  because  the  former  was  a  pub- 
lic ceremony,  instrumental  for  political  purposes, 
while  the  latter  was  the  private  and  individual  exer- 
cise of  a  similar  description  of  art.  The  object  of 
both  was  superstitious  deception,  but  the  Government 
would  not  permit  the  people  to  be  deceived  except  by 
itself. 

■f  The  bold  resistance  of  an  officer  of  high  rank  and 
character,  named  Gennadius,  to  a  very  impolitic  edict 
of  Honorius,  has  been  produced  as  a  solitary  instance 
even  of  the  disposition  to  suffer  in  the  cause  of  pa- 
ganism. Honorius  had  forbidden  any  except  Chris- 
tians to  wear  a  girdle  or  sash  at  court,  and  Gennadius 
in  consequence  declined  to  present  himself  there.     The 


DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  PAGANISM. 


Ill 


which,  as  it  rested  on  no  evidence,  could  offer 
no  certainty  of  recompense ;  and,  therefore, 
the  consequence  of  the  Edict  of  Theodosius 
was  a  vast  diminution  in  the  number  of  pro- 
fessed Polytheists.  This  change  was  most 
immediately  perceptible  in  the  principal  cities 
of  the  empire,  throughout  which  the  supersti- 
tion for  the  most  part  disappeared  ;  thencefor- 
ward it  was  chiefly  confined  to  the  small  towns 
and  villages  (or  pagi) ;  and  about  that  time  it 
was  that  the  name  Pagan  (or  Rustic,  Villager) 
was  first  adopted  to  designate  those  who  ad- 
hered to  Polytheism. 

The  prohibitions  contained  in  the  above 
edict  are  impartially  levelled  against  every 
condition  of  heathen ;  yet  their  weight  and 
efficacy  must  clearly  have  fallen  upon  the 
lower  classes :  for  among  the  higher  and  bet- 
ter informed,  though  there  might  be  many 
who  had  not  yet  embraced  Christianity,  there 
could  at  that  time  have  been  extremely  few, 
who  either  felt  or  affected  any  ardent  attach- 
ment to  a  worship  which  professed  no  moral 
principles,  and  offered  no  temporal  advan- 
tages.* The  vulgar  persevered  in  it  some- 
what longer,  from  habit,  from  prejudice,  and 
from  ignorance ;  but  these  motives  were  not 
sufficient  long  to  sustain  them  against  the 
laws  of  the  empire,  and  the  authority  of  their 
superiors,  and  the  example  of  their  neigh- 
bors, all  combining  to  propagate  a  more  ex- 
cellent and  more  reasonable  faith. 

But  we  are  not  to  imagine  that  the  num- 
ber of  real  converts  to  Christianity  was  at  all 
in  proportion  to  that  of  the  seceders  from 
paganism;  for  persons  who  are  forced  out 
of  any  sort  of  faith  will  not  readily  throw 
themselves  iuto  the  arms  of  that  whence  the 
compulsion  has  proceeded.  However,  time 
and  patience  might  have  remedied  this  dis- 
inclination, and  led  those  converts  (or  at  least 
the  succeeding  generation)  to  a  sincere  affec- 
tion for  a  pure  religion,  if  the  purity  of  that 


Emperor  then  expressed  himself  willing  to  make  a 
particular  exception  in  favor  of  an  officer  who  was  at 
the  moment  necessary  to  him,  but  Gennadius  refused 
that  distinction,  and  persevered  in  his  opposition  so 
resolutely,  that  the  Emperor  finally  repealed  the  in- 
vidious law.     See  Zosimus,  lib.  v. 

*  A  celebrated  pagan,  Libanius,  published  even  in 
this  age  an  apology  for  his  religion.  His  work  was 
not  suppressed,  nor  himself  removed  from  one  of  the 
most  important  offices  in  the  state,  which  he  then 
held.  While  the  Emperor  was  engaged  in  destroy- 
ing the  practice  of  paganism,  he  might  easily  accord 
to  a  favorite  subject  the  innocent  indulgence  of  writ- 
ing its  defence  ;  for  he  knew  that  it  was  not  by  reason 
but  by  habit  that  the  worship  would  subsist,  if  it  could 
possiblv  subsist  at  all. 


religion  had  not  been  already  corrupted  by 
the  intemperate  zeal  of  its  own  professors. 

We  have  noticed  indeed  certain  abuses 
which  had  already  shown  themselves  even 
in  the  iron  days  of  Christianity,  and  there 
are  others  yet  unnoticed  by  us,  of  which  the 
earliest  vestiges  and  indications  may  proba- 
bly be  discovered  in  the  practice  of  the  ante- 
Nicene  Church,  or  in  the  writings  of  its  Fa- 
thers ;  but  among  these  idolatry  certainly  is 
not  one.  The  ancient  Christians  continued 
to  shun  with  a  pious  horror,  which  persecu- 
tion exasperated,  and  which  time  did  not 
mitigate,  every  approach  to  that  abomina- 
tion ;  and  while  they  truly  considered  it  es- 
sentially and  distinctively  pagan,  the  reluc- 
tance which  they  felt  to  bow  before  any 
image  was  aggravated  by  the  firm  belief, 
that  the  images  of  the  Pagans  represented 
the  implacable  adversaries  of  man  and  God. 
So  definite  and  so  broad  was  the  space  which 
in  this  point  at  least  separated  the  two  reli- 
gions, that  it  seemed  impossible  that  either 
of  them  should  overstep  it,  or  that  any  com- 
promise could  ever  be  effected  between  prin 
ciples  so  fundamentally  hostile.  Yet  the 
contrary  result  took  place  :  and  a  reconcilia- 
tion, which  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth 
century  could  not  easily  have  been  imagined, 
was  virtually  accomplished  before  its  termi- 
nation. 

Veneration  for  Martyrs.  Let  us  trace  the 
progress  of  this  extraordinary  revolution. 
On  the  first  establishment  of  their  religion, 
it  was  natural  that  Christians  should  look 
back  from  a  condition  of  unexpected  securi- 
ty on  the  sufferings  of  their  immediate  pre- 
decessors, with  the  most  vivid  sentiments 
of  sympathy  and  admiration.  They  had  be- 
held those  sufferings,  they  had  beheld  the 
constancy  with  which  they  were  endured 
the  same  terror  had  been  suspended  over 
themselves,  and  their  own  preservation  they 
attributed,  under  the  especial  protection  of 
divine  Providence,  to  the  perseverance  of 
those  who  had  perished.  The  gratitude  and 
veneration  thus  fervently  excited  were  loudly 
and  passionately  expressed  ;  and  the  honors 
which  were  due  to  the  virtues  of  the  depart- 
ed were  profusely  bestowed  on  their  names 
and  their  memory.  Enthusiasm  easily  pass- 
ed into  superstition,  and  those  who  had  seal- 
ed a  Christian's  faith  by  a  martyr's  death 
were  exalted  above  the  condition  of  men. 
and  enthroned  among  superior  beings.  Su- 
perstition gave  birth  to  credulity,  and  those 
who  sat  among  the  Powers  of  heaven  migh 
sustain,  by  miraculous  assistance,  their  vota 


12 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


ries  on  earth ;  and  credulity  increased  the 
food  on  which  it  fed,  by  encouraging  the 
detested  practice  of  forgeiy  and  imposture. 
Under  these  dangerous  circumstances  it  be- 
came the  duty  of  the  fathers  and  the  leading 
ministers  of  the  Church  to  moderate  the  vio- 
lence of  popular  feeling,  and  to  restrain  any 
tendency  towards  vicious  excess.  But,  un- 
happily for  the  integrity  of  the  Catholic  faith, 
the  instructers  were  themselves  carried  away 
by  the  current,  or,  we  should  rather  say,  unit- 
ed their  exertions  to  swell  and  corrupt  it. 
The  people  we  may  excuse  and  compassion- 
ate :  but  we  blush  when  we  discover  the 
most  distinguished  writers  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, Athanasius,  Eusebius  the  historian, 
Gregory  Nazianzen,  Chrysostom,  Jerome, 
and  Augustin,  engaged  in  shameful  conspi- 
racy against  their  religion,  while  they  exag- 
gerate the  merit  of  the  martyrs,  assert  or 
insinuate  their  immediate  sanctification,  and 
claim  for  them  a  sort  of  reverence  which 
could  not  easily  be  distinguished  from  wor- 
ship. In  this  age,  and  from  this  cause,  arose 
the  stupid  veneration  for  bones  and  relics  ;  it 
was  inculcated  and  believed  that  prayer  was 
never  so  surely  efficacious  as  when  offer- 
ed at  the  tomb  of  some  saint  or  holy  person  ; 
the  number  of  such  tombs  was  then  multi- 
plied ;  at  all  of  them  miracles,  and  prophe- 
cies, and  prodigies,  and  visions,  were  ex- 
hibited or  recorded  ;  and  the  spirit  of  the 
Gospel  was  forgotten  in  the  practice  of  for- 
bidden ceremonies,  and  the  belief  of  impious 
fables. 

Such  were  the  first  unworthy  advances 
which  were  made  by  Christianity,  and  en- 
couraged by  her  leading  ministers,  with  the 
view  to  reconcile  at  least  her  external  differ- 
ences with  paganism  ;  *  and,  no  doubt,  they 
were  very  effectual  in  alluring  those  easy 
Polytheists,  whose  piety  was  satisfied  with 
numerous  festivals  in  celebration  of  the  ex- 
ploits of  mortals  deified ;  for  with  them  the 
change  was  only  in  the  name  of  the  deity, 
not  in  the  principles  of  the  religion.     And 


*In  the  year  410,  Synesius,  a  Platonic  philosopher 
of  Cyrene,  was  ordained  Bishop  of  Ptolemais  by  The- 
ophilus  of  Alexandria.  Synesius  remonstrated  against 
this  election,  declared  himself  to  be  a  Platonist,  and 
specified  several  points  in  which  his  speculative  opin- 
ions differed  from  those  of  the  Christians.  But  as  he 
was  an  agreeable  orator,  and  had  much  influence  in 
the  province,  his  objections  were  overlooked,  and 
after  receiving  baptism  he  entered  upon  his  episcopal 
functions.  This  is  far  from  being  the  only  instance 
of  the  pliancy  of  the  early  Church,  at  a  period  too 
*4ien  it  had  no  excuse  from  fear  or  persecution. 


by  this  shameful  compromise*  the  Church 
was  filled  by  numerous  converts,  who  believ- 
ed, and  who  were  probably  taught  to  believe, 
that  the  worship  which  they  had  deserted 
was  by  no  means  essentially  dissimilar  from 
that  which  they  had  embraced,  and  who  con- 
tinued, after  their  admission,  to  perpetuate 
and  exaggerate  those  corruptions  by  which 
alone  the  resemblance  was  created. 

Here  then  we  discover  the  root  of  several 
of  the  abuses  of  Papacy  ;  they  were  conces- 
sions made  during  this  critical  period  to  the 
genius  of  paganism,  in  order  to  delude  ita 
votaries  into  more  speedy  apostasy,  and  to 
accelerate  the  dissolution  of  the  one  religion 
into  the  other.  The  immediate  object  was 
accomplished — to  diminish  the  numerical  dis- 
play of  Polytheism,  and  prematurely  to  crowd 
the  churches  and  processions  with  nominal 
Christians ;  and  this  was  merely  to  anticipate 
the  tardy  but  certain  operation  of  irresistible 
causes,  and  to  effect  that  in  appearance, 
which  in  the  next  generation  would  have 
been  surely  consummated.  But  the  lasting 
result  has  been  to  darken  and  disfigure  the 
features  of  Christianity,  not  ia  one  race  only, 
or  for  one  age,  but  through  a  period,  of  which 
fourteen  centuries  have  already  been  accom- 
plished, and  of  which  we  cannot  yet  foresee 
the  termination. 

Abolition  of  Gladiatorial  Games.  Arcadius 
and  Honorius  succeeded  respectively  to  the 
thrones  of  the  East  and  West,  and  they  fol- 
lowed the  steps  of  Theodosius  in  his  warfare 
against  heresy  as  well  as  paganism.  Arca- 
dius was  more  distinguished  in  the  former 
contest,  though  he  proceeded  to  some  ex- 
tremities against  the  temples  and  idols  of 
Phoenicia.  Honorius  is  more  honorably  cel- 
ebrated by  the  law  which  abolished  the  Gla- 
diatorial Games.  This  institution,  the  most 
barbarous  that  ever  disgraced  a  civilized  na- 
tion, was  the  genuine  offspring  of  the  charac- 
ter and  morals  of  pagan  antiquity  ;  and  it  was 
supported  through  the  extinction  of  human 
feeling,  and  the  contempt  of  human  life.  It 
was  not  suppressed  until  the  year  404,  or 

*  It  must  be  observed  that  the  Pagans  on  their  side 
made  the  concession  of  sacrifice,  or  at  least  of  immo- 
lation, which  was  the  centre  of  their  whole  system. 
They  were  indulged  with  a  sort  of  Polytheism  of 
saints  and  martyrs  ;  and  even  sensible  objects  of  wor- 
ship were  not  withheld  from  thcin.  But  these  Beings 
and  Images  were  to  be  appioached  only  with  prayer 
and  supplication  ;  and  if  it  was  presently  found  expe- 
dient to  permit  offerings  to  be  made  to  them,  their 
shrines  were  uever  contaminated  by  die  blood  of 
victims. 


PAGAN    WRITERS. 


113 


about  ninety  years  after  the  first  establish- 
ment of  Christianity — so  slow  is  the  influ- 
ence of  the  most  perfect  moral  system  to 
undermine  any  practice  which  time  and  use 
have  consecrated.  But  at  length  it  sank  be- 
fore the  gradual  prevalence  of  happier  and 
nore  natural  principles;  and  while  we  re- 
cord its  subversion,  as  marking  an  important 
epoch  in  the  history  of  human  civilisation, 
we  readily  assign  to  it  a  corresponding  rank  in 
the  annals  of  Christianity. 

Theodosius  the  younger  succeeded  Arca- 
dius  in  the  empire  of  the  East ;  and  we  may 
consider  him  as  having  completed,  as  far  as 
the  limits  of  his  authority  extended,  the  task 
transmitted  to  him  by  his  father,  and  his 
grandfather.  And  whether  from  greater 
moderation  of  temper,  or  because  extreme 
rigor  was  judged  no  longer  necessary  against 
a  fallen  adversary,  he  somewhat  mitigated 
the  severity  of  the  existing  laws ;  and  was 
satisfied  with  inflicting  upon  the  few,  who 
still  persisted  '  in  their  accursed  sacrifices  to 
d;emons,'  the  milder  punishments  of  confis- 
cation and  exile,  'though  the  crime  was  just- 
ly capital.'  *  From  the  flexible  character  of 
Polytheism,  and  the  rare  mention  of  heathen 
martyrs,  we  are  perhaps  justified  in  drawing 
the  consoling  conclusion,  that  those  oppres- 
sive laws  were  seldom  enforced  to  the  last 
penalty.  Yet  we  cannot  doubt  that  many 
less  direct,  but  not  less  effectual,  modes  of 
persecution  were  diligently  exercised  ;  we 
are  assured  that  numbers  must  have  suffered 
in  their  persons  or  property  for  a  blind  but 
conscientious  adherence  to  the  worship  of 
their  fathers  ;  and  we  should  have  celebrated 
with  greater  satisfaction  the  final  success  of 
our  religion,  if  it  had  been  brought  about  by 
less  questionable  measures. 

Extinction  of  Paganism.  In  the  West,  the 
expiring  struggles  of  paganism  continued  per- 
haps a  little  longer.  Though  the  exhibition 
of  gladiators  had  been  abolished,  the  games 
of  the  Circus,  and  the  contests  of  wild  beasts 
were  still  permitted  ;  and  though  the  essence 
of  the  pagan  religion  was  virtually  extin- 
guished, when  the  act  of  Immolation,  in  which 
in  truth  it  consisted,  was  finally  abolished, 
yet  those  spectacles  were  so  closely  associat- 
ed with  its  exercise,  if  they  were  not  rather  a 
part  of  it,  that  they  served  at  least  to  keep  the 
minds  of  the  converts  suspended,  by  seeming 

*  The  Theodosian  code  is  a  Collection  of  the  Con- 
stitutions of  the  Emperors  from  Constantine  to  Theo- 
dosius II.,  published  by  the  latter  in  438. 

15 


to  reconcile  with  the  principles  of  Christian- 
ity the  barbarous  relics  of  the  old  supersti- 
tion. And  thus,  though  the  number  who 
professed  that  worship  was  now  exceedingly 
small,  yet  its  practice  in  some  measure  sur- 
vived its  profession,  and  it  continued  to  lin- 
ger in  the  recollections,  and  usages,  and  pre- 
judices, of  men  for  some  time  after  its  name 
was  disclaimed  and  repudiated  ;  still,  from  the 
historical  survey  of  this  subject,  it  is  manifest 
that  the  mortal  wound  was  inflicted  by  The- 
odosius I. ;  and  whatever  fleeting  vestiges  we 
may  discover  in  succeeding  i-eigns,  the  super- 
stition was  in  fact  extinct  from  the  moment 
that  the  Emperor  called  upon  the  Senate  of 
Rome  to  make  their  election  between  that 
and  Christianity.  This  celebrated  assembly 
was  convened  in  the  year  388  ;  Christianity 
was  established  by  the  voice,  and  probably 
by  the  conscience  of  a  very  large  majority ; 
and  the  religion  of  Julian  did  not  in  reality 
survive  its  enthusiastic  votary  and  reformer 
for  more  than  twenty-five  years. 

NOTE  ON  CERTAIN  PAGAN  WRITERS 

1. — The  first  whom  we  propose  to  men- 
tion (first  in  time  and  personal  distinction 
rather  than  in  literary  merit)  is  Julian.  His 
'Lives  of  the  Emperors,'  his  predecessors, 
in  which  we  find  many  pointed  remarks  and 
illustrations  of  their  several  characters,  and 
especially  of  their  defects,  though  possessing 
neither  the  fulness  nor  impartiality  of  history, 
must  nevertheless  be  considered  his  most 
important  work.  That  next  in  celebrity  bears 
the  singidar  name  of  the  Misopogon  or  Beard- 
hater.  The  imperial  satirist  seems  to  have 
been  excited  to  this  composition  by  the  ap- 
pearance of  certain  anapaests,  published  in 
ridicule  of  his  personal  rusticity,  among  his 
lively  subjects  of  Antioch  or  Daphne.  He 
admits  the  justice  of  their  ridicule,  he  affects 
even  to  exaggerate  the  cause  of  it,  and  con- 
descends to  visit  his  own  shaggy  exterior 
with  much  humorous  severity.  But  through 
the  levity  of  his  self-condemnation  some 
traces  of  suppressed  asperity  are  occasionally 
discernible  ;  and  the  wit  which  had  dared  to 
trifle  with  an  Emperor  was  not  recommend- 
ed to  Julian  by  the  general  belief  that  it  had 
proceeded  from  the  pen  of  a  Christian.  Be- 
sides these  two  works,  several  epistles  and 
rescripts  are  extant  which  are  of  greater  his 
torical  importance. 

That  Julian's  feeling  towards  the  Chris 
tians  was  not  the  contempt  of  a  philosopher, 


114 


HISTORY    OF   THE   CHURCH. 


but  the  angry  malevolence  of  a  pagan  and  a 
rival,  appears  from  several  passages  in  his 
works,  and  from  those  especially  which  are 
directed  against  Athanasius.  In  his  epistle 
to  Ecdicius,  Eparch  of  the  Egyptians,  we  find 
these  passionate  expressions, — '  I  swear  by 
the  great  Serapis  that  unless  Athanasius,  the 
enemy  of  the  Gods,  shall  be  wholly  expelled 
from  Egypt  before  the  calends  of  December, 
I  will  impose  a  fine  of  a  hundred  pounds  of 
gold  on  the  troops  under  your  commaud ; 
and  you  know  that  if  I  am  slow  to  condemn, 
I  am  still  more  so  to  relax  the  sentence  ;  for 
it  does  exceedingly  afflict  me,  that  all  the 
Gods  should  be  contemned  through  his 
means ;  nor  is  there  any  thing  that  I  would 
so  willingly  behold  or  hear  of  as  accom- 
plished by  you,  as  the  expulsion  of  Athana- 
sius from  the  regions  of  Egypt ;  the  scoun- 
drel who  has  dared,  and  in  my  reign  too,  to 
persecute  some  distinguished  Grecian  ladies, 
till  they  submitted  to  baptism.'  Again,  in  a 
decree  addressed  to  the  Alexandrians,  the 
Emperor  declares,  '  that  he  had  recalled  the 
Galilaeans,  who  had  been  banished  by  Con- 
stantius,*  not  to  their  churches,  but  only  to 
their  countries  ;  while  I  understand  (he  adds) 
that  Athanasius,  with  the  extreme  insolence 
and  audacity  which  is  characteristic  of  him, 
has  taken  possession  of  what  they  call  the 
episcopal  throne.'  He  then  decrees  his  exile. 
In  a  subsequent  letter,  (Edit.  Par.  p.  330.) 
addressed  to  the  same  people,  he  expresses 
his  hatred  both  of  the  persons  and  doctrines 
of  the  Galilaeans  in  the  most  powerful  and 
passionate  language.  On  the  other  hand  he 
acknowledges,  in  more  than  one  passage,  the 
charitable  attention  which  those  same  Gali- 
laeans bestowed  upon  the  poor,  and  ascribes 
much  of  their  success  to  that  virtue;  and  the 
general  spirit  of  his  instructions  respecting 
their  treatment,  while  it  enjoins  a  preference 
to  the  worshippers  of  the  Gods,f  decidedly 
discourages  unprovoked |  severities  against 
the  persons  of  'the  Atheists.' 


*  In  a  very  kind  epistle  to  ^Etius,  a  celebrated 
Arian  Bishop,  and  formerly  his  friend,  Julian  men- 
tions the  same  fact. 

t  TIooTifirta&ai  uerTol  Tovg  -deoaifitig  y.al  tcuvv 
(ftjfit  Siir.    Epistle  to  Astabius. 

$  He  seems  however  very  readily  to  have  availed 
himself  of  the  offences  of  the  Christians,  in  order  to 
plunder  them,  and  that  too  with  great  religious  im- 
partiality. In  an  epistle  to  Ecebolus  he  complains 
that  the  Arians  of  Edessa,  exulting  in  their  opulence, 
had  made  an  assault  upon  the  Valentinians  ;  and  he 
adds,  •  that  with  a  view  to  assist  them  in  effectuating 
the  instructions  of  their  own  admirable  law,  and  that 
they  might  more  easily  travel  to  the  kingdom  of  Hea- 


A  passage  in  the  Misopogon  proves  either 
the  abject  superstitiousness  of  the  author,  or 
his  impudent  and  prejudiced  hypocrisy  ;  and 
though  we  believe  the  former  to  be  the  more 
probable  charge,  we  are  willing  to  leave  the 
decision  to  his  most  devoted  admirers.  The 
story  is  well  known  of  the  religious  disap- 
pointment which  he  experienced  at  Daphne  ; 
how  he  entered  the  Temple  with  extraordi- 
nary parade  and  solemnity,  for  the  purpose 
of  presiding  at  a  public  and  splendid  sacri- 
fice, and  how  he  was  reduced  by  the  univer- 
sal desertion  of  the  votaries  of  the  Gods  to 
the  performance  of  an  imperfect,  and  almost 
solitary  act  of  devotion.  In  his  relation  of 
this  story,  in  which  his  angry  embarrassment 
is  almost  ludicrously  depicted,  he  unreserv- 
edly asserts,  and  invokes  the  Sun  to  attest  his 
veracity,  that  at  the  moment  of  his  entrance 
into  the  Temple  the  statue  of  the  God  indi- 
cated to  him  what  was  to  take  place.  * 

His  celebrated  Epistle  respecting  the  refor- 
mation of  Paganism  is  addressed  to  Arcadius, 
the  chief  priest  of  Galatia  ;  it  is  the  most  re- 
markable monument  of  the  religious  policy 
of  Julian,  and  it  is  also  an  evidence  of  the 
great  and  general  influence  which  Christian 
principles  had  acquired  even  over  the  con- 
duct of  unbelievers.  The  progress  of 'impi- 
ety or  Atheism'  is  ascribed  by  the  Emperor 
chiefly  to  three  causes ;  to  the  charitable  or 
hospitable  philanthropy  of  its  professors  ;  to 
their  provident  care  respecting  the  sepulture 
of  the  dead  ;  to  their  parade  and  affectation 
of  a  holy  life  ;  and  he  enjoins  the  votaries  of 
the  ancient  worship  to  imitate  the  first  of 
these  pretensions,  and  to  realize  the  last.  On 
the  priests  especially,  as  well  as  their  families 
and  their  servants,  he  imposes  a  rigid  atten- 
tion to  their  religious  duties,  and  he  forbids 
them  at  the  same  time  the  amusement  of  the 
theatre,  the  conviviality  of  the  tavern,  and  the 
exercise  of  every  vulgar  profession  ;  the  dis- 
obedient are  to  be  removed  from  the  minis- 
try. The  Emperor  then  proceeds  to  order 
the  foundation  of  numerous  establishments 
(Zerodo/tTu)  in  every  city,  for  the  humane 
purpose  of  hospitality  and  charity  :  '  for  it  is 
shameful  to  us,  that  no  beggar  should  be 
found  among  the  Jews,  and  that  the  impious 
Galilaeans  should  support  not  only  their  oion 
poor,  but  ours  also ;  while  these  last  appear 

ven,  he  had  ordered  all  the  possessions  to  be  taken 
away  from  the  Church  of  Edessa  ;  distributing  the 
money  among  the  soldiers,  and  confiscating  the  fixed 
property.' 

*  ETtsrfi'fiifvi  1101   tlatl&uvTt  .TQinrov  to  uyuXua 
p.  112.  Ed.  Paris. 


CONVERSION   OF   THE   BARBARIANS. 


115 


destitute  of  all  assistance  from  ourselves ;' 
and  that  pagan  authority  may  not  be  thought 
wanting  to  justify  his  philanthropy,  he  cites 
a  passage  from  Homer  in  praise  of  hospital- 
ity. He  concludes  with  some  instructions  to 
regulate  the  intercourse  and  define  the  re- 
spective dignities  of  the  religious  and  civil 
authorities. 

2.  The  name  of  Ammianus  Marcellinus  de- 
serves even  at  the  hands  of  the  ecclesiastical 
historian  more  elaborate  mention  than  can 
here  be  bestowed  upon  it.  A  native  of  An- 
tioch,  of  noble  family,  he  devoted  his  youth  to 
military  service,  and  attended  Julian,  his  pat- 
ron and  friend,  in  his  fatal  expedition  against 
the  Persians.  During  the  reign  of  Valentinian 
and  Valens  he  appears  to  have  withdrawn  to 
studious  repose  in  his  native  city,  and  under 
Theodosius  he  finally  fixed  his  residence  at 
Rome.  It  was  here  that  he  composed  his 
history  in  the  Latin  language,  and  published 
it  with  the  general  applause  of  a  people 
among  whom  the  admiration  of  literary  merit 
had  survived  its  possession.  The  work  con- 
sisted of  thirty-one  books,  comprising  the  af- 
fairs of  the  empire  from  the  beginning  of  the 
reign  of  Nerva  to  the  end  of  that  of  Valens. 
The  thirteen  first  are  lost,  and  those  remain- 
ing have  escaped  to  us  as  from  a  shipwreck, 
torn  and  mutilated.*  Respecting  the  religion 
of  the  author,  there  can  be  no  serious  doubt 
that  he  adhered  to  paganism;  though  the  im- 
partiality with  which  lie  commonly  treats  the 
deeds  and  character  of  Christians  has  led  some 
writers  to  suspect  his  attachment  to  their 
faith.  The  suspicion  is  at  least  honorable  to 
the  historian,  and  a  more  faithful  imitation 
of  his  example  would  have  removed  many 
stains  from  the  pages  of  ecclesiastical  annal- 
ists, and  spared  much  perplexity  to  those  who 
search  them  for  information  and  truth. 

3.  The  History  of  Zosimus  extends  from 
the  time  of  Augustus  to  the  secoad  siege  of 
Rome  by  Alaric  :  it  consists  of  five  books,  and 
the  fragment  of  a  sixth,  into  the  first  of  which 
the  reigns  of  the  predecessors  of  Constantine 
are  compressed.  Zosimus  was  a  prejudiced, 
and,  as  some  miraculous  descriptions  attest,  a 
superstitious  pagan  ;  and  he  treats  with  sever- 
ity, perhaps  with  injustice,  the  character  of 
some  of  the  Christian  Emperors  ;f  but  as  by 

*  See  the  life  of  Ammianus  Marcellinus  by  Valesi- 
us,  which  we  have  chiefly  followed  in  this  account. 

f  Julian  is  his  great  hero,  and  Constantine  the  prin- 
cipal object  of  his  censure.  Respecting  the  latter,  it 
ha3  been  observed,  that  we  may  safely  believe  any  evil 
that  has  escaped  from  Eusebius,  and  any  good  that 
has  been  extorted  from  Zosimus.     But  these  combined 


far  the  greatest  proportion  of  his  attention  is 
bestowed  on  the  details  of  military  enterprise, 
it  is  not  often  that  he  crosses  the  more  peace- 
ful path  of  the  ecclesiastical  historian. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

From  the  Fall  of  Paganism  to  the  Death  oj 
Justinian.    (388  .  .  .  567.) 

Conversion  of  the  Goths — of  Clovis  and  the  Franks — of 
other  Barbarians — causes  of  its  facility — Miraculous 
interpositions — Internal  condition  of  the  Church — Sy- 
meon  and  the  Stylites — Pope  Leo  the  Great — Papal 
aggrandizement — private  confession — Justinian,  his  or- 
thodoxy, intolerance,  and  heresy — Literature — its  decay 
not  attributable  to  Christianity — three  periods  of  its  de- 
cline— Religious  corruptions — Barbarian  conquests — 
Seven  liberal  arts — Justinian  closes  the  Schools  of 
Athens — early  connexion  of  Philosophy  with  Religion — 
Morality — of  the  Clergy — of  the  People — general  misery 
— Note  on  certain  Fathers  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  Cen- 
turies. 

That  we  may  treat  with  some  perspicuity 
the  long  period  over  which  the  two  following 
chapters  are  extended,  we  shall  separate  in 
each  of  them  the  external  progress  and  revers- 
es of  Christianity  from  the  internal  conduct 
and  condition  of  the  Church,  and  the  charac- 
ter of  those  who  ruled  and  influenced  it. 

I.  Conversion  of  the  Barbarians.  Christian- 
ity had  scarcely  completed  its  triumph  over 
an  ancient  superstition,  refined  and  embellish- 
ed by  the  utmost  human  ingenuity,  when  it 
was  called  upon  to  dispute  the  possession  of 
the  world  with  a  wild  and  savage  adversary. 
Almost  at  the  very  moment  when  Julian  was 
laboring  for  the  reestablish ment  of  paganism, 
Ulphilas,*  who  is  commonly  called  the  apos- 

would  furnish  very  scanty  materials  for  the  delineation 
of  a  great  character.  We  must  believe  much  more 
than  these ;  and  in  this  matter  the  panegyrics  of  the 
Christian  are  not,  perhaps,  more  liable  to  suspicion 
than  the  aspersions  of  the  pagan  writer. 

*  Ulphilas  is  believed  to  have  been  the  descendant 
of  a  Cappadocian  family  carried  into  captivity  by  the 
Goths,  in  the  reign  of  Gallienus.  His  conversion  to 
Arianism  is  referred  to  his  embassy  to  the  court  of 
Valens  in  378,  and  on  his  return  home  he  diligently 
diffused  that  heresy.  It  would  appear,  however,  that 
his  method  of  seduction  was  to  assure  the  Goths,  that 
the  disputes  between  the  Catholics  and  Allans  were 
merely  verbal,  not  at  all  affecting  the  substance  of 
faith — so  that  his  success  was  gradual,  and  at  first 
imperfect:  thus,  for  instance,  in  the  time  of  Theodoret, 
the  Goths  avowed  their  belief,  that  the  Father  was 
greater  than  the  Son ;  but  they  were  not  yet  prepared 
to  aflirm  that  the  Son  was  created — though  they  con- 
tinued to  communicate  with  those  who  held  thai  opin- 


116 


HISTORY  OF  THE    CHURCH. 


tie  of  the  Goths,  was  diffusing  the  knowledge 
of  the  Gospel  with  great  rapidity  among  that 
young  and  powerful  people  :  so  that  the  first 
invaders  of  the  empire  had  previously  learnt 
in  their  own  land  to  profess,  or  at  least  to 
respect,  the  religion  of  the  empire.  The 
Goths  then  were  early  and  easy  proselytes  to 
Christianity  ;  aud  the  example  of  their  con- 
version, as  well  as  of  their  invasion,  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  various  hordes  of  barbarians 
who  presently  overran  and  occupied  the  West. 
The  Burgundians  in  Gaul,  the  Suevi  in  Spain, 
the  Vandals  in  Africa,  the  Ostrogoths  in  Pan- 
nonia,  and  others,  as  they  successively  pos- 
sessed themselves  of  the  Roman  provinces, 
during  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries,  succes- 
sively adopted  the  religion  of  the  conquered  ; 
and  if  Rome,  hi  her  days  of  warlike  triumph, 
received  from  vanquished  Greece  some  taste 
in  arts,  and  attainment  in  science,  and  skill  in 
philosophical  disputation,  she  repaid  her  pri- 
vate obligation  with  more  solid  and  extensive 
generosity  in  her  days  of  decline,  when  she 
instructed  her  own  conquerors  in  those  les- 
sons of  religious  truth  and  moral  knowledge, 
of  which  the  principles  can  never  change,  nor 
the  application  ever  be  limited. 

It  is  impossible  to  trace  with  any  certainty 
the  exact  moment  and  circumstances  of  the 
conversion  of  so  many  tribes.  That  of  Clovis, 
King  of  the  Franks,  has  obtained  the  greatest 
historical  celebrity,  and  many  of  the  particu- 
lars respecting  it  wear  great  appearance  of 
probability.*  In  the  year  493  Clovis  espoused 
Clotilda,  niece  of  the  King  of  the  Burgun- 
dians, a  Christian  and  a  Catholic.  He  toler- 
ated the  religion  of  his  bride,  and  showed  re- 
spect to  its  professors,  especially  to  St.  Remi, 
Archbishop  of  Rheims  ;  but  he  steadily  refus- 
ed to  abandon  his  hereditary  idols  on  the  im- 
portunity either  of  the  prelate  or  Queen.  At 
length  he  found  himself  in  a  situation  of  dan- 
ger; in  the  heat  of  an  unsuccessful  battle, 
while  his  Franks  were  flying  before  the  Al- 
emanni,  Clovis  is  related  to  have  raised  his 
weeping  eyes  to  heaven,  and  exclaimed,  '  Je- 
sus Christ !  thou  whom  Clotilda  asserts  to  be 
the  Son  of  the  living  God,  I  implore  thy  suc- 
cor. If  thou  wilt  give  me  the  victory,  I  will 
believe  in  thee,  and  be  baptized  in  thy  name.' 

ion.  Fleury,  H.  E.  liv.  xvii.  sect.  36.  Tillem. 
(Sur  les  Ariens,  Art.  132,  133)  pronounces  an  eulogy 
upon  his  virtues,  in  spite  of  his  heresy;  and  yet  he 
adds,  '  Voilk  comment  un  homme  entraina  dans  l'enfer 
ce  nombre  infini  des  Septentrionaux,  qui  avec  lui  et 
apres  lui  out  embrasse  l'Arianisme. ' 

*  Those  which  we  select,  together  witli  many  others, 
nre  related  on  the  authority  of  Gregory  of  Tours,  and 


At  that  moment  the  King  of  the  Alemanni 
was  slain  ;  his  soldiers  immediately  fled,  and 
abandoned  the  field  to  Clovis.  The  victor 
was  not  unmindful  of  the  God  of  his  adver- 
sity. On  the  conclusion  of  his  expedition  he 
caused  himself  to  be  publicly  baptized;  about 
three  thousand  of  his  soldiers  attended  him  to 
the  holy  font  with  joy  and  acclamation,  and 
the  rest  of  his  subjects  followed  without  any 
hesitation  the  faith  of  then-  Prince.  The 
conversion  of  Clovis  took  place  in  496  ;  and 
though  it  had  not  the  effect  of  amending  the 
brutal  character  of  the  proselyte,  it  made  a 
great  addition  to  the  physical  strength  of 
Christianity;*  and  it  was  attended  by  a  pe- 
culiar circumstance  which  places  it  among 
the  important  events  of  ecclesiastical  history. 
The  numerous  barbarian  conquerors  who 
then  ruled  the  Western  Empire  had  embrac- 
ed without  any  exception,  f  the  heresy  of 
Arius ;  Clovis  alone  adopted  the  Catholic  faith  ; 
and  this  accident  ;we  are  taught  to  attribute 
it  to  the  orthodoxy  of  his  wife)  was  probably 
the  earliest  cause  of  that  close  connexion  be- 
tween the  court  of  Burgundy  and  the  See 
of  Rome,  of  which  some  traces  may  be  dis- 
cerned even  thus  early,  and  which,  in  a  later 
age,  was  confirmed  by  Pepin  and  established 
by  Charlemagne. 

The  success  of  the  Roman  arms  during  the 
reign  of  Justinian,  which  began  about  thirty 
years  after  the  baptism  of  Clovis,  does  not  ap- 
pear to  have  disinclined  the  barbarians  to  the 
religion  of  their  enemies;  it  might  even  natu- 
rally produce  the  contrary  effect ;  and  we  do 
not  read  of  any  of  their  tribes  which,  after 
settling  in  a  conquered  province,  were  dispos- 
ed long  to  resist  the  influence  of  the  Gospel. 

Respecting  the  natural  causes  which  facil- 
itated this  powerful  accession  to  the  body  of 
Christianity  from  a  quarter  whence  the  darkest 
danger  was  portended,  it  is  proper  to  suggest 
a  few  brief  observations,  that  we  may  be  en- 
abled calmly  to  consider,  whether  or  not  they 
are  sufficient  to  account  for  the  phenomenon 

Hincm.  Vita  San.  Reinigii.  See  Fleury,  liv.  xxx. 
sect.  46. 

*  Clovis,  immediately  after  his  baptism,  made  some 
considerable  donations  of  land  to  St.  Remi,  who  ap- 
plied  them  to  the  use  of  divers  churches,  and  the  foun- 
dation of  the  Bishopric  of  Laon.  Fleury,  H.  E.  liv. 
xxx.,  sect.  46. 

f  Thrasamond,  King  of  the  Vandals,  in  Africa; 
Theodoric,  of  the  Ostrogoths,  in  Italy;  Alaric,  of  the 
Visigoths,  in  Spain ;  Gondebaud,  of  the  Burgundi- 
ans, were  all  Arians;  and,  as  if  to  complete  the  he- 
terodoxy of  the  princes  of  Christendom,  even  Anasta- 
sius,  the  Emperor  of  the  East,  was  involved  in  the 
Eutyohian  heresy. 


CONVERSION  OF  THE  BARBARIANS. 


117 


without  the  intervention  of  miraculous  assist- 
ance. The  wild  and  warlike  polytheists  of 
the  north,  who  estimated  excellence  by  pow- 
er, and  power  by  the  extent  of  military  sway, 
and  who  ignorantly  applied  to  the  gods  the 
rules  by  which  they  judged  of  men,  approach- 
ed with  respectful  predisposition  the  Deity 
of  the  Roman  empire.*  And  if  it  be  true 
that  their  own  successes  gradually  tended  to 
abate  this  respect,  yet  is  it  not  possible  that 
they  could  fail  to  observe,  or  observe  without 
some  sense  of  reverence  and  humiliation,  the 
superiority  in  arts  and  sciences,  the  high  in- 
tellectual preeminence  of  the  people  whom 
their  mere  sword  had  overthrown  ;  nor  would 
they  hesitate  to  infer,  from  such  sensible  in- 
dications, both  the  wisdom  and  beneficence 
of  the  protecting  Divinity!  Again — The  form 
of  idolatry  which  they  professed  was  most 
peculiarly  characterized  by  a  superstitious 
veneration  for  their  priesthood ; — it  had  no 
written  law,  nor  any  fixed  principles,  nor  any 
very  attractive  immemorial  solemnities.  In 
a  foreign  country,  in  the  license  of  a  military 
expedition,  the  reverence  for  their  native,  and 
for  the  most  part  absent  ministers,  would  grad- 
ually abate  in  fervency  and  fidelity ;  and  then 
(such  is  the  nature  of  superstition)  it  would 
change  its  object,  and  swell  into  devout  re- 
spect for  the  ministers  of  the  unknown  reli- 
gion, by  whose  more  imposing  rites  they  were 
now  surrounded  and  dazzled.  By  this  pro- 
cess being  insensibly  weaned  from  an  ancient 
worship,  chiefly  perhaps  endeared  to  them  by 
its  association  with  that  home  which  they  had 
now  deserted  forever,  they  would  join  in  the 
splendid  processions,  and  bend  in  the  stately 
temples  of  the  Christians.  Of  such  advanta- 
ges as  these  the  clergy  were  not  slow  to  avail 
themselves ;  and  their  own  great  superiority 
in  penetration  and  learning,  joined  with  a  zeal- 
ous and  interested  activity,!  enabled  them  to 


*  The  conversion  of  the  Burgundians,  early  in  the 
fifth  century,  is  thus  related,  with  no  improbability. 
Harassed  by  the  continual  incursions  of  the  Huns, 
and  incapable  of  self  defence,  they  resolved  to  place 
themselves  under  the  protection  of  some  God ;  and 
considering  that  the  God  of  the  Romans  most  power- 
fairy  befriended  those  who  served  him,  they  determin- 
ed, on  public  deliberation,  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ. 
They  therefore  went  to  a  city  in  Gaul,  and  entreated 
the  Bishop  to  baptize  them.  Immediately  after  that 
ceremony  they  gained  a  battle  against  their  enemies; 
and  if  (as  is  also  asserted)  they  afterwards  lived  in 
peace  and  innocence,  they  reaped,  in  that  respect  at 
least,  the  natural  fruits  of  their  conversion.  Socrat. 
vii. ,  chap.  30.     Fleury,  H.  E.  liv.  xxiii.,  sect.  5. 

f  At  a  Council  held  at  Bragtie,  or  Braccara,  in 
Portugal,  in  the  year  412,  on  the  irruption  of  an  idol- 


convert  the  mass  of  the  invaders  ;  while  the 
Prince,  as  illiterate  as  his  subjects,  was  often 
influenced  by  the  address,  and  often  by  the 
piety,  of  the  prelates  who  had  access  to  his 
court.  The  same  work  was  still  further  fa- 
cilitated by  the  example  of  the  Goths,  who  had 
opened  the  gates  of  Christianity  to  succeeding 
conquerors.  Nor  should  we  by  any  means 
pass  over  the  exertions  of  the  missionaries, 
who  had  previously  introduced  into  the  na- 
tive forests  of  the  invaders  a  favorable  opin- 
ion, and  even  a  partial  profession,  of  the  reli- 
gion of  the  empire  which  they  were  destined 
to  subvert. 

These  reasons  are  probably  sufficient  to  ac- 
count for  the  facility  with  which  the  various 
invaders  of  the  western  provinces  adopted  the 
religion  which  they  found  established  there, 
even  without  any  deep  examination  into  its 
merits  or  its  truth  ;  but  the  histories  of  those 
times  are  so  abundant  in  preternatural  tales 
of  extraordinary  conversions  every  where 
wrought  by  the  continual  interposition  of 
Providence,  that  we  must  not  quite  overlook 
this  consideration.  However,  we  can  here 
entertain  little  doubt,  or  feel  any  strong  hesi- 
tation to  affirm,  that  the  very  great  proportion 
of  those  miraculous  stories  is  wholly  and 
unquestionably  fabulous.*  But  we  must  be 
carefid  that  our  indignation  at  the  impiety 
which  fabricated  so  many  wicked  impostures, 
and  the  diligent  mendacity  which  has  retailed 
them,  do  not  so  far  prevail  as  to  hurry  us  into 

atrous  or  Arian  host  of  Alani,  Suevi  and  Vandals,  the 
Bishops  prepared  themselves  to  resist  at  every  risk 
the  destructive  torrent.  For  this  purpose  they  appear 
to  have  adopted  two  measures,  which,  in  their  union 
at  least,  are  strongly  indicative  of  the  state  of  religion 
in  that  age  and  country.  The  first  was  to  publish  an 
abbreviation  of  the  Creed  of  the  Catholic  church;  the 
second,  to  conceal  in  the  securest  recesses  and  caverns 
the  invaluable  relics  of  their  saints.  Fleury,  H.  E. 
lib.  xxiii.,  sect.  6. 

*  Unbelievers  and  heretics  were  closely  associated 
in  the  language  and  opinion  of  the  Catholics  of  those 
days,  and  were  consequently  subjected  to  the  same 
mode  of  cure.  In  the  fourth  century  even  the  great  St. 
Ambrose  condescended  to  adopt  the  miraculous  meth- 
od of  argument  for  the  conversion  of  the  Arians.  He 
used,  in  his  disputes  with  those  heretics,  to  produce 
men  possessed  with  devils,  who,  on  the  approach  of 
certain  Catholic  relics,  were  obliged  by  preternatural 
compulsion  to  acknowledge  with  loud  cries  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  Council  of  Nice  was  true,  and  that  of 
the  Arians  both  false  and  of  most  dangerous  conse- 
quence. This  testimony  of  the  Prince  of  darkness 
was  regarded  by  St.  Ambrose  as  unquestionable  and 
conclusive  (Mosh.  c.  iv.,p.  2.  c,  3.,)  nor  was  it  easily 
answered  by  adversaries  who  made  less  profession  o< 
influence  in  the  other  world. 


118 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


an  entire  disbelief  of  any  divine  intervention 
in  those  ages.  To  pronounce  so  sweeping  a 
sentence,  in  the  confusion  of  contemporary 
evidence,  in  our  necessary  ignorance  of  the 
dispositions  of  Providence,  would  approach 
too  near  to  presumption ;  and  we  shall,  there- 
fore, do  better  to  leave  this  subject  where  the 
judicious  moderation  of  Mosheim  *  has  placed 
it:— 

'How  far  these  conversions  (he  says)  were 
due  to  real  miracles  attending  the  ministry  of 
those  early  preachers  is  a  matter  extremely 
difficult  to  be  determined.  For,  though  I 
am  persuaded  that  those  pious  men  who,  in 
the  midst  of  many  dangers,  and  in  the  face 
of  obstacles  seemingly  invincible,  endeavored 
to  spread  the  light  of  Christianity  through 
the  barbarous  nations,  were  sometimes  ac- 
companied by  the  more  peculiar  favor  and 
succor  of  the  Most  High  ;  yet  I  am  equally 
coiwinced,  that  the  greatest  part  of  the  prodi- 
gies recorded  in  the  histories  of  this  age  are 
liable  to  the  strongest  suspicions  of  falsehood 
or  imposture.  The  simplicity  and  ignorance 
of  the  generality  in  those  times  furnished  the 
most  favorable  occasion  for  the  exercise  of 
fraud  ;  and  the  impudence  of  impostors  in 
contriving  false  miracles  was  artfully  propoiv 
tioued  to  the  credulity  of  the  vulgar,  while 
the  sagacious  and  the  wise,  who  perceived 
these  cheats,  were  obliged  to  silence,  by  the 
danger  which  threatened  their  lives  and  their 
fortunes,  if  they  detected  the  artifice.  Thus 
does  it  generally  happen  in  human  life,  that 
when  the  discovery  and  profession  of  the 
truth  is  attended  with  danger,  the  prudent 
are  silent,  the  multitude  believe,  and  the  im- 
postors triumph.' 

II.  While  the  profession  of  Christianity 
was  thus  extending  itself  among  so  many 
nations,  the  changes  which  were  gradually 
taking  place  within  the  Church  were  by  no 
means  favorable  to  its  purity.  We  have  al- 
ready mentioned  the  copious  transfusion  of 
heathen  ceremonies  into  the  Christian  wor- 
ship which  had  taken  place  before  the  end 
of  the  fourth  century,  and,  to  a  certain  extent, 
paganized  (if  we  may  so  express  it)  the  out- 
ward form  and  aspect  of  religion  ;  those  cer- 
emonies became  more  general  and  more  nu- 
merous, and,  so  far  as  the  calamities  of  the 
times  would  permit,  more  splendid  in  the 
age  which  followed.  To  console  the  convert 
for  the  loss  of  his  favorite  festival,  others,  of 
a  different  name,  but  similar  description,  were 
introduced  ;  and  the  simple  and  serious  occu- 

*  Cent,  v.,  p.  1.  j  c.  1. 


pation  of  spiritual  devotion  Avas  beginning  to 
degenerate  into  a  worship  of  parade  and  de- 
monstration, or  a  mere  scene  of  riotous  fes- 
tivity. But,  various  were  the  forms  assumed, 
and  numerous  the  excesses  occasioned,  by  re- 
ligious corruption  ;  which  was  by  no  other 
circumstance  more  plainly  evidenced,  or  more 
effectually  promoted,  than  by  the  growing 
prevalence  of  the  monastic  spirit. 

Symeon  the  Stylite.  It  is  contrary  to  our 
general  purpose  to  call  much  attention  to  in- 
stances of  the  passing  fanaticism  of  the  day 
— those  transient  eruptions  of  superstition 
which  have  left  no  deep  traces  behind  them 
hi  history  or  moral  consequences  ;  neverthe- 
less, we  cannot  forbear  to  record  one  very 
extraordinary  shape  which  the  frenzy  of 
those  times  assumed.  About  the  year  427, 
one  Symeon,  at  first  a  shepherd,  afterwards 
a  monk,  of  Syria,  invented  a  new  method  of 
penitential  devotion.  Dissatisfied  with  the 
insufficient  austerities  which  were  practised 
in  his  convent,  he  retired  to  a  mountain  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Antioch,  where,  by  sol- 
itary self-inflictions  and  extreme  abstinence, 
he  obtained  great  provincial  celebrity ;  but 
his  piety  or  his  ambition  were  not  thus  easily 
contented,  and  accordingly  he  devised  an 
original  and  more  difficult  path  to  sanctity. 
He  caused  a  pillar  to  be  erected,  of  which  the 
height  was  gradually  increased  from  nine  to 
sixty  feet;  thereon  he  established  his  resi- 
dence. His  ordinary  occupation  was  prayer ; 
and  habit  and  exercise  enabled  him  to  take, 
without  risk  or  difficulty,  the  different  pos- 
tures of  devotion.  Sometimes,  especially  on 
great  solemnities,  he  assumed  an  erect  atti- 
tude, with  his  arms  outstretched  ;  sometimes 
he  bent  forward  his  body,  attenuated  by  con- 
tinual fasting,  till  the  forehead  touched  the 
feet;  and  he  repeated  those  inclinations  with 
marvellous  flexibility.*  He  passed  the  whole 
night  and  a  part  of  the  morning  in  worship  ; 
one  slender  meal  in  the  course  of  a  week  suf- 


*CA  curious  spectator  (says  Gibbon),  after  num- 
bering 1244  repetitions,  at  length  desisted  from  the 
endless  account.'  Theodorit,  who  had  frequently 
seen  and  conversed  with  him,  wrote  an  account  of 
his  life  during  its  continuance.  That  author  himself 
entertained  some  doubts  as  to  the  credibility  of  his 
narration  :  '  although  (says  he)  I  have  for  my  wit- 
nesses, if  I  may  so  express  myself,  every  man  in  ex- 
istence, yet  I  fear  that  to  posterity  my  account  may 
appear  a  groundless  fable  ;  for  what  is  passing  here 
is  above  humanity,  and  men  are  wont  to  proportion 
their  belief  to  the  powers  of  nature,  and  all  which  sur- 
passes those  boundaries  appears  falsehood  to  such  as 
are  not  familiar  with  things  divine.'  See  Fleurv, 
liv.  xxix.,  sect.  9. 


INTERNAL    CONDITION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 


119 


ficed  for  his  sustenance,  and  a  coarse  vest- 
ment of  skin,  which  wrapped  his  whole  body, 
was  his  only  covering:  in  this  situation  he 
endured  the  returning  inclemencies  of  thirty 
seasons,  and  at  length  died,  without  descend- 
ing from  his  column. 

It  is  no  matter  of  reasonable  astonishment 
that  the  passionate  enthusiasts  of  the  east 
thronged  eagerly  round  the  pillar  of  Symeon 
from  the  most  remote  provinces,  and  regard- 
ed the  self-devoted  martyr  with  feelings  par- 
taking of  adoration.  Nor  are  we,  in  any  de- 
gree, surprised  to  read,  that  he  converted  to 
Christianity  the  inhabitants  of  Libanus  and 
Antilibanus,  and  an  entire  tribe  of  Arabs, 
together  with  several  Jews  and  heretics,  by 
miraculous  aid  and  operation.  Nor,  perhaps, 
have  we  cause  to  think  it  strange  that  this 
popular  fanaticism  was  rather  encouraged 
than  disclaimed  by  the  Church  ;  *  and  that 
it  has  descended  to  posterity  without  any  ec- 
clesiastical stigma  of  schism  or  heresy.  But 
our  amazement  is  reasonably  excited,  when 
we  learn  that  Theodosius  II.  seriously  con- 
sulted Symeon  the  Stylite  on  the  most  im- 
portant concerns  of  Church  and  State  ;f  and 
that  the  Emperor  Leo  particularly  solicited 
his  advice  respecting  the  Council  of  Chalce- 
don — whether  those  princes  really  shared 
the  popular  madness,  and  considered  him 
as  a  soothsayer  or  prophet,  to  whom  bodily 
mortification,  and  a  loftier  residence  had  dis- 
closed a  nearer  prospect  of  the  secrets  of 
futurity ;  or  whether  they  were  only  willing 
to  gain  credit  with  the  silliest  among  their 
subjects  by  encouraging  their  most  absurd  su- 
perstition. However  this  may  be,  Symeon 
became  the  founder  of  a  sect  of  fanatics  call- 
ed 'Stylites'  (or  Pillar-men);  who,  under  the 
names  of 'Holy  Birds'  and  'Aerial  Martyrs,' 
peopled  the  columns  of  the  east ;  and,  after 
imitating  (so  far  as  their  physical  powers  per- 
mitted them)  the  ascetic  gesticulations  of  their 
master,  have  escaped,  in  more  fortunate  ob- 
livion, the  sinister  celebrity  which  still  attends 
his  name. 

Leo  the  Great.     We  have  now  traced  the 


*  It  is  true  that  when  Symeon  first  ascended  his 
pillar  some  opposition  was  made  to  the  innovation 
by  some  monasteries  both  of  Syria  and  Egypt;  but 
as  their  objections  were  confined  to  the  novelty  of 
the  scheme,  and  did  not  proceed  from  its  absurdity, 
they  speedily  disappeared,  and  Symeon  was  restored 
with  unanimity  to  the  bosom  of  the  Catholic  church. 

f  Gibbon,  chap,  xxxvii.  Fleury,  liv.  xxix.  sect, 
9.  The  Emperor  Marcian  is  also  said  to  liErve  in- 
dulged his  curiosity  by  a  secret  visit  to  the  Holy  Pil- 
lar, in  the  thron'g  of  his  miserable  subjects. 


history  of  the  Roman  See  to  the  middle  of 
the  fifth  century,  and  our  attention  has  not 
hitherto  been  arrested  by  the  genius  or  the 
fortune  of  any  individual  who  has  occupied 
it.  We  have  no  cause  to  lament  this  circum- 
stance. The  truly  episcopal  duties  of  devo- 
tion and  charity  are  usually  performed  in 
silent  unobtrusiveness ;  and  the  highest  in- 
terests, and  the  truest  happiness  of  the  human 
race,  have  commonly  been  best  promoted  by 
those  of  whom  Fame  has  made  least  men- 
tion. But  this  long  period  of  comparative 
obscurity  was  at  length  terminated  by  the., 
name  of  Leo,  surnamed  the  Great.  That 
prelate  ascended  the  chair  of  St.  Peter  in  the 
year  440,  and  occupied  it  for  one  and  twenty 
years.  At  his  accession,  he  found  the  East- 
ern Church  still  agitated  by  the  receding 
tempest  of  the  Nestorian  controversy  ;  and 
the  heresy  of  Eutyches,  which  immediately 
succeeded,  introduced  fresh  disorders,  which 
continued  to  disturb  his  long  pontificate.  In 
the  West,  the  success  of  the  barbarians  in 
Africa  and  Gaul  presented  a  new  and  exten- 
sive field  for  ecclesiastical  exertion  ;  while 
we  are  taught,  at  the  same  time,  to  believe 
that  the  internal  lustre  of  his  Church  was 
darkened  and  endangered  by  the  prevalence 
of  the  Manichaean  heresy.  The  zeal  of  St. 
Leo  was  directed  to  all  these  points ;  and, 
perhaps,  if  he  had  evinced  less  eagerness  in 
the  discovery*  and  pursuit  of  his  domestic 
adversaries,  the  very  circumstance  of  their 
existence  might  never  have  been  known  to 
us.  But,  in  justice,  we  are  equally  bound  to 
praise  his  firm  cooperation  with  the  East- 
ern Church  for  the  peaceful  repression  (had 
such  been  possible)  of  the  perverse  notions 
which  perplexed  and  divided  it ;  nor  are 
there  wanting  many  salutary  expositions  of 

*Baronius  (chiefly  ad  aim.  443)  gives  several 
proofs,  from  the  Chronicon  of  Prosper  and  St.  Leo's 
own  writings,  of  the  diligence  of  that  Prelate  in  tear 
ing  those  heretics  from  their  hiding-places,  and  pub- 
lishing their  infamy.  It  also  appears  that  until  that 
period  it  had  been  usual  for  all  Christians  to  direct 
their  prayers  to  the  East;  but  as  this  form  was  with 
the  Manichaeans  essential,  with  the  orthodox  only 
matter  of  ceremony,  he  directed  the  latter  to  discon- 
tinue the  practice,  in  order  that  the  perverse  might 
be  distinguished  and  detected  by  their  perseverance. 
There  is  also  a  passage  (in  his  95th  epistle)  in  which 
he  advocates  the  unsheathing  of  the  temporal  sword 
in  vindication  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Church.  '  Pro- 
fuit  diu  into  districtio  ecclesiastical  lenitati,  qua?,  etsi 
sacerdotali  contents  judicio  cruentas  refugit  ultiones, 
sevens  tamen  Christianoruin  principum  constitution- 
ibus  adjuvatur,  dum  ad  spirituale  nonnunquam  recur- 
runt  remedium,  qui  timent  corporale  stippliciiun  * 


120 


HISTORY    OF    THE   CHURCH. 


doctrine  and   reasonable  rules  of  discipline 
scattered  throughout  his  numerous  writings.* 
The  circumstances  of  the  times  were  fa- 
vorable to  another  object,  which,  with  Leo, 
indeed,  may  possibly  have  been  secondary, 
though  it  occupied  the  foremost  place  in  the 
attention  of  so  many  of  his  successors — the 
aggrandizement  of  the  Roman  See.     In  the 
East,  it  happened  about  that  time  that  the 
Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  by  the  assump- 
tion of  some  additional  poweiyf  had  alienat- 
ed the  Bishops  of  Alexandria  and  Antioch, 
and  that  these  last  appealed  to  Rome  for  suc- 
cor  and  justice.     Of  course,   the   authority 
which  such  appeal  might  seem  to  imply  was 
at  no  time  recognised  by  the   Patriarch — it 
was  even  decided,  during  this  very  pontifi- 
cate, by  the  twenty-ninth  Canon  of  the  Coun- 
cil  of  Chalcedon,  t   that   the  '  See   of  New 
Rome  should  have  the  same  advantages  with 
that  of  Ancient  Rome  in  the   ecclesiastical 
constitution  ; '  but,  nevertheless,  the  influence 
of  the  latter  was  extended,  for  the  moment 
at  least,  among  the  subjects  of  the  former, 
by  the  dissensions  which  severed  them  from 
their  Head.     And,  again,  the  accidents  which 
placed  the  Bishop  of  Rome  in  familiar  and 
almost   independent    correspondence  §    with 
the  Emperor,  could  not  fail  to  exalt  his  name 
and  elevate  his  dignity.     In  the  western  pro- 
vinces, the  increase  of  Papal  authority  was 
owing  to  other  causes ;  the  declining  power, 
the  indolence  and  the  absence  of  the  Empe- 
rors, left  little  civil  control  over  the  authority 
of  the  Bishop  who  presided  in  the  imperial 


*  One  hundred  and  forty-one  Epistles  and  ninety- 
six  Sermons  still  remain  to  us,  though  several  of  both 
are  lost.  Upon  the  whole  they  indicate  great  talents, 
and  an  improved  and  exercised  mind,  Respecting 
their  genuineness,  see  Dupin,  t.  iii.  p.  2, 

f  Mosh.  cent,  v.,  p.  ii.,  c.  ii. 

%  Held  in  451 .     The  substance  of  the  enactment  is 
as  follows  : — '  That  the  Fathers  did  reasonably  accord  [j 
its  privileges  to  Ancient  Rome,  because  it  was  the 
imperial  city;  and  for  the  same  reason  the  hundred  ! 
and  fifty  Bishops  here  assembled  have  decided   that  | 
New  Rome,  which  is  honored  with  the  empire  and 
the  senate,  shall  have  the  same  advantages  with  An-  !| 
cient  Rome  in  the  ecclesiastical  constitution,  and  be  j 
the  second  after  it' — meaning,  obviously,  that  the  I 
two  Sees  were  to  be  independent  in  power  and  equal  | 
in  privilege  ;  but  that  in  rank  and  precedence  the  su-  | 
periority  was  due  to  the  more  ancient.     This  Canon 
has  given  birth  to  the  most  voluminous  contentions. 
Fleury,   liv.   xxviii.    sect.    30.      Baron,    ann.    451. 
Sect.  148. 

§  Some  Epistles  are  still  extant,  addressed  by  St. 
Leo  to  the  Emperor  Theodosius,  on  the  subject  of  the 
Eastern  controversies. 


city ;  and  the  incursions  and  triumphs  of  the 
barbarians  rather  contributed  to  advance  than 
to   restrain   his   rising   dominion.      For  the 
chiefs  of  the  invaders,  whose  principal  solici- 
tude was  to  give  stability  to  their  government, 
when  they  perceived  the  great  deference  paid 
by  the  multitude  to  the  hierarchy,  while  they 
courted  the  inferior  members  of  that  body, 
naturally  offered  the  most  obsequious  respect 
to  the  highest  in  rank.     From  these  and  sim- 
ilar causes  a  variety  of  advantages  spontane- 
ously flowed,  and  they  were  seized  and  per- 
petuated by  the  genius  and  ambition  of  Leo. 
Private    Confession.      One    innovation   in 
the  discipline  of  the  Church  was  introduced 
by  that  Pontiff,  which  deserves  more  atten- 
tive notice  than  is  usually  directed  to  it.     It 
had  been  the  custom  for  the  more  grievous 
offenders  to  make  the  confession  of  their  sins 
publicly,  in  the  face  of  the  congregation  ;  or 
at  least  for  the  ministers  occasionally  to  pro- 
claim before  the  whole  assembly  the  nature 
of  the  confessions  which  they  had  received. 
Leo  strongly  discouraged  that  practice  ;  and 
permitted,  and  even  enjoined  with  some  ear- 
nestness, that  confession  should  rather  be  pri- 
vate, and  confided  to  the  priest  alone.     The 
evil  most  obviously  proceeding  from  this  re- 
laxation was  the  general  increase,  or,  at  least, 
the   more   indecent  practice,  of  the   mortal 
sins,  and  especially  (as  Mosheim  *  has  observ- 
ed) of  that  of  incontinence  ;  unless,  indeed 
we  are  to  suppose  that  the  original  publicity 
of  confession  was  abandoned,  from  its  being 
no  longer  practicable   in  a  numerous  body 
and  a  corrupt  age.     But  another  consequence 
which  certainly  flowed  from   this  measure, 
and    which,   in    the   eye   of    an    ambitious 
Churchmau,  might  counterbalance  its  demor- 
alizing effect,  was  the  vast  addition  of  influ- 
ence which  it  gave  to  the  clergy.     When  he 
delivered  over  the  conscience  of  the  people 
into  the  hands  of  the  priest, — when  he  con- 
signed the  most  secret  acts  and  thoughts  of 
individual  imperfection  to  the  torture  of  pri- 
vate inquisition  and  scrutiny, — Leo  the  Great 
had  indeed  the  glory  of  laying  the  first  and 
corner-stone   of  the  Papal  edifice — that  on 
which  it  rose  and  rested,  and  without  which 
the  industry  of  his  successors  would   have 
been  vainly  exerted,  or  (as  is  more  proba- 
ble) their  boldest  projects  would  never  have 
been  formed, 

*  Cent.  v.  p.  2.  ch.  iv.  The  epistle  containing  this 
ordinance  is  the  136th,  addressed  (on  March  6,  459) 
to  the  Bishop  of  the  March  of  Ancona  and  Abruzzo. 
Dupin,  Nouv.  Biblioth.  torn.  iii.  par.«ii. 


INTERNAL   CONDITION    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


121 


Justinian.  From  the  name  of  St.  Leo  we 
may  proceed  without  interruption  to  that  of 
Justinian  ;  *  who  ascended  the  throne  of  Con- 
stantinople in  the  year  527,  and  occupied  it 
for  nearly  forty  years.  This  Emperor  is  most 
honorably  known  by  his  legislative  labors, 
and  the  digest  of  a  code  of  laws,  which,  in  a 
later  age,  obtained  general  and  durable  recep- 
tion 'throughout  Europe,  and  which  are  not 
in  all  places  obsolete  at  this  moment.  A  dif- 
ferent and  secondary  description  of  celebrity 
is  reflected  on  him  by  the  success  of  his  gen- 
erals, Belisarius  and  Narses,  against  the  inva- 
ders of  the  West ;  but,  for  our  own  part,  we 
are  not  disposed  to  think,  that  he  would  have 
made  any  addition  to  the  extent,  or  improve- 
ment in  the  nature,  in  his  reputation,  had  he 
deserted  the  pacific  duties  for  which  he  was 
well  qualified,  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of 
armies  f  without  disposition  or  experience  for 
command.  He  deputed  to  his  soldiers  the 
sanguinary  task  of  conquest,  and  confined  his 
own  talents  to  those  offices  which  he  justly 
considered  to  be  more  truly  imperial.  Among 
the  first  and  favorite  of  these  he  placed  the 
regulation  of  the  religious  affairs  of  his  sub- 
jects. His  own  faith  was  distinguished  by 
the  most  rigid  orthodoxy  ;  and  his  theological 
studies  had  at  least  conducted  him  to  sound 
doctrinal  conclusions.  But  he  had  studied 
with  more  success  the  tenets,  than  the  histo- 
ry, of  his  religion  ;  or  he  would  have  learnt 
from  the  sad  experience  of  two  centuries,  that 
neither  the  canons  of  councils,  nor  the  oppres- 
sion of  civil  power,  are  sufficient  to  restrain 
the  wanderings  of  human  opinion.  He  de- 
voted a  large  portion  of  his  long  reign  to  the 
extinction  of  heresy ;  he  waged  war  with 
equal  fury  I  against  the  remnant  of  the  Arians, 

*  Of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  clergy,  which  was  the 
most  acknowledged  exercise  of  their  power,  and  the 
most  direct  cause  of  their  influence,  it  will  be  better 
to  defer  all  mention  until  we  come  to  treat  of  the  acts 
of  Charlemagne. 

■f  The  trumpet  of  Gibbon  (upon  the  whole  a  humane 
historian)  is  too  often  and  too  loudly  sounded  in  cele- 
bration of  military  prowess,  and  the  pomp  of  camps, 
and  the  virtues  of  heroes — the  favorite  themes  of  vul- 
gar minds,  and  the  easiest  incentives  to  vulgar  enthu- 
siasm. 

$  He  appears  to  have  taken  pains  to  search  for 
them — a  detestable  exaggeration  of  persecution.  He 
assailed  with  the  same  ardor  both  pagans  and  astrol- 
ogers; and  his  severities  against  the  Samaritans,  who 
had  obtained  a  place  in  the  long  list  of  heretic3,  excit- 
ed and  justified  their  rebellion  ;  and  it  was  not  sup- 
pressed without  horrible  carnage.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  exerted  himself  with  equal  vigor  against  various 
forms  of  impiety  and  immorality  (FIsury,  liv.  xxxii. 

16 


the  Nestorians,  and  the  Eutychians ;  he  ex- 
pelled them  from  their  churches,  which  he 
transferred,  together  with  their  public  posses- 
sions, to  the  Catholics ;  and,  finally,  he  de- 
scended to  individual  persecution,  and  confis- 
cated the  private  property  of  many.  What- 
ever ambiguous  excuses  may  be  found  for 
his  other  proceedings,  the  guilt  of  this  last 
robbery  is  usually  attributed  to  his  sordid 
avarice.  In  spite  of  those  measures  (shall 
we  not  rather  say,  in  consequence  of  them  ?), 
the  fifth  General  Council  (assembled  at  Con- 
stantinople during  his  reign)  conferred  upon 
him  the  title  of  'The  Most  Christian  Em- 
peror,' not  foreseeing  that,  by  one  of  those 
strange  dispositions  of  Providence  which 
seem  to  mock  at  human  calculation  and  con- 
sistency, the  very  monarch  whom  they  had 
exalted  by  that  glorious  distinction  —  due, 
indeed,  to  the  purity  of  his  faith,  but  for- 
feited by  his  intemperance  and  bigotry, — 
was  destined  to  die  a  heretic  !  *  A  foolish  dis- 
pute had  been  raised  at  that  time,  whether 
the  body  of  Christ  on  earth  was  or  was  not  li- 
able to  corruption  ;  and  this  divided  Oriental 
Christians  into  the  two  sects  of  Corruptibles 
and  Incorruptibles.  The  latter  were  obvi- 
ously involved  in  the  heresy  of  the  Phantas- 
tics  ;  and  yet  Justinian,  in  the  blindness  of 
old  age,  adopted  that  opinion  ;  and  it  is  even 
believed,  that  he  was  preparing  to  persecute 
all  who  differed  from  him,  when  he  fell  sick 
and  died. 

Our  censures  on  the  religious  policy  of  Jus- 
tinian, though  at  variance  with  the  usual  lan- 
guage of  ecclesiastical  historians,  require  no 
justification — but  it  is  proper  to  clear  that  Em- 
peror from  the  more  odious  imputation  of 
having  created  the  system,  which  he  so  zeal- 
ously administered.  The  sentence  of  ban- 
ishment pronounced  by  Constantine  against 
Arius  and  his  followers,  however  speedily 
regretted  and  revoked,  was  the  grand  and 
authoritative  precedent  to  which  every  Cath- 
olic persecutor  of  after  times  appealed  with 
pride  and  confidence.  That  which  was  an 
experiment — an  injudicious  and  fruitless  ex- 
periment, with  Constantino,  became  a  princi- 
ple or  a  habit  with  most  of  his  successors, 
each  of  whom  enacted  such  penalties  as  seem- 
ed suited  to  repress  the  errors  of  the  day ; 
but  it  was  reserved  to  Theodosius  II.  to  corn- 
sect.  27.)  ;  and  was  no  less  zealous  in  the  conversion 
of  the  Heruli  and  other  barbarian  tribes  to  the  belief 
in  the  Gospel,  than  in  oppressing  all  who  did  not  in- 
terpret that  Gospel  as  he  did. 

*  The  history  of  Henry  VIII.  of  England  furnishes 
an  instance  at  first  sight  very  similar  to  this. 


122 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


plete  the  work,  and  to  confirm  and  embody 
the  scattered  edicts  of  bigotry  and  despotism. 
There  is  no  space  here  to  enumerate  the  se- 
vere laws  against  heretics,  which  may  be 
found  in  the  Tbeodosian  Code ;  *  it  may  suf- 
fice to  say,  that  they  extended  to  almost  every 
denomination  of  dissent,  and  menaced  the 
contumacious  with  confiscation,  intestation, 
exile,  as  the  ordinary  punishments — while 
'the  last  and  inexpiable  penalty'  was  sus- 
pended over  the  most  formidable  innovators. 
More  than  this — that  Emperor  actually  ap- 
pointed Inquisitors  for  the  detection  of  certain 
specified  offenders,  and  enjoined  the  most 
diligent  and  penetrating  search  f  for  the  pur- 

*  The  following  are  extracts: — Quid  sensibus  excse- 
catos  Judreos,  Sainaritas,  Paganos,  et  cretera  hoereti- 
corum  genera  portentorum  audere  cognoscimus'?  Quod 
si  ad  sanitatein  mentis  egregio  legmn  edicto  revocare 
conemur,  severitatis  culpani  ipsi  preestabunt ;  qui  du- 
rse  frontis  obstinato  piaculo  locum  venire  non  relin- 
quunt.  Quamobrem,  cum  sententia  veteri  desperatis 
morbis  nulla  sit  abhibenda  curatio,  tandem,  ne  ferales 
sectae  in  vitam,  immemores  nostri  sreculi  velut  indis- 
creta  coufusione,  licentius  evagentur,  hac  vlctura  in 
omne  eevum  lege  sancimus — Neminem  Judaeum,  nem- 
inem  Sainaritam,  neutra  lege  constantem,  ad  honores 
et  dignitates  accedere;  nulli  administrationem  patere 
civilis  obsequii,  nee  defensoris  fungi  saltern  officio. 
Nefas  quippe  credimus,  ut  superna?  majestati  et  Ro- 
manis  legibus  inimici,  ultoresque  etiam  nostrarum  le- 
gum  surreptivae  jurisdictionis  habeantur  obtentu  et 
acquisitoe  dignitatis  auctoritate  muniti  adversum 
Christianos,  et  ipsos  plerumque  sacra?.  Religionis 
Antistites,  velut  insultantes  fidei  nostra?  judicandi  vel 
pronuntiandi  quid  velint,  habeant  potestatem,  &c. 
Again: — Hinc  prospicit  nostra  dementia  Paganorum 
quoque  et  gentilimn  immanitates  vigiliam  nostram  de- 
bere  sortiri,  qui  naturati  vesania  et  licentia  pertinaci 
religionis  tramite  dissidentes  nefarios  saerificiorum 
ritus  occultis  exercere  quodauimodo  solitudinibus 
designantur — quos  non  promulgatarum  leguin  milie 
terrores,  non  denuntiati  exitii  pxna  compescant,  ut 
si  emendari  non  possint  mole  saltern  criminum  et  il- 
luvie  victimarum  discerent  abstinere.  Sed  prorsus 
ea  furoris  peccatur  audacia,  &c.  &c.  Leg.  Novell. 
Div.  Theod.  A.  lib.  These  enactments  of  the  first, 
confirmed  by  the  second  Theodosius,  are  in  every 
sense  barbarous. 

•f  '  Summa  exploratione  riinetur,  ut,  quicunque  in 
unum  Paschae  diem  non  obsequenti  religione  convene- 
rint,  tales  indubitanter,  quales  hac  lege  damuamus, 
habeantur.'  This  seems  to  liave  been  levelled  against 
the  remains  of  the  Quartadecitnans.  The  Encratitcs, 
Saccophori,  and  Hydroparastata?,  are  the  names 
which  are  threatened  '  sununo  supplicio  et  inexpi- 
abili  paena.'  A  law  was  also  enacted  to  prevent  the 
meetings  of  the  Tascodragita? — a  denomination  of  per- 
sons '  who  made  their  prayers  inwardly  and  silently, 
compressing  their  noses  and  lips  with  their  hands,  lest 
any  sound  should  transpire.'  Basnage,  iii.  82.  Jor- 
tin,  vol.  iv.  ad  ann.  381.  That  any  danger  either  to 
Church  or  State  could  for  an  instant  have  been  ap- 


pose of  unmasking  them.  It  has  been  ob- 
served, that  Pope  Leo  the  Great  adopted  this 
method  for  the  extinction  of  the  Manichae- 
ans;  and  it  is  some  excuse  for  the  eagerness 
of  the  Bishop  that  the  mighty  footsteps  of  the 
Emperor  lay  traced  before  him.  It  would 
not  be  just  to  attach  to  his  name  very  deeply 
the  guilt  of  intolerance  ;  nor  would  we  de- 
fraud even  Justinian  himself  of  such  ple'a  as 
may  be  found  for  him  in  the  penal  system 
previously  established,  in  the  spirit  of  the 
times,  in  the  practice  of  his  predecessors. 
Yet  should  we  distinguish  —  a  churchman 
may  be  more  leniently  censured  if  he  enforce 
the  laws  already  enacted  for  the  protection 
of  his  Church,  and  calculated,  as  he  may  ig- 
norantly  imagine,  for  that  purpose.  But  a 
legislator  should  look  more  deeply  into  the 
records  of  history  and  the  constitution  of 
human  nature  ;  and  if,  among  the  venerable 
statutes  of  his  ancestors  he  observes  one 
which  is  founded  in  manifest  injustice,  which 
in  its  immediate  operation  occasions  confu- 
sion and  misery,  and  which  in  its  general  ef- 
ficacy has  been  proved  by  long  experience  to 
miss  the  end  proposed — to  reenact  and  per- 
petuate that  statute  is  not  error,  but  deep  and 
inexpiable  crime. 

III.  We  shall  conclude  this  Chapter  with 
a  few  remarks  respecting  the  literature  and 
morality  of  the  period  on  which  we  are  em- 
ployed :  for  though  it  may  seem  impossible  to 
treat  so  extensive  a  subject  in  such  contract- 
ed limits  with  adequate  fulness,  or  even  with 
profitable  precision,  there  would  be  still  great- 
er ground  of  reproach  were  we  to  neglect  it 
altogether. 

Decline  of  Literature.  The  decline  of  Ro- 
man literature  between  the  age  of  Augustus 
and  that  of  the  Antonines,  in  chasteness  and 
delicacy  of  thought  and  expression,  and  even 
the  decay  of  the  language  itself,  are  instantly 
perceptible  to  the  classical  reader  ;  yet  was  it 
still  animated  by  some  of  the  fire  of  ancient 
genius  :  it  had  availed  itself  of  the  progress 
of  science  and  the  increased  knowledge  of 
man,  and  it  applied  that  knowledge  with  im- 
mortal success  to  history  as  well  as  philoso- 
phy ;  but  from  the  reign  of  Antoninus  to  that 
of  Diocletian  the  fall  was  sudden  and  precip- 
itate. In  the  barren  records  of  the  third  cen- 
tury Ave  find  no  names  of  good,  few  even  of 

prehended  from  such  abject  and  pitiful  enthusiasm 
might  have  been  pronounced  impossible,  if  the  history 
of  persecution  in  every  age,  howsoever  modified  and 
disguised  by  time  and  circumstance,  did  not  inces- 
santly attest  it  to  be  both  credible  and  probable. 


DECLINE   OF  LITERATURE. 


123 


indifferent  writers ;  and  if  the  works  of  the 
ancients  were  more  generally  diffused  and 
studied  than  formerly  (which  seems  uncer- 
tain,) they  were  at  least  much  less  diligently 
imitated,  and  not  an  effort  was  made  to  sur- 
pass them.  It  is  of  importance  to  remark 
this  fact;  because  there  have  been  some  so 
unjust  in  their  hostility  to  revelation,  or  so 
perverse  in  their  estimation  of  history,  as  to 
attribute  the  decay  of  literature  to  the  preva- 
lence and  influence  of  the  Christian  religion. 
This  charge  is  very  far  removed  from  truth — 
indeed  it  is  easy  to  show  that  literature  had 
already  fallen  into  deep  and  irretrievable 
ruin,  before  Christianity  began  to  exercise 
any  control  over  the  refinements  of  society. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  third  century,  during 
the  parting  struggles  of  learning,  the  Chris- 
tians, numerous  as  they  were,  and  irresistible 
in  strength,  were  principally  confined  to  the 
lower  and  middle  ranks  ;  and  even  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  last  persecution,  though  they 
held  some  high  offices  in  the  court  of  Justin- 
ian, it  will  scarcely  be  asserted  that  they  form- 
ed a  sufficient  proportion  of  the  higher  and 
educated  classes  to  affect  in  any  great  degree 
the  literary  character  of  the  empire.*  A  very 
general  moral  improvement  they  had  un- 
doubtedly introduced  among  the  lower  or- 
ders: some  influence  on  the  civilisation  of  the 
people,  and  even  on  the  policy  of  the  govern- 
ment, they  may  also  have  exercised  ;  but 
complete  revolutions  in  national  literature  do 
not  originate  in  those  quarters  ;  and  even  had 
it  been  otherwise,  we  have  seen,  that  more 
than  a  century  before  that  period,  the  down- 
fall of  taste  and  learning  had  been  irrevocably 
decreed. 

While  they  speculate  on  the  secondary 
eauses  of  singular  phenomena,  historians  are 
sometimes  too  prone  to  neglect  such  as  are 
plain  and  obvious.  In  the  present  instance 
these  were  certainly  no  other  than  the  pro- 
longation of  unmitigated  despotism,  and  the 
civil  confusion,  which,  in  addition  to  its  cus- 
tomary attendants,  it  so  commonly  introduced 
regarding  the  succession  to  the  throne.  It  is 
unnecessary  to  search  after  remote  reasons 


*  The  effect  which  Christianity  may  have  produc- 
ed on  the  literature  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  the  third 
century, bears  some  resemblance  in  character  (though 
it  was  far  inferior  in  degree)  to  that  exerted  by  Pu- 
ritanism on  the  literature  of  our  own  country.  And 
if  it  be  true,  that  the  immediate  influence  of  both  was, 
to  a  certain  extent,  hostile,  their  ultimate  operation 
was  certainly  to  invigorate  and  renovate.  Some  of 
the  Fathers  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  u:ite  bet- 
ter than  any  profane  author  after  Tacitus. 


for  the  degradation  of  any  people  which  has 
been  subjected  for  three  centuries  to  the 
abuse  of  arbitrary  ride;  and  though  it  be  true 
that  Trajan  and  the  Antonines  for  a  moment 
arrested  the  torrent  of  corruption,  they  were 
but  accidental  blessings  ;  and  if  their  person- 
al excellence  partially  remedied  the  mons- 
trous depravity  of  the  system,  their  influence 
lasted  not  beyond  their  life.  Presently  the 
tide  resumed  its  downward  course,  and  its 
natural  and  necessary  progress  was  scarcely 
accelerated  either  by  the  crimes  of  Severus 
or  the  calamities  of  Decius.  Whether,  then, 
it  be  reasonable  to  consider  the  first  period 
of  the  decline  of  literature  as  closing  with  the 
reign  of  the  Antonines,  or  whether  we  shall 
extend  it  over  the  barren  period  which  inter- 
vened between  the  death  of  Marcus  and  the 
establishment  of  Christianity,  it  is  clear  that 
it  proceeded  from  causes  quite  independent 
of  that  religion.  The  second  line  we  may 
venture  perhaps  to  draw  after  the  fourth 
Council  of  Carthage,  and  the  third  at  the 
expulsion  of  the  Atheuian  philosphers  by 
Justinian. 

During  the  second  period,  Constantine,  Ju- 
lian and  Theodosius  successively  proposed 
encouragements  to  learning,  and  bestowed 
personal  honors  on  those  possessing  it.  If 
Julian  confined  his  rewards  to  Pagan,  and 
Constantine  to  Christian,  literature,the  greater 
effect  (owing  to  the  longer  duration  of  his 
reign)  was  produced  by  the  latter — the  same 
is  true  of  the  exertions  of  Theodosius  ;  con- 
sequently, during  the  last  half  of  the  fourth 
and  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century,  the 
Church  abounded  with  prelates  of  splendid 
talents,  and  laborious  industry,  and  such 
learning  as  was  then  thought  most  necessary. 
The  Christian  writings  of  this  period,  to 
whatsoever  objections  they  may  be  liable, 
constitute  the  best  part  of  its  literature.  And 
in  so  far  as  they  are  censured  (and  justly  cen- 
sured) for  the  occasional  display  of  vain  spec- 
ulation about  things  not  determinable,  of  un- 
fair representation,  of  perverse  disputatious- 
ness,  of  absurd  or  unworthy  arguments,  it 
is  a  question,  whether  the  lucubrations  of 
the  schoolmen  and  rhetoricians  of  Rome  or 
Greece  give  less  ground  for  the  same  re- 
proaches :  for  in  a  mere  literary  point  of  view, 
it  matters  little,  whether  it  be  the  inscrutable 
in  nature  or  in  revelation  on  which  the  way- 
ward imagination  wastes  itself;  and  as  these 
latter  investigations  are  more  likely  to  deviate 
into  a  moral  character,  so  is  there  a  better 
prospect  of  their  utility.  And  in  justice  to 
most  of  the  Fathers  of  this  period  we  should 


124 


HISTORY  OF  THE    CHURCH. 


add,  that  there  are  many  splendid  illustrations 
of  scripture,  and  many  generous  bursts  of 
moral  exhortation,  which  enrich  and  ennoble 
their  works,  and  which  surpass  the  ardor, 
if  they  do  not  rival  the  elegance,  of  profane 
philosophy. 

Fourth  Council  of  Carthage.  A  canon  of 
the  Council  held  at  Carthage  *  in  the  year  398 
forbade  the  study  of  secular  books  by  Bish- 
ops ;  and  we  have  therefore  selected  this  as 
a  crisis  in  the  history  of  Christian  literature. 
Assuredly  a  deplorable  dearth  of  learning 
very  soon  followed  this  crisis,  and  our  third 
period  is  distinguished  by  scarcely  two  or 
three  names  respectable  for  talents  or  acquire- 
ments. However  we  do  not  at  all  intend  to 
attribute  this  rapid  defection  to  the  injudi- 
cious ordinauce  in  question  ;  since  its  author- 
ity was  not  universal,  and  since  injunctions 
of  that  description  are  seldom  obeyed,  except 
by  such  as  are  previously  disposed  to  receive 
them.  It  was  an  index  rather  than  a  cause 
of  the  altering  spirit  of  the  Church,  and  as 
such  we  record  it.  The  real  reasons  of  that 
sudden  defection,  and  of  the  darkness  which 
followed  it,  are  two  :  the  first  of  these,  which 
alone  perhaps  might  gradually  have  complet- 
ed the  extinction  of  sound  learning,  was  the 
internal  corruption  of  Christianity,  and  the 
spreading  disease  of  monachism.  An  age  of 
prodigies  and  relics  and  Stylites  was  not  pro- 
per for  the  growth  of  genius  or  the  cultivation 
of  knowledge  ;  and  the  little  of  either  which 
survived  in  the  East  may  have  owed  its  exis- 
tence to  the  dissensions  of  the  Christians,  as 
much  as  to  their  virtues.  The  second  reason 
was  the  frequent  irruption  and  final  settle- 
ment of  the  barbarian  conquerors.  This 
cause  was  indeed  confined  almost  entirely  to 
the  provinces  of  the  West ;  but  the  wounds 


*  The  celebrated  Canon  in  question  appears  in  the 
midst  of  several  others,  generally  respecting  the  epis- 
copal office  and  duties:  their  substance  is  as  follows — 
'  the  Bishop  should  have  a  small  resilience  near  the 
church;  his  furniture  should  be  of  small  price, and  his 
table  poorly  supplied;  he  should  sustain  his  dignity  by 
his  faith  and  his  holy  life;  he  shall  read  no  profane 
books,  nor  those  of  the  heretics,  unless  by  necessity. 
He  shall  take  no  concern  in  the  execution  of  wills, 
nor  any  care  of  his  domestic  affairs,  nor  plead  for  any 
temporal  interests.  He  shall  not  himself  take  charge 
either  of  the  widows,  orphans,  or  strangers,  but  com- 
mit that  office  to  the  chief  priest — he  shall  have  no 
other  occupation  than  reading,  prayer  and  preaching. 
He  shall  perform  no  ordinations  without  the  counsel 
of  his  clergy,  and  the  consent  of  the  people.'  See 
Fleury,  liv.  xx.,  sect,  xxxii.  We  are  not  to  suppose 
that  the  above  canons  were  every  where  received,  or 
perhaps  strictly  enforced  any  where. 


which  it  inflicted  there  were  deeper  and  of 
more  extensive  influence  than  might  at  first 
have  been  apprehended.  It  afforded  a  fear- 
ful prospect  that  those  hordes  of  colonists 
were  wholly  uninstructed  in  literary  acquire- 
ments, and  even  generally  prejudiced  against 
them.  Theodoric  himself,  the  wisest,  as  well 
as  the  best,  among  their  Princes,  while  he  re- 
spected the  superior  civilisation  of  the  van- 
quished, despised  and  disclaimed  that  art 
which  seemed  to  be  employed  for  no  other 
end,  than  to  inflame  and  perpetuate  religious 
controversy.  He  could  never  be  prevailed 
upon  to  learn  to  read.  But  the  cause  which 
increased  and  prolonged  that  mischief,  and 
created  many  others,  was  the  superstitious 
disposition  which  the  invaders  brought  with 
them.  They  had  learnt,  as  the  rudiments 
of  their  own  religion,  a  subservient  reverence 
for  their  priesthood,  and  this  principle  ac- 
companied them  into  the  Christian  church  ; 
the  priesthood  received  without  reluctance 
the  unbounded  homage  which  was  offered 
to  them  ;  their  authority  grew  with  that  obse- 
quiousness, and  their  ambition  swelled  with 
their  authority ;  and  when  they  found  how 
easily  this  could  be  maintained  and  extended 
over  a  credulous  people,  and  how  certainly 
credulity  is  the  offspring  of  ignorance,  they 
became  interested  in  perpetuating  blindness 
and  prejudice. 

Some  schools  indeed  still  subsisted,  and 
the  youth  were  instructed  in  what  were  cal- 
led the  Seven  Liberal  Arts ;  *  but  these,  as  we 
learn  from  Augustin's  account  of  them,  con- 
sisted only  in  a  number  of  subtile  and  useless 
precepts  ;  and  were  consequently  more  adap- 
ted to  perplex  the  memory  than  to  strengthen 
the  judgment.  The  arts  in  question  were 
grammar,  rhetoric,  logic,  arithmetic,  music, 
geometry,  and  astronomy  ;  and  those  were 
very  rare  among  the  scholars  whose  studies 
extended  beyond  the  three  first.  Moral  ex- 
hortations began  now  to  be  commonly  con- 
fined to  the  public  reading  of '  Books  of  Mar- 
tyrs' and  '  Lives  of  Saints,'  by  which  the  pas- 
sions of  the  vulgar  were  excited,  and  their 
imaginations  prepared  for  the  belief  of  any 
imposture  which  it  might  be  expedient  to 
practice  upon  them.  Such  were  the  mate- 
rials of  Christian  literature  during  the  fifth 
and  sixth  centuries,  and  such  they  continued 
with  very  little  alteration  until  the  eleventh. 

Edict  of  Justinian.  Some  remnants  of  the 
philosophy  of  ancient  Greece  still  lingered  at 
Athens :  and  a  few  degenerate  descendants 


*  Mosh.,  cent,  v.,  p.  xi.,  c.  i. 


MORALITY. 


125 


of  Plato,  Aristotle  or  Zeno,  still  exhibited  in 
their  half  deserted  schools  the  shadow  of  the 
lore  of  former  ages.  Those  teachers  had 
been  encouraged  by  M.  Antoninus  and  Ju- 
lian, and  tolerated  by  the  Christian  Emperors, 
ami  they  may  have  constituted  the  wisest, 
and  probably  the  most  virtuous  portion  of 
the  Pagan  population  ;  but  they  had  gradually 
dwindled  away  into  obscurity  and  insignifi- 
cance. Nevertheless,  Justinian  considered 
their  existence  as  inconsistent  with  the  prin- 
ciples of  his  government,  and  consequently 
issued  (in  the  year  529)  that  celebrated  edict 
which  closed  the  schools  of  Athens  forever. 
The  historian  of  the  Church  of  Christ  need 
not  fear  to  celebrate  any  judicious  exertions 
to  enlighten  and  dignify  mankind.  And  in 
so  far  as  the  genius  of  philosophy  has  been 
employed  in  the  discovery  of  moral  truth,  and 
in  effectual  exhortations  to  virtue  and  mag- 
nanimity ;  in  so  far  as  it  has  taught  the  sci- 
ence of  government  on  sound  and  practical 
principles ;  in  so  far  as  its  researches  have 
had  no  other  object  than  truth,  and  truth 
which  was  convertible  to  the  service  and  im- 
provement of  society — so  far  we  respect  its  ex- 
ertions and  honor  its  name,  and  disdain  the 
narrow  policy  which  completed  its  extinction. 
But  we  are  bound  to  admit,  that,  long  before 
the  period  in  question,  the  abuse  of  reason 
had  so  far  supplanted  its  proper  exercise,  and 
perverted  its  noble  character  and  purposes, 
that  it  constituted  in  fact  the  most  active  por- 
tion of  the  systems  then  called  philosophical 
— just  as  the  abuses  of  religion  were  then  be- 
ginning to  form  the  most  conspicuous  part 
of  the  Catholic  system.  To  the  connexion 
of  Christianity  with  philosophy  several  of 
those  abuses  may  be  attributed  ;  for  at  the 
first  moment  of  their  contact,  while  religion 
was  yet  pure,  philosophy  was  already  deeply 
and  vitally  corrupted ;  and  the  infection  of 
bad  principles,  whether  of  reasoning  or  mo- 
rality, was  too  easily  communicated.  And  i 
thus  religion,  which  is  indeed  the  friend  of 
that  true  and  useful  philosophy  whose  object 
is  the  advancement  of  society  and  the  hap- 
piness of  man,  became  stained  and  degraded 
by  its  alliance  with  controversial  sophistry. 
There  is  also  another  reflection  which  lessens 
the  indignation  so  naturally  excited  in  every 
generous  mind  by  the  edict  of  Justinian. 
The  philosophers  had  declared  war  against 
Christianity  at  an  early  period  ;  to  their  ma- 
ligniiy  the  last  and  severest  persecution  may 
be  partly  attributed,  and  the  more  dangerous 
aggressions  of  Julian  were  conducted  by 
their  spirit,  if  not  by  their  counsel  ;  so  that, 


if  we  cannot  excuse  the  severe  retaliation, 
which  Christianity,  in  her  time  of  triumph, 
more  effectual ly  inflicted,  at  least  our  com- 
passion for  the  sufferer  is  diminished  by  the 
recollection  of  its  hostility  and  its  vices.  The 
exiled  philosophers  (seven  in  number)  at  first 
took  refuge  at  the  court  of  Persia  ;  but  find- 
ing none  of  the  moral  advantages  which  they 
professed  to  expect  under  a  different  form  of 
government  and  worship,  they  were  present- 
ly contented  to  return,  on  certain  stipulations, 
and  terminate  their  days  under  a  Christian 
monarch. 

We  can  scarcely  believe  that  the  character 
of  Christian  literature  was  so  deeply  affected 
by  that  act  of  Justinian,  as  some  imagine. 
Mosheim  *  appears  to  consider  it  as  having 
occasioned  particularly  the  extinction  of  the 
New  Academy,  (the  descendant  of  the  Pla- 
tonic school,)  and  the  substitution  of  the  sys- 
tem of  Aristotle.  It  is,  indeed,  well  known 
that  about  this  period  the  latter  philosophy 
was  gradually  gaining  ground  upon  the  form- 
er in  the  Christian  schools,  probably  because 
it  was  better  suited  to  the  contentious  spirit 
of  the  age  ;  and  whatever  evils  had  heretofore 
been  occasioned  in  the  Church  by  too  great 
reverence  for  the  authority  of  Plato,  and  by 
the  boldness  of  his  followers,  much  more  ex- 
tensive and  more  durable  calamities  were  af- 
terwards inflicted  upon  the  Christian  world 
by  the  universal  submission  of  the  human 
mind  to  the  name  of  Aristotle.  But  we  are 
not  persuaded  that  this  change  was  brought 
about  violently :  or  that  the  edict,  which  si- 
lenced a  few  obscure  Pagan  philosophers,  at 
all  generally  influenced  the  learning  of  Chris- 
tians ;  or  that  any  act  of  legislation  could  sud- 
denly have  effected  so  general  an  alteration 
in  the  studies  and  intellectual  pursuits  of 
an  extensive  empire.  These  mighty  changes 
usually  result  from  the  patient  operation  of 
general  principles  upon  the  morals  and  habits 
of  a  people — the  caprice  of  a  monarch  has 
no  power  to  create  them  ;  and,  perhaps,  it  is 
the  commonest  mistake  of  historians  to  attri- 
bute too  much  to  the  edicts  of  Sovereigns, 
aud  too  little  to  the  unceasing  movement  and 
agitation  of  civilized  society. 

Morality.  Respecting  the  condition  of 
morals  during  this  period  it  is  impossible  to 
speak  with  equal  definiteness;  some  indeed 


*  Cent,  vi.,  p.  ii.,  c.  i.  In  another  place  he  seems 
inclined  to  attribute  the  same  result  (and  perhaps 
with  rather  more  probability)  to  the  decision  of  the 
fifth  General  Council,  by  which  some  of  the  opinions 
of  Origcn,  who  was  a  New  Platonician,  were  con- 
demned. 


126 


HISTORY  OF   THE    CHURCH. 


do  not  hesitate  to  describe  them  as  exceeding- 
ly depraved,  and  as  being  in  no  respect  bet- 
ter upheld  by  the  clergy  than  by  the  laity  :  * 
and  true  it  is,  that  certain  laws  were  enacted, 
with  the  specific  object  of  securing  the  mo- 
rality, and  even  of  punishing  the  offences, 
of  the  priesthood  ;  indeed  when  we  consider 
the  sort  of  immunity  from  civil  tribunals 
which  that  body  in  those  times  enjoyed,  we 
are  not  surprised  that  too  great  general  indul- 
gence led  to  the  imposition  of  occasional  and 
particular  restraints.  But  these  by  no  means 
prove  its  universal  corruption. 

The  increased  wealth  of  the  Church  is 
mentioned  as  another  and  a  necessary  reason 
of  its  increased  degradation.  But  we  should 
not  be  too  indiscriminate  in  our  inference  of 
evil  from  that  cause ;  the  ill  effects  of  eccle- 
siastical wealth,  which  is  generally  diffused 
among  the  clergy  with  very  great  inequality, 
would  be  chiefly  confined  to  the  more  elevat- 
ed and  ambitious  members  of  the  hierarchy, 
and  would  scarcely  extend  to  the  lower  and 
more  numerous  ranks  of  the  ministry ;  be- 
sides which  we  should  recollect  that  it  is  at 
least  as  common  an  effect  of  wealth  to  en- 
large and  exalt,  as  to  debase,  the  character 
of  its  possessor.  Even  were  this  not  so,  the 
Church,  in  the  sixth  century,  had  certainly 
not  arrived  at  any  dangerous  degree  of  opu- 
lence, since  the  sources,  which  in  after  ages 
so  profusely  supplied  it,  were  scarcely  yet 
opened.  At  the  same  time,  the  steady  pro- 
gress of  religion,  the  general  conversion  of  the 
barbarian  conquerors,  and  the  devotion  of 
the  converts  to  their  priesthood,  are  scarcely 
consistent  with  the  gross  immorality,  and 
even  total  contempt  of  decency,  with  which 
Mosheim  charges  that  order.  \  And  there- 
fore, without  advocating  its  perfect  moral  pu- 


*  Mosheim,  cent,  vi.,  p.  ii.,  c.  ii. 

f '  V  hence  so  many  laws  to  restrain  the  vices  and 
preserve  the  morals  of  the  ecclesiastical  orders,  if  they 
had  fulfilled  even  the  obligations  of  external  decency, 
or  shown,  in  the  general  tenor  of  their  conduct,  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  respect  for  religion  or  virtue.  Be  that 
as  it  will,  the  effects  of  all  these  laws  and  edicts  were 
so  inconsiderable  as  to  be  hardly  perceived  ;  for  so 
high  was  the  veneration  paid  at  this  time  to  the  cler- 
gy, that  their  most  flagitious  crimes  were  corrected 
by  the  slightest  and  gentlest  punishments  :  an  unhappy 
circumstance,  which  added  to  their  presumption,  and 
rendered  them  more  daring  and  audacious  in  iniquity.' 
These  are  Mosheim's  words  ;  and  some  will  think 
that  they  carry  their  own  confutation  with  them. 
At  least  we  may  safely  believe,  that  the  flagrant  of- 
fences of  a  few  notorious  individuals  have  been  dark- 
ly reflected  upon  the  whole  body  ;  and  such  has 
been  the  misfortune  of  the  Christian  priesthood  in 
every  age. 


rity,  which  again  would  have  been  strangely 
at  variance  with  the  superstitious  spirit  which 
already  vitiated  the  faith,  we  need  not  hesitate 
to  believe,  that  the  great  majority  of  its  mem- 
bers continued  with  zeal,  though  in  silence, 
to  execute  their  offices  of  piety,  and  that, 
though  stained  by  individual  transgression 
and  scandal,  the  body  was  very  far  removed 
from  general  degradation,  either  in  the  East- 
ern or  Western  empire. 

Hitherto  we  have  spoken  of  the  clergy  on- 
ly, and  the  general  morality  of  the  age  would 
to  a  great  extent  be  regulated  by  the  conduct 
of  that  body.  But  the  political  prostration 
of  the  Western  provinces,  overrun  by  so 
many  savage  tribes — the  rapid  dissolution  of 
the  old  governments  without  any  stability  in 
those  which  succeeded  them — the  subversion 
of  legal  security,  the  substitution  of  military 
and  barbarous  license — these  and  other  cir- 
cumstances, aggravating  the  usual  miseries 
of  conquest,  occasioned,  wheresoever  they 
extended,  more  absolute  wretchedness,  both 
individual  and  national,  than  had  hitherto 
been  recorded  in  the  history  of  man  ;  inso- 
much, that  among  those  who  beheld  and  shar- 
ed those  inflictions,  there  were  many  who 
regarded  them  as  special  demonstrations  of 
divine  wrath.  And  as  men  are  ever  prone 
to  attribute  such  chastisements  to  the  most 
striking  revolution  of  their  own  day,  and  as 
the  subversion  of  the  temples  of  their  ances- 
tors was  still  recent  in  their  memory,  some 
there  were  who  ascribed  the  anger  of  the 
Gods  to  the  establishment  and  prevalence  of 
Christianity.  Since  the  appearance  of  that 
impiety  (they  said)  the  Roman  power  has  in- 
cessantly declined.  The  Gods,  the  founders 
and  protectors  of  that  empire,  have  with- 
drawn their  succor,  as  their  service  has  been 
neglected  ;  and  now  that  it  has  been  entirely 
repressed,  now  that  their  sanctuaries  are  clos- 
ed, and  their  sacrifices,  auguries  and  other 
propitiations  rigorously  prohibited,  they  have 
at  length  abandoned  us  wholly,  and  left  the 
once  victorious  Rome  to  be  a  prey  to  barbari- 
ans.* This  foolish  delusion  was  immediately 
and  successfully  combated  by  the  eloquence 
of  St.  Augustin.  In  his  noble  composition, 
'  The  City  of  God,'  f  he  confuted  the  error 

*  Fleury,  H.  E.,  liv.  xxiii.,  sect.  vii. 

fThe  work  was  published  in  426,  after  thirteen 
years  had  been  employed  in  its  composition.  It  con- 
sists of  twenty-two  books,  of  which  the  ten  first  are 
devoted  to  the  confutation  of  the  various  errors  of 
Paganism,  and  among  others  of  that  which  we  have 
now  mentioned  ;  while  the  twelve  last  establish  the 
truth  of  Christianity. 


ECCLESIASTICAL   WRITERS. 


127 


by  irrefragable  auguments,  and  conclusive 
appeals  to  the  evidence  of  profane  history  ; 
and  inculcated  the  more  reasonable  opinion, 
that  the  temporal  afflictions  which  God  per- 
mitted to  devastate  the  empire  were  chastise- 
ments* inflicted  by  a  just  Providence  for  the 
correction,  not  for  the  destruction,  of  his  crea- 
tures. The  error  was  indeed  confuted,  and 
presently  died  away ;  but  the  general  disloca- 
tion of  society  which  occasioned  it  must  have 
suspended  for  a  time  the  moral  energies  of 
man,  and  the  period  of  his  severest  suffering 
may  also  have  been  that  of  his  deepest  de- 
pravity. 


*  Thirteen  years  afterwards  Cartilage  was  sacked 
by  the  Vandals;  and  Salvian,  a  presbyter  of  Mar- 
seilles, a  contemporary  author,  also  considers  that 
event  as  a  signal  example  of  divine  justice;  and  he 
enlarges  with  great  fervor  on  the  exceeding  corrup- 
tion of  that  great  citv.  '  It  seemed  as  if  the  inhab- 
itants had  entirely  taken  leave  of  reason — the  streets 
were  filled  with  drunkards  crowned  with  flowers  and 
perfumes,  and  infested  with  every  possible  snare 
against  chastity ;  adulteries,  and  the  most  abominable 
impurities  were  the  commonest  of  all  things,  and  they 
were  publicly  practised  with  the  extreme  of  impu- 
dence. The  orphans  and  widows  were  oppressed, 
and  the  poor  were  tortured  to  such  despair,  that  they 
prayed  God  to  deliver  the  city  to  the  barbarians. 
Blasphemies,  too,  and  impiety  reigned  there;  many, 
though  professedly  Christians,  were  at  heart  Pagans, 
and  worshipped  the  celestial  Goddess  with  entire  de- 
votion. Besides  which  (he  adds),  the  people  had  an 
extreme  contempt  and  aversion  for  the  Monks,  how- 
ever holy  they  might  be.'  The  description  is  proba- 
bly exaggerated — yet  ecclesiastical  historians  almost 
universally  admit  the  corruption  of  Christians  to  have 
been  the  cause  of  their  chastisement.  Barouius  adds 
another  reason — the  prevalence  of  heresy.  At  the 
year  412,  he  asserts — Barbari  prevalent  ubi.  hxreses 
vigent;  and  in  other  places  (ann.  410,  428)  declares, 
that  the  former  might  easily  have  been  subdued,  if 
the  latter  could  have  been  expelled ;  and  ad  ann.  406, 
407,  he  more  specifically  affirms,  that  Providence  sent 
the  invaders  into  Gaul  for  the  express  purpose  of  de- 
stroying the  heresy  of  Vigilantius,  and  that  the  great- 
est devastations  were  committed  in  the  districts  where 
those  errors  were  most  deeply  rooted.  By  an  opposite, 
but  not  less  extravagant,  error,  Theodosius,  legislating 
nearly  at  the  same  time,  attributed  even  the  unseason- 
able severities  of  the  skies  to  the  prolonged  existence 
of  Paganism.  'An  diutius  perferimus  mutari  tempo- 
rum  vices  irata  caeli  temperie;  qiue  Paganorum  ex- 
acerbata  perfidia,  nescit  naturre  libramenta  servare. 
Unde  enim  ver  solitam  gratiam  abjuravitl  Undo  a;st- 
as  messe  jejuna  laboriosum  agricolam  in  spe  destituit 
aristarum  1  Unde  intemperata  ferocitas  ubertatem  ter- 
rarum  penetrabili  frigore  sterilitatis  laeeione  dumnuvit 
— nisi  quod  ad  impietatis  vindictam  transit  lege  sua 
naturae  decretum'?  Quod  ne  posthac  sustinere  cogam- 
ur,  pacifica  ultione,  ut  dixiinus,  pianda  est  supremi 
nuininis  veneranda  majestas.' 


NOTE  ON  CERTAIN  ECCLESIASTICAL  WRIT- 
ERS OF  THE  FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  CENTU- 
RIES. 

1.  It  is  probable  that  LactanTius  was  a 
native  of  Africa,  since  his  first  lessons  were 
received  from  Arnobius,  whose  school  was  at 
Sicca,  in  that  country  ;  but  the  truth  is  not 
undoubtedly  known,  nor  the  year  of  his  birth. 
It  is  only  certain,  that  he  witnessed  and  sur- 
vived the  persecution  of  Diocletian,  and  was 
selected,  in  his  old  age,  as  preceptor  to  Cris- 
pus,  the  son  of  Constantine.  He  was  the 
most  learned  Christian  of  his  time  ;  and  the 
record  of  his  necessitous  and  voluntary  pov- 
erty may  at  least  persuade  us,  that  his  habits 
were  influenced  by  the  spirit  of  Christian 
philosophy  which  adorns  his  writings. 

The  'Divine  Institutions,'  his  most  impor- 
tant work,  contain  a  powerful  confutation  of 
Paganism,  in  a  style  not  uninspired  with  the 
genius  of  antiquity.  '  Lactantius  (says  St. 
Jerome)*  is  as  a  stream  of  Ciceronian  elo- 
quence; and  I  would  that  he  had  been  as 
successful  in  confirming  our  own  doctrine  as 
in  overthrowing  that  of  others.'  He  was  li- 
able indeed  to  that  reproach,  and  he  shared  it 
with  all  the  apologists  who  had  preceded 
him  ;  his  arguments  are  often  feeble,  his  as- 
sumptions sometimes  false,  and  his  conclu- 
sions not  always  sound  :  but  his  style  deserves 
great  praise  ;  and  if  his  diction  occasionally 
rivals  the  elegant  exuberance  of  Cicero,  (and 
he  is  commonly  compared,  and  sometimes 
preferred,  to  that  orator,)  the  Christian  has 
reached,  through  the  more  elevated  nature  of 
his  subject,  a  sublimer  range  of  thought  and 
expression,  in  the  field  of  moral  as  well  as 
divine  philosophy.  A  nobler  conception  of 
the  Deity,  and  a  deeper  knowledge  of  his 
works  and  dispensations,  have  occasionally 
exalted,  above  the  Roman's  boldest  flights, 
a  genius  clearly  inferior  both  in  nature  and 
cultivation. 

There  is  another  work  still  extant,  called 
'The  Death  of  the  Persecutors,' first  print- 
ed in  1679,  and  by  many  attributed  (though 
probably  not  with  truth)  to  Lactantius.  It  is 
of  undisputed  antiquicy,f  and  contains  some 
i  valuable  facts  not  elsewhere  recorded  :  but  it 
is  still  more  remarkable  for  an  attempt  to 

*Epist.  13,  addressed  toPauliuus,  Bishop  of  Nola 
See  Dupin,  Nouvelle  Biblioth.  Vie  de  Lactance. 
The  Institutions  were  dedicated  to  Constantine,  proba- 
bly during  the  conclusion  of  the  last  persecution  (be- 
tween 206  and  311),  and  may  possibly  have  influenced 
his  religious  opinions. 

f  Probably  published  about  315. 


128 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


vindicate  the  temporal  retribution  of  Provi- 
dence, by  asserting  the  violent  ends  of  the 
various  persecutors.  But  an  endeavor  to 
pervert,  with  whatsoever  promise  of  tempo- 
rary profit,  the  eternal  truths  of  history,  can 
produce  no  other  lasting  effect,  than  to  stain 
the  character  of  the  author,  and  to  throw  dis- 
credit on  the  cause  which  is  advocated  by 
falsehood. 

2.  Gregory,  son  of  the  Bishop  of  Nazianzus, 
was  born  about  320.  He  was  animated  by  a 
strong  natural  love  for  literary  and  religious 
seclusion,  and  a  disinclination  to  ecclesiastical 
dignities,  of  which  we  are  compelled  to  ac- 
knowledge the  sincerity,  though  it  so  happen- 
ed that  he  occupied,  in  succession,  the  sees 
of  Sas'nni,  of  Nazianzus,*  and  Constantinople. 
His  learning,  his  eloquence,  and  his  religious 
zeal  preserved  him  from  obscurity,  and  rais- 
ed him,  in  his  own  despite,  from  indepen- 
dence and  privacy.  On  a  visit  to  Constanti- 
nople, about  the  year  376,  he  found  the 
Churches,  with  only  one  exception,  in  the 
possession  of  the  Arians.  In  the  adversity 
and  humiliation  of  the  Church,  he  raised  his 
voice  against  the  predominant  heresy  with 
boldness  and  success.  Several  are  believed 
to  have  been  converted  by  his  arguments ; 
and  lie  continued  to  instruct  and  govern  the 
Catholic  party,  until  the  accession  of  the  or- 
thodox Theodosius.  He  was  then  raised  by 
the  command  of  the  Emperor  and  the  affec- 
tion of  the  people  to  a  dignity  which  he  neith- 
er coveted,  nor  long  retained.  Some  discon- 
tents which  followed  gave  him  a  pretext  for 
resignation,  and  he  died  in  389  in  the  retire- 
ment of  his  native  city. 

There  remain  to  us  about  fifty  of  his  Dis- 
courses and  Sermons,  of  which  the  language 
and  sentiments  alike  argue  a  moderate  tem- 
per and  a  cultivated  mind.  The  most  cele- 
brated among  them  are  the  third  and  fourth, 
which  are  directed  against  the  Emperor  Ju- 
lian. In  the  seventeenth  discourse,  delivered 
on  the  occasion  of  some  seditious  disturbances 
at  Nazianzus,  in  presenting  himself  as  a  me- 
diator between  the  people  and  the  civil  officer, 
he  exalts  the  authority  of  the  Church  in  very 
lofty  language.  He  thus  addresses  the  Gov- 
ernor of  the  city  :  'the  law  of  Christ  subjects 
you  to  my  power  and  to  my  pulpit ;  for  ours 
is  the  authority— an  authority  greater  and 
more  excellent  than  that  which  you  possess, 
unless,  indeed,  spirit  is  to   be  subject  unto 

*He  was  raised  to  a  share  of  this  See,  as  a  kind 
of  Coadjutor  to  his  father,  and  on  his  deadi  fled  from 
the  city,  lest  the  undivided  responsibility  should  then 
be  forced  upon  him. 


flesh,  and  heaven  unto  earth  :  *  you  command 
with  Jesus  Christ ;  it  is  He  with  whom  you 
exercise  your  authority  ;  it  is  He  who  has  giv- 
en you  the  sword  which  you  wear,  not  so 
much  for  the  chastisement  of  crime,  as  for  its 
prevention  by  terror  and  by  menace.'  It  is 
curious  to  reflect,  that  these  principles  were 
thus  publicly  promulgated  (in  the  year  372) 
within  sixty  years  from  the  establishment  of 
Christianity,  and  within  nine  from  the  death 
of  Julian.  Yet  the  character  of  Gregory  was 
mild  and  forbearing ;  his  twenty-sixth  dis- 
course contains  some  temperate  injunctions 
respecting  the  treatment  of  heretics  ;  and  both 
in  that  and  in  other  places,  while  he  laments 
the  distractions  of  the  Church,  and  while  he 
proclaims  his  own  attachment  to  the  Cath- 
olic doctrine,  he  is  never  so  unjust  as  to  as- 
cribe the  whole  evil  to  the  opposite  party, 
nor  so  partial  as  to  conceal  or  to  spare  the 
vices  and  scandals  which  disgraced  his 
own.f 

Gregory  is  celebrated  for  his  friendship 
with  St.  Basil,  the  founder  of  oriental  mon- 
achism  ;  and  the  brother  of  St.  Basil  was 
another  Gregory,  Bishop  of  Nyssa,  iu  Cap- 
padocia.  This  last  was  the  author  of  five 
orations  on  the  Lord's  Prayer,  besides  various 
Commentaries  on  Scripture,  and  discourses 
on  the  mysteries  and  moral  treatises.  But 
the  work  by  which  he  is  most  known  is  his 
oration  on  the  life  of  St.  Gregory,  surnamed 
Thaumaturgus,  or  the  wonder-worker.  That 
renowned  prelate  (he  was  Bishop  of  Neocse- 
sarea)  flourished  about  one  hundred  and 
twenty  years  before  his  namesake  of  Nyssa ; 
so  that  the  stupendous  miracles  which  are  so 
diligently  recorded  of  him  by  his  credulous 
panegyrist  can  have  no  claim  on  our  serious 
consideration. 

3.  St.  Ambrose  was  born  in  Gaul,  about  the 
year  340,  of  Roman  and  noble  parents; J  he 
was  educated  in  Italy,  and  his  talents  and 
conduct  early  raised  him  to  a  high  civil  ap- 
pointment.    In  374,  on   the  vacancy  of  the 

*  Dupin,  a  liberal  Catholic,  throws  into  his  trans- 
lation of  this  passage  the  words  Church  and  Princes, 
neither  of  which  came  from  the  lips  of  Gregory. 

f  It  should  be  observed,  that  in  his  sixth  Discourse 
(delivered  before  Gregory  of  Nyssa)  he  exalts  the  hon- 
or of  the  martyrs,  and  even  attributes  to  tl>em  the  of- 
fice of  mediators. 

t  Dupin,  Nouv.  Biblioth.  Vie  St.  Ambrose. 
While  the  infant  was  one  day  sleeping  in  his  father's 
palace,  a  swarm  of  bees  surrounded  his  cradle,  and 
after  reposing  on  his  lips,  suddenly  ascended  high  into 
the  air,  and  disappeared.  Ambrose  had  been  antici- 
pated by  Plato — yet  the  Roman  Church  has  shown  no 
disinclination  to  adopt  the  profane  miracle. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  WRITERS. 


129 


See  of  Milan,  a  violent  dissension  arose  be- 
tween the  Catholics  and  the  Arians  ;  the  Bish- 
ops of  both  parties  assembled  in  great  num- 
bers, and  the  tumultuous  divisions  of  the 
people  not  only  violated  the  unity  of  the 
Church,  but  seriously  threatened  the  repose 
of  the  State.  Ambrose  was  then  Governor- 
General  of  the  province,  and  he  proceeded  in 
person  to  compose  the  disorders.  The  peo- 
ple were  assembled  in  the  principal  church, 
and  there  he  addressed  them  at  length  on 
their  civil  duties — on  social  order  and  pub- 
lic tranquillity-  His  eloquent  harangue  pro- 
duced a  very  different  effect  from  that  which 
had  been  (at  least  professedly)  proposed  by 
it,  for  it  was  followed  by  the  unanimous  ac- 
clamatory  shout — '  We  will  have  Ambrose 
for  our  Bishop.' 

Ambrose  was  not  yet  baptized  *—  what  reli- 
gious instruction  he  may  have  received  in 
the  schools  of  the  Catechumens  is  uncertain, 
and  it  appears  to  have  been  exceedingly 
slight ;  but  he  had  not  yet  been  admitted  to 
the  communion  of  the  faithful.  Yet  no  dif- 
ficulty seems  to  have  arisen  from  this  obstacle. 
But  the  consent  of  the  Emperor  was  necessa- 
ry for  his  translation  from  a  civil  to  an  eccle- 
siastical office.  That  consent  was  granted 
with  immediate  alacrity.  Still  there  remain- 
ed one  unforeseen  impediment  to  be  over- 
come— the  persevering  repugnance  of  Am- 
brose to  the  proposed  elevation.  But  the 
perseverance  of  the  people  was  not  less  obsti- 
nate. It  was  in  vain  that  the  Bishop  elect,  in 
order  to  disqualify  himself  in  their  eyes  for  a 
sacred  office,  publicly  committed  some  acts 
of  judicial  cruelty  and  flagrant  immorality. 
The  people  exclaimed — 'Thy  offence  be 
upon  our  heads.'  It  was  in  vain  that  he  es- 
caped from  the  city  and  concealed  himself  at 
the  residence  of  a  faithful  friend  ;  he  was.  dis- 
covered and  conducted  in  triumph  to  Milan. 
At  length,  conceiving  that  the  will  of  God 
was  thus  irresistibly  declared  against  him,  he 
submitted  to  assume  the  ungrateful  dignity. 

After  having  passed  through  the  necessa- 
ry ecclesiastical  gradations  he  was  ordained 
Bishop  on  the  8th  day  after  his  baptism,  at  i 
the  age  of  34.  His  first  act  was  to  make  over 
the  whole  of  his  property  to  the  Church  or 
the  poor  ;  and  it  should  be  remarked,  that  the 
same  charitable  disposition  continued  after- 
wards to  distinguish  him.  He  immediately 
declared  in  favor  of  the  Catholic  against  the 
Arian  doctrine ;  and  though  the  fury  with 
which  the  contest  was  at  that  time  conducted 
reached  and  infected  him,  we  cannot  justly 


*See  Fleurv,  liv.  xvii.,  sect,  xxi.,  iic. 
17 


accuse  him  of  having'  wantonly  inflamed  it. 
The  empress  Justinia,  the  widow  of  Valen- 
tinian,  was  an  Arian,  together  with  her  sol-1 
diers  and  her  court ;  the  great  body  of  the 
people  were  on  the  side  of  Ambrose ;  and  in 
the  year  385  some  violent  disputes  arose,  in 
which  the  Bishop  maintained  his  spiritual 
privileges  with  a  courage  and  a  confidence 
which  would  not  have  dishonored  the  bright- 
est ages  of  papacy.*  From  a  contest  with  a 
passionate  woman,  he  advanced  to  measure 
his  strength  with  a  wise  and  powerful  Empe- 
ror. Theodosius  the  Great  had  very  barba- 
rously avenged  the  murder  of  some  Imperial 
officers  at  Thessalonica  by  the  massacre  of 
the  inhabitants  ;  and  as  the  Bishop  of  Milan 
had  previously  interfered  in  their  favor,  he 
boldly  condemned  the  sanguinary  execution* 
Theodosius  pleaded  in  his  defence  the  exam- 
ple of  David.  '  Since  then  you  have  imitated 
his  offence  (rejoined  the  Prelate)  imitate  also 
his  penitence.'  It  appears,  that  for  the  period 
of  eight  months  the  Emperor  was  denied  all 
access  to  the  holy  offices  of  the  church — 'the 
consolation  which  was  afforded  to  the  lowest 
of  his  subjects  was  refused  (as  he  complain 
ed)f  to  himself.  Finally,  after  some  public 
humiliation,  to  remind  him  of  the  essential  dis- 
tractions  between  the  Priest  and  the  Prince,! 
and  the  spiritual  inferiority  of  the  latter,  he 
consented  to  the  performance  of  public  pen- 
ance, as  the  condition  of  reconciliation  with 
the  Church.  This  extraordinary  event  took 
place  in  390  ;§  and  if  we  have  already  remark- 

*The  great  influence  which  Ambrose  is  shown  to 
have  possessed  over  the  populace,  not  to  excite  only 
but  to  compose  its  tumults,  attests  the  vigor  of  his 
character  more  certainly,  than  it  proves  either  his  vir- 
tues or  even  his  eloquence — though  we  have  no  reason 
to  doubt  either. 

t  See  Fleury,  liv.  xix.,  sect.  xxi.  The  power  •  to 
bind  and  to  loose,'  as  delegated  by  Christ  to  his  min- 
isters on  earth  is  a  favorite  theme  with  St.  Ambrose, 
and  asserted  by  him  in  a  sufficiently  extensive  sense. 

J  See  Theodorit,  book  v.,  c.  xviii. 

§  Six  years  earlier  (according  to  Fleury)  St.  Am- 
brose addressed  to  Valentinian  a  letter,  in  which  he 
strenuously  opposed  the  restoration  of  the  altar  of 
victory  at  Rome,  so  warmly  pressed  by  Symmachus. 
It  contains  these  bold  expressions — '  What  answer 
will  you  make,  then,  when  a  Bishop  shall  say  to  you, 
The  Church  cannot  receive  the  offerings  of  him,  who 
has  given  ornaments  to  the  temples  of  the  Gods  ;  we 
cannot  present  on  the  altar  of  Jesus  Christ  the  gifts  of 
him  who  has  made  an  offering  to  idols.  The  edict 
signed  by  your  hand  convicts  you  of  that  act.  The 
honour  which  you  offer  to  Christ,  how  can  it  be  ac- 
ceptable to  him,  since  at  the  same  instant  you  offer 
adoration  to  idols'?  No — you  cannot  serve  two  mas-» 
ters,  &c.'  Epistle  17. 


130 


HISTORY   OF   THE  CHURCH. 


ed  upon  the  boldness  with  which  Gregory 
Nazianzen  proclaimed  (about  eighteen  years 
earlier)  the  ghostly  supremacy  of  the  Church, 
we  must  not  here  omit  to  observe,  that 
from  the  conclusion  of  Diocletian's  persecu- 
tion fourscore  years  had  not  yet  elapsed,  ere 
a  successor  of  that  unrestrained  and  lawless 
despot  was  compelled  by  the  mere  influence 
of  opinion  to  humble  himself  before  the 
unarmed  minister  of  that  religion  which  his 
predecessor  had  designed  to  exterminate. 

Many  works  of  St.  Ambrose  remain,  which 
exhibit  no  great  indications  of  literary  genius  ; 
but  they  abound  in  useful  moral  lessons, 
which  are  plentifully  interspersed  with  ex- 
nortations  to  fasting  and  celibacy,  and  the 
other  superstitions  of  the  day.  It  is  also  re- 
corded, that  he  performed  many  astonishing 
miracles  ;  stories  that  throw  disgrace  on  an 
elevated  character,  which  really  needed  not 
the  aid  of  imposture  to  secure  respect,  or 
even  popularity.  He  died  in  397  ;  and  after 
enjoying  universal  celebrity  during  his  life, 
throughout  the  whole  extent  of  Christendom, 
he  has  deserved  from  succeeding  generations 
the  equivocal  praise,  that  he  was  the  first  ef- 
fectual assertor  of  those  exalted  ecclesiastical 
pretensions,  so  essential  to  the  existence  of 
the  Romish  system,  and  so  dear  to  the  ambi- 
tious ministers  of  every  Church. 

4.  St.  John,  surnamed  from  his  eloquence, 
Chrysostom,  (i.  e.  the  Golden  Mouthed,)  was 
a  native  of  Antioch,  of  a  noble  and  opulent 
family.  In  the  year  374,  while  he  was  still 
young,  he  had  acquired  such  distinction,  that 
the  neighboring  Prelates  elected  him  to  a  va- 
cant See  ;  but  it  is  generally  affirmed  that  he 
refused  that  dignity,  and  fled  to  an  adjacent 
mountain,  where  he  passed  four  years  in  the 
society  of  an  ancient  solitary  ;  thence  he 
changed  his  residence  to  a  frightful  cavern, 
which  witnessed  for  the  two  following  years 
his  rigid  austerities.  Having  completed  this 
preparatory  discipline,  he  entered  upon  the 
offices  of  the  ministry  ;  and  after  edifying  his 
native  city  for  eighteen  years  by  the  most  an- 
imating instructions,  he  was  at  once  exalted, 
without  solicitation,  and  even  against  his  pro- 
fessed wish,  to  the  See  of  Constantinople. 
Chrysostom  carried  with  him  to  that  danger- 
ous eminence  not  only  the  fervor  of  Christ- 
ian eloquence,  but  the  severity  of  monastic 
virtue  ;  and  he  thought  it  little  to  move  the 
affections  and  raise  the  admiration  of  his  au- 
dience, unless  he  could  reach  their  practice 
and  quell  their  vices.  Had  he  confined  his 
exhortations  to  the  mass  of  the  people,  he 
would   have   produced    less  effect   perhaps, 


but  he  would  have  excited  no  odium— but 
the  intrepid  and  earnest  orator  rose  in  his 
vehement  denunciations  from  the  people  to 
the  clergy,  and  from  the  clergy  to  the  court, 
without  excepting  even  the  Empress  herself 
from  his  reproaches.*  To  the  keenness  of 
his  censures  he  added  the  weight  of  ecclesi- 
astical jurisdiction,  and  both  were  zealously 
employed  against  episcopal  licentiousness,! 
no  less  than  against  the  vices  and  scandals 
imputed  to  the  priesthood,  and  especially  to 
the  monastic  orders.  But  in  the  tedious  and 
delicate  office  of  ecclesiastical  reform,  that 
zeal  which  is  not  tempered  with  moderation, 
and  qualified  by  due  regard  for  existing  cir- 
cumstances, will  commonly  ruin  the  advocate, 
without  benefiting  the  cause.  The  disposi- 
tion of  Chrysostom  was  naturally  choleric 
and  impatient,  and  his  noblest  intentions  were 
frustrated  by  his  passionate  imprudence.  Two 
powerful  parties  united  for  his  overthrow 
and  though  their  first  triumph  was  instantly 
reversed  by  an  insurrection  of  t>e  populace, 
whom  his  ardent  eloquence,  the  beneficence 
of  his  charitable  habits  and  institutions,  the 
austerity  of  his  morals,  and  the  very  bitter- 
ness of  his  rebukes,  had  bound  and  devoted 
to  him,  yet  a  subsequent  condemnation  was 
more  effectual ;  |  and  after  a  tumultuous  rule 
of  six  years,  Chrysostom  was  dismissed  into 
exile  to  a  desolate  town  named  Cucusus, 
among  the  ridges  of  Mount  Taurus.  In  that 
remote  residence  he  passed  three  years,  the 
last,  perhaps  the  most  glorious,  of  his  life — 
for  his  virtues  were  more  eagerly  acknow- 
ledged in  his  absence,  and  his  genius  was 
endeared,  and  his  errors  were  obliterated,  by 
his  misfortunes.  About  thirteen  years  after- 
wards his  relics  were  removed  to  Constanti- 
nople, and  his  name  assumed  an  eminent 
place  among  the  saints  of  the  Church ;  and 
it  is  proper  to  add,  that  the  justice,  which 

*Eudoxia,  after  failing  in  her  first  attempt  to  dis- 
place Chrysostom,  renewed  her  hostilities  ;  and  it  was 
then  that  the  Bishop  delivered  the  sermon  (if  indeed 
he  did  at  all  deliver  it)  beginning  with  the  celebrated 
words — '  Herodias  is  again  furious  ;  Herodius  again 
dances ;  she  once  again  requires  the  head  of  St.  John.' 
'  An  insolent  allusion,  (says  Gibbon,)  which,  as  a 
woman  and  a  Sovereign,  it  was  equally  impossible 
for  her  to  forgive.'  Chap,  xxxii.  The  whole  ac- 
count of  St.  Chrysostom  is  written  with  learning,  elo- 
quence and  fairness. 

f  In  his  visitation  through  the  Asiatic  provinces  he 
deposed  thirteen  Bishops  of  Lydia  and  Phrygia,  an& 
passed  a  very  severe  censure  upon  the  whole  order. 

%  Still  his  expulsion  was  not  effected  without  pop- 
ular commotions,  which  led  to  the  conflagration  of  tha 
principal  church  and  the  adjoining  palace. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  WRITERS. 


131 


was  so  abundantly  bestowed  on  the  memory 
of  Chrysostom,  should  in  a  great  measure  be 
attributed  to  the  perseverance  of  the  Bishop 
of  Rome  ;  whose  sympathy  had  consoled 
him  in  his  adversity,  and  whose  influence, 
had  his  life  been  much  prolonged,  might 
eventually  have  restored  him  to  his  dig- 
nity.* 

The  works  that  remain  of  St.  Chrysostom 
are  for  the  most  part  Sermons  and  Homilies, 
and  are  nearly  a  thousand  in  number.  Their 
style  m  not  recommended  by  that  emulation 
of  Attic  purity  which  adorns  the  writings  of 
Basilius,  or  Gregory  Nazianzen  ;  but  it  is  el- 
evated and  unconstrained,  pregnant  with  nat- 
ural thoughts  and  easy  expressions,  enriched 
with  metaphors  and  analogies,  and  dignified 
by  boldness  and  grandeur.  And,  what  is 
more  important,  the  matter  of  his  discourses, 
while  it  declines  the  affectation  of  subtlety, 
and  avoids  the  barren  fields  of  theological 
speculation,  is  directly  addressed  to  the  com- 
mon feelings,  and  principles,  and  duties  of 
mankind.  The  heart  is  penetrated,  the  latent 
vice  is  discovered,  and  exposed  in  the  most 
frightful  colors  to  the  detestation  of  Christians. 
Such  was  the  character  of  that  eloquence 
which,  by  captivating  the  people  and  scan- 
dalizing the  great,  occasioned  such  tumultuous 
disorder  in  the  metropolis  of  the  East.  Yet 
the  historian  finds  much  more  to  admire  in 
the  bold  and  impetuous  enthusiasm  of  the  ora- 
tor, than  to  censure  in  his  indiscretion.  One 
object  alone  filled  his  mind  and  animated  his 
efforts — and  that  the  noblest  object  to  which 
the  genius  of  man  can  be  directed — to  warm 
the  religion,  to  purify  the  morals,  and  to  ad- 
vance the  virtue  and  happiness  of  those  whom 
he  influenced. 

At  the  same  time,  it  is  not  asserted  that  St. 
Chrysostom  was  exempt  from  the  errors  and 
abuses  of  his  day ;  he  exalted  the  merit  of 
celibacy  ;  he  strongly  inculcated  the  duty  of 
fasting,  and  the  sanctity  of  a  solitary  and  as- 
cetic life:  he  encouraged  the  veneration  for 
saints  and  martyrs ;  but  the  practical  nature  of 
his  piety  sometimes  shone  through  the  mists 
of  his  superstitious  delusion.  If  any,  for 
instance,  engaged  in  a  pilgrimage  to  the  holy 
places,  he  assured  them  that  their  principal 
motive  should  be  the  relief  of  the  poor — if 
any  were     bent    on    offering  up  prayers  for 

*  A  letter  from  Chrysostom  to  Innocent,  written  in 
406,  is  still  extant,  in  which,  with  many  expressions 
of  gratitude,  he  exhorts  that  Pope  to  continue  his  ex- 
ertions to  succor  him,  without  being  discouraged  by 
the  want  of  success. 


the  dead,  he  exhorted  them  to  give  alms  for 
the  dead  also.* 

With  respect  to  his  doctrine,  the  three 
points  which  have  been  most  warmly  disputed 
are,  his  opinions  on  the  Eucharist,  on  Grace 
and  Original  Sin,  and  on  Confession.  Re- 
garding the  first  of  these,  his  expressions  are 
both  vague  and  contradictory;  since  some  of 
them  would  lead  us  to  believe,  that  he  very 
nearly  approached,  if  he  did  not  actually 
reach,  the  belief  now  held  by  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  ;  while  in  another  passage, 
where  he  affirms  the  real  presence,  he  also 
(and  incidentally)  asserts  that  the  nature  of  the 
bread  is  not  changed.  Upon  the  whole,  it  s 
clear  that  he  held  very  elevated  notions  res- 
pecting the  Sacrament,  and  it  is  probable  that 
his  deliberate  opinion  was  in  favor  of  that 
which  we  call  Consubstantiation.  But  re- 
garding the  nature  of  penitence,  it  is  quite 
plain,  in  spite  of  some  seeming  inconsistencies 
which  Roman  Catholic  writers  have  detected, 
or  imagined,  that  his  direct  assertions  incul- 
cate the  sufficiency  of  penitential  confession 
to  God  in  prayer,  without  any  necessity  for 
the  mediation  of  his  ministers.  As  to  the 
second  point,  we  shall  perhaps  refer  to  the 
probable  opinion  of  this  father,  when  we  shall 
arrive  at  the  description  of  the  Pelagian  con-- 
troversy. 

5.  St.  Jerome  was  born  at  the  city  of  Strigna 
or  Stridona,  on  the  confines  of  Pannonia  and 
Dalmatia,  about  the  year  345.  His  family 
was  honorable,  his  fortune  abundant,  and  his 
youthful  studies,  under  the  celebrated  Dona* 
tus,f  had  improved  and  fortified  his  literary 
taste.     But  the  deep  religious  feeling,!  which 

*See  Dupin,  Nouv.  Biblioth.  Art.  St.  Jean  Chry- 
sostom. The  latter  part  of  the  fourth  century,  and  the 
beginning  of  the  fifth,  from  the  death  of  Julian,  for  in- 
stance, to  the  conquest  of  Africa  by  the  Vandals,  is  a 
very  important  and  a  deeply  interesting  period  of 
Christian  history;  and  there  is  no  method  per- 
haps by  which  its  peculiarities  could  be  so  distinctl 
painted,  as  by  detailed  accounts  of  St.  Ambrose,  St 
Chrysostom,  and  St.  Augustin — accounts,  which  should 
reject  all  that  is  fabulous  and  absurd  in  the  records  re- 
specting those  fathers,  while  they  embraced  the  most 
characteristic  and  striking  particulars  of  their  pri- 
vate, as  well  as  public,  conversation,  their  writing's 
and  their  doctrine. 

t  The  commentator  on  Virgil  and  Terence. 

%  In  his  twenty-second  letter,  in  order  to  divert  hfs 
correspondent  (Eustochium)  from  the  study  of  profane 
authors,  St.  Jerome  recounts,  that  formerly,  durirrg 
the  access  of  a  violent  fever,  he  had  been  dragged  in 
spirit  to  the  tribunal  of  Jesus  Christ,  where,  after 
receiving  severe  chastisement  for  his  attachment  to 
those  authors  (Cicero  and  Plautus  are  specified),  he 
had  been  forbidden  to  read  them  more.     Moreover, 


132 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


took  early  possession  of  his  soul,  led  him  to 
consecrate  his  labors  and  his  learning  to  that 
which  he  deemed  the  service  of  Christ.     An 
excessive  admiration  of  monastic  excellence, 
and  ardor  for  the  habits  which  conferred  it, 
constituted   the  ruling  principle  of  his  life; 
and  whether  it  was,  that  the  solitudes  of  Eu- 
rope  were  not  yet  sufficiently  sanctified  to 
satisfy  his  passion  for  holy  seclusion,  or  that 
the  celebrity  attending  on  ascetic  privations 
was  still    chiefly   confined   to    the    Eastern 
world,  he  bade  adieu  to  his  native  hills,  to  his 
hereditary  property,  to  pontifical  Rome  her- 
self, and  transferred  his  library,  his  diligence, 
and  his  enthusiasm,  to  a  convent  at  Bethle- 
hem.    In  a  retreat  so  well  qualified  to  nour- 
ish religious  emotion  even  in  the  most  tor- 
pid heart,  the  zeal  of  Jerome  did  not  slumber, 
but  rather  seemed  to  catch  fresh  fire  from 
the  objects  and  the  recollections  which  sur- 
rounded him.     From  that  wild  and  awful 
abode  he  poured  forth  the  torrent  of  his  law- 
less eloquence,  and  thundered  with  indiscri- 
minate wrath  against  the   enemies  and   the 
reformers  of  his  religion.     And    if  in  that 
peaceful,  and  perhaps  sinless  solitude,  it  was 
excusable  that  he  should  exaggerate  the  mer- 
its of  mortification,  and  fasting,  and  celibacy, 
and  pilgrimage,  and  disparage  the  substantial 
virtues,  which  he  could  rarely  witness,  and 
which  he  could  never  practise  ;  on  the  other 
hand  it  was  some  aggravation  of  his  intem- 
perance, that  in  the  birth-place  of  Christ,  at 
the  very  fountain  of  humility  and  peace,  he 
vented,  even   against  his  Christian  adversa- 
ries, a    malignant    and    calumnious  rancor. 
Rufinus,  .Tovinian  and  Vigilantius,  successive- 
ly sustained  the  fulness  of  his  indignation  ; 
and  lastly,  towards  the  close  of  his  life,  the 
opinions  of  Pelagius  again  excited  that  vio- 
lence, which  even  old  age  *  had  been  unable 
to  moderate.f 


he  assures  Eustochiuin,  that  that  story  is  no  dream, 
and  invokes  the  heavenly  tribunal  before  which  he 
had  appeared,  to  attest  his  veracity.  See  Duphin, 
Nouv.  Bibl.,  vie  S.  Jerome. 

*  St.  Jerome  died  in  the  year  420. 

fin  the  meantime  St.  Jerome  was  not  himself 
exempt  from  error,  and  such  too  as  called  for  the 
reprehension  even  of  St.  Augustin.  The  former 
somewhere  expresses  an  opinion,  that  the  difference 
between  St.  Paul  and  St.  Peter,  described  in  the 
Acts,  was  not  real,  but  only  feigned — for  pious  pur- 
poses; an  opinion  which  the  Bishop  of  Hippo  most 
justly  condemns   as  of  very  dangerous  consequence. 


But  while  we  censure  both  the  superstitious 
and  contentious  spirit  of  St.  Jerome,  we  must 
also  recollect  how  great  a  compensation  he 
made  for  evils  thus  occasioned,  by  his  great 
work,  the  Latin  translation  of  the  Old  Testa 
ment.  And  we  must  add,  that  a  considerable 
knowledge  of  Hebrew,  much  general  learn- 
ing, and  long  application,  qualified  him,  far 
above  any  contemporary,  for  the  most  impor- 
tant undertaking  hitherto  accomplished  by 
any  father  of  the  Roman  church. 

And  here  let  us  pause,  to  observe  for  one 
moment  the  immediate  effect  of  his  various 
labors.  His  theological  philippics  were  hailed 
by  the  body  of  the  Church  with  triumphant 
acclamation ;  his  exhortations  to  seclusion 
and  celibacy  peopled  the  desert  places  with 
monks  and  hermits ;  but  his  translation  of 
the  Bible  was  ill  received  by  the  Church  ; 
'  it  was  considered  as  a  rash  and  dangerous 
innovation  ;  '*  even  St.  Augustin  disapproved, 
and  held  that  it  was  more  prudent  to  abide 
by  the  text  of  the  Septuagint,  than  to  risk 
the  confusion  and  scandal  which  a  new  ver- 
sion might  create.  This  senseless  clamor  was 
sufficient,  even  in  those  days,  to  prevent  the 
immediate  diffusion  of  the  work  ;  and  almost 
two  hundred  years  afterwards,  we  learn,  that 
it  only  divided  with  its  rival  the  diligence  of 
St.  Gregory;  in  later  times  it  spread  into 
wider  circulation,  and  finally  obtained  very 
general  possession  of  the  Latiu  Church,  f 

As  the  name  of  Athanasius  more  properly 
belongs  to  the  Arian  controversy,  so  that  of 
Augustin  is  closely  connected  with  the  his- 
tory of  the  Donatists  and  Pelagians,  and  that 
of  Basil  with  the  rise  of  Monasticism.  Those 
who  may  desire  more  extensive  information 
respecting  the  lives  and  countless  writings  of 
the  fathers  here  mentioned,  and  of  the  more 
numerous  and  obscure  associates  whom  we 
have  no  space  to  notice,  may  apply,  though 
with  different  degrees  of  confidence,  to  the 
compilations  of  Lardner,  Dupin,  Cave,  and 
Tillemont. 


St.  Jerome  also  ventured  a  prophecy  respecting  the 
Millennium — but  this  indeed  was  a  safer  field  of 
speculation,  since  his  prediction  was  not  the  object 
of  conclusive  reasoning;  and  thus  it  continued  in  hon- 
or for  about  six  hundred  years,  until  the  patience  of 
time  at  length  falsified  it. 

*  Dupin,  Nouv.  Biblioth.,  loc.  cit. 

t  Of  all  the  works  of  St.  Jerome,  his  '  Catalogue 
of  Ecclesiastical  Writers'  i3  that  which  is  now  most 
frequently  referred  to. 


EXTERNAL  FEATURES  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


133 


CHAPTER  X. 

From  the   Death  of  Justinian  to   that   of 
Charlemagne.   567  to  814. 

.  The  External  fortunes  of  Christianity — its  Restoration 
in  England  by  St.  Austin — its  progress  in  Germany — 
among  the  Tartars — Its  reverses — Mahomet  and  his 
successors — their  conquests  in  Asia — in  Egypt — facili- 
tated by  Christian  dissensions — in  Africa — Carthage — 
in  Spain — in  France — their  defeat  by  Charles  Martel — 
Treatment  of  Christian  subjects  by  the  Saracens — Char- 
lemagne— forcible  conversion  of  the  Saxons  and  Pan- 
rionians. — II.  The  Internal  condition  of  Christianity — 
method  of  this  History — Pope  Gregory  the  Great— his 
character  and  conduct — worship  of  Images — Purgatory 
— Relics — Ceremonies — the  Gregorian  Canon — Gregory 
the  creator  of  the  Papal  system— Title  of  (Ecumenic 
Bishop — Power  of  the  Keys— Apocrisiarii  and  Defen- 
sores — Changes  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  centu- 
ries—Orders of  the  Clergy— The  Tonsure— Unity  of 
the  Church  —  Councils  —  Metropolitans  —  Increase  and 
abuse  of  Episcopal  power — Pope  Zachary  consulted 
as  to  the  deposition  of  Childeric — his  conduct  how 
far  blamable — the  Lombards — the  Donation  of  Pepin 
—  confirmed  by  Charlemagne  —  His  liberality  to  the 
Church,  and  the  motives  of  it — His  endeavors  to  reform 
the  Church. 

Christianity  had  obtained  early  and  per- 
haps general  reception  in  Britain,  when  it 
was  suddenly  swept  away,  with  the  language 
itself,  by  the  invasion  of  the  Anglo-Saxons 
in  452,  and  almost  entirely  obliterated.  To- 
wards the  end  of  the  sixth  century  some 
circumstances  occurred  favorable  to  its  resti- 
tution. Ethelbert,  King  of  Kent,  the  most 
considerable  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  princes, 
married  Bertha,  daughter  of  the  King  of  Pa- 
ris, a  Christian.  Some  clergy  appeal-  to  have 
followed  her  to  England,  and  to  have  softened 
the  pagan  prejudices  of  the  King.  Gregory 
the  Great,  who  was  then  Bishop  of  Rome, 
availed  himself  of  this  circumstance,  and  in 
the  year  596,  he  sent  over  forty  Benedictine 
monks,  under  the  conduct  of  Augustin  (com- 
monly called  St.  Austin),  prior  of  a  mon- 
astery of  that  order.  The  King  was  convert- 
ed, and  most  of  the  inhabitants  of  Kent  fol- 
lowed his  example  ;  the  missionary  then  re- 
ceived episcopal  ordination  from  the  primate 
of  Aries,  and  was  invested,  as  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  with  power  over  the  British 
Church.  The  religion,  thus  established, 
spread  with  great  rapidity ;  six  other  Anglo- 
Saxon  Kings  embraced  the  faith  of  Augustin 
and  Ethelbert ;  and  it  was  very  generally 
propagated  throughout  the  whole  island  be- 
fore the  conclusion  of  the  seventh  century. 

The  miraculous  assistance  by  which  this 
work  was  accomplished  is  acknowledged  in 
a  letter  addressed  by  the  Pope  himself  to  his 
missionary.  '  I  know  that  God  has  perform- 
ed through  you  great  miracles  among  that 


people  ;  but  let  us  remember  that,  when  the 
disciples  said  with  joy  to  their  divine  master, 
"  Lord,  even  the  devils  are  subject  unto  us 
through  thy  name,"  he  answered  them  — 
"  Rather  rejoice,  because  your  names  are 
written  in  heaven."  While  God  thus  em- 
ploys your  agency  without,  remember,  my 
dear  brother,  to  judge  yourself  severely 
within,  and  to  know  well  what  you  are. 
If  you  have  offended  God  in  word  or  deed, 
preserve  those  offences  in  your  thoughts, 
to  repress  the  vain  glory  of  your  heart, 
and  consider,  that  the  gift  of  miracles  is 
not  granted  to  you  for  yourself,  but  for 
those  whose  salvation  you  are  laboring  to 
procure.'  An  increased  acquaintance  with 
the  character  of  Gregory,  which  we  shall 
presently  acquire,  will  diminish  the  weight 
of  his  testimony  on  this  matter;  which  many 
indeed  will  be  strongly  predisposed  to  doubt, 
from  the  circumstance,  that  the  apostle  of 
England  was  never  supernaturally  gifted 
with  any  knowledge  of  the  language  of  the 
country,  but  was  obliged,  in  addressing  the 
people,  to  avail  himself  of  the  imperfect  ser- 
vice of  an  interpreter.  But  (little  as  those 
stories  may  be  entitled  to  credit)  it  is  certain, 
that  God  vouchsafed  one  heavenly  blessing 
on  the  mission  of  St.  Austin,  though  display- 
ed in  a  manner  less  popular  with  Roman 
Catholic  historians — the  work  of  conver- 
sion was  accomplished  without  violence  or 
compulsion ;  the  sword  of  the  spirit  was 
found  sufficient  for  the  holy  purpose,  and  the 
ruins  of  our  Saxon  idolatry  were  not  stained 
by  the  blood  of  one  martyr. 

It  is  not  pretended,  that  the  religion  thus 
hastily  introduced  was  a  pure  form  of  Chris- 
tianity, or  even  that  it  differed  very  widely, 
in  its  first  appearance  or  operation,  from  the 
superstition  which  it  succeeded.  There 
even  exists  an  Epistle  from  Gregory  in  which 
he  permits  the  ceremonies  of  the  former 
worship  to  be  associated  with  the  profession 
of  the  Gospel ;  nor  is  it  possible,  even  for 
the  most  perfect  law  at  once  to  change  the 
habits  and  correct  the  morals  of  a  savage 
people.  But  the  consent  of  history  assures 
us,  that,  during  the  century  following,  the 
nation  gradually  emerged  from  the  rudest 
barbarism  into  a  condition  of  comparative 
civilisation,  and  that  the  principles  and  mo- 
tives of  Christianity  extended  their  salutary 
influence  over  the  succeeding  generations. 

Many  historians  affirm,  that  St.  Austin 
neglected  the  lessons  of  humility  which  he 
had  received  from  his  master,  and  proceeded 
to  assert  with  great  insolence  the  spiritual 


134 


HISTOKV  OF  THE    CHURCH. 


supremacy  of  Rome,  not  only  over  his  own 
converts,  but  also  over  that  faithful  portion 
who  still   maintained  among  the  Cambrian 
mountains  the   doctrine   and  practice  trans- 
mitted from  their  forefathers.     It  appears  in- 
deed that  those  simple  believers  having  been 
long    severed  from  the   body  of   Christen- 
dom, ignorantly  preserved   the  original  ori- 
ental rite  in  the  celebration  of  Easter,  which 
had  been   so    long    proclaimed   schismatic ; 
they  were  still  involved  in  the  error  of  the 
(^ijartadecimaps;  and  they  continued  to  per* 
severe  botli  in  that,  and  in  the  rejection  of 
papal  authority,   even   after   they  had  been 
enlightened  by  the  exhortations  of  St.  Austin. 
It  is  recorded,  and  is  probable,  that  they 
were  deterred  by  the  imperious  conduct  of 
that  prelate  from  uniting  with  his  Church; 
and  thus  far  we  need  not  hesitate  to  condemn 
him ;  but  some  more  serious  charges  which 
have  been  brought  against  him  stand  on  very 
slight  foundation.* 

It  is  next  our  duty  to  record  and  cele- 
brate the  labors  of  Succathus,  a  Scotsman,  to 
whom  is  usually  given  the  glory  of  having 
converted  the  Irish,  and  established  among 
them  the  Episcopal  Church;  and  also  of 
Columban,  an  Irish  monk  and  missionary, 
who  diffused  the  religion  among  the  Gauls 
and  various  Teutonic  tribes,  about  the  end 
of  the  sixth  century.  It  is  not  easy,  at  this 
distance  of  time,  to  calculate  the  precise  ef- 
fect of  mere  individual  exertion  in  so  dif- 
ficult an  enterprise,  or  to  separate  what  is 
fabulous  in  such  records  from  that  which 
may  reasonably  be  received.     But  the  pro- 


*  Jortin  (Eccl.  Hist.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  417)  says,  <  The 
Christianity  which  this  pretended  apostle  and  sancti- 
fied ruffian  taught  us,  seemed  to  consist  principally  in 
two  things,  in  keeping  Easter  upon  a  proper  day,  and 
to  be  slaves  to  our  Sovereign  Lord  God,  the  Pope, 
and  to  Austin,  his  deputy  and  vicegerent.  Such  were 
the  boasted  blessings  and  benefits  which  vve  received 
from  the  mission  and  ministry  of  this  most  audacious 
and  insolent  monk.'  This  is  passionate  and  unjust 
abuse.  St.  Austin  was  indeed  the  missionary  of  a 
Pope— but  his  conversion  of  the  mass  of  the  inhab* 
itants  of  this  island  was  perfectly  independent  of  his 
endeavors  to  bring  over  to  the  Church  of  Rome  the 
few  and  obscure  schismatics  of  Wales  ;  and  let  us 
recollect  that  his  exertions,  in  both  cases,  were  di- 
rected only  to  persuade.  The  evidence  respecting 
the  massacre  of  the  twelve  hundred  monks  of  Bangor 
is  very  fairly  stated  by  Fuller  ;  and  it  seems  upon  the 
whole  probable,  that  the  event  took  place  after  the 
death  of  St.  Austin.  But  at  any  rate  the  crime  was 
committed  in  the  heat  of  battle,  apparently  with- 
out design  or  premeditation^-so  that  it  is  absurd  to 
charge  it  upon  a  person,  who,  even  if  he  was  living, 
Was  certainly  not  present  at  the  scene. 


gress  of  St.  Austin  is  much  more  intelligible 
—since  he  was  aided  by  the  immediate  sup- 
port of  Pope  Gregory,  and  since  one  of  the 
earliest  among  his  proselytes  was  a  King. 

It  appears  probable,  that  at  the  beginning 
of  the  eighth  century  Christianity  had  made 
very  little  progress  in  Germany;  at  least  its 
reception   had    been   confined   to   provinces 
immediately  bordering  on  the  Roman   em- 
pire.*   In  the  year  715,  Winfrid,t  a  noble 
Englishman,  who  was  afterwards  known  by 
the  name  of  Boniface,  undertook  the  labors 
of  a  missionary.     His  first  attempt  was  fruit- 
less ;  but  presently  returning,  under  the  au- 
spices and  by  the  authority  of  Pope  Gregory 
II.,   he  preached   among   the   Frieselanders 
and   Hessians   with   considerable   success.   { 
In   723  he   was  consecrated  a  Bishop,  and 
being  joined  by  many  pious  Christians,  from 
France  as  well  as  England,  he   established 
numerous  churches  throughout  the  country. 
His  immediate  recompense  was  advancement 
to  the  archiepiscopal  See  of  Mayence,  and  to 
the  Primacy  of  Germany  and  Belgium.     To 
posterity  he  is  more  generally  and  more  glo- 
riously known  as  the  Jlpnstle  of  the  Germans. 
And  the  additional  title  of  Saint  was  due  not 
only  to  his  zeal,  but  also  to  his  martyrdom— 
for,  returning  in  his  old  age  to  Frieseland,§ 


*  Fleury  (1.  xxxviii.,  sect,  lviii.)  mentions  three 
monasteries  as  having  been  founded  at  Tournay  and 
Ghent  about  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century. 

t  We  are  not  to  confound  this  missionary  with  St. 
Wilfrid,  another  Englishman,  who  also  gained  some 
reputation  both  in  France  and  at  Rome,  from  about 
660  to  710.  The  vast  quantity  of  relics  which  he 
brought  home  from  his  first  expedition  to  the  Conti- 
nent is  mentioned  by  Fleury,  liv.  xxx.,sect.  xxxv. 

$  Mosheim,  Cent,  viii.,  p.  i.,c.  i.  Milner  takes 
great  pains  to  exculpate  Boniface  from  the  vari- 
ous charges  of  violence,  arrogance,  fraud,  &c. ,  which 
Mosheim  very  liberally  heaps  upon  him,  aud  to  prove 
him,  from  his  own  correspondence,  to  have  been 
a  mere  pious,  unambitious  missionary.  There  is 
some  reason  in  the  defence  ;  and  Mosheim  may 
very  probably  have  been  prejudiced  against  Boniface 
by  that  absolute  devotion  to  the  Holy  See  which  he 
professed,  and  by  which  he  profited.  See  also  Fleu- 
ry, end  of  liv,  xli.,  &c. 

§  That  country  was  for  some  years  the  scene  of  the 
successive  exertions  of  St,  Wilfrid,  St.  Vulfran,  St. 
Villebrod,  and  lastly  St.  Boniface.  It  was  the  second 
of  those  missionaries  whose  injudicious  answer  to 
Radbod,  the  King  of  the  Frieselanders,  retarded  the 
progress  of  the  new  religion-  That  Prince  was 
standing  at  the  baptismal  font,  prepared  for  the  cere- 
mony—ronly  one  point  remained,  respecting  which 
his  curiosity  was  still  unsatisfied — •  Tell  me,'  said  he 
to  the  holy  Bishop,  '  where  is  now  the  greater  num- 
ber of  the  Kings  and  Princes  of  the  nation  of  the 
Frieselanders — are  they  in  the  Paradise  which  you 


EXTERNAL  FORTUNES  OP  CHRISTIANITY. 


136 


that  he  might  terminate  his  labors  where  he 
had  beguD  them,  he  was  massacred  by  the 
savage  inhabitants,  together  with  fifty  eccle- 
siastics who  attended  him.     (a.  d.  755.) 

To  the  eiglith  century  we  may  also  refer 
the  introduction  of  Christianity  among  the 
Tartars,  the  inhabitants  of  those  regions  which 
now  constitute  the  southern  Asiatic  provinces 
of  the  Russian  empire.  This  spiritual  con- 
quest was  achieved  under  the  auspices  of  an 
heretical  Bishop,  Timotheus  the  Nestorian, 
about  the  year  790.  On  the  other  hand,  for 
the  chastisement  of  a  corrupt  Church  and  a 
sinful  people,  the  extensive  tracts  of  central 
and  southern  Asia  had  been  already  over- 
whelmed by  the  fiercest  enemies  who  have 
ever  been  raised  against  the  Christian  name, 
the  fanatic  followers  of  Mahomet ;  and  to  their 
mention  we  cannot  proceed  perhaps  with  a 
better  augury,  than  after  recording  that  ob- 
scure fact,  which  planted  the  banner  of  Chris- 
tianity in  a  Russian  province. 

Mahometan  Conquests.  During  the  fourth 
century  of  our  history  we  were  occupied  in 
observing  the  destruction  of  the  ancient  pa- 
ganism of  Greece  and  Rome ;  during  the  fifth 
and  sixth  we  marked  the  success  of  Christian- 
ity in  supplanting  the  rude  superstitions  of  the 
Celtic  invaders  of  the  empire,  and  subduing 
those  savage  aggressors  to  the  law,  or  at  least 
to  the  name,  of  Christ.  But  the  seventh  cen- 
tury was  marked  by  the  birth  of  a  new  and 
resolute  adversary,  who  began  his  career  with 
the  most  stupendous  triumphs,  who  has  torn 
from  us  the  possession  of  half  the  world,  and 
who  retains  his  conquests  even  to  this  mo- 
ment. Mahomet  was  born  about  the  year 
570  ;  we  are  ignorant  of  the  precise  period  of 
the  nativity  of  that  man  who  wrought  the 
most  extraordinary  revolution  in  the  affairs 
of  this  globe,  which  the  agency  of  any  being 
merely  human  has  ever  yet  accomplished. 
His  pretended  mission  did  not  commence  till 
he  was  about  forty  years  old,  and  the  date  of 
his  celebrated  flight  from  Mecca,  the  Hedji- 


promise  me,  or  in  the  Hell  with  which  you  menace 
me  V  '  Do  not  deceive  yourself,'  replied  St.  Vulfran; 
'the  Princes,  your  predecessors,  who  have  died  without 
baptism,  are  most  assuredly  damned ;  but  whosoever 
shall  believe  henceforward,  and  be  baptised,  shall  be 
in  joy  eternal  with  Christ  Jesus.'  Upon  this  Radbod 
withdrew  his  foot  from  the  font  and  said — '  I  cannot 
resolve  to  relinquish  the  society  of  the  Kings,  my  pre- 
decessors, in  order  to  live  with  a  few  poor  people  in 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.  I  cannot  believe  these  nov- 
elties, and  I  will  rather  adhere  to  the  ancient  usages 
of  iny  nation.'  It  was  not  until  after  the  death  of  this 
Prince  that  St.  Boniface  gained  any  footing  in  the 
country-    Fleury,  1.  xlix.,  s.  35 


rah,  or  era  of  Mahometan  nations,  is  622, 
a.  d.  The  remainder  of  his  life  was  spent  iu 
establishing  his  religion  and  his  authority  in 
his  native  land,  Arabia  ;  and  the  sword  with 
which  he  finally  completed  that  purpose,  he 
bequeathed,  for  the  universal  propagation  of 
both,  to  his  followers.  His  commission  was 
zealously  executed ;  and,  in  less  than  a  cen- 
tury after  his  death,  his  faith  was  uninterrup- 
tedly extended  by  a  chain  of  nations  from 
India  to  the  Atlantic. 

The  fate  of  Persia  was  decided  by  the  bat- 
tle of  Cadesia,  in  636.  In  Syria,  Damascus 
had  already  fallen,  and  after  the  sanguinary 
conflict  of  Yermuk,  where  the  Saracens  for 
the  first  time  encountered  and  overthrew  a 
Christian  enemy,  the  conquerors  instantly 
proceeded  to  the  reduction  of  Jerusalem  ; 
that  grand  religious  triumph  they  obtained 
in  637.  In  the  year  following  Aleppo  and 
Antioch  fell  into  their  hands,  which  com- 
pleted the  conquest  of  Syria.  Thence  they 
proceeded  northward  as  far  as  the  shores 
oftheEuxine  and  the  neighborhood  of  Con- 
stantinople. 

The  invasion  of  Egypt  took  place  in  638, 
and  within  the  space  of  three  years,  the  whole 
of  that  populous  province  was  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  infidels.  Alexandria  was  the  last 
city  which  fell ;  and  in  somewhat  more  than 
a  century  after  the  expulsion  of  philosophy 
from  Europe  by  a  Christian  legislator,  the 
schools  of  Africa  were  closed  in  their  turn  by 
the  arms  of  an  unlettered  Mahometan. 

The  success  of  the  Saracens  was  not  incon- 
siderably promoted  by  the  religious  dissensions 
of  their  Christian  adversaries.  A  vast  number 
of  heretics  who  had  been  oppressed  and  stig- 
matized by  Edicts  and  Councils  were  scattered 
over  the  surface  of  Asia  ;  and  these  were  con- 
tented to  receive  a  foreign  master,  of  whose 
principles  they  were  still  ignorant,  in  the  place 
of  a  tyrant  whose  injustice  they  had  experi- 
enced. But  in  Egypt,  especially,  the  whole 
mass  of  the  native  population  was  unfortu- 
nately involved  in  the  Jacobite  heresy  ;  and 
few  at  that  time  were  found,  except  the  res- 
ident Greeks,  who  adhered  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  Church.  The  followers  of  Eutyches 
formed  an  immediate  alliance  with  the  sol- 
diers of  Mahomet  against  a  Catholic  Prince  ; 
and  they  considered  that  there  was  nothing 
unnatural  in  that  act,  since  they  hoped  to  se- 
cure for  themselves,  under  a  Mahometan,  the 
toleration  which  had  been  refused  by  an  or- 
thodox government.  We  should  remark, 
however,  that  this  hope,  the  pretext  of  their 
desertion,  was  with  many  the  suggestion  of 


136 


HISTORY  OF   THE    CHURCH. 


their  malice  :  that  besides  the  recollection  of 
wrongs,  and  the  desire  to  escape  or  revenge 
them,  they  were  inflamed  as  furiously  as  their 
persecutors  by  that  narrow  sectarian  spirit, 
which  is  commonly  excited  most  keenly 
where  the  differences  are  most  trifling ;  and 
which,  while  it  exaggerated  the  lines  that 
separated  them  from  then  fellow  Christians, 
blinded  them  to  the  broad  gulf  which  divid- 
ed all  alike  from  the  infidel. 

From  Egypt  the  conquerors  rushed  along 
the  northern  shore  of  Africa;  and  though 
their  progress  in  that  direction  was  interrupt- 
ed by  the  domestic  dissensions  of  the  Prophet's 
family,  even  more  than  by  the  occasional  vig- 
or of  the  Christians,  they  were  in  possession 
of  Carthage  before  the  end  of  the  seventh 
century.  Thence  they  proceeded  westward, 
and  after  encountering  some  opposition  from 
the  native  Moors,  little  either  from  the  Greek 
or  Vandal  masters  of  the  country,  they  com- 
pleted their  conquest  in  the  year  709. 

Hitherto  the  Mahometans  had  gained  no 
footing  in  Europe  ;  and  it  may  seem  strange 
that  the  most  western  of  its  provinces  should 
have  been  that  which  was  first  exposed  to 
their  occupation.  But  the  vicinity  of  Spain 
to  their  latest  conquests,  and  the  factious  dis- 
sensions of  its  nobility,  gave  them  an  early 
opportunity  to  attempt  the  subjugation  of  that 
country.  Their  success  was  almost  unusual- 
ly rapid.  In  71]  they  overthrew  the  Gothic 
monarchy  by  the  victory  of  Xeres ;  and  the 
two  following  years  were  sufficient  to  secure 
their  dominion  over  the  greatest  part  of  the 
peninsula. 

The  waters  of  this  torrent  were  destined  to 
proceed  still  a  little  farther.  Ten  years  after 
the  battle  of  Xeres,  the  Saracens  crossed  the 
Pyrenees  and  overran  with  little  opposition  the 
southwestern  provinces  of  France — 'the  vine- 
yards of  Gascony  and  the  city  of  Bourdeaux 
were  possessed  by  the  Sovereign  of  Damas- 
cus and  Samarcand  ;  and  the  south  of  France, 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Garonne  to  that  of  the 
Rhone,  assumed  the  manners  and  religion  of 
Arabia.'*    Still  dissatisfied  with  those  ample 

*  Gibbon  has  not  composed  a  more  eloquent,  or  a 
less  philosophical  chapter,  than  his  fifty-first.  As  if  lie 
were  blinded  by  the  splendor  of  the  Mahometan  con- 
quests, he  overlooks,  not  only  the  misery  immediately 
occasioned  by  them,  but  their  fatal  influence  on  the 
progressive  and  permanent  improvement  of  man. 
History  is  philosophy  teaching  by  example;  and  the 
lessons  of  history  are  then,  indeed,  noble  and  profit- 
able, and  then  only,  when  philosophy  casts  away  her 
pride  and  her  pedantry,  and  condescends  to  rise  into 
philauthrophy 


limits,  or  impatient  of  any  limit,  these  chil- 
dren of  the  desert  again  marched  forward  in- 
to the  centre  of  the  kingdom.  They  were 
encamped  between  Tours  and  Poitiers,  when 
Charles  Martel,  the  Mayor  or  Duke  of  the 
Franks,  encountered  them.  It  is  too  much  to 
assert  that  the  fate  of  Christianity  depended 
upon  the  result  of  the  battle  which  followed ; 
but  if  victory  had  declared  for  the  Saracens, 
it  would  probably  have  secured  to  them  in 
France  the  same  extent,  perhaps  the  same 
duration,  of  authority  which  they  possessed 
in  Spain.  Next  they  would  have  carried 
the  horrors  of  war  and  Islamism  into  Ger- 
many or  Britain  ;  but  there  other  fields  must 
have  been  fought,  against  nations  of  warriors 
as  brave  as  the  Franks,  by  an  invader  who 
was  becoming  less  powerful,  and  even  less 
enthusiastic,  as  he  advanced  farther  from  the 
head  of  his  resources  and  his  faith.  Indeed, 
if  we  had  space  to  speculate  more  deeply  on 
the  probabilities  of  this  question,  we  should 
rather  be  led  to  consider  this  effort  against 
France  as  the  last  wave  of  the  deluge  now 
exhausted,  and  about  to  recede  within  more 
reasonable  boundaries. 

The  final  struggle  of  the  Saracens  was 
scarcely  worthy  of  their  former  triumphs. 
During  six  days  of  desultory  combat  the 
horsemen  and  archers  of  the  East  maintained 
indeed  an  indecisive  advantage  ;  but  in  the 
closer  onset  of  the  seventh  day,  the  Germans, 
more  eminently  powerful  in  limb,  and  strong 
in  heart  as  well  as  hand,  instantly  extinguish- 
ed the  Arabs  with  iron  arm  and  overbearing 
chest.*  The  chief  of  the  Saracens  fell  in  the 
conflict ;  the  survivors  fled  to  their  encamp- 
ment, and  after  a  night  passed  in  the  dissen- 
sion usual  to  the  vanquished,  they  dispersed, 
and  evacuated  the  country.  This  battle  was 
fought  in  the  year  732  ;  the  advantages  were 
slowly  but  resolutely  pursued  by  the  conquer- 
or, and  presently  ended  in  the  final  expulsion 
of  the  invader  from  the  soil  of  France. 

In  less  than  one  century  from  the  preach- 
ing of  Mahomet,  his  disciples  had  obtained 
military  possession  of  Persia,  Syria,  and  the 
greater  part  of  central  and  western  Asia,  of 
Egypt,  and  the  long  extent  of  the  northern 
coast  of  Africa ;  and  lastly  of  the  kingdom  of 
Spain.  The  propagation  of  their  religion 
furnished  to  all  the  pretext,  and  to  many  the 
sincere   motive,   of  aggression  ;  and   as   the 


*  Gibbon,  c.  lii,  Roderic  Toletan.  c.  xiv.,  Gens 
Austria  membrorum  pre-cminentia  valida,  et  gens 
Germana  corde  et  corpore  prsestantissima,  quasi  in 
ictu  oculi  manu  ferrea  et  pectore  arduo  Arabes  ex- 
tinxerunt. 


INTERNAL  CONDITION  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


137 


most  violent  means  were  not  forbidden    by 
their  law,  and  as  religious  wars  are  seldom 
distinguished  by  mildness  and  humanity,  we 
may  believe  that  many   revolting  cruelties 
were    occasionally    perpetrated    by    them. 
However  upon  the  whole  they  found  it  more 
politic,  to  tolerate  than  to  exterminate  ;  with 
the  heretics  of  the  East  they  formed  early 
and   friendly   relations    through   a   common 
enmity ;  and  in  Africa  and  Spain  they  gene- 
rally proffered  the  alternative  of  the  Koran 
or   tribute;*   so   that    Christianity   was   not 
immediately  extirpated  from  any  of  the  con- 
quered countries,  and  even  at  this  moment 
it  continues  to  linger,  however  degraded  by 
adversity  and   oppression,  in  almost   all   of 
them.     The  country  in  which  it  suffered  the 
most  immediate  and  perfect  prostration  was 
the  northern  coast  of  Africa  ;  and  those  two 
fruitful   nurseries  of  religion   and    religious 
men,   Alexandria  and    Carthage,  which   fill 
so   eminent  a  station  in   the   early  Catholic 
Church — names  which   are  so   closely  asso- 
ciated with  all  the  various  fortunes  of  rising 
Christianity,   with   its   most    honorable    and 
holy  triumphs,  with  its  afflictions  and  rever- 
ses, with  the  zeal,  the  genius,  and  the  elo- 
quence of  its  professors,  with  their  dissensions 
and  intolerance — those  two  powerful  Church- 
es  were   from   that   time   forward   oblitera- 
ted  from  history.     It   is   true,   indeed,    that 
the  former  still  preserved  a  title,  but  it  was 
without  power  ;  and  a  dignity,  but   it   was 
without  independence :  she  lost  her  learning 
and  her  industry,  and  all  her  excellence  and 
energy  departed   with   them.      But   at   Car- 
thage  the   actual  extinction   of  Christian  ity 
very  speedily   followed   the    success   of  the 
Mahometans,   and   the  labors   of  Tertullian, 
Cyprian,  Lactantius,  Augustin  and  so  many 
others  were  spurned  and  execrated,  if  indeed 
their  very  names  were  not  rather  forgotten, 
by  a  faithless  and  blaspheming  posterity. 

The  victory  of  Charles  Martel  was  soon 
followed  by  the  reestablishment  of  a  more 
effective  government  in  France  ;  and  pre- 
cisely forty  years  after  the  battle  of  Tours, 
we  find  Charlemagne  engaged  in  a  sanguin- 
ary war  against  the  Saxons,  for  the  purpose 
of  converting  them  to  the  Christian  religion. 
It  seemed,  indeed,  as  if  that  zealous  Prince 
was  for  a  season  possessed  by  the  spirit  of  the 

*  The  Mahometans  drew  a  broad  distinction  be- 
tween those  infidel?  who  had  a  Book  of  faith,  and 
those  who  had  none.  Among  the  former  they  placed 
the  disciples  of  Zoroaster,  atid  therefore  showed  them 
great  mercy — but  they  had  no  compassion  on  the 
Pagan. 

18 


Arabian,  and  that  he  imitated  the  fury  of  his 
armed  apostles  ;  and,  as  if  Christianity  had 
not  already  sufficiently  suffered  by  adopting 
the  vices  of  other  systems,  he  dragged  into 
its  service  the  most  savage  principle  of 
Islamism.  After  eight  years  of  resistance 
and  misfortune  the  Saxons  were  compelled 
to  take  refuge  in  the  profession  of  the  Gos- 
pel ;  *  and  the  Huns  of  Pannonia  were  soon 
afterwards  driven  by  the  same  victorious 
compulsion  to  the  same  necessity. 

When  we  behold  the  limits  of  Christendom 
extended  by  the  writings  of  its  ministers,  or 
the  eloquence  of  its  missionaries,  we  record 
such  conquests  with  pure  and  grateful  satis- 
faction ;  when  we  observe  a  mass  of  Pagans, 
or  other  unbelievers,  suddenly,  but  peaceful- 
ly, melting  into  the  bosom  of  the  Church, 
we  question  their  motives,  we  lament  the 
stain  which  they  may  bring  with  them,  and 
we  censure  any  unworthy  compromise  which 
has  been  made  to  conciliate  them  ;  yet  we 
are  consoled  to  reflect  that  no  immediate 
misery  has  been  occasioned  by  a  change 
which  is  pregnant  at  least  with  future  im- 
provement. But  when  we  see  the  sword 
employed  to  propagate  a  religion  of  which 
the  very  essence  is  peace,  we  are  at  once 
disgusted  and  revolted  by  the  cruel  and 
impious  mockery. 


THE  INTERNAL,  CONDITION  OF  CHRISTIANITY 
FROM  THE  REIGN  OF  JUSTINIAN  TO  THAT 
OF  CHARLEMAGNE. 

In  an  endeavor  to  compress  into  a  few  short 
chapters  the  ever-varying  records  of  fifteen 
centuries,  it  might,  perhaps,  be  thought  suf- 
ficient to  exhibit  a  mere  chronological  series 
of  events  and  names  ;  but  we  consider  it  a 
more  profitable,  as  it  is  certainly  a  more 
attractive  employment,  to  select  and  illustrate 
what  is  material  and  consequential,  and  to 
pass,  as  it  were,  from  eminence  to  eminence, 
dwelling  for  some  short  space  on  each,  and 
delineating  its  features  with  some  exactness, 
though  we  may  thus  be  compelled  to  treat 
with  little  minuteness  the  periods  interven- 

*  Charlemagne  was  occasionally  troubled  by  the 
contumacy  of  his  converts,  even  to  the  end  of  his 
reign  ;  and  in  the  civil  wars  among  his  grandsons, 
we  find  Lothaire  proclaiming  liberty  of  conscience 
to  the  Saxons  of  the  succeeding  generation  (in  841). 
Many  of  them  eagerly  cast  away  the  mask  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  flew  to  his  standard.  Compulsion  has 
filled  the  world  with  hypocrites,  but  it  has  never 
made  a  true  convert  to  any  faith  or  any  form  of  faith. 
See  Millot,  Hist.  France. 


138 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


ing ;  but  it  is  certain  that  there  are  many 
secondary  names  and  many  occurrences  of 
mere  temporary  importance,  which  may  be 
consigned  to  silence  without  any  danger  to 
the  integrity  and  usefulness  of  history.  On 
this  principle  we  shall  proceed,  without  delay, 
from  the  death  of  Justinian  to  the  accession 
of  Gregory  the  First  to  the  pontifical  chair. 
That  prelate  presided  over  the  Church  of 
Rome  from  the  year  590  to  604  ;  and  he 
illustrated  that  short  period  by  so  many 
splendid  qualities,  and  pursued  his  various 
purposes  with  such  bold  and  successful  ex- 
ertion, that  he  has  acquired,  and  perhaps 
deserved,  the  deep  and  faithful  veneration 
of  the  Catholic  Church.  At  least  it  has  been 
found  so  difficult  to  estimate  his  character 
with  moderation,  and  we  observe  so  much 
intemperance,  both  in  the  eulogies  and  the 
insults  *  which  are  offered  to  it,  that  its 
mere  strength  and  energy,  which  are  thus 
sufficiently  proved,  assert  its  claim  to  a  more 
considerate  and  impartial  examination. 

Gregory  the  Great.  Two  prominent  vices 
overshadowed  and  counteracted  the  nume- 
rous excellences  of  Gregory  —  superstition 
and  ambition.  For  the  former  of  these  some 
excuse  may  be  found  in  the  spirit  and  prin- 
ciples of  the  age  in  which  he  lived ;  the 
latter  was  the  produce  of  the  same  vigorous 
nature  which  gave  birth  to  his  virtues ;  and 
it  was  urged  in  him  to  an  excess,  which  it 
would  not  have  reached  in  a  feebler  mind. 
His  virtues  were  his  own,  and  those  of  his 
religion  ;  and  if  we  should  discredit,  as  affect- 
ed, that  humility  which  preferred  the  cloister 
to  the  chair  of  St.  Peter,  and  so  long  rejected 
the  proffered  mitre,f  at  least  we  must  praise 
the  generosity  which  led  him,  in  early  life, 
to  bestow  his  large  possessions  on  the  Church, 
and  we  must  admire  his  ardent  piety,  and 
sincere,  though  often  misdirected,  devotion. 
The  extreme  severity  of  his  moral  practice 
has  not   been  contested,  nor   his  honest  en- 

*  '  Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  called  St.  Gregory, 
was  remarkable  for  many  tilings  ;  for  exalting  his 
own  authority,  for  running  down  human  learning  and 
polite  literature,  for  burning  classic  authors,  for  pat- 
ronizing ignorance  and  stupidity,  for  persecuting 
heretics,  for  flattering  the  most  execrable  princes, 
and  for  relating  a  multitude  of  absurd,  monstrous  and 
ridiculous  lies,  called  miracles.  He  was  an  ambi- 
tious, insolent  Prelate,  under  the  mask  of  humility.' 
Jortin,  Remarks,  vol.  iv.,  p.  403.  Most,  though  by 
no  means  all,  of  the  above  charges  are  true  ;  but  the 
counterpoise  of  good  and  powerful  qualities  is  left 
almost  entirely  unnoticed  by  their  author. 

t  Baron,  aim.  590,  sect.  vii.  &c.  &c. 


deavors  to  enforce  the  same  practice  in  every 
rank  and  order  of  his  clergy.  Circumstances, 
political  as  well  as  religious,  had  introduced 
abuses  into  the  system  of  ecclesiastical  disci- 
pline, which  a  weak  and  narrow  mind  might 
have  thought  it  expedient  to  protect,  but 
which  Gregory  knew  that  it  was  wiser  to 
reform.  Indeed  we  may  observe,  that  the 
best  friends  of  every  Church  in  every  age 
and  those  whose  services  are  most  gratefully 
acknowledged  by  posterity,  however  ungra- 
ciously they  may  be  accepted  by  interested 
contemporaries,  are  men  who  dare  to  distin- 
guish between  the  system  and  its  corruptions, 
and  to  administer  those  vigorous  measures 
of  renovation  which  are  necessary  for  its 
health  and  perpetuity.  And  thus  would  it 
have  been  still  happier  for  the  fame  of  that 
Pope  had  he  taken  a  still  bolder  view  of  the 
imperfections  of  his  Church,  and  applied  to 
the  cure  of  its  deeper  and  spiritual  diseases 
the  remedial  attention  which  he  confined  to 
its  discipline  and  its  ceremonies. 

The  character  of  Gregory  was  distinguish- 
ed by  the  fervor  of  his  charity  ;  the  virtue 
which  surrounded  his  palace  with  crowds  of 
sufferers  of  every  rank  and  profession,  and 
distributed  for  their  relief*  the  funds,  which 
with  little  scandal  might  have  been  lavished 
on  selfish  purposes,  has  never  been  disputed, 
and  ought  never  to  have  been  disparaged. 
Nor  was  he  contented  to  exercise  this  alone, 
but  strove,  on  the  contrary,  to  extend  its 
practice  by  powerful  exhortations  among  his 
episcopal  brethren  — '  Let  not  the  Bishop 
think  that  reading  and  preaching  alone  suf- 
fice, or  studiously  to  maintain  himself  in 
retirement,  while  the  hand  which  enriches 
and  fructifies  is  closed.  But  let  his  hand  be 
bountiful ;  let  him  make  advances  to  those 
who  are  in  necessity;  let  him  consider  the 
wants  of  others  as  his  own  ;  for  without 
these  qualities  the  name  of  Bishop  is  a  vain 
and  empty  title.'f  We  should  also  remark, 
that  this  Pope  exerted  himself  on  more  than 
one  occasion  to  redeem  Christian  prisoners 
from  captivity,  and  to  alleviate  their  suffer- 
ings during  it. 

He  was  diligent  in  his  efforts  to  propagate 
the  Catholic  faith.  His  most  important  spirit- 
ual conquest  was  that  of  England  ;  and  if  it 
be  a  reproach  to  him  that  he  there  permitted 
the  first  converts  to  retain,  under  other  names 

*  See  Baronius,  ami.  591,  sect.  iii.  xxiv.  &c. ;  aim 
592,  sect,  ii.;  ami.  596,  sect.  viii.  Fleury,  1.  xxxv 
sect.  xvi.     Gibbon,  chap.  xlv. 

■)■  Lib.  v.,  Epist.  29,  apud  Baron,  ann.  592,  6ect 


INTERNAL  CONDITION  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


139 


the  substance  of  some  of  their  superstitious 
practices,*  in  France,  where  the  longer  and 
more  general  diffusion  of  the  religion  left  less 
excuse  for  such  a  concession,  he  zealously 
endeavored  to  extirpate  the  remains  of  idol- 
atry.f  The  conversion  of  the  Jews  \  was 
another  favorite  object  with  him  ;  and  in  one 
respect  he  adopted  the  most  promising  means 
for  that  purpose,  by  treating  them  with  mild- 
ness and  humanity  ;  in  another  he  insulted 
their  principles,  while  he  disgraced  his  own, 
by  the  direct  offer  of  gain,  as  the  reward  of 
their  apostacy.  His  zeal  for  the  unity  of  the 
Church  is  a  very  ambiguous  excellence  ;  but 
it  was  warmly,  and  (as  Roman  Catholic  histo- 
rians assert)  successfully  exerted,  both  against 
the  remnant  of  the  Donatists,  and  against 
certain  schismatics  who  had  seceded  from 
the  Church  on  the  controversy  respecting  the 
Three  Chapters.  §  We  may  add  to  this, 
that  his  activity  in  ennobling  the  services 
of  religion,  and  adding  splendor  to  its  cere- 
monies, however  unworthy  a  method  of 
recommending  a  spiritual  religion,  found 
some  excuse  in  the  degenerate  principles  of 
the  sixth  century. 

Through  the  disturbed  condition  of  Italy, 
the  aggressions  of  the  Lombard  invaders,  and 
the  weakness  of  the  Imperial  power,  the 
direction  of  the  political  interests  of  Rome 
devolved  for- the  most  part  upon  Gregory. 
It  appears  not  that  he  sought  that  charge,  so 
eagerly  grasped  by  many  of  his  successors, 
but  rather  that  he  entered  with  reluctance 
upon  duties  which,  if  not  at  direct  variance, 
were  at  least  little  in  accordance  with  a 
spiritual  office.    But,  having  once  undertaken 


*  Altaria  destruantur,  relliquia  ponantur.  He 
allows  even  sacrifices  on  Saints  days — substituting, 
however,  a  convivial,  for  a  superstitious,  motive — nee 
diabolo  tain  animalia  immolent,  sed  ad  laudem  Dei 
in  esu  suo  animalia  occidant,  &c.  Baron,  ann.  601. 
xxii. 

t  Fleury,  H.  E..,  lib.  xxxv.,  sect.  xxi.  He  com- 
plains of  immolations  to  idols,  worship  of  trees,  sac- 
rifices of  the  heads  of  animals,  &c. — Quia  pervenit  ad 
nos  quod  multi  Christianoruin  et  ad  Ecclesias  occur- 
rant,  et  (quod  dici  nefas  est)  a  culturis  dxmonum  non 
discedant.     See  Baron,  ann.  597.  xviii. 

^  Baron,  ann.  594,  sect.  viii.  ann.  598,  sect.  xiv. 

§  The  subject  of  the  fifth  General  Council.  One 
of  these  schismatics,  named  Stcphanus,  came  to  Rome, 
and  offered  to  Gregory  to  return  to  the  Church,  if  the 
Bishop  would  take  upon  himself  the  risk  of  his  soul, 
and  intercede  with  God  as  his  sponsor  and  fidejussor, 
that  his  return  to  the  Catholic  Church,  should  be 
sanctioned  in  Heaven  ;  which  Gregory  undertook 
without  any  hesitation — quod  Gregoriusininime  facere 
cunctatus  est.     Baronius,  ann.  590,  sect.  xxvi. 


them,  he  discharged  them  with  the  ability 
and  in  the  spirit  which  became  his  character 
and  his  profession  ;  he  presented  himself  as 
a  mediator  and  pacificator,  and  by  his  faith- 
ful, ministry  to  the  God  of  peace,*  he  suc- 
ceeded in  averting  the  arms  of  his  enemies, 
and  in  preserving  his  country  from  servitude. 

He  professed  to  reject  from  the  service  of 
religion  that  profane  learning  of  which  his 
writings  prove  him  to  have  been  ignorant ; 
and  hence  probably  proceeded  the  charge  so 
commonly  believed,  though  insufficiently  f 
supported,  that  he  burnt  the  Palatine  Library, 
and  destroyed  some  of  the  most  valuable 
remains  of  classical  antiquity.  But  it  is  ad- 
mitted, that  he  was  inferior  to  none  in  the 
learning  of  his  own  age  ;J  and  his  diligence 
and  energy  are  abundantly  attested  by  the 
voluminous  and  even  vigorous  compositions 
which  he  has  left  behind  him.  § 

Use  of  Images.  We  shall  proceed  to  point 
out  some  instances  in  which  Gregory  deviat- 
ed even  farther  than  his  predecessors  from 
that  ancient  faith  and  practice  of  which  his 
See,  since  it  now  claimed  exclusively  the 
denomination  of  Apostolical,  professed  a  pe- 
culiar observance.  Before  the  end  of  the 
sixth  century,  the  dangerous  usage  which 
had  originated  in  the  fourth,  ||  of  exposing 
images  of  saints,  of  the  virgin,  and  even  of 
Christ,  in  places  consecrated  to  worship,  had 
taken  deep  root,  as  well  in  the  Western  as  in 

*  The  following  is  his  boast  to  Sabinianus,  his 
Apocrisiarius  or  Envoy  at  Constantinople.  '  Unum 
est  quod  breviter  suggeras  serenissimis  Dominis  nos- 
tris  :  quia  (that)  si  ego  servus  eorum  in  mortem  Lon- 
gobardorum  me  miscere  voluissem,  hodie  Longobar- 
dorum  gens  nee  regem,  nee  duces,  nee  comites 
habuisset,  atque  in  suinma  confusione  esset  divisa. 
Scd  quia  Deum  timeo,in  mortem  cujuslibefhomin- 
is  me  miscere  formido.'  See  Baronius  (ann.  595, 
sect,  xviii.),  who  details  his  various  negotiations 
with  the  Lombards  very  accurately. 

f  There  seems  to  be  no  authority  for  this  accusa- 
tion older  than  the  twelfth  century.  See  Bayle,  Vie 
de  Greg.  I. 

%  '  Disciplinis  vero  liberalibus,  hoc  est  grammatica, 
rhetorica,  dialectica,  ita  a  puero  est  institutus,  ut 
quamvis  eo  tempore  florerent  adhuc  Romre  studia  1  it— 
erarum,  tamen  nulli  in  urbe  sua  secundus  putaretur.' 
Paul.  Diac.  Vit.  St.  Greg.  Gibbon,  c.  xlv. 

§  There  are  greater  remains  of  the  works  of  Gre- 
gory than  of  any  other  Pope  ;  and  a  diligent  and 
judicious  study  of  his  Epistles  might  still  throw  much 
new  light  on  the  early  History  of  his  Church.  Barp- 
nius  attributes  the  rudeness  of  his  style  to  the  barba- 
rism of  the  age  in  which  he  lived. 

II  We  shall  treat  this  and  some  other  of  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  corruptions  more  fully  in  the  thirteenth 
Chapter. 


140 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


the  Eastern  Church.  Serenus,  the  Bishop 
of  Marseilles,  caused  some  of  them  to  he  re- 
moved, and  complaint  was  made  to  Gregory. 
The  Pope  at  once,  and  very  explicitly,  declar- 
ed, that  images  should  on  no  account  be  ap- 
proached as  objects  of  worship,  and  strongly 
exhorted  the  Bishop  to  press  that  consider- 
ation on  all  who  might  possibly  mistake  their 
use — which  was,  when  truly  understood,  to 
impart  knowledge  to  the  ignorant,  and  learn- 
ing to  the  illiterate.  At  the  same  time,  such 
being  their  professed  end  and  purpose,  he 
strenuously  opposed  their  removal.  By  this 
determination,  he  impressed  upon  a  popular 
corruption  that  sanction  and  authority  which 
alone  was  wanting  to  make  it  permanent  and 
universal. 

The  belief  in  the  fire  of  Purgatory  was 
seriously  inculcated  by  the  same  Pontiff; 
and  to  him  more  justly  than  to  any  individ- 
ual, we  may  attribute  the  practical  system  to 
which  that  speculative  opinion  gave  birth. 
He  also  exalted  the  merit  of  pilgrimages  *  to 
the  Holy  Places ;  but  the  superstition  which 
he  most  ardently  sustained,  was,  a  reverential 
respect  for  relics,  founded  for  the  most  part 
on  their  miraculous  qualities.  The  deep  and 
earnest  solemnity  with  which  one  of  the 
greatest  characters  of  his  age  and  church, 
was  not  ashamed  to  enforce  so  very  gross  a 
delusion, -cannot  so  well  be  depicted  to  the 
reader  as  in  his  own  language. 

Reverence  for  Relics.  The  Empress  Con- 
stantiua,  who  was  building  a  Church  at  Con- 
stantinople to  St.  Paul,  made  application  to 
Gregory  for  the  head  of  that  Apostle,  f  or  at 
least  for  some  portion  of  his  body.  The  Pope 
begins  his  answer  by  a  very  polite  expression 
of  his  sorrow  'that  he  neither  could  nor  dar- 
ed to  grant  that  favor ;  for  the  bodies  of  the 
holy  Apostles,  Peter  and  Paul,  are  so  resplen- 
dent with  miracles  and  terrific  prodigies 
in  their  own  Churches,  that  no  one  can 
approach  them  without  great  awe,  even  for 
the  purpose  of  adoring  them.  When  my 
predecessor,  of  happy  memory,  wished  to 
change  some  silver  ornament  which  was 
placed  over  the  most  holy  body  of  St.  Peter, 

*  Baronius,  ann.  592,  sect.  xix. 

t  Baronius,  who  cites  the  Pope's  reply  with  con- 
siderable admiration,  attributes  the  Empress's  exor- 
bitant request  to  Ecclesiastical  ambition, — to  a  desire 
to  exalt  the  See  of  Constantinople  to  a  level  with 
that  of  Rome,  by  getting  into  her  possession  so  im- 
portant a  portion  of  so  great  an  Apostle.  Fleury 
quotes  the  letter  chiefly  in  proof  that  the  transfer 
of  relics  was  forbidden  in  the  Roman  Church,  while 
that  abuse  was  permitted  in  the  East. 


though  at  the  distance  of  almost  fifteen  feet, 
a  warning  of  no  small  terror  appeared  to 
him.  Even  I  myself  wished  to  make  some 
alteration  near  the  most  holy  body  of  St. 
Paul,  and  it  was  necessary  to  dig  rather 
deeply  near  his  tomb.  The  Superior  of  the 
place  found  some  bones  which  were  not  at 
all  connected  with  that  tornb;  and,  having 
presumed  to  disturb  and  remove  them  to 
some  other  place,  he  was  visited  by  certain 
fearful  apparitions,  and  died  suddenly.  My 
predecessor,  of  holy  memory,  also  undertook 
to  make  some  repairs  near  the  tomb  of  St. 
Lawrence :  as  they  were  digging,  without 
knowing  precisely  where  the  venerable  body 
was  placed,  they  happened  to  open  his 
sepulchre.  The  monks  and  guardians  who 
were  at  the  work,  only  because  they  had 
seen  the  body  of  that  martyr,  though  they 
did  not  presume  so  much  as  to  touch  it,  all 
died  within  ten  days ;  to  the  end  that  no  man 
might  remain  in  life  who  had  beheld  the  body 
of  that  just  man.  Be  it  then  known  to  you, 
that  it  is  the  custom  of  the  Romans,  when 
they  give  any  relics,  not  to  venture  to  touch 
any  portion  of  the  body  ;  only  they  put  into 
a  box  a  piece  of  linen  (called  brandeum), 
which  is  placed  near  the  holy  bodies ;  then 
it  is  withdrawn,  and  shut  up  with  due  vene- 
ration in  the  Church  which  is  to  be  dedicat- 
ed, and  as  many  prodigies  are  then  wrought 
by  it  as  if  the  bodies  themselves  had  been 
carried  thither  ;  whence  it  happened,  that  in 
the  time  of  St.  Leo,  (as  we  learn  from  our 
ancestors,)  when  some  Greeks  doubted  the 
virtue  of  such  relics,  that  Pope  called  for  a 
pair  of  scissors,  and  cut  the  linen,  and  blood 
flowed  from  the  incision.  And  not  at  Rome 
only,  but  throughout  the  whole  of  the  West, 
it  is  held  sacrilegious  to  touch  the  bodies  of 
the  Saints,  nor  does  such  temerity  ever 
remain  unpunished.  For  which  reason  we 
are  much  astonished  at  the  custom  of  the 
Greeks  to  take  away  the  bones  of  the  Saints, 
and  we  scarcely  give  credit  to  it.  But  what 
shall  I  say  respecting  the  bodies  of  the  holy 
Apostles,  when  it  is  a  known  fact,  that  at  the 
time  of  their  martyrdom,  a  number  of  the 
faithful  came  from  the  East  to  claim  them  ? 
But  when  they  had  carried  them  out  of  the 
city,  to  the  second  milestone,  to  a  place  called 
the  Catacombs,  the  whole  multitude  was  un- 
able to  move  them  farther, — such  a  tempest 
of  thunder  and  lightning  terrified  and  dispers- 
ed them.  The  napkin,  too,  which  you  wished 
to  be  sent  at  the  same  time,  is  with  the  body 
and  cannot  be  touched  more  than  the  body 
can  be  approached.    But  that  your  religious 


INTERNAL  CONDITION  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


141 


desire  may  not  be  wholly  frustrated,  I  will  lias- 
ten  to  send  to  you  some  part  of  those  chains 
which  St.  Paul  wore  on  his  neck  and  hands, 
if  indeed  I  shall  succeed  in  getting  off  any 
filings  from  them.  For  since  many  contin- 
ually solicit  as  a  blessing  that  they  may  carry 
off  from  those  chains  some  small  portion  of 
their  filings,  a  priest  stands  by  ivith  a  file ; 
and  sometimes  it  happens  that  some  portions 
fill  off  from  the  chains  instantly,  and  with- 
out delay  ;  while,  at  other  times,  the  file  is 
long  drawn  over  the  chains,  and  yet  nothing 
is  at  last  scraped  off  from  them.' 

The  pages  *  of  Ecclesiastical  History  are 
so  full  of  such  idle  fables,  that  the  repetition 
even  of  the  smallest  portion  of  them  is  a  task 
as  tedious  as  it  is  unworthy  of  a  reasonable 
mind  ;  but  when  such  absurdities  are  propa- 
gated and  dignified  by  the  pen  of  Gregory  the 
Great — of  him  whom  the  Roman  Church 
reveres  almost  as  the  first  among  her  saints, 
and  whose  writings  for  so  many  centuries  di- 
rected, and  even  still  direct,  the  principles  of 
her  Ministers — it  would  be  a  neglect  of  his- 
torical duty  to  pass  them  over  in  complete 
silence.f 


*Eligius  or  Eloi,  Bishop  of  Noyon  (or  Limoges,) 
a  contemporary  of  Gregory,  and  also  a  Saint,  acquired 
extraordinary  celebrity  by  his  ardor  in  searching  after 
tne  bodies  of  martyrs,  and  his  miraculous  sagacity  in 
the  discovery  of  them.  And  as  he  thus  became  a 
person  of  influence  in  his  day,  we  may  venture  to  re- 
cord what,  in  his  opinion,  was  the  sum  and  substance 
of  true  religion.  'He  is  a  good  Christian  (says  St. 
Eligius)  who  goes  frequently  to  church,  and  makes 
his  oblations  at  God's  altar;  who  never  tastes  of  his 
own  fruit  until  he  has  presented  some  to  God ;  who,  for  i 
many  days  before  the  solemn  festivals,  observes  strict 
chastity,  though  he  be  married,  that  he  may  approach 
the  altar  with  a  safe  conscience;  lastly,  who  can  re- 
peat the  Creed  and  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Redeem  your 
souls  from  punishment  whilst  you  have  it  in  your 
power;  offer  your  free  gifts  and  tithes;  contribute 
towards  the  luminaries  in  holy  places;  repair  fre- 
quently to  church,  and  humbly  implore  the  protection 
of  the  Saints.  If  you  observe  these  things,  you  may 
appear  boldly  at  God's  tribunal  in  the  day  of  judg- 
ment, and  say — Give,  Lord,  according  as  we  have 
given.'  The  original  is  quoted  by  Mosh.  Cent,  vii., 
p.  ii.  c.  iii. 

t  The  Dialogues  of  Gregory  abound  with  mirac- 
ulous narratives ;  and  Fleury  excuses  this  practice  by 
pleading  that  he  had  not  philosophers  for  his  antago- 
nists, who  needed  argument  for  confutation,  but  that 
the  pagans  then  to  be  found  were  chiefly  peasants, 
serfs,  or  soldiers,  and  were  more  moved  by  a  mirac- 
ulous story  than  by  the  most  conclusive  s\  llogism.  In 
process  of  time,  Gregory,  from  being  the  relater,  rose 
to  be  the  performer  of  miracles.  About  one  hundred 
and  eighty  years  after  his  death,  Paulus  Diaconus  re- 
cords, that  a  Roman  lady,  on  some  occasion,  receiving 


The  public  worship  of  God  was  still  cele- 
brated by  every  nation  in  its  own  language  ; 
but  its  forms  were  enlarged  from  time  to  time 
by  new  prayers  and  offices,  as  well  as  hymns 
and  psalmody,  and  such  other  additions  as 
were  found  proper  to  enliven  devotion. 
Gregory  introduced  a  more  imposing  method 
of  administering  the  Communion,  with  a 
magnificent  assemblage  of  pompous  ceremo- 
nies. This  institution  was  called  the  Canon 
of  the  Mass;  and  such  as  it  appears  in  the 
Sacramentaries  of  St.  Gregory,  such,  word 
for  word  (says  Fleury,*)  we  say  it  still.  Af- 
ter regulating  the  prayers,  the  Pope  descend- 
ed to  the  modulation  of  the  chant;  and  to 
give  some  permanency  to  his  success  in  this 
matter,  he  established  a  school  of  chanters, 
which  subsisted  for  at  least  three  centuries 
after  his  death.f  Other  alterations  were 
made  by  the  same  pontiff  in  the  distribution 
of  the  parishes,  the  calendar  of  festivals,  the 
order  of  processions,  the  service  of  the  priests 
and  deacons,  the  variety  and  change  of  sacer- 
dotal garments  ;  and  as  most'  of  them  were 
permanent,  we  may  consider  the  system 
properly  called  Roman  Catholic  as  having 
assumed  its  peculiar  character  at  this  time. 
And  thus,  while  the  Antiquity  of  the  univer- 


the  Communion  from  Gregory,  and  hearing  him  say 
the  customary  words,  could  not  forbear  smiling,  when 
he  called  that  the  body  of  Christ  which  she  had  made 
with  her  own  hands — for  at  that  time  the  people  used 
to  bring  to  the  Communion  their  own  bread,  which 
was  a  small,  round,  flat  cake.  The  Pope,  perceiving 
her  behaviour,  took  the  bread  out  of  her  hands,  and, 
having  prayed  over  it,  showed  it  to  her  turned  into 
flesh,  in  the  sight  of  the  whole  people. 

*H.  E.  lib.  xxxvi.,  s.  xix.  Fleury  describes  the 
alterations  of  Gregory  at  length  and  clearly.  The 
great  pains  which  the  Pope  took  in  these  matters, 
and  especially  in  the  composition  of  his  celebrated 
chant,  are  zealously  related  by  Maimbourg,  in  his 
History  of  the  Pontificate  of  St.  Gregory. 

j  Fleury,  lib.  xxxvi.,  sect.  xxi.  '  In  the  time  of 
John  the  Deacon  (about  900,)  the  original  of  his 
Antiphonarius  was  preserved  with  great  respect,  as 
well  as  the  couch  on  which  he  reposed  while  chanting, 
and  the  whip  with  which  he  menaced  the  children.' 
Pope  Gelasius  (says  the  same  historian  in  sect,  xv.) 
had  made  a  collection  of  the  office  of  the  masses,  into 
which  St.  Gregory  introduced  many  changes  and  ad- 
ditions. He  collected  the  whole  in  one  volume,  which 
is  his  Sacramentarius,  for  so  they  formerly  called  the 
book  which  contained  the  prayers  used  in  the  admin- 
istration of  the  sacraments,  and  chiefly  of  the  Eu- 
charist. All  that  was  to  be  chanted  was  marked  in 
another  volume,  called  the  '  Antiphonaire,  parce 
que  l'on  chantoit  alternativement;  d'ou^ient  le  now 
d'antiphones  on  antiennes  (anthems)  cornme  il  a  ete 
explique.' 


142 


HISTORY  OF    THE   CHURCH. 


sal  Church  may  justly  be  regarded  as  hav- 
ing ceased  at  the  accession  of  Constantine, 
it  is  not  a  fanciful  position  that  its  Middle 
Age — that  indistinct  period,  during  which  the 
principles  that  were  hereafter  to  give  it  a 
more  lasting  and  definite  form  were  collect- 
ing strength,  but  were  not  yet  developed — 
was  brought  to  a  close  by  the  splendid  pon- 
tificate of  Gregory. 

Elements  of  Papacy.  If,  then,  it  be  not 
incorrect  to  date  the  modern  history  of  the 
Catholic  Church  from  this  epoch,  it  will  be 
reasonably  inquired  what  elements  then  ex- 
isted, or,  at  least,  what  indications  may  be 
discovered,  of  the  monarchical  or  papal  gov- 
ernment, which  formed  the  characteristic  of 
the  Communion  in  later  ages?  We  shall, 
therefore,  proceed  to  point  out  such  of  these 
as  were  most  perceptible  during  the  time  of 
Gregory.  We  have  noticed  an  early  jealousy 
subsisting  between  the  Sees  of  Rome  and 
Constantinople,  and  the  sort  of  superiority 
which  was  conferred  upon  the  former  by  the 
council  of  Chalcedon.  It  appears,  too,  that 
St.  Leo  was  addressed  by  certain  oriental 
correspondents  by  the  title  of  (Ecumenic,  or 
Universal  Patriarch,  though  his  immediate 
successors  refrained  from  adopting  that  lofty 
appellation.  Matters  rested  thus  till  the  year 
588,  when  the  Emperor  Maurice  conferred 
that  same  title  upon  his  own  Patriarch  John, 
commonly  called  the  Faster,*  an  austere  and 
ambitious  prelate.  Pope  Pelagius  opposed 
those  pretensions ;  and,  eight  years  after- 
wards, the  contest  was  much  more  vigorously 
renewed  by  Gregory.  In  595,  he  addressed 
five  epistles  on  tins  subject  to  John  himself, 
to  the  Emperor  and  Empress,  and  to  the  ri- 
val Patriarchs  of  Alexandria  and  Antioch  ; 
in  all  vehemently  inveighing  against  the  arro- 
gance of  the  Faster,  and  professing  the  very 
purest  spirit  of  Christian  humility.  In  his 
letter  to  the  Emperor  he  declares  that  the 
public  calamities  are  to  be  ascribed  to  no  oth- 
er cause  than  the  ambition  of  the  Bishops. 
'  We  destroy  (he  says)  by  example  that  which 

*  John  the  Faster,  disputing  an  unmeaning  title 
with  Gregory,  is  assimilated  by  Baronius  (aim.  595,' 
sect,  xxvii.)  to  the  apostate  angel  rising  against  the 
Most  High  God — a  comparison  not  far  removed  from 
blasphemy.  In  more  than  thirty  sections,  which  that 
historian  devotes  to  the  subject,  he  labors  to  depress 
the  See  of  Constantinople  even  below  that  of  Alexan- 
dria, and  continually  advances  the  obtrusiveness  of 
Rome,  as  a  proof  of  her  rightful  authority.  However, 
it  is  true  enough  that  the  power  of  Rome  was  now 
growing  real  and  substantial — a  fact  much  more  easily 
shown  than  either  its  antiquity  or  legitimacy. 


we  preach  in  word  ;  our  bones  are  consumed 
with  fastings,  and  our  soul  is  puffed  up  with 
pride ;  beneath  the  meanest  garments  we 
conceal  a  haughty  heart ;  we  repose  on  ash- 
es, and  we  pretend  to  grandeur ;  under  the 
aspect  of  the  sheep  Ave  nourish  the  fangs  of  the 
wolf.'  (He  proceeds)  'The  direction  and 
primacy  of  the  whole  Church  has  been  given 
to  St.  Peter ;  nevertheless  we  do  not  call  him 
the  Universal  Apostle,  and  yet  the  holy  man 
John,  my  brother,  is  ambitious  to  be  called 
the  Universal  Bishop.'*  To  Constantina  he 
mournfully  complains  of  the  insult  which 
has  been  offered  to  the  See  of  Rome ;  and 
while  he  humbly  confesses  '  that  the  sins  of 
Gregory  have  merited  such  chastisement,' 
he  reminds  the  Empress  that  St.  Peter  at 
least  is  sinless,  and  undeserving  the  outrage 
which  had  been  offered  him.  From  these 
and  others,  even  among  the  few  passages 
which  we  have  cited  from  Gregory's  writ- 
ings, it  appears  that  the  ground  on  which 
the  Church  of  Rome  rested  its  assertion  of 
supremacy  was  already  changed  very  essen- 
tially. In  its  early  days  the  sort  of  superior- 
ity which  it  endeavored  to  assume  was  foun- 
ded for  the  most  part  on  its  imperial  name 
and  dignity;  but  when  that  basis  was  over- 
thrown by  the  conquests  of  the  barbarians, 
another  was  substituted,  of  which  the  purely 
spiritual  nature  was  admirably  calculated  to 
impose  upon  the  ignorant  proselytes.  The 
name  of  St.  Peter  became  more  venerable 
than  that  of  Augustus  or  Trajan ;  and  his 
chair,  as  it  was  occupied  by  the  successors  of 
the  Apostle  and  the  vicars  of  Christ,  inspired 
a  deeper  awe  into  the  blind  and  superstitious 
multitude,  than  the  throne  of  all  the  Caesars. 
This  change,  no  doubt,  was  gradual — it  can- 
not entirely  be  ascribed  to  Gregory,  or  to  any 
other  individual;  indications  of  that  assertion 
may  even  be  discovered  in  very  early  eccle- 
siastical writers ;  but  that  Pope  exerted  him- 
self more  than  any  of  his  predecessors  to  con- 
firm it,  and  to  give  to  that  uncertain  ground- 
work a  stability  which  has  enabled  it  to  sup- 
port the  mighty  papal  edifice  for  so  many 
ages.  t 

It  has  also  been  observed  that  Gregory  was 
the  first  who  asserted  the  power  of  the  keys, 
as  committed  to  the  successor  of  St.  Peter, 
rather  than  to  the  body  of  the   bishops  ;  and 


*  St.  Gregory  could  not  foresee  that,  within  twelve 
years  from  that  in  which  he  was  writing,  the  same 
title  would  be  proudly  worn  by  a  successor  to  the 
chair  of  St.  Peter  (Boniface  III.,)  though  granted  to 
that  pontiff  by  an  Emperor  who  disgraced  human 
nature. 


INTERNAL  CONDITION  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


143 


ne  betrayed  on  many  occasions  a  very  ridic- 
ulous eagerness  to  secure  their  honor.  Con- 
sequently, he  was  profuse  in  his  distribution 
of  certain  keys,  endowed,  as  he  was  not 
ashamed  to  assert,  with  supernatural  qualities ; 
he  even  ventured  to  insult  Anastasius,  the 
Patriarch  of  Antioch,  by  such  a  gift.  '  I  have 
sent  you  (he  says)  keys  of  the  blessed  Apostle 
Peter,  your  guardian,  which,  when  placed 
upon  the  sick,  are  wont  to  be  resplendent 
with  numerous  miracles.'*  We  may  attribute 
this  absurdity  to  the  basest  superstition,  or  to 
the  most  impudent  hypocrisy  ;  and  we  would 
gladly  have  preferred  the  more  excusable  mo- 
tive, if  the  supposed  advancement  of  the  See, 
which  was  clearly  concerned  in  these  pre- 
sents, did  not  rather  lead  us  to  the  latter. 

Two  descriptions  of  papal  agents  rise  into 
notice  during  the  pontificate  of  Gregory — 
the  Apocrisiarii  (Correspondents),  who  acted 
as  envoys,  or  legates,  at  the  Court  and  at  the 
See  of  Constantinople  ;  and  the  Defensores, 
or  Advocates,  who,  besides  their  general 
commission  to  protect  f  the  property  of  St. 
Peter,  appear  to  have  been  vested  with  a 
kind  of  appellative  jurisdiction,  which  might 
sometimes  interfere  with  that  of  the  bishops. 
The  former  of  these  appointments  tended  to 
raise  the  external  dignity  of  the  See  ;  the 
latter  to  extend  its  internal  influence.  Again, 
we  find  sufficient  evidence  in  the  records  of 
this  age,  that  a  practice  which  afterwards 
proved  one  of  the  most  fruitful  sources  of  pa- 
pal power,  was  already  gaining  ground — that 
of  appeal  from  episcopal  decision  to  the  Ro- 
man See.  It  does  not,  indeed,  appear  that  it 
was  founded  on  any  general  law,  civil  or  ec- 
clesiastical ;  but  it  proceeded  very  naturally 
from  the  prejudice  attached  to  the  name  of 
Rome^and  the  chair  of  St.  Peter;  and  it  was 
carefully  encouraged  by  the  See,  whose  au- 
thority was  insensibly  augmented  by  it.     Be- 


*  '  Amatoris  vestri,  beati  Petri  Apostoli,  vobis 
claves  transmisi,  quae  super  segros  posiue  multis  solent 
miraculis  coruscare.'  He  addresses  nearly  the  same 
words  to  one  Andreas,  a  nobleman,  with  a  similar 
present.  And  in  another  epistle  (to  Theotistus)  he 
coolly  relates  a  prodigy  which  had  once  been  per- 
formed by  one  of  those  keys  upon  a  Lombard  soldier. 
Baronius,  ami.  585,  sect,  iv.,  ami.  597,  sect,  xiv., 
ann.  591.,  sect,  vii.,  viii.  The  historian  (in  the  first 
of  those  places)  eagerly  attaches  to  the  keys  the  no- 
tion and  omen  of  possession,  which  probably  did  not 
occur  to  a  Pope  (even  to  Pope  Gregory)  in  the  sixth 
Century. 

f  Baron,  ann.  598,  sect.  xv.  xix.  Gibbon  (chap, 
xlv.)  considers  them  to  have  possessed  not  a  civil  only, 
but  a  criminal  jurisdiction  over  the-  tenants  and  hus- 
bandmen of  the  Holy  See. 


fore  we  quit  the  subject  of  papal  aggrandise- 
ment, we  shall  mention  one  other  circum- 
stance only.*  Great  relaxation  in  the  mo- 
nastic discipline  of  the  age  justified  the  very 
sedulous  interference  of  Gregory  to  restrain 
it ;  and  so  much  address  did  that  pontiff  com- 
bine with  his  diligence,  as  not  only  to  reform 
the  order,  but  also  to  secure  and  protect  it. 
For,  while  he  enforced  the  severity  of  the  an- 
cient rules  with  judicious  rigor,f  he  took 
measures  to  shelter  it  from  episcopal  oppres- 
sion, and  taught  it  hereafter  to  look  to  Rome 
for  redress  and  favor.  As  none  are  ignorant 
how  firm  a  support  to  papal  power  was 
furnished  in  later  ages  by  the  devotion  of 
the  monasteries,  it  is  important  to  record  the 
origin  of  that  connexion  ;  and  it  is  difficult  to 
discover  any  earlier  trace  of  it  than  that 
which  we  have  mentioned. 

Gibbon,  who  has  drawn  with  vigor  and 
impartiality  the  character  of  Gregory,  has 
probably  over-rated  his  qualities  when  he 
designates  him  as  the  greatest  of  that  name. 
It  is  very  true  that  the  mixture  of  simplicity 
and  cunning,  of  pride  and  humility,^  °f  sense 
and  superstition,  which  singularly  distinguish- 
ed him,  was  happily  suited  both  to  his  station 
and  to  the  temper  of  the  times;  and  it  might 
perhaps  be  pleaded,  that  he  did  no  more  than 
yield  to  that  evil  temper,  when  he  gave  sanc- 
tion to  opinions  and  usages  which  were  at 
variance  with  the  spirit  of  Scripture.  But 
this  was  to  consult  his  present  convenience 

*  '  The  bishops  of  Italy  and  the  adjacent  islands 
acknowledged  the  Roman  Pontiff  as  their  special 
Metropolitan.  Even  the  existence,  the  union,  and 
the  translation  of  episcopal  seats  was  decided  by  his 
absolute  discretion;  and  his  successful  inroads  into 
the  provinces  of  Greece,  of  Spain,  and  of  Gaul, 
might  countenance  the  more  lofty  pretensions  of  suc- 
ceeding popes.  He  interposed  to  prevent  the  abuses 
of  popular  elections;  his  zealous  care  maintained  the 
purity  of  faith  and  discipline;  and  the  apostolic  shep- 
herd assiduously  watched  over  the  faith  and  discipline 
of  the  subordinate  pastors.'     Gibbon,  chap.  xlv. 

t  Fleury,  H.  E.  lib.  xxxvi.  sect.  33  and  34. 

|  His  humility  Sometimes  descended  to  baseness. 
The  abject  adulation  with  which  he  courted  Phocas,  the 
usurper  of  the  Eastern  throne,  the  most  execrable  par- 
ricide in  history,  proved  (as  Bavle  ha3  malignantly 
remarked)  that  those  who  prevailed  with  him  to  ac- 
cept the  Popedom,  knew  him  better  than  he  knew 
himself.  '  lis  voyoicnt  en  lui  le  foods  de  toutes  les 
ruses  et  de  toutes  les  souplesses  dont  on  a  besoin  pour 
se  faire  de  grands  protecteurs,  et  pour  attirer  sur 
l'Eglise  les  benedictions  de  la  terre.'  The  motive 
of  his  flattery  was  jealousy  of  the  Patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople. He  addressed,  with  the  same  servility, 
Brunehaud,  a  very  wicked  Queen  of  France,  and 
again  found  his  excuse  in  the  interests  of  his  Church. 


144 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


or  popularity,  not  his  perpetual  fame.  Those 
who  follow  the  stream  of  prejudice  may  be 
excused  or  pitied,  but  they  can  establish  no 
claim  to  greatness,  no  title  to  the  respect  or 
gratitude  of  a  posterity  to  which  they  trans- 
mit, without  correction,  the  errors  or  vices 
of  their  ancestors.  So  far  as  he  applied 
himself  to  remedy  those  vices  or  imperfec- 
tions, so  far  as  he  reformed  the  discipline  and 
repressed  the  a-varice  of  his  clergy,  and  intro- 
duced such  improvements  into  other  depart- 
ments of  the  system  as  were  consistent  with 
the  Gospel  truth  on  which  it  stood,  his  name 
is  deservedly  celebrated  by  every  honest 
Christian  ;  but  his  eagerness  in  the  encourage- 
ment of  superstitious  corruptions  (for  he  was 
not  even  contented  to  tolerate,  still  less  did 
he  make  any  effort  to  repress  them)  must  not 
be  treated  with  indifference  or  indulgence ; 
because  the  diffusion  of  error*  has  afar  more 
pernicious  consequence  in  religious  than  in 
other  matters.  A  mere  speculative  falsehood 
will  mislead  the  understanding  of  the  studi- 
ous, but  it  will  not  reach  his  principles  of  ac- 
tion ;  a  wrong  political  principle  will  unques- 
tionably influence  for  a  time  the  happiness  of 
a  nation ;  but  on  the  discovery  of  its  falsity,  it 
is  not  difficult  to  modify  or  reject  it,  because  it 
can  seldom  become  rooted  in  the  habits  or  the 
prejudices  of  the  people.  But  the  religious 
impostures  which  were  authorized  and  propa- 
gated by  Gregory,  affected  not  the  belief  on- 
ly, but  the  conduct  and  character  of  the  great- 
er portion  of  Christendom  through  a  long 
succession  of  ages  ;  and  while  their  certain 
and  necessary  tendency  was  to  debase  the 
mass  of  believers,  and  to  deliver  them  over 
in  blindness  and  bondage  to  the  control  of 
their  spiritual  tyrants,  their  final  and  most 
disastrous  effect  has  been  to  enlarge  the  path 
of  infidelity,  by  dissociating  the  use  of  reason 
from  the  belief  in  Revelation. 


*  In  his  Epistle  to  the  King  of  England;  Gregory 
(cited  by  Baronius,  Ann.  601.  sect,  xix.)  thus  ex- 
presses his  own  millennarian  opinions.  '  Besides,  we 
wish  you  (vestram  gloriam)  to  know  as  we  learn  from 
the  words  of  Almighty  God,  in  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
that  the  end  of  the  present  world  is  already  near,  and 
the  kingdom  of  the  Saints  is  at  hand,  which  can 
know  no  end.  But  as  the  end  of  the  world  is  now 
approaching,  many  things  hang  over  us  which  before 
were  not, — to  wit,  change  of  atmosphere,  and  terrors 
from  Heaven,  and  unseasonable  tempests,  war,  fam- 
ine, pestilence  and  earthquakes, — which  however  shall 
not  all  fall  out  in  our  days,  but  will  certainly  follow 
afterwards.'  The  caution  of  the  concluding  sentence 
would  almost  prove  the  Pope's  distrust  in  his  own 
prophecy. 


Changes  from  Gregory  to  Charlemagne. 
Ecclesiastical  History  is  not  distinguished  by 
any  character  of  very  great  eminence  for  the 
period  of  above  a  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
which  separates  Gregory  from  Charlemagne  ; 
nor  is  that  period  marked  by  any  single  oc- 
currence of  striking  importance,  excepting 
the  separation  of  the  Roman  states  from  the 
Eastern  empire,  and  the  Donation  made  by 
Pepin  to  the  Holy  See.  Yet  very  considera- 
ble changes  were  gradually  taking  place  in 
the  constitution  of  the  Church,  which  it  is 
the  more  necessary  to  detect  and  notice,  be- 
cause they  are  not  discovered  without  some 
care,  and  have  indeed  commonly  escaped  the 
observation  which  is  due  to  them.  The  con- 
quest of  the  Western  Empire  by  the  barba- 
rians, its  subdivision  into  numerous  Princi- 
palities and  Provinces,  and  the  prevalence  of 
the  institutions  and  habits  of  the  conquerors, 
could  not  fail  to  influence,  in  many  respects, 
the  religious  establishment  of  those  countries. 
And  hence  it  is,  that  the  distinction  between 
the  Eastern  and  Western  Churches,  which 
may  be  traced  in  name,  at  least,  to  the  divi- 
sion of  the  Empire,  was  afterwards  extended 
and  widened  by  many  substantial  points  of 
difference.  In  the  former,  indeed,  very  few 
alterations  took  place  after  the  time  of  Jus- 
tinian, even  in  the  form  of  administering  the 
Church,  and  none  in  the  principles  of  its  con- 
stitution: if  some  new  privileges,  or  additional 
revenues,  seemed  to  swell  the  importance  of 
the  clergy,  yet  the  Emperors  maintained  so 
firmly  their  undisputed  supremacy,*  and  ex- 
erted, moreover,  such  frequent  interference 
in  spiritual  affairs,  that  the  power  of  the  hier- 
archy received  no  real  increase  ;  nor  did  any 
other  circumstances  accidentally  intrude,  to 
enlarge  beyond  its  just  limits  their  influence 
over  the  people.  But  the  policy  for  the  most 
part  pursued  by  the  Western  kings  was  dif- 
ferent— they  were  usually  watchful  in  preserv- 
ing their  temporal  rights  over  the  Church,  and 
even  in  usurping  others  which  they  did  not 
possess,  especially  that  of  episcopal  election 
but  they  abstained  from  all  intervention  in 
matters  strictly  spiritual,  and  in  committing 
to  the  priesthood  the  entire  regulation  of  doc- 
trine, and  consigning  to  their  uncontrolled 
direction  the  consciences  of  their  ignorant 
and  uncivilized  subjects,  they  left  to  that  Body 
much  larger  means  of  despotic  and  permanent 
authority  than  any  of  those  of  which  they 
deprived  it.  In  the  more  enlightened  provin- 
ces of  the  East,  the  discussion  of  theological 

*  Giannone,  Stor.  di  Nap.  lib.,  iii.,  cap.  vi. 


INTERNAL  CONDITION  OF  CHRISTIANITY, 


145 


subjects  was  not  uncommonly  shared  by  in- 
telligent laymen  ;  but  in  the  West  it  became 
exclusively  confined  to  the  clergy,  and  their 
dictates,  howsoever  remote  from  scripture  or 
reason,  were  submissively  and  blindly  receiv- 
ed. Again,  in  the  aristocratical  assemblies, 
by  which  political  affairs  were  chiefly  regu- 
lated, the  property  and  intelligence  of  the 
Bishops  acquired  for  them  both  rank  and  in- 
fluence ;  and  thus  also  were  they  placed  in  a 
different  position  from  their  brethren  in  the 
East,  where  the  original  spiritual  character 
of  the  hierarchy  was  more  rigidly  preserved. 
It  has  been  already  remarked,  that  the  limits 
of  the  spiritual  and  temporal  powers  were, 
even  from  the  very  establishment  of  Chris- 
tianity, liable  to  some  confusion  and  per- 
plexity. They  were  long  maintained,  how- 
ever, with  tolerable  distinctness  in  the  coun- 
tries which  escaped  from  barbarian  invasion  ; 
but  in  the  West,  from  the  circumstances  just 
mentioned,  and  from  the  unsettled  and  ar- 
bitrary form  of  the  civil  governments,  the 
causes  of  discord,  and  temptations  to  mutual 
aggression  were  incalculably  multiplied. 

The  clergy  were  very  early  divided  into 
the  major  and  minor  orders,  of  which  the  lat- 
ter consisted  of  the  acolyths,  porters,  exor- 
cists, and  readers :  between  the  sixth  and 
eighth  century  this  lost  its  whole  weight  and 
almost  name  in  the  Church  ;  and  even  the 
higher  order  of  subdeacons,  deacons,  and 
priests,  suffered  great  degradation.  The 
kings  of  the  West,  in  their  desire  to  devote 
the  whole  of  their  free  subjects  to  military 
service,  forbade  the  ordination  of  a  freeman 
without  their  particular  consent ;  and  hence 
proceeded  the  debasing,  but  not  uncommon 
practice,  of  conferring  the  office  of  priesthood 
on  serfs  of  the  Church,  emancipated  for  that 
purpose.  Nor  did  the  Bishops  contend 
against  this  innovation  so  vigorously  as  the 
interests  of  the  Church  required,  because 
their  own  authority  was  obviously  augmented 
by  the  humiliation  of  the  order  next  below 
them.  Add  to  this,  that  the  Priests  were  in 
some  places,  and  perhaps  generally,  bound, 
on  their  ordination,  by  a  solemn  obligation  to 
remain  attached  as  it  were  to  the  Church,  to 
which  they  were  originally  appointed — a  sort 
of  servitude  which  subjected  even  their  per- 
sons to  the  authority  of  the  Bishop.  No  such 
changes  in  the  constitution  of  the  clergy  took 
place  in  the  Eastern  Church. 

Another  order  was  rapidly  increasing  in  the 

seventh  and  eighth  centuries,  which  probably 

exercised  more  influence  in  Church  matters 

than  is  usually  attributed  to  it.     The  tonsure 

19 


was  originally  considered  as  a  sign  of  desti- 
nation for  orders,  (signum  destinationis  ad 
ordiuem,)  and  was  given  to  those  only  who 
were  intended  for  the  sacred  profession  ;  but 
in  aftertimes  it  was  less  discriminately  admin- 
istered, and  was  made  the  means  of  connect- 
ing with  the  Church  a  large  body  of  persons 
who  received  some  of  the  immunities  without 
any  of  the  restrictions  of  the  sacerdotal  con- 
dition, and  became  clerks  without  being  ec- 
clesiastics. It  may  be  true,*  that  they  intro- 
duced to  a  certain  extent  a  sort  of  lay  influence 
into  the  ecclesiastical  administration  ;  but  they 
had  probably  a  much  greater  effect  in  diffus- 
ing that  of  the  clergy  among  the  private  and 
sacred  relations  of  domestic  life. 

The  grand  priuciple  of  the  '  Unity  of  the 
Church  ' — existing  as  one  mighty  spiritual 
communion  undivided  by  any  diversity  in 
place,  time,  language,  government,  or  other 
circumstances — though  it  was  broached  as 
early  as  the  third  century,  did  not  enter  into 
full  operation  till  the  dissolution  of  the  West- 
ern Empire.  Its  worst  effects  had,  indeed, 
been  developed  before  that  time  in  the  perse- 
cutions to  which  it  gave  birth  on  both  sides 
of  the  Adriatic.  But  the  good  which  it  was 
capable  of  producing  was  not  felt  until  the 
Western  Provinces  were  broken  up  into  nu- 
merous, and  independent,  and  hostile  states, 
with  no  political  bond  of  union,  and  little 
friendly  or  commercial  intercourse.  It  was 
then  that  the  notion  of  one  universal  religious 
society  contributed  to  supply  the  want  of  in- 
ternational sympathy  and  cooperation,  and, 
through  the  means  of  a  common  belief,  intro- 
duced the  feeling  of  common  interests,  and 


*  Guizot  (Hist,  de  la  Civilisation  en  France,  13 
Leeon)  mentions  four  avenues  through  which  the  laity 
still  continued,  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries,  to 
exert  an  influence  in  ecclesiastical  matters.  (1.)  The 
distinction  between  the  Ordination  and  the  Tonsure, 
and  the  numbers  of  those  who  received  the  latter  only. 
(2.)  The  founder  of  a  Church  or  Chapel,  whether 
Bishop  or  Layman,  possessed  the  privilege  of  appoint- 
ing the  minister  to  serve  it.  (3.)  Chaplains  were  very 
commonly  resident  in  noble  families  for  the  service  of 
the  private  oratories.  (4.)  Certain  laymen,  under  the 
names  of  Causidici,  Tutores,  and  Vicedomini  were  ap- 
pointed at  an  early  period  for  the  protection  of  the 
Church  property.  They  originated,  it  would  seem, 
in  the  African  Church;  at  Rome  they  were  called 
Defensores,  and  they  were  afterwards  employed  in  Gaul, 
under  the  title  of  Advocates.  Fleury  (end  of  liv.  xliv,) 
mentions  that  they  were  originally  Scholastics  or 
Lawyers;  but  that  after  the  barbarian  conquests  they 
possessed  also  a  military  character — to  the  end  that, 
in  case  of  necessity,  they  might  also  be  qualified  to 
defend  the  interests  of  the  Church  by  material 
weapons. 


146 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


the  exercise  of  common  virtues.  Subse- 
quently, during  the  seventh  and  eighth  cen- 
turies, the  principle  was  more  rapidly  pro- 
gressive; and  it  presently  gave  birth  to  a  sec- 
ond principle,  which  naturally  sprang  from 
it,  that  the  one  Body  could  have  only  one 
Head  ;  and  the  general  footing  which  this 
acquired,  at  least,  throughout  the  West,  con- 
tributed in  no  small  degree  to  prepare  and 
smooth  the  way  to  papal  despotism. 

Much  of  the  history  of  this  period  is  col- 
lected from  the  Canons  of  the  Councils  held 
in  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  West,  and  es- 
pecially in  Spain — for  the  ecclesiastical  af- 
fairs of  Gaul  *  were  also  in  part  regulated  by 
these  last.  Those  of  Toledo  were  the  most 
celebrated  and  influential,  and  the  attention 
which  was  paid  to  their  proceedings  even 
by  the  Roman  See  sufficiently  proves  the 
authority  which  they  held  in  the  Church. 
The  fifteenth  of  these  was  assembled  in  688, 
and  the  last,  not  long  before  the  invasion  of 
the  Saracens,  in  696.  But  upon  the  whole 
the  number  of  Councils  diminished  during 
the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries,  and  in  Gaul 
especially,  we  find  that,  whereas  fifty-four 
were  held  in  the  sixth,  twenty  only  assem- 
bled in  the  seventh  century,  and  only  seven 
during  the  first  half  of  the  eighth.  This 
gradual  disuse  of  one  of  the  most  ancient  and 
legitimate  methods  of  governing  the  Church, 
and  one  of  the  best  guarantees  both  for  its 
inward  purity  and  external  independence, 
was  a  proof  of  its  growing  corruption,  and  a 
fearful  omen  for  its  future  prosperity.  It 
arose  in  some  measure  from  a  cause  which 
we  are  about  to  mention. 

The  early  origin  and  office  of  the  Metro- 
politans have  already  been  noticed  ;  they 
were  the  Prelates  resident  in  the  capital  of 
the  Province,  and  their  legitimate  office  was 
to  preside  in  provincial  councils;  but  they 
endeavored  to  extend  their  consequence  by 
usurping  a  judicial  authority  in  charges 
against  Bishops,  and  other  matters  properly 
lying  under  the  cognizance  of  the  Council  ; 
and  they  had  some  success  until  the  sixth 
century.  But.  from  this  period  we  may  date 
their  downfall :  the  ambition  of  the  Popes,f 


*  The  fourth  Council  of  Toledo,  held  in  633,  or- 
dains an  uniformity  of  rites  and  ceremonies,  prayer 
and  psalmody,  throughout  Spain  and  Gaul — the  same 
office  of  the  mass,  and  other  services.  Fleury,  1, 
xxxvii.,  sect.  46. 

•f  The  progress  of  this  usurpation  is  so  well  de- 
scribed by  Giannone,  (Storia  cli  Nap.,  lib.  iii.  c.  vi.) 
that  we  shall  here  give  the  substance  of  his  account. 
In  the  fifth  century  the  title  of  Patriarch  was  univer- 


always  jealous  of  their  power,  and  anxious 
to  transfer  it  to  the  Holy  See,  pressed  and 
assailed  them  from  above :  from  below,  the 
episcopal  order,  preferring  a  distant  and  in- 
dulgent control  to  the  more  rigid  scrutiny 
of  a  domestic  censor,  were  equally  eager  for 
their  overthrow ;  and  this  was  greatly  facil- 
itated by  the  minute  subdivisions  of  some  of 
the  Western  Provinces,  which  in  many  cases 
politically  separated  the  Metropolitan  from 
the  Bishops  who  were  placed  under  his 
superintendence,  and  thus  at  once  annihila- 
ted his  influence.  From  these  causes  the 
Metropolitan  system  fell   into  decay,  so  that 


sally  acknowledged  to  belong,  in  common  with  the 
four  oriental  prelates,  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  His 
ordinary  power  indeed  did  not  extend  beyond  the 
Provinces  called  Suburban  (Suburbicarie,)  those 
which  obeyed  the  Vicar-General  of  Rome;  and  to 
these  limits  it  was  confined  till  the  reign  of  Valentin- 
ian.  But  in  process  of  time,  as  the  prerogatives  of 
primacy  were  united  in  his  person,  it  was  easy  to 
stretch  them  farther.  It  belonged  to  him  as  Primate 
to  have  regard  and  attention ;  on  this»ground  he  be- 
gan to  send  into  such  provinces  as  seemed  to  require 
such  superintendence  his  own  vicars;  in  Illvria  first, 
afterwards  in  Thessalv  and  Macedonia,  the  delegates 
of  the  Roman  Pontiff  exercised  Patriarchal  authori- 
ty. This  he  presently  afterwards  extended  over  the 
whole  of  Italy,  over  Gaul  and  Spain;  as  well  as  over 
all  countries  newly  converted  by  his  missionaries;  so 
that  the  Greeks  themselves  acknowledged  him  to  be 
sole  Patriarch  of  the  West.  The  next  step  of  the 
Popes,  which  occasioned  no  small  disturbances,  was  to 
usurp  the  power  of  ordaining  Bishops  throughout  all 
the  Western  Church,  which  was  no  less  than  to  sub- 
vert the  rights  of  all  the  Metropolitans.  They  pro- 
ceeded farther, and  claimed  the  office  of  ordaining  the 
Metropolitans  themselves. 

The  method  they  made  use  of  to  usurp  the  rights 
of  the  Metropolitans  regarding  ordination  was,  to 
send  them  the  Vest  or  Pallium — for  it  was  by  means 
of  this  that  the  Metropolitans  were  invested  by  the 
Holy  Pontiff"  with  the  power  of  ordaining  the  Bishops 
of  the  Province;  whence  it  followed  that  such  power 
was  not  possessed  by  them  unless  by  this  grant  ol  the 
Pallium.  Here  another  point  was  gained — the  Metro- 
politans had  not  the  power  of  exercising  all  the  episco- 
pal functions  until  they  had  received  the  Pallium  from 
the  Pope.  The  last  step  naturally  followed  this — that 
the  Pope  would  not  grant  the  Pallium  until  the  Metro- 
politans had  taken  an  oath  of  fidelity  such  as  he  requir- 
ed. Another  ground  on  which  he  advanced  was  this 
— he  contrived  that  appeals  from  the  decisions  of  the 
Metropolitans,  especially  relating  to  disputed  elections 
of  Bishops,  should  be  brought  before  himself;  that  if 
the  electors  had  been  negligent,  or  the  elected  unfit, 
the  election  should  devolve  on  the  Pope ;  that  he  alone 
should  possess  the  right  of  accepting  the  cessions  of 
Sees,  of  determining  translations,  and  the  coadjutor- 
ships  in  the  next  succession ;  and  lastly,  that  the  con- 
firmation of  all  episcopal  elections  should  be  vested  in 
the  Holy  See. 


INTERNAL  CONDITION  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


147 


little  more  than  its  name  remained  at  the  end 
of  the  eighth  century — and  closely  connected 
with  its  fall  was  the  disuse  of  Provincial 
Councils. 

The  great  result  which  was  hrought  about 
by  die  above  circumstances,  and  which 
showed  itself  early  in  the  West — as  to  the 
West  were  also  confined  the  changes  which 
we  have  mentioned — was  the  undue  aggran- 
dizement of  the  episcopal  order,  and  its  con- 
sequent deformity  and  corruption.  From 
the  moment  that  the  princes  succeeded  in 
usurping  the"  appointment  to  vacant  Sees,  the 
mutual  awe  and  dependence  of  the  Bishop 
and  his  clergy  were  at  an  end.  The  original 
method  of  election,  according  to  which  the 
dignity  was  generally  conferred  on  some  emi- 
nent ecclesiastic  who  had  long  resided  in  the 
diocese,  secured  at  least  some  degree  of  de- 
ference in  the  elected  to  the  office  and  priv- 
ileges of  the  priesthood  ;  but  the  practice  of 
regal  appointment  broke  that  tie,  and  the 
stranger,  who  was  frequently  intruded,  with 
few  common  interests  or  affections,  gave 
loose  without  any  restraint  to  his  insolence 
or  his  avarice,  in  an  age  and  condition  of 
society  in  which  public  opinion  had  no  in- 
fluence. Accoi'diugly  we  collect,  even  from 
the  Councils  of  those  times  which  were  en- 
tirely composed  of  Bishops,  the  violent  ex- 
cesses to  which  many  members  of  that  order 
proceeded.  '  We  have  learnt  (says  the  Coun- 
cil of  Toledo,  in  589)  that  the  Bishops  treat 
their  parishes  not  episcopal  ly  but  cruelly,  and 
oppress  their  dioceses  with  losses  and  exac-^ 
tions.  Wherefore,  let  all  that  the  Bishops 
would  appropriate  to  themselves  be  refused, 
excepting  that  which  the  ancient  constitutions 
grant  to  them  ;  and  let  the  clergy,  whether 
parochial  or  diocesan,  who  are  tormented 
by  the  Bishop,  carry  their  complaints  to 
the  Metropolitan,  and  let  the  Metropolitan 
hasten  to  repress  such  excesses.'  Nearly 
a  century  afterwards  the  fourth  Coun- 
cil of  Braga  (in  675)  inveighs  against  the 
brutality  of  certain  Bishops  who  treated 
honorable  men  like  robbers,  and  lacerated 
priests,  abbots,  and  deacons,  with  personal 
chastisement.  'Avarice  (says  the  Council  of 
Toledo  in  633)  is  the  root  of  all  evils,  and 
that  detestable  thirst  takes  possession  even 
of  the  hearts  of  Bishops.  Many  of  the  faithful, 
through  the  love  of  Christ  and  the  martyrs, 
build  chapels  in  the  parishes  of  the  Bishops, 
and  leave  offerings  there ;  but  the  Bishops 
seize  them  and  turn  them  to  their  own  use. 
Hence  it  follows  that  Clerks  are  wanting  to 
perform  the  divine  offices,  for  they  receive 


not  their  fees  ;  and  the  chapels  when  dilap- 
idated are  not  repaired,  because  sacerdota. 
avidity  has  carried  away  the  resources,  &c 
Besides  these  and  similar  proofs,  which 
might  be  brought  in  great  abundance,  the 
tyrannical  oppressions  of  the  Bishops  are 
sufficiently  evinced  by  the  conspiracies  or 
coalitions  of  the  priesthood  to  resist  them, 
which  are  sometimes  mentioned,  of  course 
with  reprehension  and  menace,  by  the  Coun- 
cils of  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries. 

Notwithstanding  the  measures  taken  to  re- 
press it,  the  license  and  the  demoralization 
of  the  episcopal  order  gradually  increased, 
and  towards  the  close  of  the  eighth  century 
it  had  reached  perhaps  the  farthest  limit  to 
which  it  ever  proceeded.  The  restraint 
which  had  formerly  been  imposed  by  the 
watchful  superintendence  of  provincial  Coun- 
cils and  Metropolitans,  was  feebly  supplied  by 
the  rare,  and  cautious,  and  often  ineffectual 
interference  of  the  Roman  See.  The  prac- 
tice of  regal  election  freed  the  Bishop  from 
any  check  with  which  either  respect  or  grat- 
itude towards  his  clergy  and  people  might 
otherwise  have  supplied  him — and  the  pos- 
itive degradation  of  the  clergy  itself  removed 
him  still  farther  from  any  deference  to  the 
feelings,  or  even  the  rights,  of  that  Body. 
Sole  administrator  of  the  revenues  of  the 
Church,  he  possessed  the  most  ample  means 
of  plunder  and  usurpation  ;  while  his  close 
connexion  with  political  transactions,  and 
the  weight  which  he  exerted  in  the  most  im- 
portant deliberations  of  the  State,  so  inter- 
wove the  temporal  with  the  spiritual  office 
and  duties,  and  also  added  to  his  legitimate 
authority  so  much  temporal  power,  that  there 
were  few  excesses  which  he  might  not  hope 
to  commit  with  impunity.*  It  is  therefore 
without  surprise  that  we  find  him  at  one  time 
advancing  to  battle  at  the  head  of  his  armed 
attendants,  and  at  another  engaged  in  ma- 
rauding expeditions  from  motives  of  plunder 
or  private  hostility.  His  habits  and  his  man- 
ners alike  departed  from  the  ecclesiastical 
character,  and  he  grew  to  resemble  the  rude 
Barons  who  surrounded  him,  both  in  the  ex- 
tent of  his  power,  and  the  insolence  with 
which  he  exercised  it. 

The  Papal  Principle.  We  now  turn  to 
Rome — the  centre  to  which  most  of  our  at- 
tention must  hereafter  be  directed — and  hav- 


*  It  should  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  this 
character  was  sometimes  assumed  on  royal  compul- 
sion; nor  was  this  the  only  stain  which  the  Church 
received  from  its  contact  with  the  wild  barbarism  of 
those  ages. 


148 


HISTORY  OF  THE    CHURCH. 


ing  shown  the  progress  of  the  religious  aris- 
tocracy during  the  seventh  and  eighth  ages, 
let  us  observe  whether  any  corresponding 
advance  was  made  by  the  monarchical  prin- 
ciple. Gregory  the  Great  died  in  the  year 
604 ;  and  certainly  if  his  immediate  suc- 
cessors had  equalled  him  in  energy  and  am- 
bition, the  period  of  papal  usurpation  might 
have  been  greatly  anticipated.  But  the  fact 
was  so  far  otherwise,  that  through  a  dreary 
period  of  almost  five  centuries  the  Vatican 
was  never  ruled  by  any  character  of  sufficient 
transcendency  to  assert  its  single  superemi- 
nence,  and  seize  the  sceptre  which  was  so 
long  presented  to  it  by  superstition  and  igno- 
rance. But  this  accident,  though  it  retarded 
the  maturity  of  the  Roman  Church,  did  not 
prevent  the  gradual  operation  of  the  princi- 
ples on  which  it  was  now  firmly  founded  ; 
and  if  it  be  the  province  of  genius  alone  to 
create  those  commanding  situations  and  cir- 
cumstances by  which  systems  are  formed  or 
established,  a  very  ordinary  mind  may  turn 
them  to  advantage  when  created  and  pre- 
sented. And  thus  the  long  succession  of  ob- 
scure pontiffs,  who  presided  in  the  West  for 
the  century  and  a  half  which  followed,  may 
have  profited  by  such  occasions  as  were  of- 
fered to  extend  the  authority  of  the  Church 
and  exalt  the  supremacy  of  its  head.  At  least 
we  have  reason  to  believe,  that  both  the 
one  and  the  other  of  those  objects  were, 
upon  the  whole,  advanced  during  the  period 
in  question. 

Within  fifty  years  from  the  death  of  Greg- 
ory, Pope  St.  Martin  assembled  a  Council  at 
Rome,  in  which,  among  various  expositions 
of  doctrine,  he  condemned  a  certain  heresy 
at  that  time  maintained  by  Constans,  the 
Emperor  of  the  East.  That  Prince,  little 
disposed  to  pardon  the  offence,  sent  his  Ex- 
arch into  Italy  with  orders  to  seize  the  per- 
son of  the  Pontiff.  By  the  employment  of 
some  address  he  succeeded  in  his  mission  ; 
in  the  year  653  St.  Martin  was  carried  away 
from  Rome  a  captive  to  Constantinople,  and 
thence,  after  enduring,  according  to  the  Cath- 
olic historians,  a  multitude  of  insults,  he  was 
exiled  to  the  Chersonesus.  In  the  year  fol- 
lowing (655)  he  died  there;  and  his  successor 
Eugenius  was  appointed  by  the  Emperor. 
The  singularity  of  this  circumstance  has 
lci'-ojumended  it  to  our  notice,  rather  than 
its  imjjCrtance.  It  was  an  isolated  event,  de- 
pending solely  on  the  political  power  which 
the  Emperor  of  the  day  might  happen  to 
possess  over  his  Italian  subjects,  and  not  at 
all  affecting  the  influence  which  the  Holy  See 


was  now  acquiring  in  every  quarter  of  the 
West — for  that  was  the  ground  on  which  its 
battles  were  to  be  fought  and  its  conquests 
gained,  and  to  that  they  were  destined  to  be 
confined ;  and  so  long  as  it  suffered  no  re- 
verses in  that  field,  it  mattered  little  what 
might  be  the  result  of  an  occasional  dispute 
either  with  the  Patriarch  or  the  Emperor  of 
the  East. 

We  have  already  mentioned  that,  during 
the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries,  some  suc- 
cessful inroads  were  made  by  the  Popes  on 
the  privileges  of  Metropolitans,  especially  in 
their  election  or  confirmation;*  and  the  influ- 
ence of  St.  Boniface,  the  apostle  of  Germany, 
was  warmly  exerted  about  the  year  742 
among  the  Bishops  of  France  and  Germany, 
to  extend  the  authority  of  the  See.  Another 
occurrence,  which  tended  much  more  effect- 
ually, though  by  a  very  different  course,  to 
the  same  result,  took  place  almost  immedi- 
tely  afterwards. 

The  Donation  of  Pepin.  Pepin,  who  was 
mayor  of  the  palace  to  Childeric  III.,  King 
of  France,  was  desirous  to  dethrone  his  im- 
becile master,  aud  to  usurp  the  name,  after 
having  long  exercised  the  power  of  royalty. 
Accordingly  he  assembled  the  States  of  the 
realm,  and  they  gave  it  as  their  opinion  that 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  should  previously  be 
consulted  respecting  the  lawfulness  of  the 
project.  In  consequence,  ambassadors  were 
sent  to  Zachary  with  a  question  to  the  fol- 
lowing import — 'Whether  the  divine  law  did 
not  permit  a  valiant  and  warlike  people  to 
dethrone  a  pusillanimous  and  indolent  mon- 
arch who  was  incapable  of  discharging  any 
of  the  functions  of  royalty,  and  to  substitute 
in  his  place  one  more  worthy  of  rule,  and 
who  had  already  rendered  most  important 
services  to,  the  State  ? '  The  answer  of  the 
Pope  was  such  as  the  usurper  desired  :  Chil- 
deric was  stripped  of  royalty  without  any 
opposition,  and  Pepin  took  undisputed  pos- 
session of  the  throne. 

This  occurrence  is  generally  related  as  the 
first  instance  of  the  temporal  ambition  of  the 
Vatican,  or  at  least  of  its  interference  with 
the  rights  of  princes  and   the  allegiance  o> 

*  The  pallium  or  peculiar  vest  was  requested  of  the 
Pope  by  the  Metropolitans,  at  first  merely,  as  it 
would  seem,  in  token  of  an  honor  to  which  no  con- 
dition was  annexed,  but  afterwards  in  attestation  of 
their  subjection  to  the  See,  and  obedience  to  its  ca 
nonical  commands.  The  virtues  of  the  pallium  are 
described  at  length  in  an  Epistle  from  Pope  Zacha- 
ry to  Boniface.  Baron,  ami.  742,  sect.  v.  See 
above,  note  on  p.  146. 


INTERNAL   CONDITION   OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


149 


subjects — and  therefore  the  conduct  of  the 
Pope  has  commonly  been  treated  (by  Protest- 
ant writers)  with  unmeasured  reprehension. 
But  certainly  if  we  consider  the  act  of  Zach- 
ary  distinct  from  those  subsequent  usurpa- 
tions, to  which  in  truth  it  did  neither  neces- 
sarily lead,  nor  even  furnish  a  plausible  pre- 
cedent— if  we  consider  the  act,  as  historical 
justice  requires  of  us,  with  a  fair  regard  to 
the  circumstances  of  France  and  Italy,  and 
to  the  principles  of  the  times,  we  shall  be 
surprised  indeed  that  a  Pope  of  the  eighth 
century  should  so  easily  assent  to  the  most 
popular  principle  of  republicanism,  and  we 
may  reject  perhaps  the  political  axiom  which 
he  has  laid  down ;  but  we  shall  not  accuse 
him  of  ambitious  or  unchristian  arrogance  for 
having  resolved  a  difficulty  which  he  did 
not  create  ;  for  having  answered  a  question 
which  was  proposed  to  him,  as  the  highest 
human  authority,  and  proposed  without  any 
interference  or  solicitation  on  his  own  part. 
It  is  true  that  the  nature  of  his  answer  may 
have  been  influenced  by  his  manifest  inter- 
ests, and  the  necessity  in  which  the  See  then 
stood  of  a  powerful  protector — but  this  is  a 
consideration  quite  distinct  from  the  original 
broad  charge  of  intrusion  in  temporal  con- 
cerns— and  even  in  this  matter,  the  mere  ab- 
sence of  that  splendid  disinterestedness,  which 
is  rare  in  every  age,  and  almost  impossible  in 
bad  ages,  is  not  to  be  stigmatized  as  inexcus- 
ably criminal,  nor  to  be  placed  on  the  same 
level  with  the  active,  intriguing  intrusiveness 
of  guilty  ambition. 

It  is  not  probable  that  Pope  Zachary  fore- 
saw all  the  advantages  which  soon  afterwards 
accrued  to  the  Holy  See  from  his  decision — 
but  pressed  by  the  Greeks  on  one  hand,  and 
the  Lombards  on  the  other,  he  was  no  doubt 
glad  of  the  occasion  to  create  a  substantial 
friendship  beyond  the  Alps.  The  Lombards 
had  gradually  possessed  themselves  of  those 
provinces  of  Italy  which  had  remained  long- 
est attached  to  the  Greek  empire,  under  the 
name  of  the  Exarchate  of  Ravenna ;  *  and 
those  warlike  foreigners  were  now  projecting 
the  extension  of  their  conquest  to  the  whole 
peninsula.  Stephen  II.,  the  successor  of 
Zachary,  applied  to  the  Court  of  France  for 
protection  ;  and  instantly,  Pepin,  at  the  head 
of  a  numerous  army,  crossed  the  Alps,  and 


*  The  strict  limits  of  the  Exarchate  were  included 
in  the  territories  of  Ravenna,  Bologna  and  Ferrara: 
dependent  on  it  was  the  Pentapolis,  which  extended 
along  the  Adriatic  from  Rimini  to  Ancona,  and  ad- 
vanced into  die  interior  as  far  as  the  ridges  of  the 
Apennines.     Gibbon  c.  49. 


overthrew  the  Lombards,  and  recovered  the 
Exarchate  from  their  hands.  Pepin  might 
have  restored  this  valuable  spoil  to  the  throne 
of  Constantinople  with  great  praise  of  justice; 
or  by  the  indulgence  of  ambition  he  might 
have  retained  permanent  possession  of  it 
himself,  without  any  reproach  and  with  much 
profit — he  did  neither;  but,  mindful  of  his 
obligation  to  the  Holy  See,  and  sensible  of 
the  advantage  of  intimate  alliance  with  it,  he 
transferred  the  sovereignty  over  the  provinc- 
es in  question  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  This 
celebrated  donation  took  place  in  754-5 ;  and 
thus  we  observe  that  the  earliest  interference 
of  the  Vatican  in  temporal  matters  brought 
after  it,  in  the  course  of  three  years  only,  a 
rich  and  solid  reward  of  temporal  power, 
which  has  never  since  been  either  greatly  in- 
creased or  greatly  diminished.  The  degree 
of  authority  which  individual  Pontiffs  have 
exerted  in  their  States  has  indeed  been  liable 
in  different  ages  to  extreme  diversities ;  still 
the  authority  itself  has,  in  some  shape,  been 
perpetuated  ;  and  it  has  survived  the  splendid 
pretensions  of  the  spiritual  despotism,  by 
whose  infancy  it  was  created,  whose  maturity 
it  assisted  to  swell  and  pamper,  and  whose 
expiring  influence  will  propably  be  confined 
to  the  same  limits  with  itself. 

Charlemagne's  liberality  to  the  Church.  The 
donation  of  Pepin  awaited  the  confirmation 
of  his  son  Charlemagne  ;  for  in  the  year  774 
the  Lombards  again  threatened  the  Roman 
territories  ;  the  aid  of  France  was  again  in- 
voked, and  the  monarch  who  now  afforded 
it,  did  not  pause  till  he  had  entirely  and  fin- 
ally subverted  the  empire  of  those  conquer- 
ors, and  proclaimed  himself  their  King. 
Charlemagne  was  so  far  from  disapproving 
his  father's  munificence  to  the  Pope,  that  he 
renewed  and  even  increased  the  grant  by 
some  accession  of  territory ;  he  drew  still 
closer  the  bonds  which  allied  him  with  a 
Bishop  whose  power  was  real  and  solid,  how- 
ever fanciful  may  have  been  the  claims  on 
which  it  stood ;  and  thus  he  secured  the 
zealous  assistance  of  the  See,  when  circum- 
stances at  length  allowed  him  to  mature  the 
projects  of  his  own  ambition,  and  to  pro- 
claim himself,  in  the  year  800,  the  Emperor 
of  the  West. 

Charlemagne  did  not  confine  his  benefac- 
tions to  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  but  distributed 
them  among  all  the  orders  of  the  hierarchy. 
He  augmented  their  wealth,  he  enlarged  their 
privileges,  he  exalted  their  dignity,  he  con- 
firmed and  extended  their  immunities;  and 
were  it  not  beyond  contradiction  established, 


150 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH 


that  lie  was  one  of  the  greatest  and  wisest 
princes  who  ever  reigned,  some  writers 
would  not  have  hesitated  to  place  him  among 
the  weakest  of  mankind.  But  the  motives 
of  his  liberality  were  such  as  became  a  mag- 
nanimous and  a  benevolent  monarch.  Su- 
perstition has  never  been  accounted  among 
them,  nor  any  unfounded  fears  or  undue 
reverence  of  the  ecclesiastical  order — from 
the  former  he  was  perhaps  more  nearly  ex- 
empt than  would  have  appeared  possible  in 
so  rude  an  age  ;  and  in  his  transactions  with 
the  clergy,  even  with  the  Pope  himself,  he 
never  forgot,  or  allowed  them  to  forget,  his 
own  supremacy.  But  he  was  desirous  to 
civilize  his  barbarous  subjects  ;  he  was  anx- 
ious to  influence  their  rude  manners,  and 
correct  their  vicious  morals,  by  the  more 
general  diffusion  and  comprehension  of  the 
Christian  truths  ;  and  he  was  willing  also  to 
sow  the  seeds  of  secular  learning,  and  dispel 
the  ignorance  which  oppressed  his  people. 
As  the  first  step  towards  this  regeneration  he 
presented  to  them  the  example  of  his  own 
piety  and  his  own  learning.*  But  when  he 
looked  round  for  the  means  of  communicat- 
ing those  blessings,  the  first  and  the  only  one 
which  presented  itself  was  the  agency  of  the 
clergy.  All  that  was  influential  among  his 
subjects  was  contained  in  the  two  orders, 
military  and  ecclesiastical ;  and  the  wild  tur- 
bulence of  the  former  pointed  them  out  rather 
as  objects  than  instruments  of  reformation. 
The  little  of  literary  taste  or  acquirement 
which  his  kingdom  contained  was  confined 
to  the  clergy  ;  and  there  he  labored  to  en- 
courage   its  increase,  and    to   distribute   it, 

*  Many  writers  assert  that  he  yielded  not  to  any 
".ontemporary  in  either  of  those  merits;  the  former, 
however,  does  not  appear  greatly  to  have  influenced 
his  moral  practices;  and  as  to  his  proficiency  in  the 
latter,  we  may  at  least  venture  to  prefer  to  him  his 
own  master  and  preceptor  Alcuin,  an  Englishman, 
the  most  celebrated  divine  of  the  day;  and  since  we 
are  assured  that  Charlemagne  did  not  learn  to  write 
till  late  in  life,  doubtless  we  might  make  other  excep- 
tions. Alcuin  is  regarded  as  the  restorer  of  letters 
in  France,  or  at  least  the  principal  instrument  of 
Charles  in  that  work.  In  a  letter  to  that  Prince  he 
avers  that  it  rested  with  those  two  alone  to  raise  up 
in  France  a  Christian  Athens.  And  his  own  writings 
attest  his  industry  in  restoring  almost  every  branch 
of  study.  (Fleury,  Hist.  Eccl.,  liv.  45,  sect,  xviii.) 
The  devotion  of  Charlemagne  to  the  services  of  reli- 
gion is  not  disputed;  through  his  whole  life  he  was 
a  regular  attendant  on  the  offices,  even  the  nocturnal 
ceremonies,  of  the  Church,  and  his  last  days  were 
passed  in  correcting  the  text  of  the  Gospel  with  the 
assistance  of  certain  Greeks  and  Syrians.  Fleury, 
H.  E.  1.  45,  s.  viii. 


through  the  only  channel  that  was  open,  for 
the  moral  improvement  of  his  subjects.  It 
was  chiefly  with  this  view  that  he  augment- 
ed the  power  and  revenues  of  the  Church, 
and  raised  its  ministers  to  a  more  exalted 
rank  and  influence — influence  which  they 
subsequently  studied  to  improve  by  methods 
not  always  honorable,  but  which,  as  circum- 
stances then  existed,  it  was  pardonable  if  not 
commendable,  it  was  magnanimous  if  it  was 
not  also  politic,  in  Charlemagne  to  bestow. 

Reformation  of  the  Clergy.  But  we  shall 
readily  admit,  that  that  monarch's  munifi- 
cence would  have  been  very  dangerously  be- 
stowed, had  he  not  taken  vigorous  measures 
to  reform,  at  the  same  time  that  he  enriched, 
the  ecclesiastical  body ;  and  some  of  those 
measures,  though  we  had  proposed  to  defer 
the  particulars  of  his  legislation  till  a  subse- 
quent Chapter,  may  be  mentioned  with  no 
less  propriety  in  the  present.  In  the  year 
789,  at  an  assembly  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  Char- 
lemagne published  a  Capitulary  in  eighty 
articles,  chiefly  with  a  view  to  restore  the 
ancient  discipline  of  the  Church.*  It  was 
addressed  to  all  ecclesiastics,  and  carried  by 
the  officers  of  the  monarch  into  all  the  Prov- 
inces. The  instructions  which  most  nearly 
affected  the  peculiar  abuses  of  the  age  were 
those,  perhaps,  which  exhorted  the  Bishops 
to  select  their  clergy  from  freemen  rather 
than  from  slaves  ;  and  which  forbade  bishops 
and  abbots  and  abbesses  to  possess  dogs,  or 
hawks,  or  buffoons,  or  jugglers.  By  the  cele- 
brated Council  of  Francfort  (Sur  le  Mein) 
held  in  794,  it  was  enacted,  among  many 
other  wholesome  regulations,  that  Bishops 
should  not  be  translated  from  city  to  city ; 
that  the  Bishop  should  never  be  absent  from 
his  Church  for  more  than  three  weeks  ;  that 
he  should  so  diligently  instruct  his  clergy, 
that  a  worthy  successor  might  ever  be  found 
among  them ;  and  that  after  his  death  his 
heirs  should  only  succeed  to  such  portion  of 
his  property  as  he  possessed  before  his  ordi- 
nation —  all  acquisitions  subsequently  made 
were  to  return  to  his  Church.  Other  articles 
regulated  the  discipline  of  the  inferior  clergy. 
We  shall  conclude  with  one  additional  and 
very  singular  instance.  Towards  the  close 
of  the  year  803  the  Emperor  held  a  parlia- 
ment at  Worms,  when  a  petition  was  pre- 
sented to  him  by  all  the  people  of  his  States, 
of  which  the  following  was  the  substance — 
'  We  pray  your  Majesty  that  henceforward 
Bishops  may  not  be  constrained  to  join  the 

*  Fleury,  H.  E.  liv.  44,  sect.  46,  and  liv.  45 
sect.  26. 


DISSENSIONS. 


151 


army,  as  they  have  been  hitherto.     But  when 
we  march  with  you  against  the  enemy,  let 
them  remain    in    their    dioceses,  occupied 
with  their  holy  ministry,  and  praying  for  you 
and  your  army,  singing  masses,  and  making 
processions,  and  almsgiving.     For  we  have 
beheld  some  among  them  wounded  and  kil- 
led  in  battle,  God  is  our  witness  with  how 
much  terror !  and  these  accidents  cause  many 
to  fly  before  the  enemy.     So  that  you  will 
have   more   combatants   if   they   remain   in 
their  dioceses,  since  many  are  employed  in 
guarding  them  ;  and  they  will  aid  you  more 
effectually   by   their    prayers,   raising    their 
hands  to  heaven,  after  the  manner  of  Moses. 
We  make  the  same  petition  with  respect  to 
the  priests,  that  they  come  not  to  the  army, 
unless  by  the  choice  of  their  Bishops,  and 
that   those   be  such  in  learning  and  morals 
that  we  may  place  full  confidence  in  them, 
&c.'     Charlemagne  replied  as  follows — 'In 
our  desire  both  to  reform  ourselves,  and  to 
leave  an  example  to  our  successors,  we  ordain 
that  no  ecclesiastic  shall  join  the  army,  ex- 
cept two  or  three   Bishops   chosen   by  the 
others,  to  give  the  benediction,  preach  and 
conciliate,  and  with  them  some  chosen  priests 
to  impose  penance,  celebrate  mass,  take  care 
of  the  sick,  and  give  the  unction  of  holy  oil 
and  the  viaticum.     But  these  shall  carry  no 
arms,  neither  shall  they  go  to  battle  nor  shed 
any  blood,  but   shall   be  contented  to  carry 
relics  and  holy  vessels,  and  to  pray  for  the 
combatants.     The  other  Bishops  who  remain 
at  their  churches  shall  send  their  vassals  well 
armed  with  us  or  at  our  disposal,  and  shall 
pray  for  us  and  our  army.     For  the  people 
and    the   kings   who   have   permitted    their 
priests   to  fight   along  with   them  have   not 
gained  the  advantage  in  their  wars,  as  we 
know  from  what  has  happened  in  Gaul,  in 
Spain,  and  in  Lombardy.     In  adopting  the 
contrary  practice  we  hope  to  obtain  victory 
over  the  pagans,  and  finally  everlasting  life.' 


If 


CHAPTER  XL 


On  the  Dissensions  of  the  Church  from  the  Age 
of  Constantine  to  that  of  Charlemagne. 

Division  of  the  subject :— T.  Schism  of  the  Donatists— 
its  real  origin — progress — Circumcellions — conduct  of 
Constantine— and  his  successor— of  Julian— conference 
of  Carthage  —  St.  Augustin— the  Vandals— Saracens- 
real  extent  of  the  offences  of  the  Donatists  :  some  ac- 
count of  St.  Augustin.— II.  Priscillian— his  persecution 
and  death— probable  opinions— the  first  Martyr  to  reli- 


gious dissent — how  truly  so — Ithakius — Martin  of  Tours 
— effect  of  Priscillian's  death  on  his  followers. — III.  Jo- 
vinian — his  opinions — by  whom  chiefly  opposed — Edict 
of  Honorius— Vigilantius— his  character — abuses  oppos- 
ed by  him — St.  Jerome. — IV.  Pelagian  Controversy — its 
importance — and  perplexity — Pelagius  and  Celestius — 
opposition  of  St.  Augustin — Councils  of  Jerusalem  and 
Diospolis  —  reference   to  Zosimus,  Bishop  of  Rome  — 
perseverance  of   St.    Augustin — and  his  success— the 
sum  of  the  Pelagian  opinions  —  opposite  doctrine  of 
Fatalism  —  Semi-Pelagianism — Doctrine  of  the  East- 
indifference  of  Greek  Church  to  this  Controversy. — V. 
Controversy  respecting  the  Incarnation — early  origin — 
Apollinaris — his  doctrine — Nestorius  —  his  rash  asser- 
tion— Cyril  of  Alexandria— Council  of  Ephesus — con- 
demnation and  banishment  of  Nestorius — progress  of 
his  opinions — what  they  really  amounted  to  —  Euty- 
ches — the  Monophysite  heresy — Dioscorus  of  Alexan- 
dria— second  Council  of  Ephesus— interference  of  Pope 
Leo — Council  of  Chalcedon — condemnation   and  sub- 
sequent conduct  of  the  Eutychians — Henoticon  of  Zeno 
— its  object — effect— Heraclius  and  the  Monothelites — 
Council  of  Constantinople — general  remarks  on  this 
Controversy — apology  for  those  engaged  in  it  —  some 
of  its  consequences. — VI.  Worship  of  Images — its  spe- 
cious origin — its  progress  in  East  and  West — Leo  the 
Isaurian — effects  of  his   Edict — Constantine  Coprony- 
mus  —  Synod  of  Constantinople  —  the  Empress  Irene 
— second  Council  of  Nice,  or  Seventh  General  Council 
— Remarks  on  the  Seven  General  Councils — Leo  the  Ar- 
menian— Michel — his  Epistle  to  Louis  le  Debonnaire — 
The  Empress  Theodora — Feast  of  Orthodoxy — general 
remarks — John  Damascenus — miracles — conduct  of  se- 
cular clergy — of  monastic  orders — of  the  common  peo- 
ple— of  Papal   See — contrast  between  the  Italian  and 
French  clergy. 

The  controversies  which  occasioned  the 
widest  divisions  in  the  Church  during  the  five 
centuries  following  its  establishment,  were 
on  two  subjects — the  Incarnation  of  our  bles- 
sed Saviour,  and  the  Worship  of  Images. 
Indeed,  if  we  except  the  Pelagian  opinions, 
there  were  none  other  than  these  which  left 
any  lasting  consequences  behind  them.  Still 
we  are  not  justified  in  confining  our  notice 
entirely  to  those  three,  but  we  must  extend 
it,  though  more  concisely,  to  some  other 
dissensions,  of  less  importance  and  earlier 
date,  which  animated  the  passions  of  Church- 
men during  the  interval  between  the  Arian 
and  the  Incarnation  controversies.  We  shall 
mention  them  in  the  following  order : — 1. 
The  schism  of  the  Donatists ;  2.  the  heresy 
of  the  Priscillianists  ;  3.  the  opinions  of  the 
Reformers,  Jovinian  and  Vigilantius;  and 
shall  then  proceed  to  the  doctrines  of  Pelagi- 
us and  Celestius.  To  these  we  shall  limit 
our  curiosity  ;  for  the  various  disputes,  creat- 
ed directly  or  indirectly,  by  the  writings  of 
Origen,  and  the  many  real  (or  supposed) 
ramifications  of  the  Manichrean  heresy,  are 
not  such  as  to  claim  a  place  in  this  work. 

I.  The  Donatists.  On  the  death  of  Men- 
surius,  Bishop  of  Carthage,  in  311,  the  clergy 
and  people  of  that  city  and  district  elected  in 


152 


HISTORY  OF   THE    CHURCH. 


his  place  the  Archdeacon  Caecilianus,  and 
proceeded  to  his  consecration  without  wait- 
ing, as  it  would  seem,  for  the  consent  of  the 
Bishops  of  Nurnidia,  a  contiguous  and  subor- 
dinate province.  Probably  custom  or  cour- 
tesy was  violated  by  this  neglect ;  but  the 
Numidians  considered  it  also  as  an  infringe- 
ment of  their  right,  and  hastened  to  resent  it 
as  such.  This  was  no  doubt  the  real  found- 
ation of  the  schism  —  an  objection  taken 
against  the  character*  of  one  Felix,  a  Bishop 
who  had  been  prominent  in  the  consecration 
of  Caecilianus,  though  it  was  repeatedly 
brought  forward  in  the  course  of  the  contro- 
versy, was  obviously  a  vain  and  contemptible 
pretext.  The  dissentients,  headed  by  a  cer- 
tain Donatus,  assembled  a  Council  of  their 
own,  condemned  Caecilianus,  and  appointed 
his  deacon,  Majorinus,  for  his  successor. 
Both  parties  then  proceeded  to  great  extrem- 
ities, and  as  there  appeared  no  other  pros- 
pect of  reconciliation,  they  agreed  to  bring 
the  dispute  before  the  Emperor  Constantine, 
who  had  just  then  proclaimed  the  establish- 
ment of  Christianity.  Constantine  inquired 
into  the  affair,  first  by  means  of  a  Synod  at 
Rome,  consisting  of  three  Gaulish  and  fifteen 
Italian  prelates,f  at  which  the  Bishop  of  the 
capital  presided  ;  and  presently  afterwards, 
by  an  inquiry  into  the  truth  of  the  charges 
against  Felix,  before  the  civil  magistrate 
iElian,  proconsul  of  Africa,  assisted  by  seve- 
ral lay,  and  for  the  most  part  military  asses- 
sors: the  decision,  on  both  investigations, 
was  unfavorable  to  the  Donatists.  They 
were  discontented;  seventy  venerable  Nu- 
midian  prelates,  assembled  in  council  in  the 
heart  and  light  of  Africa,  had  rejected  the 
authority  of  Caecilianus — could  so  solemn  an 
act  be  superseded  by  a  commission  of  a  small 
number  of  obscure  Bishops  meeting  in  a  dif- 
ferent province,  and  perhaps  ignorant  of  the 
leading  circumstances  ?  They  submitted  the 
matter  to  the  Emperor's  reconsideration. 
His  patience  was  not  yet  exhausted  ;  he  im- 
mediately summoned  a  much  more  nume- 
rous synod  at  Aries,  in  Gaul,  and  here  again, 
after  much  serious  debate,  the  Donatists  lost 
their  cause.  Still  dissatisfied,  they  had  re- 
course to  the  final  expedient,  an  appeal  to  the 
personal  justice  of  Constantine.  The  Empe- 
ror again  consented  to  their  request ;  but  on 
this  occasion   the  motive  of  his  indulgence 


*  He  was  accused  of  being  a  Traditor;  i.  e.  of 
having  delivered  up  copies  of  the  Scriptures  during 
Diocletian's  persecution. 

t  Fleury,  lib.  x.,  sect.  11.,  records  the  names  of 
most  of  them ;  and  die  order  of  precedence. 


may  be  liable  to  some  suspicion,  since  the 
very  application  admitted  the  power  of  the 
Emperor  to  reverse  the  decision  of  an  ec- 
clesiastical council — a  right  which  he  might 
very  naturally  choose  to  assert  at  that  mo- 
ment— at  least  it  is  certain  that,  in  the  year 
316,  he  condescended  to  investigate  the  affair 
at  Milan,  iu  the  presence  of  the  contending 
parties.  He  deliberately  confirmed  the  for- 
mer decisions;  and  then,  as  these  repeated 
condemnations  had  no  other  effect  than  to 
increase  the  perversity  of  the  schismatics,  he 
applied  the  secular  power  to  their  correction.* 
This  measure  led  to  some  violent  disturbanc- 
es; many  joined,  as  persecuted,  those  whom 
they  loved  not  as  schismatics,  and  the  confu- 
sion thus  generally  occasioned  gave  license 
to  a  number  of  lawless  ruffians,  the  refuse  of 
Africa,  of  no  sect,  and  probably  of  no  faith, 
to  range  their  weapons  and  their  crimes  on 
the  side  of  the  contumacious.  These  men, 
the  soldiers  of  the  Donatists,  were  called  Cir- 
cumcellions  ;  and  their  savage  excesses  went 
very  far  to  convert  the  schism  into  a  rebel- 
lion. When  the  quarrel  arrived  at  this  point, 
it  is  well  worthy  of  notice,  that  Constantine, 
instead  of  proceeding  to  extinguish  the  mal- 
contents by  the  sword,  attended  to  the  advice 
of  the  governors  of  Africa,  so  as  to  repeal  the 
laws  which  had  been  enacted  against  them — 
and  to  allow  the  people  full  liberty  to  adhere 
to  the  party  which  they  might  prefer.f 

Not  so  his  successor  Constans :  during  his 
reign  we  read  of  the  defeat  of  the  Donatists 
at  the  battle  of  Bagnia,  and  of  thirteen  years 
of  tumult  and  bloodshed,  and  uninterrupted 
persecution.  These  severe  measures,  which 
the  fury  of  the  Circumcellions  could  scarcely 
justify,  destroyed  many,  and  dispersed  into 
other  countries  a  still  greater  number  of  the 
perverse  schismatics  —  but  converted  prob- 
ably none. 

The  moment  of  reaction  was  not  far 
distant ;  the  numerous  and  revengeful  exiles 
were  restored  to  their  home  by  the  suspicious 
justice  of  Julian; J  and  the  sect  appears  to 


*  He  certainly  exiled  some,  and  is  said  to  have  de- 
prived them  of  their  churches,  and  even  to  have  shed 
some  blood.     See  Mosh.,  cent,  iv.,  p.  ii.,  ch.  v. 

t  This  change  in  his  policy  seems  to  have  taken 
place  in  321 — after  five  years  experience  of  the  oppo- 
site system. 

J  The  horrors  which  they  committed  on  their  res- 
toration are  very  vividly  and  seriously  related  by 
Fleury,  (1.  xv.,  s.  32.)  •  They  expelled  the  Catholic 
people,  violated  the  women,  and  murdered  the  chil- 
dren. They  threw  the  Eucharist  to  the  dogs,  but  the 
dogs  became  mad,  and  turning  against  their  masteie 
tore  them  in  pieces.     One  of  diem  threw  out  of  ike 


DISSENSIOAS. 


153 


bave  sprung  up,  during  the  few  following 
years,  to  the  highest  eminence  which  it  at 
any  time  attained.  Towards  the  conclusion 
of  the  fourth  century  Africa  was  covered 
with  its  churches,  and  its  spiritual  interests 
were  guarded  by  a  body  of  four  hundred 
Bishops. 

Let  us  observe  the  consequence  of  this 
prosperity — a  violent  division  grew  up  among 
them,  respecting  some  very  insignificant 
person  or  thing,  and  opened  a  breach  in  their 
fortress  to  the  persevering  assaults  of  the 
Catholics.  Besides  which,  the  method  of 
assault  was  now  somewhat  changed  and  re- 
fined ;  the  weapons  of  reason  and  disputation 
were  now  again  admitted  into  the  service  of 
the  Church  ;  and  they  were  not  without  ef- 
fect, since  they  were  directed  and  sharpened 
by  the  genius  of  Augustin.  The  Bishop  of 
Hippo  *  attacked  the  Donatists  in  his  writ- 
ings, in  his  public  discourses,  in  his  private 
conversation  ;  and  so  vigorously  exposed  their 
dangerous  and  seditious  spirit,  as  to  lessen 
their  popularity  in  Africa,  and  to  destroy  any 
sympathy  which  their  former  sufferings  might 
have  created  in  the  rest  of  Christendom. 

From  this  period  they  fell  gradually  into 
dishonor ;  somewhat  they  still  endured  from 
the  unjust  application  of  the  laws  against 
heresy,  of  which  no  one  has  ever  accused 
them  ;  but  a  dangerous  wound  was  inflicted 
by  the  celebrated  conference  held  at  Carthage 
in  411.  The  tribune  IVlarcellinus  was  sent 
into  Africa  by  the  Emperor  Honorius,  with 
full  power  to  terminate  the  controversy ;  he 
convoked  an  assembly  of  the  heads  of  both 
parties,  and  two  hundred  and  eighty-six 
Catholic,  andjjjgBBt-'tw.o  hundred  and  seven- 
ty-nine Donatist  bishops,  preseuted  them- 
selves in  defence  of  their  respective  opinions. 
The  most  solemn  preparations  were  made  to 
give  weight  and  dignity  to  this  meeting,  and 
its  deliberations  were  watched  with  profound 
anxiety  by  the  people  of  Africa.f     For  three 


window  a  phial  of  the  holy  ointment,  which  fell  among 
the  stones  without  breaking,  &c.  They  exorcised 
the  faithful  in  order  to  baptize  them  anew;  they 
washed  the  walls  of  the  Churches,  and  broke  the.  al- 
tars and  burnt  them  —  for  most  of  those  in  Africa 
were  then  of  wood  —  thpy  broke  the  consecrated 
chalices  and  melted  them  down,  to  convert  them  to 
other  purposes — in  a  word  they  held  as  profane  all 
that  the  Catholic  Bishops  had  consecrated,  &c.' 

*  He  seems  first  to  have  taken  the  field  while  a 
simple  presbyter,  in  the  year  394. 

|  '  Let  the  Bishops  (says  Marcel  I  inus  in  a  previous 
proclamation)  signify  to  the  people  in  their  sermons 
to  keep  themselves  quiet  and  silent.     1  will  publish 

20 


days  the  Tribune  listened  with  respectful  at- 
tention to  the  arguments  advanced  by  both 
parties,  and  then  proceeded  to  confirm  the 
decisions  of  the  former  century,  by  pronounc- 
ing in  favor  of  the  Catholics.  Augustin4ms 
deserved  the  glory  of  this  spiritual  triumph 
— and,  that  no  means  might  be  wanting  to 
make  it  decisive,  it  was  vigorously  pursued 
by  the  myrmidons  of  civil  authority,  who  in- 
flicted almost  every  punishment  on  the  con- 
tumacious, excepting  the  last.* 

The  survivors  took  breath  under  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  Vandals,  who  conquered  that 
part  of  Africa  from  the  Romans  about  the 
year  427 ;  and  when  it  was  recovered  by 
Belisarius,  more  than  a  hundred  years  after- 
wards, the  sect  of  the  Donatists  was  still 
found  to  exist  there  as  a  separate  communion. 
It  was  again  exposed  to  the  jealousy  of  the 
Catholics,  and  particularly  attracted  the  hos- 
tility of  Gregory  the  Great;  but  we  do  not 
learn  that  it  suffered  further  persecution. 
We  are  told  that  it  dwindled  into  insignifi- 
cance about  the  end  of  the  sixth  century  ;  but 
it  is  not  improbable,  that  the  Saracen  invad- 
ers of  Numidia  found  the»*,  some  few  years 
later,  the  remnant  of  a  sect  not  ill-disposed 
to  favor  any  invader,  nor  unmindful  of  the 
sufferings  of  their  ancestors. 

The  Donatists  have  never  been  charged, 
with  the  slightest  show  of  truth,  with  any 
error  of  doctrine,  or  any  defect  in  Church 
government  or  discipline,  or  any  depravity 
of  moral  practice  ;  they  agreed  in  every  re- 
spect with  their  adversaries,  except  in  one — 
they  did  not  acknowledge  as  legitimate  the 
ministry  of  the  African  Church,  but  consid- 


my  sentence  and  expose  it  to  the  judgment  of  all  the 
people  of  Carthage.'  St.  Augustin  himself  addressed 
an  epistle  or  tract  on  this  controversy,  to  the  Donatist 
laity.  The  particulars  of  the  conference  are  detailed 
at  great  length  by  Fleury  in  his  twenty-second  book. 

*  An  exception  little  more  than  nominal ;  for  though 
the  infliction  of  death,  as  the  direct  punishment  of 
schism,  is  not  enjoined  by  the  Edict  of  Honorius,  it 
necessarily  followed,  as  the  punishment  of  contumacy 
and  rebellion.  The  Edict,  however,  even  without 
that  penalty,  was  so  severe,  and  threatened  to  drive 
the  Donatists  to  such  extremities,  that  the  civil  mag- 
istrate, Duicilius,  hesitated  to  enforce  it,  until  he 
should  have  taken  counsel  of  Augustin.  That  prelate 
exhorted  him  to  proceed — '  since  it  was  much  better 
(he  said)  that  some  should  perish  by  their  own  fires, 
than  that  the  whole  body  should  burn  in  the  everlast- 
ing flames  of  Gehenna,  through  the  desert  of  their 
impious  dissension.'  Epist.  61,  (alias  204.)  Hono- 
rius' Edict  appears  in  the  Theodosian  Code,  and  a 
very  sufficient  specimen  of  it  may  be  found  in  Jortin, 
H.  E.  ad.  ann.  414. 


154 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


ered  their  own  body  to  be  the  true,  uncor- 
rupted,  universal  Church.  It  is  quite  clear, 
that  they  pushed  their  schism  to  very  great 
extremities  —  even  to  that  of  rejecting  the 
communion  of  all  who  were  in  communion 
with  the  Church  which  they  called  false ;  but 
this  was  the  extent  of  their  spiritual  offence, 
even  from  the  assertion  of  their  enemies. 
The  excesses  of  the  Circumcellions  lost  them 
much  of  the  sympathy  which  would  other- 
wise have  been  bestowed  on  their  misfor- 
tunes ;  but  the  outrages  and  association  of 
those  outlaws  were  generally  disclaimed  by 
the  most  respectable  leaders  of  the  sect.  One 
strange  sin,  indeed,  they  are  accused  of  en- 
couraging, and  of  indulging  with  dreadful 
frequency— an  uncontrollable  inclination  to 
suicide.*  But  suicide  is  the  resource  of  the 
desperate  ;  and  it  is  unlikely  that  it  found  any 
favor  among  them,  until  oppression  had  per- 
suaded them,  that  death  was  not  the  greatest 
among  human  evils. 

In  the  fortunes  of  the  Donatists  do  we 
not  trace  the  usual  history  of  persecution? 
In  its  commencement  fearful  and  reluctant, 
and,  as  it  were,  conscious  of  its  corrupt  ori- 
gin, it  irritates  without  depressing;  then  it 
hesitates,  and  next  suspends  the  attack ; 
thereon  its  object  rises  up  and  takes  strength 
and  courage.  The  same  process  is  then  re- 
peated, under  circumstances  slightly  different  I 
—with  the  same  result.  Then  follows  the  j 
passionate  and  sanguinary  assault  which  de- 
stroys the  noblest  among  the  recusants,  while 
the  most  active  and  dangerous  are  preserved 
by  hypocrisy  or  exile  — and  thus  the  sect 
spreads  secretly  "and  widely;  it  secures  a 
sympathy  which  it  may  not  have  merited  by 
its  excellence,  and  on  the  first  occasion  breaks 
out  again  with  fresh  force  and  fury.  Then 
indeed,  if  recourse  be  had  to  argument,  if 
greater  right  be  on  the  stronger  side,  and  if 
the  secular  sword  be  only  employed  to  pur- 
sue the  victory  of  reason,  the  cause  of  the 
sufferers  becomes  more  feeble  and  less  pop- 
ular—but still,  unless  the  pursuit  be  carried 
to  absolute,  individual  extermination,  the  ex- 
tinction even  of  the  silliest  heresy  can  only 
be  effected  by  time— and  time  itself  will  com- 


*  Mosheim,  cent,  v.,  p.  ii,  ch.  v.  An  authority  for 
this  fact  is  Augustin  in  his  Epistle  to  Boniface,  ch.  iii. 
Quidam  etiam  se  trucidandos  arraatis  viatorlbus  inn-e- 
rebairt,  percussuros  eos  se,  nisi  ab  iis  perimerentur, 
terribiliter  comminantes.  Nonnunquam  et  ab  judici- 
bus  transeuntibus  extorquebant  violenter,  ut  a  carnifi- 
cibus  vel  ab  officio  ferirentur.  Jam  vero  per  abrupta 
prsecipitia,  per  aquas  et  Mammas  occidere  seipsos 
quotidianus  illis  ludus  fuit. 


plete  its  work,  at  least  as  much  by  calming 
passion  as  by  correcting  judgment. 

Notice  of  St.  Augustin.     The  above  narra- 
tive has  introduced  us  to  the  name  of  St.  Au- 
gustin, who  was  the  most  celebrated  amongst 
the  ancient  Christian  fathers,  and  who  de- 
serves even  now  a  more  than  usual  attention, 
from  the  influence  which  his  writings  have 
unceasingly  exerted  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.     But  the  notice  which  can  here  be 
bestowed  upon  him  must  necessarily  be  con- 
fined to  very  few  points.     He  was  born  in 
Numidia,  in  the  year  354,  and  his  early  youth 
was  distinguished  by  his  aversion  from  all 
study,  and  especially  that  of  the  Greek  lan- 
guage.    But  an  ardent  passion  for  poetry  at 
length  opened  the  gate  through  which  he  en- 
tered  into   the   fields   of  general   literature. 
From  profane,  he  directed  his  attention  to 
religious   subjects;   and  when  we   recollect 
that  Tertulliau,  the  greatest  amongst  his  Af- 
rican predecessors,  seceded  from  the  Church 
in  the  maturity  of  his  judgment  and  learning, 
in  order  to  embrace  the  visions  of  a  raving 
fanatic,  we  are  scarcely  astonished  to  learn, 
that  the  youthful  imagination  of  Augustin 
was  seduced  by  the  Manichsean  opinions.    He 
appears  to  have  retained  them  for  nine  or  ten 
years,  during  which  time  his  rhetorical  tal- 
ents had  raised  him  into  notice ;  and  it  was 
not  till  the  year  386,  that  he  was  persuaded 
(as  it  is  said)  by  the  sermons  of  St.  Ambrose, 
and  the  writings  of  St.  Paul,  to  return  to  the 
communion   of  the   Church.      His   baptism 
(he     was    previously    a    catechumen    only) 
speedily  followed  his  conversion  ;   his  ordi- 
nation took  place  soon  afterwards,  and    the 
city  of  Hippo,  in  Africa,  which  owes  most  of 
its  celebrity  to  its  association  with  his  name, 
was  that   in    which   he   first   ministered   as 
Priest,  and  afterwards  presided   as   Bishop. 
He  died  in  430,  in  the  thirty-fifth  year  of  his 
episcopate. 

The  first  recorded  exploit  in  his  ecclesias- 
tical life  was  the  destruction  of  an  inveterate 
and  consecrated  abuse.  We  have  mentioned 
the  innocent  origin  of  the  Agapae  or  feasts  of 
charity,  and  the  good  purposes  to  which,  in 
early  times,  they  contributed.  But  as  the  in- 
flux of  the  Pagan  converts  grew  more  rapid, 
and  as  these  naturally  sought  in  the  new 
religion  for  any  resemblance  to  the  popular 
ceremonies  of  the  old,  the  solemnity  in  ques- 
tion insensibly  changed  its  character  under 
j  their  influence,  and  degenerated  into  the  li- 
:  cense  and  debauchery  of  a  heathen  festival. 
!  Augustin,  while  yet  a  presbyter,  undertook 
;  the  difficult  office  of  persuading  the  people  to 


DISSENSIONS. 


155 


abandon  a  favorite  and  hereditary  practice, 
and  by  the  simple  exertion  of  his  eloquence 
he  succeeded.  Services  of  reading  and 
chanting  were  substituted  in  its  place  ;  and 
while  the  churches  of  the  heretics*  resound- 
ed with  the  customary  revelry,  the  voice  of 
devotion  alone  proceeded  from  the  assem- 
blies of  the  Catholics.  This  change  took 
place  in  the  year  395 ;  and  from  that  moment 
the  reputation  of  Agustin  spread  rapidly 
throughout  the  African  Church,  and  thence, 
as  his  labors  proceeded,  was  diffused  with  no 
less  of  splendor  to  the  most  distant  part  of 
Christendom. 

Besides  the  faithful  discharge  of  his  epis- 
copal and  his  private  duties,  the  Bishop  of 
Hippo  engaged  deeply  in  the  controversies 
of  the  day  ;  and  his  attacks  are  chiefly  direct- 
ed against  the  Manichreans,  the  Donatists, 
and  the  Pelagians.  His  familiarity  with  the 
errors  of  the  first  may  have  qualified  him 
more  effectually  to  confute  them — but  it  is  at 
the  same  time  curious  to  observe  the  motives 
which  he  advances  for  his  own  adhesion  to 
the  Catholic  Church.  They  are  the  follow- 
ing :  the  consent  of  the  people ;  the  authority 
which  began  in  the  faith  of  miracles,  which 
was  nourished  by  hope,  augmented  by  char- 
ity, confirmed  by  antiquity ;  the  succession 
in  the  Chair  of  St.  Peter :  and  the  name  of 
Catholic  so  established,  that  if  a  stranger 
should  ask  where  is  the  Catholic  Church  ?  no 
heretic  would  certainly  dare  to  claim  that 
title  for  his  own  Church,  f  These  argu- 
ments, and  such  as  these,  have  been  so  com- 
monly repeated  in  later  ages,  that,  without  at 
all  entering  (for  such  is  not  our  province)  in- 
to the  question  of  their  real  value,  we  are 
contented  to  record  their  high  antiquity,  and 
the  sanction  which  they  received  from  the 
name  of  Angustin. 

His  exertions  against  the  Donatists,!  which 
we  have  already  noticed,  have  attached 
to  the  character  of  that  father  the  stain  of 


*  Fleury,  H.  E.,  liv.  xx.,  s.  11.  This  is  the  oc- 
casion on  which  it  is  recorded,  that  as  long  as  his  el- 
oquence was  honored  only  hy  the  acclamations  of  the 
listening  multitudes,  Augustin  was  sensible  of  its  im- 
perfection, and  despaired  of  success;  and  his  hopes 
were  only  revived  by  the  sight  of  their  tears. 

■f-  Fleury,  liv.  xx.,  s.  23.  No  heretic  was  so  like- 
ly to  have  laid  that  claim  as  a  Donatist— yet  even  a 
Donatist,  while  he  maintained  that  the  true  Catho- 
lic spirit  and  purity  was  alone  perpetuated  and  inher- 
ent in  his  own  communion,  would  scarcely  have  af- 
firmed, that  that  was  bona  fide  the  universal  Church, 
which  did  not  extend  beyond  the  shores  of  Africa, 
and  which  had  not  the  majority  even  there. 

JCent.  iv.,  p.  ii.,  ch.  iii. 


persecution.  The  maxim  (says  Mosheim. 
which  justified  the  chastisement  of  religious 
errors  by  civil  penalties,  was  confirmed  and 
established  by  the  authority  of  Augustin,  and 
thus  transmitted  to  following  ages.  He  can- 
not be  vindicated  from  that  charge  ;  *  he  un- 
questionably maintained  the  general  princi- 
ple, that  the  Unity  of  the  Church  should  be 
preserved  by  secular  interference,  and  that 
its  adversaries  should  be  crushed  by  the  ma- 
terial sword.  But  his  natural  humanity  in 
some  degree  counteracted  the  barbarity  of 
his  ecclesiastical  principles  ;  and  there  is  still 
extant  an  epistle  addressed  by  him  to  Mar- 
cellinus  (in  412),  in  which  he  earnestly  en- 
treated that  magistrate  to  extend  mercy  to 
certain  Donatists,  who  had  been  convicted 
of  some  sanguinary  excesses  against  the 
Catholics ;  but  the  misfortune  was,  that, 
while  his  private  philanthropy  preserved  the 
lives  perhaps  of  a  few  individuals,  the  effica- 
cy which  he  assisted  in  giving  to  the  worst 
maxim  of  Church  policy  not  only  sharpened 
the  shafts  of  injustice  in  his  own  time,  but 
tempered  them  for  long  and  fatal  service  in 
after  ages.  The  Pelagians,  the  third  class  of 
his  religious  adversaries,  will  receive  a  sepa- 
rate notice  in  the  following  pages.  Of  the 
numerous  works  which  he  composed,  uncon- 
nected with  these  controversies,  that  entitled 
De  Civitate  Dei  has  justly  acquired  the  great- 
est celebrity.  We  may  also  mention  his 
book  on  the  Trinity  among  his  most  impor- 
tant productions.  He  devoted  much  dili- 
gence and  judgment  to  the  interpretation  of 
Scripture  ;  and  his  writings  contain  many 
excellent  arguments  for  the  truth  of  the  re- 
ligion, and  of  the  evangelical  history ;  but  the 
mere  barren  enumeration  of  his  works  would 
convey  neither  amusement  nor  profit  to  the 
reader,  and  we  have  no  space  for  abstracts 
sufficiently  copious  to  make  him  familiar 
with  the  mind  of  the  author. 

Erasmus  lias  drawn  a  parallel  between  Au- 
gustin and  his  great  contemporary,  the  monk 
of  Palestine,  which  is  certainly  too  favorable 
to  the  latter.  'No  one  can  deny  (he  says) 
that  there  is  great  importance  in  the  country 
and  education  of  men.  Jerome  was  born  at 
Stridona,  which  is  so  near  to  Italy,  that  the 
Italians  claim  him  as  a  compatriot;  he  was 
educated  at  Rome  under  very  learned  mas- 
ters.    Augustin  was  born  in  Africa,  abarbar- 

*  Besides  (lie  epistle  to  Dulcitius,  see  his  letter,  or 
rather  tract  to  Boniface,  '  de  Correctione  Donatista- 
rum;'  and  that  to  Vincentius  (113,  alias  48).  The 
principle  is  avowed  and  defended  in  both — at  least 
pro\  ided  the  animus  be  to  correct,  not  to  revenge! 


166 


HISTORY  OF    THE   CHURCH. 


ous  region,  and  singularly  indifferent  to  liter- 
ary |  'rsuits,  as  he  avows  in  his  epistles.  Je- 
rome a  Christian,  the  child  of  Christians, 
imhibed  with  his  very  milk  the  philosophy 
of  Christ:  Augustin  began  to  read  St.  Paul's 
epistles  with  no  instructer  when  nearly  thirty 
years  of  age.  Jerome  devoted  his  great  tal- 
ents for  thirty  years  to  the  study  of  the  Scrip- 
tures :  Augustin  was  immediately  hurried  to 
the  episcopal  office,  and  compelled  to  teach 
to  others  what  he  had  not  yet  learned  him- 
self. We  observe  then,  even  supposing  a 
parity  of  country,  talents,  masters,  education, 
how  much  more  learning  was  brought  to  the 
task  by  Jerome ;  for  it  is  no  trifling  matter 
that  he  was  skilled  in  the  Greek  and  Hebrew 
languages  ;  since  in  those  days  all  theology, 
as  well  as  all  philosophy,  was  in  possession 
of  the  Greeks.  Augustin  was  ignorant  of 
Greek  ;*  at  least  the  very  trifling  knowledge 
which  he  possessed  of  it  was  insufficient  for 
the  study  of  the  commentaries  of  the  Greek 
writers.f  The  merit  of  more  profound  learn- 
ing was  unquestionably  on  the  side  of  Je- 
rome, but  we  cannot  justly  attribute  to  him 
any  other  superiority  ;  in  soundness  of  reas- 
oning and  in  natural  judgment  he  certainly 
yielded  to  the  Bishop  of  Hippo,  and  in  the 
only  recorded  point  of  difference  J  between 
them  he  was  very  properly  corrected  by  that 


*Dr.  Lardner  makes,  we  think,  a  very  ineffectual 
attempt  to  prove  that  Augustin  knew  much  more  of 
that  language  than  he  even  himself  professed  to  have 
known — for  a  kw  happy  translations  of  Greek  words, 
and  even  sentences,  he  was  probably  obliged  to  the 
learning  of  a  friend  or  secretary. 

t  Erasmus  ends  his  comparison  by  affirmincr,  '  that 
for  his  own  part  he  learns  more  of  Christian  philoso- 
phy from  one  page  of  Origen  than  from  ten  of  Augus- 
tin;' and  others,  perhaps,  will  add,  from  their  own 
experience,  '  and  from  one  page  of  Augustin,  than 
from  ten  of  Jerome.' 

i  This  dispute  was  on  the  verse  (ch.  ii.,  v.  11.)  of 
St.  Paul's  epistle  to  the  Galatians:  'When  Peter 
came  to  Antioch,  I  withstood  him  to  the  face,  be- 
cause he  was  to  be  blamed.'  Jerome  had  published 
his  opinion,  that  the  apostles  had  this  public  differ- 
ence on  a  previous  understanding,  and  by  a  charitable 
artifice;  and  that  St.  Paul  in  fact  saw  the  policy 
and  propriety  of  St.  Peter's  adhesion  to  the  Jews,  at 
the  moment  when  he  professed  to  condemn  it.  Ac- 
cording to  Augustin,  this  interpretation  goes  to  over- 
throw the  whole  authority  of  Scripture;  for  if  it  is 
once  allowed  to  admit  there  the  existence  of  service- 
able falsehoods,  and  to  say  that  St.  Paul  in  that 
passage  spoke  what  he  did  not  mean,  and  treated  St. 
Peter  as  reprehensible  when  he  did  not  think  hiin  so, 
there  is  no  passage  which  may  not  be  similarly  eluded. 
The  heretics  who  condemn  marriage  would  assert  that 
St.  Paul  only  approved  it  through  condescension  to 


prelate.  In  depth  of  moral  feeling  and  ener- 
gy of  affecting  eloquence  the  advantage  is  al- 
so due  to  Augustin  ;  and  the  natural  suavity 
of  his  disposition,  which  forms  so  strong  a 
contrast  with  what  might  almost  be  desig- 
nated the  ferocity  of  Jerome,  tended  to  soften 
the  acrimony  of  religious  difference,*  and  to 
throw  some  sparks  of  charity  into  the  con- 
troversies in  which  he  found  himself  almost 
necessarily  engaged. 

Some  particulars  relating  to  his  private  life 
are   recorded  by  historians,  on  the  evidence 
of  his  own   writings,  and  other  respectable 
authority.     His  furniture  and  his  dress  were 
plain,  without  affectation  either  of  fineness  or 
of  poverty.     He   wore,  like  other  people,  a 
linen  garment  underneath,  and  one  of  wool 
without ;  he  wore  shoes  and  stockings,  and 
exhorted  those,  who  thought  better  to  obey 
the  Gospel  by  walking  with  naked  feet,  to 
assume   no  merit  from   that  practice.     'Let 
us  observe  charity,  he  said — I  admire  your 
courage — endure   my  weakness.'     His  table 
was  frugal,  and  ordinarily  served  with  vege- 
tables ;  meat  was  seldom  prepared,  unless  for 
guests  or  for  the  infirm,  but  there  was  always 
wine.      Excepting  his  spoons,  which    were 
of  silver,  all  the  service  was  earthen,  or  of 
wood  or  marble,  not  by  necessity,  but  from  a 
love  for  poverty.     On  his  table  were  written 
two  verses,  to  forbid  any  scandal  to  be  spok- 
en of  the  absent — proving  that  it  was  with- 
out a  cloth,  according  to  the  usage  of  anti- 
quity.    He  never  forgot  the  poor,  and  aided 
them  from  the  same  fund  on  which  he  sub- 
sisted with  his  clergy  ;  that  is,  from  the  rev- 
enues of  the  Church  or  the  oblations  of  the 
faithful.     He  paid  great  regard  to  hospitality, 
and  held  it  as  a  maxim,  that  it  was  a  much 
preferable  error  to  entertain  a  rogue,  than  to 
refuse  an  honest  man.     His  usual  occupation 
was  arbitration  among  Christians  and  per- 
sons of  all  religions,  who  submitted  their  dif- 
ferences to  him.     But  he  liked  much  better 
to  decide  between  strangers  than  between  his 
friends  —  'for  of  the  two   strangers   I  may 
make  one  a  friend  ;  of  the  two  friends  I  shall 
make  one  an  enemy.'     He  applied  himself 
little  to  the  temporal  interests  of  the  Church, 
but  busied  himself  much  more  in  study,  and 
in  the  meditation  of  spiritual  concerns.-) 

II.    The  Priscillianists.    Priscillian,  a  Spa- 
nish Bishop  of  birth  and  fortune   and   elo- 

the  imperfection  of  the  first  Christians — and  so  of  others. 

*  Compare,  for  instance,  the  manner  of  his  opposi- 
tion to  the  opinions  of  Jovinian  with  that  of  Jerome. 

t  Fleury,  liv.  xxiv.,  chap,  xxxviii.  xxxix. 


DISSENSIONS. 


157 


quence,  was  accused  by  certain  other  Bish- 
ops of  the  heresy  of  the  Manichseans ;  he  was 
condemned  by  a  Council  held  at  Saragossa 
(in  380),  and  a  rescript  was  then  obtained  flu- 
ids banishment,  from  the  Emperor  Gratian  ; 
but  he  was  speedily  restored  to  his  country 
and  his  dignity.  Gratian  was  assassinated, 
and  succeeded  by  Maximus,  a  tyrant  worthy 
of  the  throne  of  Domitian  ;  and  before  him* 
Idacius  and  Ithakius,  the  two  ecclesiastics 
most  persevering  in  their  zeal  or  malignity, 
again  accused  Priscillian.  His  followers 
were  probably  not  very  numerous,  but  they 
presented  themselves  to  plead  their  cause 
and  prove  their  innocence,  before  Damasus, 
Bishop  of  Rome,  and  the  celebrated  Am- 
brose, at  Milan  —  from  neither  of  them  could 
they  obtain  a  hearing,  f  Perhaps  their  un- 
fortuuate  instructer  was  not  more  successful 
at  the  court  of  Maximus  ;  at  least  it  is  certain 
that,  in  the  year  384,  he  was  put  to  death  at 
Treves,  with  some  of  his  associates,  on  no 
other  pretext  than  his  heretical  opinions.  J 

It  is  now  disputed  what  those  opinions 
were  ;  and  it  is  probable  that  the  same  dis- 
pute existed  in  his  own  time  ;  since  no  an- 
cient writer  has  given  us  any  clear  account 
of  them — and  none  of  the  works  of  Priscil- 
lian or  any  of  his  followers  have  reached  us. 
It  seems  likely,  however,  that  the  Priscillian- 
ists  made  some  approaches,  perhaps  very 
distant  ones,  to  the  wild  errors  of  the  Mani- 
chaeans,§  respecting  the  two  principles,  the 
doctrine  of  oeons,  or  emanations  from  the  di- 
vine nature,  and  the  creation  of  the  world. 
It  is  possible  that  they  disputed  the  reality  of 


*Sulpicius  Severus  mentions  Magnus  and  Rufus  as 
the  two  Bishops  who  were  finally  the  successful  agents 
in  procuring  the  condemnation  of  Priscillian. 

t  Their  opinions  may  have  been  adopted  by  sever- 
al both  among  the  nobility  and  the  people,  and  by  a 
vast  multitude  of  women  (as  is  also  asserted)  in 
Spain;  but  they  obtained  no  footing  elsewhere. 
They  are  said  to  have  been  introduced  into  that 
country  by  one  Marc,  an  Egyptian  of  Memphis,  and 
a  ManichcEan. 

%  We  need  not  pause  to  notice  some  monstrous 
charges  of  immorality — such  as  we  have  seen  so  com- 
monly affixed  to  an  unpopular  heresy. 

§  It  is  a  curious  reflection,  that  at  the  same  mo- 
ment when  Priscillian  was  suffering  the  pangs  of 
death,  for  opinions  resembling  the  Manicluean  her- 
esy, St.  Augustin,  the  destined  bulwark  of  the  Catho- 
lic Church, — the  man  whose  future  writings  were  to 
become  a  storehouse  of  the  true  doctrine  for  so  many 
countries  and  ages — was  actually  and  deeply  involv- 
ed in  the  very  intricacies  of  the  heresy  itself.  He  re- 
turned to  reason — but  Priscillian,  who  was  nearer  to 
it  than  himself,  was  hastily  executed. 


Christ's  birth  and  incarnation — though  they 
professed  to  receive  the  Scriptures  both  of 
the  <Okl  and  New  Testament.  They  are 
stated  to  havedishelieved  the  resurrection  of 
the  body,  and  they  had  some  errors  concern- 
ing the  nature  and  functions  of  the  soul. 
They  are  blamed  for  not  consuming  the  Eu- 
charist at  Church,  and  for  some  irregularity 
in  the  season  of  their  fasts ;  and  some  of 
them  were  charged  besides  (strange  charges 
to  be  brought  by  Catholic  accusers!)  with 
having  deserted  their  social  rank,  in  order  to 
betake  themselves  to  solitary  devotion  ;  and 
with  holding  opinions  favorable  to  celibacy. 
For  these  offences,  or  such  as  these,  Priscil- 
lian suffered  death  ;  and  his  fate  has  gained 
him  the  more  celebrity,  because  it  is  usual  to 
consider  him  as  the  first  martyr  to  religious 
dissent.  Not  perhaps  truly  so  —  for  between 
the  years  325  and  384  many  an  obscure  vic- 
tim of  the  Arian  heresy  must  have  perished 
for  his  opinions,  in  silence  and  ignominy — 
but  Arius  himself  escaped  the  storm;  and  it 
cannot  be  disputed,  that  Priscillian  was  the 
first  who  atoned  with  his  life  for  the  danger- 
ous distinction  of  founding  a  religious  sect.* 
It  is  some  consolation  to  be  enabled  to  add, 
that  the  principle  by  which  he  suffered  was 
not  yet  in  favor  with  the  Christian  Church; 
the  character  of  Ithakius,  his  most  active 
enemy,  is  thus  described  by  a  contemporary 
historian  (  Sulpicius  Severus), — 'he  was  a 
man  void  of  all  principle;  loquacious,  im- 
pudent, expensive,  a  slave  to  gluttony  —  so 
senseless  as  to  represent  every  holy  person 
who  delighted  in  religious  studies,  and  prac- 
tised mortification  and  abstinence,  as  an  as- 
sociate or  a  disciple  of  Priscillian.'  On  the 
other  hand,  the  persecuted  heretic  found  a 
powerful  protector  in  one  of  the  most  vener- 
able prelates  of  that  age,  Martin  of  Tours,  'a 
man  comparable  to  the  apostles.'  So  long  as 
Martin  remained  at  the  Court  of  Maximus,  his 
authority  was  sufficient  to  prevent  the  medi- 
tated injustice  ;  he  had  even  ventured  to  rep- 
resent to  that  usurper,  that  it  was  'a  new  and 
unlawful  attempt  of  the  civil  magistrate  to 
take  cognizance  of  an  ecclesiastical  cause  ' 
— a  boldness  consistent  with  his  peaceful  vir- 
tues, and  derived  from  the  now  acknowledg- 
ed dignity  of  his  profession.     The  deed  was 


■'  We  should  mention,  perhaps,  the  distinction  that 
Priscillian  suffered  death  for  the  opinions  themselves 
—  directly  and  avowedly — not,  as  thousands  before 
him  had  suffered,  for  contumacy  in  persisting  in  them 
— a  distinction  which  has  no  real  value,  except  as 
marking  the  greater  shamelessness  of  persecution  in 
at  length  casting  off  her  mask. 


158 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


perpetrated  in  his  absence,  and  he  then  pro- 
tested against  the  act,  and  withdrew  from  the 
communion  of  the  murderers.  The  memory 
of  this  excellent  prelate  has  been  disfigured 
Dy  the  credulous  historian,  who  intended  to 
be  his  eulogist ;  and  we  would  willingly  be- 
lieve, that  the  stupendous  miracles  so  pro- 
fusely attributed  to  him  were  created  by  the 
veneration  of  the  vulgar,  or  even  by  the  en- 
thusiasm of  the  writer,  not  by  the  deliberate 
imposture  of  a  pious  Christian.* 

Sulpicius  proceeds  to  say,  that  '  the  death 
of  Priscillian  was  so  far  from  repressing  the 
heresy  of  which  he  had  been  the  author,  that 
it  conduced  greatly  to  confirm  and  extend  it ; 
for  his  followers,  who  before  had  reverenced 
him  as  a  pious  man,  began  to  worship  him  as 
a  martyr.  The  bodies  of  those  who  had 
suffered  death  were  carried  back  to  Spain, 
and  interred  with  great  solemnity  ;  and  to 
swear  by  the  name  of  Priscillian  was  prac- 
tised as  a  religious  act.'  Such  were  the  im- 
mediate consequences  of  his  execution  ;  it 
does  not  appear,  however,  that  his  opinions 
took  any  deep  or  lasting  root,  or  ever  again 
became  the  occasion  of  offence  or  confusion 
to  the  Church. 

III.  Jovinian.  The  same  age,  almost  the 
same  year,  which  witnessed  the  death  of  one 
heretic  for  opinions,  among  which  was  a 
rigid,  undue  admiration  of  bodily  austerities 
and  religious  seclusion,  beheld  with  less  sur- 
prise the  banishment  of  another  heretic,  for 
daring  to  raise  his  voice  in  disparagement 
of  those  same  practices.  Jovinian  had  re- 
ceived his  education  in  an  Italian  convent, 
but  the  common  feelings  and  principles  of 
nature  were  not  extinguished  in  him.  He 
left  his  retirement,  and  published  a  volume 
in  which  he  rashly  endeavored  to  show,  that 
those  who  followed  the  rules  of  the  Gospel, 
amid  the  temptations  and  perplexities  of  so- 
cial life,  possessed  as  just  a  claim  to  the  re- 


* '  Men  of  probity  in  other  respects,  and  fully  per- 
suaded of  the  truth  of  Christianity,  (and  such  I  take 
Martin,  Paulinus,  and  Sulpicius  to  have  been)  hav- 
ing found  in  the  populace  a  strong  taste  for  the  mar- 
vellous, and  no  capacity  for  better  proofs,  judged  it 
expedient  rather  to  leave  them  to  their  prejudices, 
and  to  make  use  of  those  prejudices  to  confirm  them 
m  the  true  faith,  than  to  undertake  the  vain  task  of 
curing  them  of  their  superstition,  and  run  the  risk  of 
plunging  them  into  vice  and  unbelief.  Therefore 
they  humored  the  trick,  and  complied  with  the  fashion 
for  the  good  of  those  who  were  deceived.'  Le  Clere, 
Bibl.  Chois.,  ap.  Jortin,  ad.  ann.  402.  This  seems  to 
oe  the  simplest  solution  of  the  difficulty. 


wards  of  futurity  as  those  who  observed  the 
same   rules   in    solitude  ;   that  pleasures  are 
not  necessarily  sins  ;   that  temperance  is  as 
excellent  a  virtue  as  abstinence  ;  and  that  the 
chaste  enjoyments  of  marriage  are  as  agree- 
able to  the  eye  of  a 'benevolent   Deity,  as 
the   mortifications    of  unnatural    celibacy* 
Jerome,  'the  monk  of  the  age,'  poured  out  in 
reply  much  passionate  declamation  in  praise 
of  the    established   superstitions,  and   some 
calumnious  invective  against  the  person  of 
the  reformer  ;  and  as  the  current  already  ran 
too  strongly  in  his  favor,  his  clamors  were 
echoed  by  the  zealous  multitude,  while  the 
wise  were   constrained    to    sorrow   and    si- 
lence, f       Among    Christian    Churches   the 
foremost  in  the  extinction  of  reason  and  true 
Christianity  was  the  Church  of  Rome.     Her 
impatience  to  crush  the  dangerous  innovator 
was  emulated  by  St.  Ambrose  at  Milan  ;  and 
the  opinions  of  Jovinian  were  formally  con- 
demned, in  the  year  390,  by  a  Council  there 
held  by  that  Prelate.     But  the  work  was  not 
yet  complete  ;  the   Emperor  Honorius  was 
prevailed  upon  to  interpose  the  secular  au- 
thority in  the  same  cause  ;  end  the  following 
was   his   proclamation — '  The   complaint  of 
some  Bishops  mentions  as  a  grievance  that 
Jovinian     assembles    sacrilegious    meetings 
without   the   walls   of  the   most   holy   city. 
Wherefore  we  ordain   that  the   above-men- 
tioned be  seized  and  whipped,  together  with 
his  abettors  and  attendants,  and  confined  to 
some   place   of   banishment ;    and  that    the 
machinator    himself    be    immediately    sent 
away   to   the   island   of  Boa. '     Boa   was   a 
wretched  rock,  near  the  Illyrian  coast;  and 
in  this  exile,  Jovinian,  during  the  remainder 
of  his  life,  expiated  the  crime  of  proclaiming 
in  the  fourth  century  truths  which  no  one  had 
dreamed  of  disputing  in  the  second,  and  which 
are  defended  with  almost  equal  clearness  by 
the  authority  of  reason  and  of  revelation. 

Vigilantius.  This  example  did  not  pre- 
vent another  and  a  bolder  attempt  at  Refor- 
mation— for  as  the  corruptions  of  that  time 


*  He  was  also  charged  with  the  speculative  error, 
that  all  who  have  been  regenerated  by  baptism,  with 
perfect  faith,  were  indefectible,  and  could  not  fail  of 
their  heavenly  recompense.  He  may  have  held  this 
opinion — but  the  points  on  which  the  controversy 
turned,  were  those  which  much  more  nearly  affected 
the  practice  of  mankind. 

t  It  should  be  mentioned  that  the  reply  of  Jerome 
was  not  written  till  after  the  condemnation  of  the  of- 
fender, in  consequence  of  some  progress  which  the 
opinions  are  said  for  the  moment  to  have  made  at 
Rome. 


DISSENSIONS. 


159 


had  not  yet  subsided  into  habits;  as  they 
could  not  yet  plead  prescription  and  long  fa- 
miliar practice  ;  as  tbey  were  not  yet  conse- 
crated by  the  claims  of  hereditary  reverence, 
it  was  natural  that  the  voice  of  reason  should 
sometimes  raise  itself  in  faint  opposition  to 
their  progress.  Very  early  in  the  follow- 
ing century  Vigilantius,  a  native  of  Gaul, 
who  had  performed  the  functions  of  presby- 
ter in  Spain,  and  afterwards,  by  his  travels 
through  Egypt  and  Palestine,  enlightened 
and  enriched  a  vigorous  understanding  and 
character,  boldly  avowed  his  disgust  at  the 
growing  abuses  of  the  day.  Nor  did  he 
confine  his  attack  to  one  or  two  points;  he 
directed  it  against  the  castles  and  strong 
holds  of  superstition.  He  denied  that  the 
tombstones  of  the  martyrs  were  proper  ob- 
jects of  homage  and  worship  ;  he  denied  the 
holiness  of  places  so  sanctified,  and  censured 
the  pilgrimages  that  were  made  to  them. 
He  derided  the  prodigies  by  which  the  tem- 
ples of  the  martyrs  were  so  much  celebrat- 
ed, and  condemned  the  vigils  performed  in 
them  ;  and  he  even  ventured  to  assert  that 
the  custom  of  burning  tapers  at  their  tombs, 
in  the  face  of  day,  was  a  foolish  imitation  of 
the  Pagan  practice.  He  denied  the  efficacy 
of  prayers  addressed  to  departed  saints,  and 
spake  lightly  of  fasting  and  mortifications, 
and  celibacy,  and  the  various  and  useless 
austerities  of  the  monastic  life.  And  lastly, 
he  disparaged  the  merit  of  that  suspicious 
charity  which  lavished  large  sums  for  devout 
purposes,  in  fancied  atonement  for  unrepent- 
ed  sin.  The  clamorous  guardian  of  ecclesias- 
tical depravity  was  again  awakened  by  this 
second  invasion  of  abuses  so  dear  to  him ; 
and  immediately,  from  his  monastery  at 
Bethlehem,  he  assailed  the  Reformer  with 
such  overbearing  vehemence  of  plausible  and 
popular  argument,  that  the  good  Vigilantius 
deemed  it  wiser  to  retire  from  the  conflict 
than  to  expose  himself  to  unprofitable  martyr- 
dom. And  in  fact  we  find  that  this  heresy 
(so  it  was  designated)  gained  so  little  ground, 
that  the  interference  of  a  Council  was  not  re- 
quired to  extinguish  it.  The  principal  credit 
of  both  these  triumphs  is  due  to  St.  Jerome — 
than  whom  the  Church,  in  her  whole  histo- 
ry, has  not  ever  listened  to  a  more  pernicious 
counsellor. 

IV.  The  Pelagian  Controversy.  The  con- 
troversy to  which  we  next  proceed  was  on  a 
subject  of  the  deepest  and  most  permanent 
importance  to  the  whole  Christian  world ; 
and  though  through  the  perverse  misappli- 


cation of  human  ingenuity,  dissensions  have 
flowed  from  it,  to  the  great  disturbance  of 
former  ages,  and  to  tfre  division  even  of  the 
present,  we  cannot  affect  cither  surprise  or 
regret,  that  a  question  of  so  much  moment 
should  have  agitated  thus  early  the  minds 
of  pious  men — for  it  went  to  the  bottom  of 
the  Christian  doctrine  respecting  the  original 
corruption  of  human  nature,  and  the  neces- 
sity of  divine  grace,  to  enlighten  the  under- 
standing and  to  purify  the  heart. 

It  is  in  all  cases  extremely  difficult,  in  the 
statement  of  those  ancient  controversies,  to  do 
justice  to  the  arguments,  or  even  to  the  opin- 
ions, maintained  by  either  party  —  because 
these,  in  the  process  of  the  dispute,  became 
closely,  often  inseparably,  connected  with 
consequences  imputed  to  them  by  the  adver- 
sary as  necessary,  and  disclaimed  by  the  ad- 
vocate as  unfair  and  arbitrary.  So  that  those 
very  subtilties  of  reasoning,  which  professed 
to  unfold  and  explain  the  difference,  did  in 
fact  only  produce  perplexity.  In  the  Pelagi- 
an controversy  this  difficulty  is  increased  by 
two  causes  :  first,  that  we  know  little  of  the 
opinions  of  the  heretic,  except  from  the  writ- 
ings of  his  opponents;  secondly,  that  the  fear 
of  public  condemnation,  and  perhaps  tempo- 
ral punishment,  occasionally  led  him  into  un- 
worthy equivocation  ;  so  that  his  expressions 
are  sometimes  such  as  seemingly  to  convey 
an  assertion  of  orthodoxy  at  variance  with 
the  whole  drift  of  his  previous  argument. 
Again,  the  mere  facts  of  the  controversy  have 
been  variously  related,  according  as  the  opin- 
ions of  the  relators  have  been  tinged,  howev- 
er slightly,  by  the  opposite  colors  of  Pela- 
gian ism  or  Fatalism.  We  must  endeavor, 
however,  to  disentangle  the  truth  from  these 
intricacies. 

Pelagius  was  a  native  of  Britain,  probably 
of  Wales;  the  associate  of  his  travels,  his 
heresy,  and  his  celebrity,  was  Celestius,  an 
Irishman  :  both  were  monks  ;  both,  too,  were 
men  of  considerable  talents,  and  no  just  sus- 
picions have  ever  been  thrown  on  the  sanc- 
tity of  their  moral  conduct.  They  arrived  at 
Rome  in  the  very  beginning  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, and  remained  there  in  the  undisturbed, 
and  perhaps  obscure,  profession  of  their  opin- 
ions till  the  year  410,  when  they  retired,  on 
the  Gothic  invasion,  the  former  to  Palestine, 
the  latter  to  Carthage.  Here  the  peculiar 
doctrines  of  Celestius  did  not  long  escape 
detection ;  they  first  attracted  the  attention 
of  the  Deacon,  Paulinus  of  Milan,  who  ar- 
raigned and  caused  them  to  be  condemned 
in  a  Council   held  at  Carthage  in  the  year 


160 


HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


412.*  It  does  not  appear  that  A  ugustin  assist- 
ed at  this  Council,  as  he  was  still  engaged  in 
pursuing  his  advantages  over  the  Donatists; 
however,  he  did  not  delay  to  enter  the  field 
against  the  new  adversary,  and  very  soon 
afterwards  assailed  the  infant  heresy,  both  by 
his  sermons  and  writings.f  Dissatisfied  with 
the  easy  triumph  which  attended  his  exer- 
tions in  his  own  Church,  he  followed  the  fu- 
gitive into  the  East,  and  having  ascertained 
that  Pelagius  maintained  the  same  errors  in 
Palestine,  he  occasioned  him  to  be  accused 
before  two  Councils;  the  one  at  Jerusalem,! 


*  The  errors  here  charged  against  Celestius  were 
comprised  in  seven  articles — 1.  That  Adam  was  cre- 
ated mortal,  and  would  have  died,  whether  he  had 
sinned  or  not;  2.  that  the  sin  of  Adam  injured  him- 
self alone,  not  the  human  race ;  3.  that  infants,  at 
their  birth,  are  in  the  condition  of  Adam  before  Ii is 
sin;  4.  that  neither  the  death  nor  sin  of  Adam  is  the 
cause  of  man's  mortality,  nor  the  resurrection  of 
Christ  of  his  resurrection  ;  5.  that  man  may  be  saved 
by  the  Law  as  well  as  by  the  Gospel  ;  6.  that  before 
the  coming  of  Christ  there  had  been  men  without  sin  ; 
7.  that  infants  inherit  eternal  life  without  baptism. 
These  were  partly  disclaimed  or  explained  away,  but 
enough  remained  to  show  the  real  nature  of  his  opin- 
ions, though  we  may  observe  that  the  words  free-will 
and  grace  do  not  yet  appear  in  the  controversy. 

t  The  natural  causes  of  the  opposition  of  the 
Church  to  the  Pelagian  opinions  are  ingeniously  and 
reasonably  discussed  by  Guizot  (Corns  d'Histoire 
Moderne,  Legon  V.)  We  shall  transcribe  one  pas- 
sage, which  deserves  attentiou,  and  which  cannot  be 
condensed: — '  Augustin,  who  was  the  chief  among 
the  doctors  of  the  Church,  was  peculiarly  called  upon 
to  maintain  the  general  system  of  its  belief.  Now, 
the  notions  of  1'elagius  and  Celestius  appeared  to  him 
to  be  in  contradiction  with  some  of  the  fundamental 
points  of  Christian  faith,  especially  the  doctrine  of 
original  sin  and  that  of  redemption.  He  attacked 
them,  then,  in  three  characters ; — as  philosopher,  be- 
cause their  science  of  human  nature  was,  in  his  view, 
narrow  and  incomplete ;  as  practical  reformer  and 
governor  of  the  Church,  because  they  weakened,  in 
his  mind,  the  most  efficacious  method  of  reform  and 
government;  as  logician,  because  their  ideas  did  not 
exactly  square  with  the  consequences  which  flowed 
from  the  essential  principle  of  the  faith.  Observe, 
then,  what  gravity  the  dispute  assumed  from  that  mo- 
ment; every  thing  was  engaged  in  it — philosophy, 
politics,  and  religion  ;  the  opinions  of  St.  Augustin, 
and  his  business,  his  vanity,  and  his  duty.  He  aban- 
doned himself  entirely  to  it,  publishing  treatises,  writ- 
ing letters,  collecting  communications  which  flowed 
in  upon  him  from  all  quarters,  profuse  in  regulations 
and  counsels,  and  carrying  into  all  his  writings  and 
all  his  measures,  that  mixture  of  passion  and  mildness, 
of  authority  and  sympathy,  of  expanse  of  mind  and 
logical  strictness,  which  gave  him  such  singular  pow- 
er.' 

t  On  this  occasion,  being  asked  if  he  really  main- 
tained opinions  which  Augustin  had  condemned,  he 


the'other  at  Diospolis.  John,  Bishop  of  Je- 
rusalem, was  favorable  to  the  cause,  perhaps 
to  the  tenets  of  Pelagius  ;  and  thus,  partly  by 
his  influence,  partly  from  the  absence  of 
any  fixed  rule  of  orthodoxy  on  those  partic- 
ular subjects  in  the  Eastern  Church,  partly 
from  die  very  modified  statement  of  his  own 
opinions  delivered  to  the  Councils  by  Pela- 
gius, that  sectarian,  in  spite  of  the  violent 
opposition  of  Jerome,  was  acquitted  in  both. 
This  event  took  place  in  415  ;  and  in  the  year 
following,  Augustin,  undaunted  by  this  re- 
pulse, again  assembled  Councils  in  Africa 
and  Numidia,  and  again  condemned  the  of- 
fensive doctrines. 

The  scene  of  action  was  then  transferred 
to  Rome,  on  the  appeal,  as  it  would  seem,  of 
the  two  heretics,  and  with  the  hope,  perhaps, 
(not  a  reasonable  hope,)  that  the  authority 
of  the  Church  of  Jerusalem  would  have  as 
much  weight  at  the  Vatican,  as  that  of  the 
Church  of  Carthage.  Zosimus  had  been  just 
raised  to  the  pontificate  ;  to  him  the  contro- 
versy was  referred,  with  great  show  of  hu- 
mility, by  Celestius;  and  whether  deceived 
by  the  artful  composition  of  the  creed  pre- 
sented to  him  for  approval,  or  overlooking 
the  importance  of  a  question  to  which  his  at- 
tention had  not  previously  been  much  direct- 
ed, or  flattered  by  the  personal  appeal  to  his 
justice  and  the  acknowledged  submission  to 
the  Chair  of  St.  Peter,  or  influenced  by  all 
these  reasons,  Zosimus  pronounced  the  inno- 
cence of  the  disputed  doctrine. 

Augustin  was  not  even  thus  discouraged  ; 
and  his  ardent  religious  feelings,  as  well  as 
his  reputation,  were  now  too  deeply  interest- 
ed in  the  controversy  to  allow  him  to  rest 
here.  Once  more  he  assembled  his  Bishops, 
and  after  the  public  renewal  of  former  de- 
clarations, he  proceeded  to  inform  the  Pope 
more  clearly  as  to  the  real  nature  and  impor- 
tance of  the  question  ;  as  to  the  errors  which 
had  been  actually  professed  by  the  heretics  ; 
and  those  which,  though  disingenuously  dis- 
avowed, followed  of  course  from  them.  Zo- 
simus does  not  appear  to  have  been  much 
moved  by  these  representations ;  but  in  the 
meantime   a   more    powerful    avenger    had 


replied,  *  What  is  Augustin  to  mel '  Many  were  of- 
fended, for  Augustin  was  the  most  venerable  authority 
of  the  age ;  and  some  immediately  proposed  to  excom- 
municate the  spiritual  rebel:  but  John  averted  the 
blow,  and  kindly  addressed  Pelagius, — '  It  is  I  who 
am  Augustin  here;  it  is  to  me  that  you  shall  answer.' 
Pelagius  spoke  Greek,  and  is  said  to  have  thus  ob- 
tained some  advantages  over  his  accuser  Orosius,  who 
was  ignorant  of  that  language. 


DISSENSIONS. 


161 


been  roused  by  the  perseverance  of  the  Afri- 
cans. An  imperial  Edict  descended  from 
Constantinople,  which  banished  both  the  de- 
linquents from  Rome,  and  menaced  with 
perpetual  exile  and  confiscation  of  estates  all 
who  should  maintain  their  doctrines  in  any 
place.  This  decisive  blow  was  struck  in  the 
March  of  418  ;  in  the  May  following,  another 
and  still  more  numerous  Council  *  met  at 
Carthage  for  the  purpose  of  completing  the 
triumph  ;  and  then  the  Bishop  of  Rome  was 
at  length  prevailed  upon  to  place,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  his  clergy,  the  final  seal  of  heresy 
on  the  Pelagian  opinions.  The  opinions 
themselves  did  not,  indeed,  expire  from  these 
successive  wounds,  but  have  frequently  re- 
appeared under  different  forms  and  modifi- 
cations ;  but  no  further  attempts  were  made 
to  extend  them  by  then  original  authors. 

The  sum  of  those  opinions,  was  this : — 1. 
That  the  sins  of  our  first  parents  are  imput- 
ed to  themselves  alone,  and  not  to  their  pos- 
terity ;  that  we  derive  no  corruption  from 
their  fall ;  that  we  inherit  no  depravity  from 
our  origin  ;  but  enter  into  the  world  as  pure 
and  unspotted  as  Adam  at  his  creation.  It 
was  a  necessary  inference  from  this  doctrine, 
that  infant  baptism  is  not  a  sign  or  seal  of  the 
remission  of  sins,  but  only  a  mark  of  admis- 
sion into  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  2.  That 
our  own  powers  are  sufficient  for  our  own 
justification  ;  that  as  by  our  own  free-will  we 
run  into  sin,  so,  by  the  same  voluntary  exer- 
cise of  our  faculties,  we  are  able  to  repent, 
and  reform,  and  raise  ourselves  to  the  high- 
est degree  of  virtue  and  piety  ;  that  we  are, 
indeed,  assisted  by  that  external  f  grace  of 
God  which  has  taught  us  the  truths  of  reve- 
lation ;  which  opens  to  us  our  prospects,  and 
enlightens  our  understanding,  and  animates 
our  exertions  after  godliness  ;  but  that  the 
internal  and  immediate  operation  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  not  necessary,  either  to  awaken 
us  to  religious  feeling,  or  to  further  us  in  our 
progress  towards  holiness ;.  in  short,  that 
man,  by  the  unassisted  agency  of  his  natural 
perfections  under  the  guidance  of  his  own 
free-will,  is  enabled  to  work  out  his  own  sal- 
vation. 


*  Two  hundred  and  three,  or,  as  some  assert,  two 
hundred  and  fourteen  Bishops  were  present. 

fPelagius  artfully  perplexed  the  subject,  by  his  as- 
sertion of  six  different  kinds  of  grace;  and  if  there 
be  any  of  his  expressions  which  may  seem  to  imply 
more  than  we  here  give  them  credit  for,  they  are,  at 
least,  so  vague,  and,  we  think,  purposely  so  vague,  as 
to  make  it  impossible  to  attach  any  definite  meaning 
'o  them. 

21 


Regarding  these  doctrines,  it  is  sufficient 
for  a  Christian  to  examine,  whether  or  not 
they  are  in  accordance  with  the  obvious  in- 
terpretation of  Scripture  ;  and  the  long  ex- 
perience of  a  fruitless  controversy  must  at 
length  have  convinced  us  respecting  such 
inscrutable  subjects,  that  if  we  advance  one 
step  beyond  the  safe  and  substantial  ground 
of  revelation,-  we  become  entangled  in  the 
mazes  of  metaphysical  disputation.  In  these 
matters,  we  are  not  to  inquire  what  is 
probable,  but  what  is  written ;  and  it  has 
become  a  question,  whether  the  presumptu- 
ous arrogance  of  reason,  which  is  objected  to 
the  system  of  Pelagius,  did  not  lead  his  op- 
ponents, who  believed  themselves  humble, 
equally  far  away  from  that  entire  submission 
to  the  Gospel,  which  is  the  only  true  hu- 
mility. 

Augustin  maintained  the  Church  doctrines 
of  original  sin  and  saving  grace  with  great 
force  and  zeal,  and  the  most  unaffected  sin- 
cerity ;  and  his  writings  on  this  subject  con- 
tinued for  above  twelve  centuries  to  distrib- 
ute the  waters  of  regeneration  over  the  bar- 
ren surface  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 
But  Augustin  himself,  in  the  ardor  of  his  op- 
position to  free-will,  did  he  not  overstep  the 
just  limits  of  reason,  and  advance  into  the 
contrary  extreme  of  fatalism  ?  It  is  true  that 
he  warmly  disclaimed  that  doctrine,  when 
nakedly  objected  to  him  as  the  obvious  and 
inevitable  result  of  those  which  he  professed  ; 
but  it  was  not  without  some  sacrifice  of  logi- 
cal beverity  that  he  declined  the  formidable 
conclusion.  Nevertheless,  more  rigid  logi- 
cians and  more  daring  theologians  were 
found,  who  pressed  to  their  utmost  conse- 
quences the  opinions  of  their  master,  and  de- 
duced from  them  the  predestinarian  dogma 
in  its  full  extent.  Again,  the  publication  of 
the  astounding  tenet  on  such  authority  (for 
St.  Augustin,  as  well  as  his  adversaries,  was 
held  responsible  for  the  consequences  of  his 
positions*)  became  the  occasion  of  another 
series  of  divisions  in  the  Church,  which  more 
particularly  distracted  that  of  Gaul ;  so  that 
the  discord  which  grew  out  of  the  Pelagian 
controversy  was  not  confined  to  the  original 


*In  fact,  St.  Augustin  attributed  the  progressive 
sanctification  of  man  to  the  direct,  immediate,  and 
special  action  of  God  on  the  soul ;  that  is,  to  grace, 
properly  so  called;  grace  to  which  man  had,  by  his 
own  powers,  no  title  :  and  which  proceeded  from  the 
absolutely  gratuitous  gift  and  free  choice  of  die  Divin- 
ity. His  twelve  fundamental  points  of  die  doctrine 
of  grace  are  delivered  in  the  epistle  (to  Vitalis)  num- 
bered 217  or  107. 


162 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


ground  of  dispute,  but  spread  with  baneful 
luxuriance  over  the  vineyard  of  Clirist. 

The  Semi- Pelagians.  Among  the  opinions 
to  which  it  gave  birth,  the  most  popular,  and 
perhaps  the  most  reasonable,  were  those  of 
the  Semi-Pelagians.  They  began  to  spread 
in  the  South  of  France  about  the  year  428, 
and  are  attributed  to  an  oriental,  named  Cas- 
sian,  who  resided  in  a  monastery  at  Mar- 
seilles. These  Sectarians*  regarded  with 
equal  suspicion  that  absolute  independence 
of  the  Divine  aid,  so  rashly  ascribed  to  the 
human  soul  by  the  Pelagian  system,  and  its 
entire  prostration  and  helplessness  as  exhibit- 
ed by  the  Fatalists ;  and  they  consequently 
concluded,  that,  by  holding  a  middle  course 
Between  opposite  errors,  they  should  most 
nearly  arrive  at  truth.  And  so  they  main- 
tained, on  the  one  hand,  that  the  Grace  pur- 
chased by  Christ  was  necessary  for  salvation, 
and  that  no  man  could  persevere  or  advance 
in  holiness  without  its  perpetual  support  and 
assistance  :  on  the  other,  that  our  natural  fac- 
ulties were  sufficient  for  the  beginning  of 
repentance  and  amendment ;  that  Christ  died 
for  all  men,  and  that  there  was  no  particular 
dispensation  of  his  grace  in  consequence  of 
predestination,  but  that  it  was  equally  offer- 
ed to  all  men  ;  that  man  was  born  free,  and 
therefore  capable  of  receiving  its  influences, 
or  resisting  them.  These  doctrines  were  gen- 
erally condemned  in  the  Western  Church.f 
It  is  true,  they  have  continued,  with  slight 
variations,  to  find  many  advocates  there  in 
every  age  ;  but  the  Church  faithfully  follow- 
ed the  line  which  had  been  traced  by  Au- 
gustin.  By  adopting  his  doctrines  on  grace, 
it  condemned  the  heresy  both  of  the  Pela- 
gians and  Semi-Pelagians ;  and  by  rejecting 
the  dogma  of  the  Fatalists,  it  relieved  itself 
from  that,  which  would  have  proved  a  per- 
petual source  of  internal  dissatisfaction  and 

*  Guizot  has  justly  observed,  that  none  of  these 
doctrines  gave  birth  lo  a  Sect,  properly  so  called; 
those  who  held  them  were  not  formally  separated 
from  the  Church  and  formed  into  a  distinct  religious 
society,  nor  had  they  any  peculiar  organization  or 
worship.  The  doctrines  were  pure  opinions  debated 
among  enlightened  men,  and  varying  both  in  their 
credit  and  in  the  degrees  of  their  deviation  from  the 
Church,  but  never  such  as  to  menace  a  formal 
schism. 

f  St.  Augustin  died  about  two  years  after  their 
hirth,  but  his  work  was  followed  up  by  Prosper  and 
Hilary,  who  caused  them  to  be  condemned  very  soon 
afterwards  by  Pope  Celestin.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  opinions  of  the  Predestinarians  were  also  con- 
demned by  the  Councils  of  Aries  (in  472),  and  of 
Lyons  (in  473.) 


dissent.  But  in  the  East,  if  we  may  judge 
from  the  writings  of  Chrysostom,  *  and  the 
general  tone  of  the  Greek  fathers,  the  Semi- 
Pelagian  opinions  had  obtained  an  earlier 
and  common  prevalence,  and  they  appear  to 
have  maintained  it,  with  little  interruption  or 
dispute,  to  the  present  moment.  The  Greeks, 
however,  engaged  with  little  ardor  in  the  Pe- 
lagian disputes ;  and  the  reason  may  have 
been,  that  the  seeds  of  another  contention, 
:  even  more  suited  to  the  peculiarity  of  their 
metaphysical  taste,  were  now  ready  to  burst 
forth- with  abundant  fertility.  The  great 
controversy  respecting  the  Incarnation  of 
Jesus  Christ,  which  engaged,  for  about  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years,  the  ingenuity  and 
the  passions  of  the  Eastern  world,  first  dis- 
covered itself  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 
century,  emerging,  as  it  were,  from  the  mists 
of  some  early  heresies.  We  shall  give  as 
concise  an  account  of  it,  as  is  consistent  with 
the  illustration  of  its  more  important  fea- 
tures. 

V.  Controversy  on  the  Incarnation.  The 
controversy  respecting  the  Trinity  was  ter- 
minated by  the  Council  of  Constantinople 
in  the  year  381,  which  established  the  belief 
in  the  personality  and  divinity  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  as  the  true  doctrine  of  the  Universal 
Church.  The  Arian  heresy  had  been  previ- 
ously condemned  ;  and  about  the  end  of  the 
fourth  century,  the  attention  of  speculative 
minds  began  to  turn  from  the  momentous 
consideration  of  the  eternal  and  celestial 
nature  of  Christ,  and  the  consequent  degree 
of  worship  which  is  due  to  him,  to  a  subor- 
dinate inquiry  into  the  probable  nature  of 
his  existence  during  his  temporary  residence 
here  on  earth.  This  question  had,  indeed, 
been  moved  in  the  first  ages  of  the  Church, 
and  some  of  the  errors  of  Marcion,  of  Cer- 
inthus,  Carpocrates,  Basilides,  and  others,  are 
connected  with  it ;  but  their  opinions  were  so 
immediately  derived  from  the  absurd  theories 
of  Gnosticism,  that  they  gained  no  great  or 
lasting  prevalence,  nor  have  any  claim  on 
our  present  attention.  And  it  will  seem,  in- 
deed, a  very  singular  circumstance,  that  the 
first  speculations  on  this  subject,  which  nec- 
essarily fix  our  notice,  should  have  proceed- 
ed from  the  friend  and  associate  of  Athana- 
sius — Apollinaris,  Bishop  of  Laodicea,  wheth- 
er carried   into   excess   by   his    hostility   to 


*The  opinions  of  Chrysostom  on  the  subject  ap- 
pear to  be  fairly  discussed  by  Dupin.  Nouv.  Bib]., 
in  his  Life  of  that  Father. 


DISSENSIONS. 


163 


Arianism,  or  inextricably  entangled  in  his 
own  unnecessary  subtilties,  so  far  lost  sight 
of  the  moderation  of  reason,  that  in  asserting 
the  divinity  of  Christ  he  denied  the  reality 
of  his  human  nature.  For  he  held  that  the 
divine  nature  (the  Logos)  supplied  in  Him 
the  place  of  the  spiritual  and  intellectual 
principle,  and  constituted,  in  fact,  His  mind. 
In  this  sense  he  could  not  be  considered  as 
perfect  man ;  and  in  effect,  the  substitution 
of  the  Divine  essence  for  the  human  soul,  so 
far  confused  the  two  natures  of  Christ,  as  to 
reduce  them  to  '  one  incarnate  nature,' — a 
doctrine  which,  indeed,  Apollinaris  did  not 
disavow.  This  opinion  took  deep  root  in  the 
Egyptian  Church,  but  it  was  condemned  by 
the  clergy  of  Asia  and  Syria. 

Nestorius.  The  question,  however,  not  be- 
ing publicly  pursued  by  the  directors  of  the 
Church,  rested  in  an  unsettled  state  until  the 
accession  of  Nestorius  to  the  See  of  Con- 
stantinople in  the  year  428.  That  Prelate 
was  a  native  of  Antioch,  and  had  been  edu- 
cated in  the  Syrian  schools  ;  and  having  then 
been  strongly  impressed  with  the  distinction 
of  the  two  natures  and  the  dangerous  error 
of  confusing  them,  he  inculcated  so  strongly 
the  difference  between  the  Son  of  God  and 
the  Son  of  Man,  as  to  seem  almost  to  extend 
the  distinction  of  natures  to  a  distinction  of 
vcrsons,  though  he  avowed  no  such  intention. 
In  consequence  of  these  principles  he  defen- 
ded one  of  bis  presbyters,  Anastasius,  who  in 
a  public  discourse  had  ventured  to  argue,  that 
the  Virgin  Mary  ought  not  properly  to  be 
called  <  Mother  of  God '  (QaoT^oc),  but  'Moth- 
er of  Christ '  (Xoiototuxoc),  or  even  '  Mother 
of  Man  '  ('ArtovKioToxo?).  Whatsoever  may 
be  the  most  appropriate  appellation  for  the 
Mother  of  Jesus  Christ,  it  was  assuredly  the 
proof  of  a  narrow  and  contentious  spirit,  that 
the  Head  of  the  oriental  Church  should  in 
any  *  way  interfere  in  so  vain  a  dispute. 
But  Nestorius  interfered  with  earnestness  and 
ardor.  It  also  happened,  that  the  opinion 
which  he  undertook  to  protect  was  at  vari- 
ance with  the  popular  enthusiasm ;  iliat  had 
already  set  in  the  opposite  direction,  and  it 
was  easily  urged  on  and  roused  into  a  tem- 
pest, when  an  insult  was  represented  to  have 


*  In  a  letter  addressed  to  John  of  Jerusalem,  about 
two  years  afterwards,  when  the  matter  was  inflamed 
almost  beyond  hope,  Nestorius,  indeed,  attempts  a 
justification,  by  saying  that  he  found  the  religious 
world  divided  between  Theotocos  and  Anthropoto- 
cos;  and  that  bis  only  object  was  to  unite  both  par- 
ties by  the  intermediate  term  Christolocos.  But  he 
had  then  discovered  the  folly  of  his  attempt. 


been  offered  to  the  dignity  and  holiness  of 
the  Virgin.  On  one  occasion,  in  the  midst 
of  a  numerous  assembly,  one  Eusebius  (then 
a  lawyer,  and  afterwards  Bishop  of  Doryle- 
um)  interrupted  the  sermon  of  the  patriarch 
with  these  words  : — '  It  is  the  eternal  Logos 
himself  who  has  undergone  a  second  birth 
according  to  the  flesh,  and  by  means  of  a 
woman.'  The  people  were  excited ;  the 
subject  occupied  universal  attention  ;  the  pas- 
sions became  inflamed,  and  Nestorius,  in  his 
own  capital,  was  absurdly  *  accused  of  re- 
viving the  heresies  of  Photinus  and  Paul 
of  Samosata.  But  it  was  not  among  his  do- 
mestic adversaries  that  he  found  his  most 
formidable  opponent.  That  opponent  was 
Cyril,  the  patriarch  of  Alexandria — a  man  of 
learning  and  eloquence,  and  intolerable  ar- 
rogance. And  some  jealousy  which  at  that 
time  subsisted,  respecting  the  relative  digni- 
ty of  the  two  Sees,  probably  heightened  the 
contention,  and  is  believed  by  some  to  have 
caused  it.  Whether  that  be  so  or  not,  the  two 
patriarchs  anathematized  each  other  with 
mutual  violence ;  and  such  troubles  were 
raised,  that  the  Emperor  (Theodosius  the 
younger)  deemed  it  necessary  to  convoke  a 
general  Council  for  the  purpose  of  appeasing 
them.  It  was  assembled  at  Ephesus  in  the 
year  431,  and  stands  in  the  annals  of  the 
Church  as  the  third  General  Council.  Cyril 
was  appointed  to  preside,  and  consequently 
to  judge  the  cause  of  his  adversary  ;  and  he 
carried  into  this  office  such  little  show  of 
impartiality,  that  he  refused  even  to  wait  for 
the  arrival  of  the  Bishop  of  Antioch  and  oth- 
ers, who  were  held  friendly  to  Nestorius,  and 
proceeded  to  pronounce  sentence,  while  the 
meeting  was  yet  incomplete.  To  secure  or 
prosecute  his  advantages,  he  had  brought 
with  him  from  Egypt  a  number  of  robust  and 
daring  fanatics,!  who  acted  as  his  soldiery  ; 


*  In  a  sermon,  delivered  in  answer  to  a  public  at- 
tack made  by  Proclus,  Bishop  of  Cyzicum,  Nestori- 
us maintains  that  it  is  improper,  *  nakedly  to  assert, 
that  God  was  born  of  Mary ;  but  rather,  that  God, 
the  Word  of  the  Father,  was  joined  to  him  who  was 
born  of  Mary.  It  was  the  Man,  and  not  the  Word 
God,  which  rose  again;  the  Temple  should  be  dis- 
tinguished from  the  God  who  dwells  there.'  (Fleury, 
liv.  xxv.  sect.  2.)  It  seeuis  very  probable,  that  if 
Nestorius  had  abstained  from  all  mention  of  the  Vir- 
gin Mary,  or  merely  avoided  the  imprudence  of  in- 
terfering with  the  title  of  a  being  who  was  already 
becoming  the  object  of  superstition,  the  controversy 
would  not  have  taken  place  at  all. 

f  These  were  chiefly  monks — a  race  which  swarm- 
ed with  singular  fecundity  along  the  banks  of  the  Nile, 


164 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


and  it  had  been  skilfully  arranged,  that  Ephe- 
sus  should  be  chosen  for  the  decision  of  a 
difference  respecting  the  dignity  of  the  Vir- 
gin ;  since  popular  tradition  had  buried  her 
in  that  city,  and  the  imperfect  Christianity  of 
its  inhabitants  had  readily  transferred  to  her 
the  worship  which  their  ancestors  had  of- 
fered to  Diana. 

After  publishing  an  unjust  condemnation* 
of  the  undefended  patriarch,  and  causing, 
through  its  own  dissensions,  some  sanguinary 
tumult  throughout  the  city,  the  third  Gene- 
ral Council  was  at  length  dismissed  by  The- 
odosius  in  these  words : — '  God  is  my  wit- 
ness, that  I  am  not  the  author  of  this  confu- 
sion. His  providence  will  discern  and  pun- 
ish the  guilty.  Return  to  your  provinces; 
and  may  your  private  virtues  repair  the  mis- 
chief and  scandal  of  your  meeting.'  The 
banishment  of  Nestorius  did  not  immediately 
follow  his  condemnation ;  and  four  other 
years  of  intrigue  and  malevolence  were  ne- 
cessary, before  he  was  dismissed, — first,  to  his 
original  convent  at  Antioch,  and  finally  to  an 
island  (Oasis)  in  the  deserts  of  Upper  Egypt. 
There  he  died  ;  and  as  he  died  a  persecuted 
exile,  he  has  a  strong  and  natural  claim  on 
our  sympathy ;  but  it  is  lessened  by  the  recol- 
lection of  his  dangerous  indiscretion  ;  and  we 
are  forbidden  to  forget  or  to  conceal,  that  in 
his  days  of  prosperity,  while  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  dignity  and  power,  he  had  not  refus- 
ed to  inflict  on  the  Arians  and  other  heretics 
the  calamities  which  were  impending  over 
himself,  f 

In  the  meantime   his  opinions  extended 

and  in  the  deserts  of  the  Thebais.  The  influence  which 
they  possessed  in  the  Egyptian  Church  is  proved  by 
the  circumstance,  that  the  first  attack  which  Cyril 
made  upon  his  brother-patriarch,  appeared  in  the 
form  of  an  Epistle  General  to  the  Monks  of  Egypt. 
Its  success  was  very  sensibly  displayed  at  Ephesus. 
■  *  The  first  burst  of  the  unanimous  (if  it  was  so) 
indignation  of  the  Fathers  was  expressed  nearly  in 
these  words  : — •  Anathema  to  him  who  does  not  ana- 
thematize Nestorius ;  the  orthodox  faith  anathematizes 
him;  the  holy  Council  anathematizes  him.  We  all 
anathematize  the  heretic  Nestorius  ;  we  anathematize 
all  who  communicate  with  him  and  his  impious  belief. 
All  the  earth  anathematizes  the  unholy  religion  of 
Nestorius.  Anathema  to  him  who  does  not  anathe- 
matize Nestorius.' — Fleury,  liv.  xxv.  sect.  39. 

t  During  his  banishment  he  was  carried  into  cap- 
tivity by  the  Blemmyes;  and  after  his  release  by 
them,  was  hurried  about  from  place  to  place  by  the 
governor  of  Upper  Egypt,  so  that  he  had  no  repose 
even  in  exile.  '  Enfin  (says  Fleury)  il  mourut,  acca- 
ble  de  vieillesse  et  d'infirmites ;  et  on  dit,  que  sa 
langue  fut  rongee  de  vers.'  Of  all  Roman  Catholic 
historians,  Fleury  is  the  most  charitable. 


themselves  rapidly  throughout  central  Asia, 
along  the  Eastern  extremities  of  Christen- 
dom. Through  Chaldea,  Persia,  Syria,  and 
Assyria  ;  in  Arabia,  India,  Tartary,  and  even 
China,  they  took  deep  root  during  the  fifth 
and  following  century  ;  and  the  numbers  of 
their  professors,  their  indignation  against  the 
persecutors  of  Nestorius,  and  their  conse- 
quent enmity  against  the  Church  and  name 
of  Greece,  prepared  them,  in  a  later  age,  for 
alliance  with  the  Mahometan  invader.* 

They  assembled  their  councils  at  Seleucia, 
and  their  doctrine,  as  there  determined, 
amounted  to  this — '  That  in  the  Saviour  of 
the  world  there  were  two  persons  or  sub- 
stances (vTTooTaang),  of  which  the  one  was 
divine,  the  Eternal  Word  ;  and  the  other, 
which  was  human,  was  the  man  Jesus  ;  that 
these  two  substances  had  only  one  aspect 
(barsopa,  nQ&oumov) ;  that  the  union  between 
the  Son  of  God  and  the  Son  of  man  was  not 
an  union  of  nature  or  of  person,  but  only  of 
will  and  affection  ;  that  Christ  was  therefore 
to  be  carefully  distinguished  from  God,  who 
dwelt  in  him  as  in  a  temple  ;  that  31ary  was 
to  be  called  the  mother  of  Christ  and  not  the 
mother  of  God.'  From  this  exposition  f  of 
doctrine  it  has  been  suspected,  and  with  great 
justice,  that  the  difference  between  the  Nes- 
torians  and  the  Orthodox  was  in  fact  merely 
verbal ;  and  that  the  more  rational  disputants 
of  both  parties  were  maintaining,  with  some 
variation  of  expression,  the  very  same  opin- 
ions. Indeed,  if  in  that  exposition  we  are  to 
consider  the  word  person  as  in  both  cases 
synonymous  with  Hypostasis,  or  substance, 
there  remains  little,  if  any  thing,  which  could 
divide  the  most  pugnacious  polemics. 

Eutyches.  In  the  history  of  this  contro- 
versy, the  name  of  Eutyches  immediately 
succeeds  to  that  of  Nestorius.  This  person 
was  the  abbot  of  a  convent  at  Constantinople, 
and  an  intemperate  opposer  of  the  opinions 

*  '  The  successors  of  Mahomet  in  Persia  employed 
the  Nestorians  in  the  most  important  affairs,  both  of 
the  cabinet  and  of  the  provinces,  and  suffered  the  pa- 
triarch of  that  sect  only  to  reside  in  the  kingdom  of 
Babylon.  The  Monophysites  enjoyed  in  Syria  and 
Egypt  an  equal  degree  of  favor  and  protection.' 
Mosh.  (Cent.  vii.  p.  ii.  ch.  v.) 

f  It  is  taken  from  Mosheim ;  and  the  peculiar  word 
Barsopa  may  perhaps  be  properly  translated  aspect. 
Only  render  it  person,  and  omit  that  same  word  when 
it  is  used  synonymously  with  substance,  and  even  the 
shadow  of  the  difference  is  almost  removed.  It  is  at 
least  certain  that  the  Monothelites  have  commonly 
accused  the  Catholics  of  Nestorianism,  and  have 
sometimes  mistaken  the  one  for  the  other.  See  Fleu- 
rv,  xxvii.,  sect.  23. 


x,iSSENSlOi>o. 


IU5 


01  JNestorius.  He  carried  the  doctrine  of  the 
Egyptian  school  to  its  extreme  interpretation, 
and  appears  to  have  exceeded  the  obscure 
limits  of  the  error  of  Apollinaris.  *  For  that 
heresiarch  affected  to  draw  some  distinction 
between  an  intellectual  and  a  sensitive  soul, 
which,  however  subtile,  may  seem  to  remove 
his  doctrine  one  step  from  that  of  the  Mo- 
nophysites;  but  Eutyches  at  once  boldly 
pronounced  'that  in  Christ  there  was  but 
onef  nature — that  of  the  incarnate  word.' 
Dioscorus,  who  had  succeeded  to  the  throne 
of  Alexandria  and  to  the  character  of  Cyril, 
gave  his  decided  support  to  Eutyches,  and 
as  both  parties  grew  violent,  Theodosius  was 
exhorted  to  convoke  another  Council  to  de- 
termine the  difference.  He  did  so ;  and,  as 
if  to  prove  the  inefficacy  of  experience  to 
confer  wisdom,  he  again  appointed  Ephesus 
as  the  place  of  the  meeting,  and  again  select- 
ed the  Bishop  of  Alexandria  to  preside  in  it. 
The  tumults  which  had  disgraced  the  Church 
in  431  were  repeated  with  some  additional 
brutalities  in  449 ;  the  Egyptians  again  were 
triumphant ;  and  the  assembly  at  length  dis- 
persed, after  having  sanctioned  the  doctrine 
of  Eutyches,  and  acquired  the  title,  by  which 
it  has  been  stigmatized  in  every  age  of  the 
Church,  as  '  The  Assembly  of  Robbers.' 
This  meeting,  we  should  observe,  has  not 
obtained  a  place  among  the  general  Councils 
of  the  Church.J: 

The  western  Bishops  had  hitherto  inter- 
fered, not  very  warmly,  in  these  disputes, 
which  were  indeed  peculiarly  oriental  both 
in  their  origin  and  character.  But  Leo  the 
Great,  sensible  of  the  scandal  now  brought 


*  In  the  meantime,  Eutyches  was  so  far  from 
acknowledging  this  resemblance,  that  in  his  letter  to 
St.  Leo,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  Council,  he 
anathematized  Apollinaris,  together  with  Valentinus, 
Manes,  Nestorius,  and  Simon  the  magician.  He 
had  reached  his  seventy-first  year,  when  his  opinions 
■were  attacked  by  the  very  same  man  who  had  first 
Bounded  the  trumpet  against  Nestorius — Eusebius, 
now  Bishop  of  Doryleum. 

■f  A  necessary  consequence  of  this  doctrine  seems 
to  be  the  ascription  of  the  passion  and  sufferings  of 
Christ  to  the  Divine  (the  only)  nature,  and  this  could 
scarcely  be  avoided  without  taking  refuge  in  the 
heresy  of  the  Phantastics.  In  fact,  the  dissensions 
between  the  Corruptibles  and  Incorruptibles,  in  the 
reign  of  Justinian,  were  little  else  than  a  continuation 
of  the  Eutychian  controversy,  in  ITS  consequen- 
ces. These  disputes  chiefly  prevailed  in  Egypt,  the 
hot-bed  of  the  Monophysite  heresy. 

J  2vroSug  /.ijoto(X(;',  Conventus  Latronum,  Latro- 
cinium  Ephesinum,  are  the  terms  in  which  it  is  usu- 
ally mentioned  by  the  writers  of  both  Churches. 


upon  the  whole  Church  even  by  the  tempo 
rary  establishment  of  an  erroneous  doctrine, 
saw  the  necessity  of  more  zealous  interposi- 
tion. He  therefore  prevailed  upon  Marciab, 
the  successor  of  Theodosius,  to  summon 
another  Council  on  the  same  subject.  It  met 
at  Chalcedon  in  451 ;  and  the  Pope's  Legates 
(under  the  usual  superintendence  of  the 
Imperial  Officers)  presided  there.  The  pro- 
ceedings were  conducted  with  greater  decen- 
cy ;  Eutyches  and  Dioscorus  were  condemn- 
ed, and  the  orthodox  *  doctrine  of  '  Christ  in 
one  person  and  two  natures '  was  finally  es- 
tablished. 

Henoticon  of  Zeno.  As  before  with  the 
Nestorians,  so  now  with  the  followers  of 
Eutyches,  their  energy,  and  perhaps  their 
numbers,  increased  on  the  public  condemna- 
tion of  their  opinions.  Some  monks  of  that 
persuasion  obtained  possession  of  Jerusalem, 
and  indulged  in  the  most  violent  excesses; 
and  the  Catholic  successor  of  Dioscorus, 
after  a  contention  of  five  years  with  his  Al- 
exandrian subjects,  was  at  length  sacrificed 
to  their  religious  fury.  Presently  afterwards, 
in  the  year  482,  the  Emperor  Zeno  made  a 
fruitless  but  memorable  attempt  to  extinguish 
all  religious  dissension,  by  the  publication  of 
an  Edict  of  Union,  called  the  Henoticon. 
In  this  proclamation  he  confirmed  the  estab- 
lished doctrines,  and  anathematized  alike  the 
Arians,  Phantastics,  Nestorians,  and  Euty- 
chians  ;  but  out  of  tenderness  to  the  feelings 
of  the  last,  he  avoided  any  particular  mention 
of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon.  The  more 
moderate  men,  both  among  the  Catholics 
and  Monophysites,  f  (still  the  two  prevailing 
parties)  subscribed  this  decree ;  but  the  fruits 
of  their  moderation  were  not  such  as,  by 
their  principles  and  example,  they  deserved, 
and  perhaps  expected.     Among  the  latter  a 


*  Admitting,  as  we  do,  that  the  opinions  of  Nesto- 
rius were  in  fact  very  little,  if  at  all,  removed  from 
orthodoxy,  we  cannot  at  all  assent  to  the  reasoning 
of  Le  Clerc,  who  would  persuade  us  (and  who  ap- 
pears to  have  persuaded  both  Jortin  and  Gibbon) 
that  Eutyches  also  held  the  same  doctrine  with  both 
Nestorius  and  the  orthodox — for  in  this  last  dispute 
there  is  no  confusion  of  terms;  in  the  very  same 
words  the  one  party  plainly  asserts  one,  the  other 
tivo  natures  of  Christ;  and  the  same  train  and  de- 
scription of  argument,  which  is  applied  to  reconcile 
this  difference,  would,  in  our  mind,  be  equally  suc- 
cessful in  removing  every  religious  difference. 

f  The  Eutychians,  or  Monophysites,  are  also 
known  in  history  by  the  appellation  of  Jacobites, 
from  the  name  of  one  of  their  teachers,  Jame9  Bara- 
daeus. 


166 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


violent  schism  arose,  and  this  speedily  gave 
birth  to  numerous  other  schisms  which 
divided  into  several  sects  the  followers  of 
Eutyches;  while  among  the  Catholics  very 
great  and  general  indignation  was  excited, 
by  the  omission  of  the  name  of  Chalcedon, 
against  all  who  had  signed  so  imperfect  a 
declaration  of  orthodoxy.  And  thus,  to  the 
disgrace  of  the  disputants,  and  almost  to  the 
scandal  of  human  nature,  it  proved  that  an 
attempt,  judiciously  conceived  by  a  benevo- 
lent Prince,  to  compose  the  religious  differ- 
ences of  his  subjects,  produced  no  other 
effect  than  to  inflame  the  character  and 
multiply  the  grounds  of  dissension.  And 
that  unhappy  result  was  not  in  this  case 
attributable  to  the  infliction  of  any  civil 
penalties  in  the  arbitrary  enforcement  of  the 
decree,  but  solely  to  the  vehemence  of  the 
passions  engaged  on  both  sides,  which  had 
Hardened  the  greater  number  against  any 
representations  of  wisdom  or  reason,  and 
even  against  the  ordinary  influence  of  their 
human  feelings. 

Tke  Monothelites.  However,  time  effected 
much  towards  the  healing  of  these  animosi- 
ties, and  they  were  diverted  during  the  reign 
of  Justinian  into  other  channels.  After  the 
lapse  of  nearly  two  hundred  years  the  agita- 
tions of  the  tempest  had  seemingly  subsided, 
and  the  differences,  and  even  the  malevo- 
lence, which  may  still  have  existed,  no  long- 
er broke  out  into  open  outrage.  The  vain 
curiosity  of  the  Emperor  Heraclius  threaten- 
ed the  revival  of  those  evils.  On  his  return 
from  the  Persian  war  in  the  year  629,  that 
Prince  proposed  to  his  Bishops  the  unprofit- 
able question—'  Whether  Christ,  of  one  per- 
son but  two  natures,  was  actuated  by  a  single 
or  a  double  will  ? '  The  Greeks  in  general 
favored  the  former  opinion,  but  not  with 
their-usual  impetuosity ;  indeed  they  seem  at 
jength  to  have  been  so  far  exhausted  by  such 
fruitless  contests,  as  to  have  considered  the 
question  trifling  and  superfluous.  And  it 
was  not  until  the  year  680,  that,  through  the 
angry  opposition  of  the  Latins  to  this  dogma, 
the  Sixth  General  Council  was  assembled  at 
Constantinople,  which  formally  pronounced 
that  two  wills  were  harmonized  in  the  person 
of  Christ.  Such  is  still  the  doctrine  both  of 
the  Greek  and  Latin  Churches ;  and  with 
the  establishment  of  that  doctrine  the  contro- 
versy respecting  the  incarnation,  after  an  in- 
terrupted duration  of  about  three  hundred 
years,  expired.* 

*  Accurately  speaking,  the  Monothelite  Controver- 
sy was  rattier  a  consequence,  than  a  part,  of  that 


The  heretics  who  advocated  the  one  will 
were  called  Monothelites,  and  by  this  name 
the  dispute  is  generally  known.  It  lasted 
about  fifty  years  ;  and  it  is  a  painful  but  ne- 
cessary reflection,  that  during  its  continuance, 
while  the  attention  of  Christendom  was  in 
some  degree  engaged  by  it,  the  Mahometans 
had  found  time  to  convert  Arabia  and  to 
complete  the  conquest  of  Persia,  Syria,  Pal- 
estine, and  Egypt:  the  three  patriarchal 
thrones,  Antioch,  Alexandria,  and  Jerusalem, 
had  fallen  into  their  hands  ;  and  Carthage  it- 
self was  already  on  the  point  of  undergoing 
the  same  fate. 

Having  treated  the  conduct  of  the  parties 
engaged  in  these  dissensions  with  unrestrain- 
ed freedom,  we  shall  conclude  with  some 
considerations  not  unfavorable  to  them,  and 
not  less  just  than  our  censure.  1.  None  of 
the  disputants  at  any  time  relapsed  into  any 
heresy  respecting  the  Trinity — the  doctrine 
which  had  been  established  by  the  first  and 
second  General  Councils  was  followed  with 
equal  fidelity  by  those  who  deviated  from  the 
Church  respecting  the  Incarnation,  and  by 
those  who  adhered  to  it.  2.  As  the  manner, 
in  which  this  controversy  was  conducted, 
exhibited  the  earnest  devotion  of  all  parties 
to  their  respective  opinions,  so  the  origin  of 
all  those  opinions  may  be  traced  to  an  anxie- 
ty (oftentimes  indeed  a  very  injudicious  anx- 
iety) to  acquire  accurate  notions  respecting 
the  Redeemer,  so  as  neither  to  exaggerate 
nor  disparage  his  dignity.  It  may  be  traced 
to  an  excess  of  the  religious  feeling,  even  to 
a  tendency  to  superstitious  enthusiasm,  but 
at  least  it  was  free  from  the  infection  of  that 
cold,  indifferent  apathy,  which  sometimes 
shelters  itself  under  the  name  of  philosophy, 
but  which,  in  fact,  is  not  far  removed  from 
skepticism.  3.  The  very  individuals  who, 
under  the  excitement  of  religious  dissension 
and  the  bustle  of  public  councils,  heated  too 
by  the  various  passions  which  the  mere  spirit 
of  resistance  will  create  in  the  calmest  tem- 
perament, ran  loose  into  scandalous  excesses, 
might  very  consistently  be  endued  with  the 
purest  piety,  and  habituated,  in  the  private 
exercise  of  their  sacerdotal  functions,  to  the 
fervent  discharge  of  every  Christian  duty. 
It  argues  a  very  slight  or  a  very  partial  view 


respecting  the  Incarnation,  since  those  who  adopted 
the  doctrine  of  one  will,  did  not  in  consequence  reject 
the  decisions  either  of  Ephesus  or  Chalcedon,  but 
adhered,  on  the  contrary,  to  both, — so  as  to  unite  (in 
profession  at  least,  if  not  in  reason)  the  strictest  or- 
thodoxy respecting  the  nature  and  person  of  Christ 
with  their  perverse  opinion  respecting  his  will 


DISSENSIONS. 


1G7 


of  human  nature  to  infer,  from  the  occasional 
extravagance  of  public  feeling,  the  general 
destitution  of  moral  principle  or  the  absence 
of  virtuous  habits ;  and  we  must  be  careful 
not  to  be  misled  by  those  historians  who  bid 
us  judge  the  general  character  of  the  Eastern 
Clergy  by  their  conduct  at  the  Councils  of 
Ephesus.  Lastly,  Whatever  may  have  been 
the  original  policy  of  convoking  General 
Councils  for  the  suppression  of  religious 
difference,  it  cannot  be  asserted  that  such 
Councils  were  wholly  useless  —  for  besides 
the  particular  doctrine  which  they  were  call- 
ed upon  to  settle,  and  which  on  some  occa- 
sions was  fundamentally  important,  they  also 
published  numerous  canons  and  ordinan- 
ces for  the  regulation  and  reform  of  the 
Church.  These  were  disseminated  and  re- 
ceived through  every  part  of  Christendom, 
and  very  often  proved  of  the  highest  utility ; 
and  even  as  to  the  doctrines  on  such  occa- 
sions established,  we  should  observe,  that 
after  the  first  tumult  of  opposition  had  sub- 
sided, they  met  with  general  acquiescence ; 
that  they  were  almost  universally  adopted  in 
succeeding  ages,  and  still  constitute  the  creed 
of  the  great  majority  of  Christians.* 

VI.  Controversy  on  Images.  We  proceed 
to  the  contest  respecting  the  Worship  of 
Images,  which  claims  our  careful  attention, 
partly  from  the  extreme  agitation  which  it 
excited  throughout  Christendom  during  the 
eighth  and  ninth  centuries  —  partly,  because 
it  occasioned  (should  we  not  rather  say  ac- 
celerated ?)  the  separation  of  the  Roman 
States  from  the  Greek  Empire.  Among  the 
various  superstitions  which  had  gradually 
grown  up  in  the  Church,  and  of  which  the 

*  The  Controversy,  which  we  have  described, 
branched  out  into  various  theories  respecting  the 
manner  of  the  union  of  the  two  natures,  which  amu- 
sed the  refined  imaginations  of  the  Greeks.  But  it 
was  reserved  for  the  grosser  absurdity  of  a  German 
to  originate  the  following  offensive  speculation: — 
*  Eodem  tempore  aliud  ex  Germania  certamen  in 
Gallias  inferebatur  de  modo  quo  Sanctissimus  Serva- 
tor  ex  utero  Matris  in  lucem  prodiit.  German!  qui- 
dam  Jesuni  Christum  non  communi  reliquorum  homi- 
nuin  lege,  sed  singulari  et  extraordinaria,  utero 
Matris  exiisse  statuebant.  Qua  senlentia  in  Galliam 
delata,  Ratramnus  earn  oppugnabat,  atque  Christum 
per  naturae  januam  in  muiidum  ingressum  esse  tueba- 
tur.  Germania  subveniebat  Paschasius  Radbertus, 
libro  singulari,  &c.  &c.'  Jortin,  vol.  iv.,  p.  489. 
This  occurred  about  the  year  840,  and  it  is  worthy 
of  notice,  if  it  were  only  that  we  find  the  great  patron 
of  Trausubstantiation,  Paschasius  Radbertus,  advo- 
cating such  extravagant  and  impious  nonsense. 


vestiges  may,  in  some  cases,  be  traced  to  its 
earliest  ages,  none  had  obtained  such  general 
influence  and  firm  footing  among  the  lower 
orders  (especially  in  the  East)  as  Image- 
worship.  It  was  an  idle  distinction  to  up- 
hold a  respect  for  images,  as  means  and  not 
as  objects  of  devotion,  when  they  were  pre- 
sented to  the  uninstructed  and  undiscrimi- 
nating  vulgar.  When  the  understanding  has 
never  been  enlightened,  when  the  heart  has 
never  been  informed  with  the  genuine  feel- 
ings of  religion,  the  devotee  will  surely 
address  his  prayer  to  the  Deity  which  is 
placed  before  his  eyes,  and  turn,  in  the  dark- 
ness of  his  intellect,  to  that  which  is  percep- 
tible by  his  mere  senses.  And  it  was  there- 
fore the  greatest  among  the  crimes  of  the 
ancient  directors  of  the  Church,  and  that 
which  appears  more  peculiarly  to  have 
brought  down  upon  it  the  chastisement  from 
Arabia,  that  they  filled  the  temples  with  their 
detested  idols,  and  obtruded  them  upon  the 
eyes  and  into  the  hands  of  the  most  ignorant. 
Nor  can  their  advocates  plead  the  necessity 
of  this  conduct ;  for  the  example  of  the 
Mahometan  faith  alone  has  proved,  that  a 
people  may  be  barbarous  without  being 
idolatrous,  when  idolatry  is  discouraged  by 
the  ministers  of  religion.  And  if  any  excuse 
be  furnished  by  the  general  and  deeply-root- 
ed influence  of  the  ancient  superstition,  it  is 
at  least  none  for  those  who  exerted  their 
power  and  their  talents  to  extend  and  per- 
petuate it.  Unhappily,  those  exertions  were 
attended  by  too  easy  success ;  before  the 
year  GOO,  idolatry  was  firmly  established  in 
the  Eastern  Church,  and  during  the  follow- 
ing century  it  made  a  gradual  and  very  gen- 
eral progress  in  the  West,  where  it  had  pre- 
viously gained  some  footing. 

Leo  the  Isaurian.  It  was  not  till  the  year 
726  that  any  vigorous  attempt  was  made  to 
disturb  its  sway,  and  then  the  minds  of  men 
were  become  weakened  by  long  acquies- 
cence in  superstitious  maxims,  even  so  far 
as  to  regard  with  submissive  reverence  the 
sins  and  follies  of  their  ancestors.  Never- 
theless, the  Emperor  Leo,  surnamed  the 
Isaurian,  a  prince  of  sense  and  energy,  had 
the  boldness  to  undertake,*  in  the  face  of  so 


*  Roman  Catholic  historians  attribute  Leo's  reso- 
lution to  the  sudden  appearance  of  a  new  island  in 
the  Archipelago,  from  volcanic  causes.  This  phe- 
nomenon the  superstitious  Emperor  ascribed  to  the 
Divine  wrath,  excited  by  the  idolatrous  impiety  of 
his  subjects.  He  is  also  supposed  to  have  derived 
his  prejudice  from  the  Mahometan  religion,  to  which 
his  attachment  is  more  than  insinuated. 


168 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


many  difficulties,  the  purification  of  the 
Church ;  and  he  began  his  pious  enterprise 
by  an  attack  on  its  most  flagrant  corruption. 
It  is  disputed,  whether  the  first  measur^  of 
Leo  was  prudently  confined  to  the  abolition 
of  idolatrous  worship,  and  the  removal  of  its 
objects  to  higher  and  more  distant  situations 
in  the  Churches,  wherein  they  were  suspend- 
ed ;  or  whether,  without  any  indulgence  to 
prejudice,  he  entirely  concealed  them  from 
view,  and  even  destroyed  them.  The  effect 
of  the  edict  would  rather  lead  us  to  the  latter 
conclusion  —  for  it  immediately  occasioned 
a  civil  war,  both  in  the  East  and  in  the  West. 
In  the  East,  the  islands  of  the  Archipelago, 
and  even  a  part  of  Asia,  broke  out  into  a 
tumultuous  insurrection,  which  however  was 
speedily  suppressed ;  but  in  the  West,  the 
more  deliberate  resistance  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rome  (Gregory  II.)  encouraged  the  rebellion 
of  the  Italian  provinces  (in  730,)  and  led  to 
the  defeat  of  the  Imperial  troops  before 
Ravenna;  the  tribute  paid  to  the  Eastern 
Emperor  was  then  withdrawn,  and  his  au- 
thority was  never  afterwards  acknowledged 
in  the  Ecclesiastical  States. 

This  reverse  did  not  abate  the  zeal  of  Leo, 
who  proceeded  at  least  to  enforce  his  resolu- 
tions, so  far  as  his  power  extended  ;  and  as 
he  found  the  strongest  opposition  to  proceed 
from  the  monastic  orders,  he  extended  his 
scheme  of  reformation  to  them.  And  in 
spite  of  various  tumults,  excited  partly  by 
their  influence  and  partly  through  a  popular 
prejudice  in  favor  of  superstition,  he  persist- 
ed in  his  project,  with  uncompromising 
perseverance,  and  even  with  some  prospect 
of  success,  until  his  death.  In  the  year  741 
he  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Constantine, 
surnamed  Copronymus,  who  faithfully  fol- 
lowed his  footsteps.  Thirteen  years  after- 
wards that  Prince  assembled  a  synod  in  the 
suburbs  of  Constantinople,  at  which  three 
hundred  and  thirty-eight  Bishops  attended. 
They  decreed  the  destruction  of  images,* 
and  the  decision,  which  has  sometimes  been 
attributed  to  their  loyalty,  may  with  equal 
justice  be  ascribed  to  their  sense  and  their 
piety.  They  were  called  Iconoclasts,  or 
image-breakers ;  and  the  execution  of  their 
decrees  occasioned  many  calumnies  against 


*  Some  of  the  arguments  seriously  advanced  on 
this  occasion  by  the  Iconoclasts  seem  intended  to 
surpass  the  absurdity  of  their  adversaries;  according 
to  them,  even  the  painter  is  convicted  of  several  and 
even  the  most  opposite  heresies.  They  may  be  found 
in  Fleury,  liv.  xliii.,  sect.  7. 


the  Emperor's  character,  and  many  tumults, 
which  disturbed  the  peace  and  even  endan- 
gered the  security  of  his  reign.  Neverthe- 
less, that  reign  lasted  thirty-four  years;  and 
the  whole  space  was  perseveringly  employed 
in  contention  with  idols,  with  the  monks 
who  protected  them,  and  with  the  pernicious 
influence  of  Rome,  which  was  active  and 
constant  in  the  support  of  both. 

Seventh  General  Council.  Leo,  who  suc- 
ceeded, was  guided  by  the  principles  of  Con- 
stantine ;  but  he  died  soon  after  his  accession, 
and  the  education  of  his  son,  a  boy  of  ten 
years  old,  as  well  as  the  direction  of  public 
affairs,  was  entrusted  to  the  Empress  Irene. 
Immediately  the  religious  policy  of  the  pal- 
ace was  changed  ;  and  as  fifty  years  of  vigor- 
ous opposition  had  not  availed  to  extirpate 
corruptions  which  were  the  gradual  growth 
of  four  centuries,  the  change  was  hailed  with 
delight  by  a  large  proportion  of  the  people. 
In  the  year  787,  a  General  Council  was  as- 
sembled at  Nice,  by  which  the  images  were 
reinstated  in  their  former  honors  *  through 
the  united  exertions  of  the  monks  and  the 
mob,  and  the  Pope  and  the  Empress.  This 
Council,  the  second  of  Nice,  is  accounted  in 
the  East  as  the  seventh  and  last  General 
Council,  and  its  decisions  completed  the 
body  of  doctrine  and  discipline  which  con- 
stitutes the  system  of  the  Greek  Church. 

It  may  be  proper,  in  this  place,  very  brief- 
ly, to  remind  our  readers  of  the  particular 
objects  for  which  these  seven  celebrated 
councils  were  severally  summoned  ;  not 
merely  as  matters  of  barren  recollection,  but 
because  we  perceive  in  them,  if  we  are  not 
greatly  in  error,  an  indication  of  the  gradual 
departure  of  the  Church,  first  from  scriptural 
simplicity,  and  then  from  truth.  Between 
the  first  and  the  last  of  them  the  space  of 
462  years  intervened,  an  interval  full  of  im- 
portant, and   for   the    most  part,  pernicious 


*  The  following  is  a  part  of  the  Confession  of 
Faith  published  with  the  authority  of  this  Council: — 
'  We  receive,  besides  the  figure  of  the  cross,  the 
relics  of  saints,  and  their  images ;  we  embrace  them 
according  to  the  ancient  tradition  of  our  fathers, 
who  have  placed  them  in  all  the  Churches  of  God, 
and  all  the  places  where  he  is  served.  We  honor 
and  adore  them,  viz.  that  of  Jesus  Christ,  of  his 
holy  Mother,  of  the  angels, — for  though  they  are 
incorporeal,  they  have  revealed  themselves  in  a  hu- 
man form ;  those  of  the  apostles,  the  prophets,  the 
martyrs,  and  other  saints ;  because  those  paintings 
recall  to  us  the  memory  of  the  originals  and  make  us 
participate  in  their  sanctity.'  Fleury,  liv.  xliv 
sect    34 


DISSENSIONS. 


169 


changes  in  the  ecclesiastical  constitution  ;  but 
most  of  these  were  imperceptibly  introduced, 
especially  into  the  Western  Church,  without 
the  authority  or  cognizance  of  any  general 
assembly,  and  they  involved  many  circum- 
stances of  power,  property,  or  discipline,  to 
which  we  do  not  here  intend  any  reference. 
The  professed  purpose  for  which  the  general 
councils  were  in  every  instance  convoked, 
was  to  compose  the  controversy  of  the  day, 
and  to  pronounce  a  final  decision  upon  the 
doctrine  which  happened  to  be  disputed ;  and 
thus,  in  the  history  of  those  councils,  we  fol- 
low the  track  of  theological  investigation,  and 
observe  it  gradually  receding  from  soberness 
and  sense. 

(1.)  The  object  for  which  the  two  first 
were  assembled  was  to  ascertain  and  promul- 
gate the  scriptural  doctrine  of  the  Trinity ; 
and  a  more  important  inquiry,  and  one  more 
worthy  of  the  deliberate  consideration  of  the 
directors  of  Christendom,  was  not  ever  pro- 
pounded to  any  religious  assembly  :  and  their 
decisions  respecting  this  doctrine  were  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  sense  of  Scripture,  as  it 
has  been  interpreted  by  the  great  majority 
of  Christians  in  every  following  age. 

(2.)  The  questions  proposed  for  the  investi- 
gation of  the  third  and  fourth  Councils  were 
of  less  importance  to  truth,  and,  in  the  same 
proportion  precisely,  more  difficult  to  com- 
prehend and  determine,  —  the  nature  of 
Christ's  existence  on  earth.  The  manner  in 
which  they  were  argued  was  not  calculated 
to  diminish  this  difficulty  ;  and  the  violence 
with  which  even  the  more  decorous*  of  these 
meetings  was  disgraced  was  such  as  would 


*  We  might  refer  to  the  whole  account  of  the  ses- 
sions of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  even  as  it  is  given 
by  Fleury  (lib.  xx.  8.).  One  short  passage  may 
serve  as  a  specimen.  The  assembly  was  divided  into 
two  parties;  the  Bishops  of  Egypt,  Illyrium,  and 
Palestine  formed  one ;  those  of  the  East — of  Pontus, 
Asia,  and  Thrace  —  the  other.  Theodoret  was 
obnoxious  to  the  former  party,  as  being  suspected  of 
the  Nestorian  heresy.  Nevertheless,  he  was  allowed 
a  seat  in  the  Council  by  the  Emperor.  When  he 
took  his  place  the  Orientals  cried  out,  '  He  is  worthy 
of  it.'  The  Egyptians  exclaimed,  '  Call  him  not 
Bishop — he  is  no  Bishop;  expel  the  enemy  of  God- 
expel  the  Jew!  '  The  Orientals  cried,  'Expel  the 
seditious — drive  out  the  murderers! '  And  they  con- 
tinued for  some  time  to  vent  such  exclamations  on 
both  sides.  At  length  the  magistrates  interfered: 
'  These  popnlar  cries  are  unworthy  of  the  episcopal 
character,  and  are  of  no  use  to  either  party — allow 
the  paper  to  be  read  to  you.'  The  Egyptians  ex- 
claimed, '  Expel  that  one  man  only,  and  we  will  all 
listen;  our  voice  is  raised  for  the  Catholic  flJith,'  &c. 
22 


naturally  result  from  eager  disputation  on  a 
matter  of  mysterious  and  almost  impenetra- 
ble abstruseness.  The  subject  of  the  labors 
of  the  Sixth  Council  grew  out  of  that  which 
occupied  the  third  and  fourth  ;  and  while  it 
surpassed  the  other  in  metaphysical  intrica- 
cy, it  presented  even  less  prospect  of  any 
practical  advantage  from  its  decision. 

(3.)  The  matters  which  employed  the  Fifth 
Council  were  derived  from  the  individual 
opinions  of  Origen ;  and  if  these  should  be 
thought  by  some  not  to  have  merited  by  their 
importance  the  cognizance  of  so  solemn  a  tri- 
bunal, they  had  at  least  a  far  greater  claim 
on  general  attention  than  the  foolish  specu- 
lation of  the  Monothelites. 

(4.)  The  seventh  and  last  *  established  idol- 
atry as  the  law  of  the  Christian  Church  :  and 
thus  was  completed  the  structure  of  oriental 
orthodoxy.  It  rose  from  the  most  solid  and 
substantial  foundation  ;  it  advanced,  by  the 
labors  of  a  busy  but  unwise  generation, 
through  the  mid  ah-  and  mist  of  metaphysics, 
and  terminated  in  a  still  blinder  age,  in  clear 
and  manifest  superstition. 

The  same  seven  Councils  are  also  received 
by  the  Roman  Church,  but  not  as  a  perfect 
rule,  either  of  faith  or  discipline  ;  and,  indeed, 
when  we  consider  that  they  were  held,  with- 
out exception,  in  the  East,  on  the  occasion  of 
controversies  originating  in  the  East,  and  al- 
most confined  to  it ;  that  their  deliberations 
were  closely  surveyed  and  influenced,  if  not 
directed,  by  the  Eastern  emperor ;  and  that 
the  prelates  who  framed  them  were  almost 
exclusively  Orientals,!  we  shall  be  disposed, 
perhaps,  to  feel  some  surprise  that  the  West- 
ern Church,  with  so  many  causes  of  variance 
with  her  rival,  should  have  acquiesced  so 
submissively  in  their  decisions. 

*  It  would  seem  very  strange,  were  we  not  accus- 
tomed to  such  phenomena,  that  the  last  public  act  of 
the  united  Greek  and  Latin  Communions,  the  last 
which  was,  in  truth,  binding  on  the  universal  Church, 
was  the  establishment  of  the  grossest  practical  corrup- 
tion which  the  religion  has  ever  suffered.  Let  us  add, 
too,  that  it  was  established  solely  on  the  authority  of 
tradition,  while  it  was  that,  of  all  others,  for  which 
even  the  traditional  authority  is  most  defective,  since 
it  cannot  be  traced  higher  than  the  fourth  century. 

f  At  Nice,  among  318  members,  three  were  of  the 
Western  Church;  at  Constantinople  (1),  among  150, 
one  only;  at  Ephesus,  among  68,  one;  at  Ghalcedon, 
among  353,  three ;  at  Constantinople  (2),  among  164, 
six;  at  Constantinople  (3)  among  56,  five;  and  even 
at  the  last,  among  the  377  who  assisted,  we  can  ob- 
serve no  Occidentals,  except  the  Pope's  legates,  a 
very  small  number  of  Sicilian  Bishops,  and  a  deputy 
of  the  Bishop  of  Sardinia. 


170 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


The  edicts  of  the  last  general  Council  did 
not  secure  immediate  ohedience.  Leo  the 
Armenian,  who  reigned  from  814  to  820,  re- 
lapsed into  the  heresy  of  the  Isaurian.  He 
fell  an  early  victim  to  conspiracy  ;  but  his 
successor,  Michael,  fearlessly  proceeded  in 
the  same  difficult  endeavor;  and  the  earnest- 
ness of  his  wishes  and  the  perplexities  of  his 
situation  are  naturally  displayed  in  an  epistle 
addressed  by  him  to  the  son  of  Charlemagne, 
Louis,  Emperor  of  the  west.  As  this  docu- 
ment throws  great  general  light  on  the  eccle- 
siastical history  of  that  age,  we  shall  transcribe 
it  here. 

'  Many  of  our  clergy  and  laity,  departing 
from  the  apostolical  traditions,  have  intro- 
duced pernicious  novelties.  They  took  down 
the  crosses  in  the  churches  and  put  images 
in  their  room,  before  which  they  lighted  up 
lamps  and  burned  incense,  honoring  them  as 
the  cross.  They  sang  before  them,  worship- 
ped them,  and  implored  their  succor.  Many 
dressed  the  female  images  with  robes,  and 
made  them  stand  godmothers  to  their  chil- 
dren. They  offered  up  hair  to  them  when 
they  cut  it  off  for  the  first  time.  Some 
Presbyters  scratched  off  the  paint  from  the 
images  and  mixed  it  with  the  holy  Eucharist, 
and  gave  it  in  the  Communion.  Others  put 
the  body  of  the  Lord  into  the  hands*  of  the 
images,  and  made  the  communicants  take  it 
out  thence.  Others  used  boards  with  pic- 
tures painted  on  them,  instead  of  an  altar, 
on  which  they  consecrated  the  elements : 
and  many  such-like  abuses  were  committed. 
Therefore,  the  orthodox  Emperors  and  the 
most  learned  Bishops,  assembled  in  council, 
have  forbidden  these  enormities,  and  have 
removed  the  images  to  higher  places  in  the 
church,  where  they  stood  formerly,  and  when 
they  were  not  worshipped,  as  they  have  been 
of  late,  by  ignorant  people. 

'  Some  of  the  complainers  are  gone  to 
Rome  to  calumniate  us  there ;  but  we  are 
orthodox ;  we  believe  the  Trinity,  one  God 
in  three  persons,  the  incarnation  of  the  Word, 
his  two  wills  and  two  operations  ;  we  implore 
the  intercession  of  the  Holy  Virgin,  the 
mother  of  God,  and  of  all  the  Saints ;  we 
reverence  their  relics ;    we  receive  all   the 


*  Thus  it  appears  that  the  distinction  at  present  so 
broadly  drawn  by  the  Greek  Church  between  the 
•worship  of  painted  and  of  graven  images  did  not 
then  exist.  The  distinction  is,  indeed,  very  old  in  the 
writings  of  the  Church;  but  it  is  probable  that  it  was 
not  practically  iutroduced  until  after  the  Mahometan 
conquest. 


apostolical  traditions  and  the  decrees  of  the 
six  Councils.'* 

The  spirit  of  appeal  and  justification  in 
which  the  above  epistle  is  conceived,  indi- 
cates the  weakness  of  a  falling  cause  ;  and  so. 
indeed,  it  proved :  for  in  the  year  842  the 
Empress  Theodora  reestablished  the  author- 
ity of  the  Seventh  Council,  and  replaced  the 
images  with  so  firm  a  hand  that  they  have 
never  since  been  shaken.  In  celebration  of 
this  achievement,  a  new  festival  was  institut- 
ed under  the  name  of  the  'Feast  of  Ortho- 
doxy,'! and  the  most  riotous  enthusiasm 
generally  attended  the  proclamation  of  idola- 
try. 

The  malice  of  historians  has  not  failed  to 
observe,  that  as  the  first  success  over  the 
reviving  reason  and  religion  had  been  obtain- 
ed under  the  auspices  of  Irene ;  so  the  second 
and  mortal  wound  was  inflicted  by  the  rash- 
ness of  a  second  woman.  J  The  charge  is 
true  and  remarkable  ;  but  the  strenuous  and 
systematic  exertions  of  a  long  succession  of 
Popes  in  the  same  cause  will  easily  excuse 
the  blindness  of  two  empresses.  Indeed,  a 
general  view  of  history  rather  tends  to  raise 
our  astonishment  that  so  many  princes  were 
found  wise  and  bold  enough  to  stem  the 
popular  torrent.  But  this  attempt  at  reform- 
ation commenced  so  late,  and  under  circum- 
stances so  unfavorable,  that  even  another 
century  of  judicious  exertion,  continued  with- 
out pause  or  vacillation,  might  scarcely  have 
sufficed  for  its  success. 

We  shall  conclude  the  chapter  with  a  few 
additional  remarks  on  this  controversy.     The 

*  See  Jortin,  Eccl.  Hist,  ad  ann.  814.  From  this 
concluding  confession  we  observe  how  many  were  the 
abuses  to  which  even  a  reformer  of  die  Church  felt 
obliged  to  publish  his  adhesion. 

+  There  seems  some  reason  to  believe  that  this  feast 
was  not  established  until  after  the  Council  which  was 
assembled  by  Photius,  in  879,  in  further  confirmation 
of  idolatry. 

tin  favor  at  least  of  the  consistency  of  that  sex, 
we  must  mention  that  it  declared  itself  for  idolatry 
from  the  very  commencement  of  the  contest,  and  very 
strongly  too,  as  will  be  seen.  Leo  the  Isaurian  began 
his  enterprise  by  an  attack  upon  a  very  celebrated 
image  of  Jesus  Christ,  called  the  Antiphonetes,  or 
Respondent;  and  he  despatched  one  of  his  officers, 
named  Jovinus,  to  break  it  down.  Several  women 
who  were  present  endeavored  to  avert  his  design  by 
their  supplications;  but  Jovinus,  nothing  moved  by 
them,  ascended  a  ladder  and  dealt  some  severe  blows 
on  the  image.  On  this  the  women  became  furious ; 
they  pulled  down  the  ladder,  massacred  the  officer  on 
the  spot,  and  tore  him  in  pieces.  The  image  fell 
notwithstanding,  and  the  woman  were  led  away  to 
execution. 


DISSENSIONS. 


171 


best  writer  in  the  Eastern  Church  during  this 
most  critical  period  in  its  history, — indeed, 
the  only  writer  of  any  reputation  even  in  his 
own  day,  —  was  Johu  Damascenus;  *  and 
with  his  name  the  long  list  of  Greek  Fathers 
may  properly  be  said  to  terminate.  His  la- 
borious and  subtile  works  (of  which  the  prin- 
cipal are  '  Four  Books  concerning  the  Or- 
thodox Faith,'  and  'Sacred  Parallels')  are 
tainted  by  the  infection  of  the  Aristotelian 
philosophy,  and  by  a  strong  superstitious  ten- 
dency ;  and,  therefore,  we  are  not  surprised 
to  observe  that  his  elocoience  and  influence 
were  zealously  engaged  in  the  defence  of 
images.  He  possessed  considerable  learning ; 
and  his  sophistry,  no  less  than  his  authority, 
may  really  have  blinded  the  reason  of  some, 
while  many  more  would  feed,  under  the  shel- 
ter of  his  name,  a  previous  inclination  to  idol- 
atry.f 

We  believe  it  to  be  true,  that  of  the  mir- 
acles which  are  recorded  to  have  abundant- 
ly signalized  this  prolonged  dispute,  the  very 
great  proportion,  if  we  should  not  rather  say 
the  whole,  were  performed  by  the  friends  of 
the  idols, — a  fact  which,  while  it  proves  the 
higher  principles  of  the  other  party,  will  also 
assist  in  accounting  for  their  unpopularity. 
The  people  in  the  East  were  not,  indeed,  at 
this  time  so  stupid  and  unenlightened  as  the 
serfs  of  the  Western  Empire  ;  but  they  were 
by  nature  more  disposed  to  fanaticism  ;  they 
were  familial-,  by  long  habits  of  deception, 
with  preternatural  appearances,  and  disposed, 
by  a  controlling  imagination,  to  eager  credu- 
lity. 

The  Bishops,  and,  in  general,  the  secular 
clergy  of  the  East,  appear  to  have  taken  no 
violent  part  in  the  contest.  Indeed,  we  are 
persuaded  that  that  numerous  body  contained 

*  He  was  a  monk,  and  contemporary  with  Leo  the 
Isaurian,  against  whom  he  vented  his  indignation 
with  great  impunity,  as  his  ordinary  residence  was  the 
monastery  of  St.  Sabas,  near  Jerusalem,  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  imperial  control.  He  condescends  to  ap- 
peal to  the  authority  of  older  fathers  in  his  defence  of  im- 
ages— to  that  of  Basil,  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  Chrysostom, 
Ambrose,  Anastasius  of  Antioch,  and  others.  But 
we  believe  that  he  has  not  even  affected  to  advance 
any  name  of  higher  antiquity  than  the  fourth  century, 
— not,  by  the  way,  that  his  cause  would  have  been 
much  better  if  he  had.  He  was  anathematized  by  the 
Iconoclast  Council  in  754. 

f  Theodore  Studites,  a  monk  and  abbot,  has  ac- 
quired great  reputation  in  the  history  of  the  Eastern 
Church  by  his  obstinate  defence  of  the  orthodox  prac- 
tice, chiefly  during  the  second  contest.  Exile  was  the 
punishment  of  his  zeal,  and  severer  punishment  was 
very  seldom,  if  ever,  inflicted  on  the  contumacious. 


many  pious  and  rational  individuals  who 
were  shocked  by  the  degradation  of  Chris- 
tianity and  human  nature,  and  who  watched 
with  an  anxious  eye  the  endeavors  which 
were  made  to  remove  it.  But  such  charac- 
ters, which  are  among  the  best  of  the  sacred 
profession,  are  seldom  busy  or  ambitious  ;  and 
the  anxiety  of  those  excellent  men  may  have 
been  often  confined  to  their  own  bosoms,  or 
at  least  to  the  narrow  limits  of  their  diocese. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  monastic  orders  have 
too  generally  attested  the  spuriousness  of 
their  origin  by  their  alliance  with  impurity 
and  imposture.  And  thus,  in  the  present  in- 
stance, they  were  furious  advocates  for  a  sys- 
tem so  necessary  to  their  influence  and  their 
avarice  ;  and  it  is  chiefly,  no  doubt,  to  their 
perseverance  that  we  are  to  attribute  the  evil 
result  of  the  conflict. 

The  common  people,  partly  from  a  natural 
tendency  to  a  sensible  worship,  partly  from 
the  inveteracy  of  long  habit,  were  strongly 
disposed  to  the  same  party  ;  and  that  dispo- 
sition was  effectually  improved  by  the  monks, 
who,  from  a  greater  show  of  austerity,  had 
the  greatest  hold  upon  their  minds.  Nor  is 
the  circumstance  to  be  slightly  noticed,  that 
the  contest  in  this  case  was  for  an  intelligible 
and  visible  object.  Unlike  the  metaphysical 
intricacies  of  some  former  controversies,  it 
carried  a  direct  appeal  to  the  understanding 
of  the  vulgar,  because  its  subject  was  the  sub- 
ject of  their  senses.  If  they  positively  wor- 
shipped the  image,  its  destruction  deprived 
them  of  their  god  ;  and  even  if  the  worship 
was  only  relative,  it  was  extremely  easy  to 
persuade  them  that,  in  parting  with  the  sym- 
bols of  their  faith,  with  the  book  of  their  re- 
ligion, they  were  rashly  casting  away  religion 
itself.  Their  enthusiasm  was  heated  by  false 
miracles  ;  and  when  we  think  of  the  violence 
which  the  populace  of  the  East  were  wont 
to  exhibit  even  at  their  public  spectacles,  in 
the  frivolous  contests  of  the  Hippodrome, 
we  shall  understand  to  what  excesses  they 
might  be  hurried  by  the  agitation  of  religious 
excitement. 

The  Papal  Chair  perseveringly  supported 
the  cause  of  superstition  ;  and  this,  perhaps, 
is  the  first  occasion  on  which  the  close  alli- 
ance of  principle  between  the  Pope  and  th 
monastic  orders  displayed  itself.  The  Pope's 
legates  were  present  at  the  last  general  Coun- 
cil, and  his  Italian  clergy  appear  to  have 
given  him  very  cordial  assistance.  Not  so 
the  more  rational  Prelates  of  France.  Less 
awed  by  the  presence  of  the  spiritual  direct- 
or, more  so  by  the  dictates  of  real  piety,  they 


172 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


established,  under  the  guidance  of  Charle- 
magne,* a  very  broad  distinction  between 
positive  and  relative  worship;  and  without 
entirely  disclaiming  the  authority  of  the  Sev- 
enth Council,  they  endeavored  to  obviate,  as 
much  as  possible,  the  great  practical  evil 
which  directly  flowed  from  it.  This  differ- 
ence in  the  conduct  of  the  French  and  Italian 
Churches  on  so  great  a  question  is  a  fact  of 
some  importance  in  history  and  deserving  of 
attentive  notice  ;  and  it  is  but  justice  to  our 
own  ancestors,  as  well  as  to  the  German  di- 
vines of  the  age,  to  admit  that  they  gener- 
ally endeavored  to  follow  the  same  difficult 
course.  But  their  resistance  was  not  long 
effectual,  nor  indeed  could  it  reasonably  ex- 
pect success ;  because,  by  permitting  the  use 
of  images  and  their  presence  in  the  congre- 
gations of  the  converts,  they  made  that  first 
concession  to  error,  of  which  all  the  others 
were  remote,  perhaps,  but  necessary  conse- 
quences, f 


CHAPTER  XII. 

On  the  Schism  between  the  Greek  and  Latin 
Churches. 

Preliminary  considerations — political  causes — Ecclesias- 
tical— Origin  of  the  Dispute — Dignity  and  Jurisdiction 
of  the  See  of  Constantinople — Council  of  Chalcedon — 
Ambition  of  the  Patriarch — Oriental  dissensions — prof- 
itable to  the  Pope — Popish  legate  at  Constantinople — 
Disputes  between  the  two  Sees — Title  of  CEcumenical 
Bishop  assumed  by  John  the  Faster  —  Opposition  of 
Gregory  the  Great  —  Emperor  Phocas — Limits  of  papal 
influence  in  Greece — Ground  of  controversy  changed — 
Procession  of  the  Holy  Spirit — the  original  doctrine  — 
Process  of  the  change — Spain — France — Charlemagne — 
Moderation  of  Pope  Leo  III.  —  Perseverance  of  the 
Greeks — Forgery  of  the  Latins — the  Patriarch  Photius 
— his  character — his  excommunication  of  Pope  Nicholas 
I.  —  Five  heresies  charged  on  the  Roman  Church  — 
Transfer  of  several  provinces  from  papal  to  patriarchal 
jurisdiction — Bulgaria — Dissensions  of  the  Greeks — 
Fortunes  of  Photius — Connexion  of  Rome  with  Greek 
parties — defeat  of  the  designs  of  the  former — Subse- 
quent differences — Michael  Cerularius — Anathema  of 
Leo  IX.  by  his  legates  at  Constantinople. 

We  have  so  frequently  had  occasion,  espec- 
ially in  our  later  pages,  to  distinguish  between 

*  The  Council  of  Francfort,  whose  deliberations 
were  held  under  the  eye  of  that  monarch,  went,  in- 
deed, somewhat  further  than  this,  and,  though  it  per- 
mitted the  images  to  remain,  forbade  any  sort  of  ado- 
ration to  be  addressed  to  them. 

t  Dupin  (Nouv.  Bibl.  on  second  Council  of  Nice) 
gives  a  tolerably  fair  historical  view  of  the  subject 
of  image  worship.  He  admits  that,  during  the  three 
first  ages  and  the  beginning  of  the  fourth,  images  were 


the  conduct  and  character  of  the  Greek  and 
Roman  Churches,  that  it  becomes  necessary  to 
enter  still  further  into  the  causes  of  this  dis- 
tinction, and  to  trace  the  differences  which 
had  for  some  time  disturbed  their  harmony, 
and  which  ended  in  their  entire  separation. 
In  so  doing,  we  must,  in  the  first  place,  be 
careful  not  to  confound  the  division  of  the 
churches  with  that  of  the  empires ;  for  the 
former,  in  fact,  did  not  take  place  until  more 
than  a  century  after  the  final  alienation  of  the 
ecclesiastical  States  from  the  sceptre  of  Leo 
the  Isaurian.  Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  should 
we  be  correct  in  considering  these  events  as 
perfectly  unconnected.  Doubtless,  political 
causes  had  great  influence  both  in  opening 
and  widening  the  spiritual  breach.  The  di- 
vision of  the  empire  under  Arcadiusand  Ho- 
norius,  though  not  immediately  affecting  the 
unity  of  the  Church,  operated  indirectly  to 
its  disturbance  by  weakening  the  bonds  of 
connexion  and  destroying  the  complete  com- 
munity of  interests  which  more  naturally 
subsists  under  a  single  government.  Again, 
the  circumstance  that  the  seat  of  the  Western 
Empire  was  removed  from  Rome  to  Ravenna 
communicated  that  sort  of  independence  to 
the  Roman  Bishop,  which,  though  it  confer- 
red not,  in  fact,  any  temporal  authority,  fail- 
ed not  to  give  nourishment  to  his  pride  and 
some  countenance  to  his  general  claims  of 
supremacy.  A  further  alienation  was  neces- 
sarily occasioned  by  the  barbarian  conquest 
of  the  West ;  because  this  event  not  only  an- 
nihilated the  former  relations  and  the  reci- 
procal dependence  of  the  two  empires,  but 
also  produced  a  great  and  rapid  change  in 
the  character  of  the  Western  clergy,  and 
even  in  the  principles  of  the  Church. 

Lastly,  the  common  violence  and  mutual 
insults  of  Leo  the  Isaurian  and  Pope  Greg- 
ory II.,  the  civil  war  which  broke  out  be- 
tween them,  the  complete  triumph  of  the  lat- 
ter and  the  consequent  transfer  of  certain  ju- 


very  rare  among  Christians ;  that  towards  the  end 
of  the  fifth,  pictures  and  images  made  their  appear- 
ance, chiefly  in  the  East,  and  became  common  in  the 
sixth ;  they  represented  combats  of  martyrs  and  oth- 
er sacred  stories,  for  the  instruction  of  those  who 
were  unable  to  read.  The  simple  vulgar  were  touch- 
ed by  these  representations ;  and  when  they  beheld  the 
Saints  so  vividly,  and,  as  it  were,  bodily  presented 
to  them,  they  could  not  prevent  themselves  from  tes- 
tifying, by  exterior  signs,  the  esteem,  the  respect, 
and  the  veneration  which  they  felt  for  them.  Thus 
the  worship  of  images  insensibly  established  itself,  and 
it  was  still  further  confirmed  by  the  miracles  which 
were  attributed  to  them. 


GREEK  AND  LATIN  CHURCHES. 


173 


risdiction  in  Sicily  and  the  South  of  Italy, 
from  the  Roman  to  the  Constantinopolitan 
See,  greatly  tended  to  weaken  the  spirit 
which  had  hitherto  identified  the  Churches, 
and  to  remove  any  notion  of  their  insepara- 
bility. These  are  some  of  the  political  caus- 
es which  undoubtedly  prepared  the  way  for 
the  Grand  Schism,  and  contributed  to  accel- 
erate and  inflame  it.  But  there  are  others, 
of  a  nature  purely  ecclesiastical,  to  which 
it  is  more  usually  ascribed,  and  which  had 
doubtless  the  principal  share  in  its  accom- 
plishment. 

The  earliest  recorded  difference  between 
the  churches  was  that  already  noticed  by  us 
respecting  the  celebration  of  Easter;  and  we 
also  remarked  the  tone  of  authority  which 
the  Bishop  of  the  imperial  city  arrogated  even 
in  those  days ;  but  their  connexion,  and  even 
their  harmony,  was  not  seriously  endangered 
by  that  dispute,  nor,  indeed,  can  we  trace  the 
origin  of  the  fatal  controversy  with  any  cer- 
tainty to  an  earlier  period  than  the  fifth  cen- 
tury. On  the  foundation  of  the  new  capital 
at  Byzantium,  the  Bishop  was,  of  course,  in- 
vested with  some  power  and  dignity,  which 
gradually  increased  through  the  consent  or 
the  neglect  of  the  immediate  successors  of 
Constantine ;  however,  the  superior  rank  and 
precedence  of  the  Roman  Pontiff"  was  not  yet 
disputed.  But  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 
century  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of  the  See  of 
Constantinople  was  much  more  widely  ex- 
tended ;  it  then  comprehended  Asia,  Thrace, 
and  Pontus,  and  advanced  on  the  west  with- 
in the  confines  of  Illyricum ;  and  in  451  the 
Council  of  Chalcedon  not  only  confirmed 
that  jurisdiction,  but  conferred  on  the  Bish- 
op of  Constantinople  the  same  honors  and 
privileges  which  were  already  possessed  by 
that  of  Rome ;  the  equality  of  the  Pontiffs 
was  justified  by  the  equal  dignity  and  lustre 
of  the  two  capitals.  The  legates  of  Leo  the 
Great  were  present,  and  had  considerable  in- 
fluence in  that  council ;  but  neither  their  ex- 
ertions, nor  those  of  the  Pope  himself,  were 
able  to  prevent  this  affront  to  his  dignity. 
Having  attained  so  elevated  a  situation,  the 
patriarch  very  soon  proceeded  to  exalt  him- 
self still  higher;  the  method  which  he  took 
to  extend  his  authority  was,  to  humble,  if 
possible,  his  brethren  of  Antioch  and  Alex- 
andria,* and  thus  the  same  ambition  was 


*  It  was  not  till  a  little  before  this  time  that  Juve- 
nal, Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  usurped  the  title  of  patri- 
arch, which,  however,  was  confirmed  to  him  by  The- 
odosius  the  Younsrer. 


found  to  pursue  the  same  course  at  Constan- 
tinople as  at  Rome.  But  there  it  was  liable 
to  severer  mortifications  and  more  effectual 
control  from  the  immediate  presence  of  the 
Emperor,  from  his  power  and  supremacy, 
and  his  habitual  interference  in  church  affairs. 

Again,  the  grasping  ambition  of  the  patri- 
arch, and  the  dissensions  which,  from  other 
causes  no  less  than  from  that,  so  continually 
disturbed  the  Oriental  Church,  were  product- 
ive of  great  influence  to  the  Pope,  not  only 
through  the  positive  weakness  occasioned  to 
that  Church  by  such  divisions,  but  chiefly 
because  the  injured  or  discontented  party 
very  generally  made  its  appeal  to  the  Roman 
See,  where  it  met  with  most  willing  and  par- 
tial attention.  We  may  recollect  that  Atha- 
nasius,  when  persecuted  in  the  east,  fled  to 
the  western  Church  for  refuge ;  and  this  ex- 
ample was  not  lost  on  those  who  thought 
themselves  aggrieved  in  after  ages.  It  is  true 
that  Roman  interference  was,  on  every  occa- 
sion, indignantly  rejected  by  the  rival  Pontiff; 
nevertheless  the  habit  of  interposing  would 
lead  many  to  suppose  that  it  was  founded  on 
some  indefinite,  unacknowledged  right,  and 
disaffection  was  encouraged  in  the  east  by 
the  certainty  of  a  powerful  protector. 

Very  soon  after  the  Council  of  Chalcedon, 
Leo  appointed  a  resident  legate  at  Constanti- 
nople to  watch  over  the  papal  interests,  and 
to  communicate  with  the  Vatican  on  matters 
of  spiritual  importance.  That  useful  priv- 
ilege, as  we  have  already  seen,  was  not  aban- 
doned by  succeeding  Popes:  and  those  ec- 
clesiastical ambassadors,  or  'Correspondents,' 
continued  for  some  time  to  represent  the  Pa- 
pal chair  in  the  eastern  capital. 

For  the  next  hundred  and  thirty  years  the 
disputes  respecting  the  equality  of  the  two 
Sees,  as  well  as  the  limits  of  their  jurisdiction, 
were  carried  on  with  little  interruption  per- 
haps, but  with  little  violence.  But  in  588, 
at  a  Synod  called  at  Constantinople  respect- 
ing the  conduct  of  a  patriarch  of  Antioch, 
John,  surnamed  the  Faster,  who  was  then 
Primate  of  the  East,  adopted,  as  we  have  ob- 
served, the  title  of  CEcumenical,  or  Universal 
Bishop.  It  appears  that  this  title  had  been 
conferred  on  the  patriarchs  by  the  Emperors 
Leo  and  Justinian,  without  any  accession  of 
power;  nor  was  it,  in  fact,  understood  to  in- 
dicate any  claim  to  supremacy  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  Eastern  Church.  But  Gregory 
could  not  brook  such  assumption  in  an  East- 
ern Prelate,  and  used  every  endeavor  to  de- 
prive his  rival  of  the  obnoxious  tide,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  establish  his  own  superi- 


174 


HISTORY    OF  THE  CHURCH. 


ority.  He  failed  in  both  these  attempts— at 
least  his  success  in  the  latter  was  confined  to 
the  Western  clergy,  and  to  the  interested  and 
precarious  assent  of  the  discontented  subjects 
of  the  Eastern  Church. 

The  quarrel  proceeded  during  the  seventh 
century,  and  Roman  Catholic  writers  confi- 
dently assert,  that  the  Emperor  Phocas  (a 
sanguinary  usurper)  through  the  influence  of 
Pope  Boniface  III.  transferred  the  disputed 
title  from  the  Greek  to  the  Roman  Pontiff. 
It  seems  probable  that  he  acknowledged  the 
preeminence  of  the  latter — and  early  usage 
justified  him  in  so  doing — without  at  all  de- 
rogating from  the  independence  of  the  for- 
mer. But  the  alliance  of  the  Eastern  Empe- 
ror with  a  foreign  Bishop  against  his  own 
patriarch  could  not  possibly  be  of  long  dura- 
tion ;  and,  accordingly,  throughout  the  con- 
troversy about  images  (which  presently  fol- 
lowed) we  find  the  Pope  in  direct  and  open 
opposition  to  the  Emperor,  and  to  the  power- 
ful party  in  his  Church  which  favored  him. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  ecclesiastical  orders 
in  the  East  were  so  widely  and  passionately 
divided  on  the  subject  of  this  dispute,  and 
the  hopes  of  the  weaker  and  more  violent 
party  were  obliged  for  so  many  years  to  fix 
themselves  on  Rome,  that  the  Pope  must 
again  have  acquired  great  influence  in  that 
quarter.  It  was  great,  but  it  was  temporary 
only;  for  the  popular  prejudice,  especially  in 
Greece  itself,  was  still  strong  and  general 
against  any  acknowledgment  of  papal  supre- 
macy, and  the  national  vanity  was  still  jeal- 
ous of  the  name  and  ascendency  of  Rome. 
And  thus  the  actual  influence  of  the  Pope 
was  generally  confined  to  those  who  stood 
in  need  of  his  assistance,  and  seldom  survived 
the  crisis  during  which  they  needed  it. 

Thus  far  the  disputes  between  the  Pope 
and  the  Patriarch  were  confined  almost  en- 
tirely to  the  question  of  supremacy  in  the 
Universal  Church,  pertinaciously  claimed  by 
the  one,  and  perseveringly  refused  by  the 
other ;  and  to  this  difference  we  need  not 
doubt  that  a  great  proportion  of  the  violence 
which  disgraced  the  controversy  may  be  as- 
cribed. But  during  the  eighth  century  the 
contention  assumed  a  different  aspect,  and 
took  a  ground  and  character  less  discreditable 
to  either  party. 

The  double  Procession.  According  to  the 
original  creed  of  the  Latin  as  well  as  of  the 
Greek  Church,  the  Holy  Spirit  was  believ- 
ed to  proceed  from  the  Father  only ;  and  the 
question,  though  of  great  theological  impor- 
tance, does  not  appear  to  have  been  generally 


investigated  until  the  eighth  century — at  least 
to  that  period  we  must  refer  the  origin  of  the 
controversy  respecting  it.  It  is  true  that  the 
change  in  the  established  doctrine  was  first  in 
troduced  into  the  Church  of  Spain,*  an  even 
which  must  have  taken  place  before  the  Ma- 
hometan conquest.  Thence  it  proceeded  in- 
to France,  and  in  the  year  767  it  was  agitated 
in  the  Council  of  Gentilli,  near  Paris ;  it  then 
received  the  assent  of  the  French  clergy. 
Soon  afterwards  it  was  warmly  advocated 
by  Charlemagne  himself;  and  in  the  year  809, 
at  the  Council  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,f  Pope  Leo 
III.  acknowledged  the  truth  of  the  doctrine, 
but  still  objected  to  making  it  an  article  of 
faith,  observing,  with  great  reason, '  that  every 
doctrine  which  is  true  should  not,  for  that 
reason,  be  inserted  in  a  creed ; '  nevertheless, 
as  it  had  previously  obtained  place  in  the 
Latin  creeds,  his  authority,  or  his  inclination, 
was  not  sufficiently  strong  to  effect  its  gen- 
eral erasure.  It  was  maintained  in  France, 
and  its  rejection  by  Rome  was  feeble  and  tem- 
porary. 

But  the  Greeks  obstinately  adhered  to 
their  original  faith,  as  established  by  the 
Council  of  Constantinople ;  and  what  gave 
them  great  advantage  in  the  subsequent  con- 
troversy was,  that  their  adversaries  had  be- 
gun the  contest  by  abandoning  the  defensible 
ground  of  argument ;  they  forgot  the  author- 
ity of  scripture,  and  took  refuge  under  a  fals- 
ified copy  of  the  Canons  of  that  Council,  into 
which  (through  that  obtuse  craft  which  be- 
comes a  principle  in  ignorant  ages)  the  words 
Filioque  (and  the  Son)  had  been  interpolated. 
The  fraud  was  instantly  detected,  and  the 
homage  which  they  had  thus  reluctantly  of- 
fered to  the  Council  in  question  was  convert- 
ed into  a  conclusive  argument  by  an  adver- 
sary, who  rested  his  own  faith  on  no  better 
ground  than  its  antiquity. 

Photius.  A  controversy  conducted  on  such 
principles  could  hope  for  no  rational  discus- 
sion, nor  any  friendly  termination,  its  only 
effect  was  to  inflame  the  enmity  already  too 
hotly  kindled,  and  to  accelerate  the  certain 
hour  of  separation.  This  consummation  was 
presently  secured  by  the  promotion  of  a  very 

*  Baronius  asserts,  that  the  words  Filioque  were 
first  added  by  the  Council  of  Toledo,  by  the  author- 
ity of  Pope  Leo  I.,  about  the  year  447;  but  he  con- 
fesses that  the  doctrine  was  not  expressly  received  by 
the  Roman  Church  until  some  ages  afterwards. 

1  Fleury,  Hist.  Eccl.  liv.  xlv.  sect.  48.  The  Pope 
defended  his  opinion  by  the  argument,  that  two  Gen- 
eral Councils,  that  of  Chalcedon  and  the  Fifth,  had 
forbidden  any  addition  to  the  creed 


GREEK  AND  LATIN  CHURCHES. 


175 


extraordinary  person  to  the  patriarchal  throne. 
In  the  year  853,  Photius,*  a  layman  of  splen- 
did talents,  unusual  extent  of  erudition  both 
secular  and  theological,  and  unimpeachable 
moral  character,  was  raised  to  that  dignity 
r>y  the  Emperor  Michael,  who,  with  that 
new,  removed  and  banished  the  actual  Bish- 
op, Ignatius.  The  exile  appealed  to  Rome. 
And  if  the  jealousy  of  the  Vatican  was  excit- 
ed by  the  splendid  reputation  of  the  new 
patriarch,  its  anxiety  might  also  be  awakened 
by  his  ambitious  and  fearless  character  : 
therefore  Pope  Nicholas  I.,  who  was  as  proud 
and  aspiring  as  his  rival,  listened  to  the  ap- 
peal, and  eagerly  espoused  the  cause  of  Igna- 
tius. He  assembled  a  Council  at  Romef  in 
862,  in  which  he  pronounced  the  election  of 
Photius  illegal,  and  excommunicated  him 
with  all  his  abettors.  The  patriarch  was  not 
inuch  disturbed  by  this  violence,  and  four 
years  afterwards,  in  a  Council  summoned  at 
Constantinople,  he  retorted  the  anathemas  of 
his  rival,  pronounced  his  deposition,  and  re- 
moved him  from  the  communion  of  all  Chris- 
tians. 

Photius  justified  this  extremely  bold  mea- 
sure by  a  circular  letter  addressed  to  his 
brother  patriarchs,  in  which,  besides  some 
strong  reflections  on  other  grievances,  he 
charged  the  Roman  Church  with  five  direct 
heresies.  We  shall  here  enumerate  them, 
both  that  we  may  more  clearly  show  what 
were  held  to  be  the  principal  points  on  which 
the  Churches  were  divided,  and  also  that  we 
may  observe  how  low  the  malevolence  of 
controversy  will  sometimes  condescend  to 
stoop :  1.  That  the  Romans  fasted  on  the  Sab- 
bath, or  seventh  day  of  the  week  ;  2.  that  in 
the  first  week  of  Lent  they  permitted  the  use 
of  milk  and  cheese  ;  3.  that  they  prohibited 
their  priests  to  marry,  and  separated  from 
their  wives  such  as  were  married  when  they 
went  into  orders  ;  4.  that  they  authorized  the 
Bishops  alone  to  anoint  baptized  persons  with 


*  '  Photius,  than  whom  Greece,  the  parent  of  so 
much  genius,  has  never  produced,  perhaps,  a  more 
accomplished  man,  is  singularly  recommended  by 
talents  applicable  to  every  object,  sound  judgment, 
extreme  acuteness,  infinite  reading,  incredible  dili- 
gence. He  had  held  nearly  all  the  offices  of  state,  he 
had  thoroughly  investigated  all  the  records  of  the 
Church;  in  his  Bibliotheca  alone  still  extant,  he  has 
brought  together  nearly  two  hundred  and  eighty 
writers,  chiefly  ecclesiastical,  which  he  has  studied, 
reviewed,  and  abstracted,  and  pronounced  a  most 
accurate  judgment  on  their  arguments,  style1,  fidelity, 
authority.'     Caop,  ap.  Jortin,  in  A.  D.  861. 

f  Mosheim,  cent.  ix.  p.  ii.,  c.  iii. 


the  holy  chrism,  withholding  that  power  from 
Presbyters  ;  5.  that  they  had  interpolated  the 
creed  of  Constantinople  by  the  insertion  of 
the  words  Filioque,  and  held  the  doctrine  of 
the  procession  of  the  Holy  Spirit  from  th 
Son  as  well  as  the  Father. 

These  charges,  and  the  consequent  recrim- 
inations, itnbittered  as  they  also  were  by 
national  animosity,  had,  of  course,  no  other 
effect  than  to  exasperate  the  violence  of  both 
parties ;  but  we  should  be  mistaken  if  we 
were  wholly  to  attribute  that  fury  to  the  dif- 
ferences either  in  doctrine  or  discipline.  Its 
deepest  motive  is,  perhaps,  to  be  traced  to 
another  source.  The  Emperor,  with  the  as- 
sistance, and  probably  through  the  influence 
of  his  ambitious  Primate,  had  lately  and  defin- 
itively withdrawn  from  the  papal  jurisdiction 
various  provinces  to  the  east  of  the  Adriatic, 
Illyricum,  Macedonia,  Epirus,  Achaia,  Thes- 
saly,  and  either  transferred  them  to  the  pa- 
triarch, or  (for  the  point  is  disputed)  confirm- 
ed his  previous  authority  over  them ;  and 
this,  indeed,  was  an  ecclesiastical  offence  of 
a  description  little  calculated  to  find  forgive- 
ness at  Rome.  Moreover,  it  happened  that 
this  sensible  injury  was  immediately  succeed- 
ed by  another  of  the  same  nature.  The 
heathen  inhabitants  of  Bulgaria,  a  province 
of  the  Eastern  Empire  not  far  distant  from 
Constantinople,  had  very  lately  been  convert- 
ed to  Christianity  by  Greek  missionaries;  or, 
if  it  be  admitted  that  some  very  imperfect  ef- 
forts had  been  previously  made  there  by  the 
emissaries  of  Charlemagne,  the  Greeks  at 
least  had  the  merit  of  completing  the  spirit- 
ual conquest :  *  consequently,  Photius  placed 
Bulgaria  under  his  own  jurisdiction;  nor  will 
the  impartial  historian  blame  that  Prelate  for 
his  endeavor  to  make  the  limits  of  the  Church 
coextensive  with  those  of  the  empire,  and  to 
repel  the  intrusive  invasions  of  Rome. 

But  the  influence  of  the  Pope  was  still 
maintained,  and  nourished  by  the  dissensions 
of  the  Greeks  ;  and  the  flame  of  controversy 
had  not  at  all  abated,  when  Basilius,  the  Ma- 
cedonian, on  his  accession  to  the  throne,  de- 
posed Photius,  and  restored  Ignatius  to  his 
former  dignity.  This  act  was  confirmed  by  a 
Council  assembled  at  Constantinople  in  869, 

*  It  appears,  indeed,  from  Roman  Catholic  histo- 
rians, that  the  Pope  maintained  a  sort  of  communica- 
tion with  the  Bulgarians,  by  means  of  missionaries, 
and  that  their  King  actually  sent  his  son  to  Rome  in 
acknowledgment  (as  those  assert)  of  spiritual  obedi- 
ence. The  utmost  that  can  be  truly  alleged  is,  that 
the  field,  which  both  parties  had  exerted  themselves 
to  cultivate,  was  the  subject  of  equal  claims. 


176 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


in  which  the  papal  legates  had  great  influ- 
ence, and  which  the  Roman  Church  still  ac- 
knowledges as  the  Eighth  General  Council. 
In  878  Photius  was  recalled,  and  in  886  again 
deposed ;  but  neither  his  recall  nor  his  depo- 
sition had  the  effect  of  conferring  on  the  pa- 
pal chair  the  jurisdiction  for  which  it  had 
struggled  so  pertinaciously.  And,  indeed,  we 
may  again  observe,  that  throughout  her  long 
succession  of  interferences  in  the  religious 
affairs  of  Greece,  Rome  has,  on  no  occasion, 
gained  any  substantial  or  permanent  advan- 
tage. In  fact,  even  at  the  moment  when  she 
seemed  to  be  playing  her  part  most  artfully, 
she  was  little  more  than  a  tool  in  the  more 
artful  hands  of  a  Greek  party,  who  flattered 
her  as  long  as  their  own  interests  required 
her  support,  but  were  always  ready  to  reject 
her  intervention  when  they  required  it  no 
longer. 

Cerularius.  We  might  have  closed  the 
account  of  this  controversy  with  the  mutual 
excommunications  of  Photius  and  Nicholas ; 
indeed  the  schism  did  properly  commence 
at  that  period;  and  though  the  Popes  contin- 
ued to  prosecute,  through  the  two  succeed- 
ing centuries,  their  unsuccessful  schemes  of 
ambition,  they  produced  little  mischief,  and 
have,  consequently,  little  attracted  the  notice 
of  history.  About  the  middle  of  the  eleventh 
century  the  attention  of  Rome  seems  to  have 
been  particularly  directed  to  the  reduction  of 
the  Bishops  of  Alexandria  and  Antioch  under 
its  own  supremacy.  *  Michael  Cerularius, 
a  man  of  lofty,  perhaps  turbulent,  spirit,  was 
at  that  time  patriarch,  and  after  some  angry 
correspondence  between  him  and  Pope  Leo 
IX.,  the  latter  pronounced  at  Rome  the  sen- 
tence of  excommunication.  Nevertheless, 
his  legates  were  invited  to  Constantinople 
with  a  view  to  heal  the  schism  ;  there  they 
asserted  some  insolent  claims,  which  Cerula- 
rius indignantly  rejected ;  as  the  conference 
continued,  the  differences  grew  deeper  and 
wider,  and  at  length  the  legates  in  the  heart 
of  Constantinople,  in  the  Church  of  St.  So- 


|  phia,  publicly  excommunicated  the  patriarch 
j  and  all  his  adherents.  They  then  solemnly 
deposited  the  written  act  of  their  anathema 
on  the  grand  altar  of  the  Temple,  and,  having 
shaken  off  the  dust  from  their  feet,  departed. 
This  event  took  place  in  1054,  and  con- 
firmed and  consummated  the  separation  ;  and 
though  some  degree  of  friendly  intercourse 
has  been  occasionally  resumed  since  that 
time,  as  political  rather  than  religious  exi- 
gences have  required  it,  the  imputed  errors 
of  the  Greeks  (of  which  the  most  offensive 
was  their  independence)  have  never  been  se- 
riously retracted  by  their  Church,  nor  ever 
have  been  pardoned  by  its  rival. 


*  While  the  Pontiffs  were  contending  for  authority, 
the  Churches  were  debating  with  extreme  ardor  a 
point  of  difference  posterior  in  origin  to  the  time  of 
Photius,  viz.  whether  the  bread  used  at  the  Eucharist 
should  be  leavened  or  unleavened!  The  Greek  clergy 
held  the  former  opinion,  and  objected  the  latter  to  the 
Latins  as  an  unpardonable  error.  Some  other  abuses 
are  also  imputed  to  them  by  Cerularius,  and  they  are 
among  the  most  frivolous  which  could  have  been  select- 
ed out  of  the  long  and  dark  list  of  their  corruptions — 
a  proof  that  the  spirit  of  the  Greek  Church  in  that 
age  was  as  far  from  the  true  comprehension  of  Christ- 
ianity as  that  of  its  rival. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

The  Constitution  of  the  Church  as  fixed  by 
Charlemagne. 

I.  Review  of  the  ante-Nicene  Church  —  Its  construction 
and  government —  its  real  character  and  utility  —  Doc- 
trines and  heresies  —  moral  excellences — Origin  of 
various  abuses — Early  false  miracles — their  nature  and 
object  —  Exorcism  —  Literary  forgeries  —  Distinction  of 
the  converts  —  mysteries  —  Original  Sacraments  —  their 
gradual  corruption — Reverence  for  martyrs — celebration 
of  their  nativities  —  Prayers  and  offerings  for  the  dead 
—  Fasts,  occasional  and  general — Certain  terms  and 
usages  borrowed  from  Jewish  and  Pagan  systems  —  In- 
ferences —  the  ante-Nicene  Church  had  imperfections 
which  might  easily  have  been  remedied.  —  II.  From 
Constantine  to  Gregory  the  Great — (1.)  Some  particular 
innovations  —  Celibacy  of  the  Clergy  —  practices  of  the 
Eastern  and  Western  Churches — Gregory  I.  and  VII. — 
Relaxation  of  Penitential  discipline  —  Purgatory  —  Use 
and  consequent  worship  of  images  —  (2.)  The  Church 
in  connexion  with  the  State  —  Origin  of  distinction 
between  temporal  and  spiritual  power  —  sources  of 
ecclesiastical  power  and  influence— increased  authority 
of  the  Church  —  abuse  of  civil  power  for  spiritual  pur- 
poses —  (3.)  Internal  government  of  the  Church  — 
decrease  of  popular,  increase  of  episcopal,  power  — 
causes  of  this  change — Elements  of  the  Papal  system  — 
the  most  obvious  causes  of  its  rise  and  progress. —  III. 
From  Gregory  to  Charlemagne  —  Differences  between 
the  Eastern  and  Western  Churches  —  Further  growth 
of  episcopal  authority  in  the  latter — Further  exaltation 
of  the  See  of  Rome — The  Athanasian  creed.  —  IV. 
Jurisdiction  and  immunities  of  the  Clergy — Arbitration 
of  ancient  Bishops  —  confirmed  by  Constantine  —  en- 
larged by  Justinian — Great  extent  of  privilege  conferred 
by  Charlemagne  —  his  probable  motives  —  The  False 
Decretals — Donation  of  Constantine — their  objects  and 
effects. — V.  Revenues  of  the  Church — oblations — fixed 
property — Donations — various  descriptions  and  objects 
of — other  sources  of  wealth  — Early  distribution  and 
application  of  ecclesiastical  funds —  Payment  and  esta- 
blishment of  Tithes  —  Various  advantages  conferred 
upon  the  world  by  the  Church  during  the  ages  preceding 
Charlemagne. 

We  shall  depart  from  that  important  position 
in  our  history  which  is  occupied  by  the  acts 
of  Charlemagne,  with  a  clearer  view  of  their 
nature  and  a  better  comprehension  of  the 


THE  ANTE-NICENE  CHURCH. 


177 


character  of  the  Roman  Church,  if  we  pre- 
viously throw  even  a  hasty  retrospect  over 
some  portion  of  the  path  which  we  have 
traced ;  and  thus,  after  faintly  retouching 
some  parts  which  may  not  have  been  suffi- 
ciently illustrated,  and  noticing  others  with 
more  care  than  has  yet  been  bestowed  on 
them,  we  shall  complete  the  account  which 
we  propose  to  give  of  the  first  eight  centuries 
of  the  Church.  Some  particulars  also  will 
be  introduced,  of  which  all  mention  has  pur- 
posely been  deferred  till  this  occasion,  in 
order  to  bring  them  into  contact  with  those 
more  remarkable  events  to  which  they  are 
allied  in  principle,  though  separated  by  time 
or  other  circumstances.  We  shall  commence 
this  review  from  the  earliest  ages. 

I.  The  Ante-Nicene  Church.  The  Primi- 
tive Assemblies  [ixzlifiuu)  of  the  converts 
were  called  Churches.  These,  in  the  first 
instance,  were  scattered,  as  the  religion  spread 
itself,  in  perfect  equality  and  independence, 
and  their  affairs  were,  for  the  most  part,  regu- 
lated by  a  body  of  presbyters,  who  acted  with 
the  consent  of  the  people,  and  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Apostles.  This  form  of  gov- 
ernment was,  to  a  certain  extent,  modelled 
on  that  of  the  Jewish  Synagogues,  and  it  was 
natural  that  it  should  be  so  ;  since  most  of 
the  first  converts  were  Jews ;  since  Christ 
himself  had  not  laid  down  any  general  rules 
of  ecclesiastical  polity ;  and  since  his  Apostles 
were  more  intent  on  enlarging  the  numbers 
of  the  believers,  and  informing  their  piety, 
than  on  constructing  partial  laws  for  the 
external  constitution  of  a  society  which  was 
destined  to  comprehend  every  race  and  vari- 
ety of  Man. 

Over  two  at  least  among  the  original 
Churches  presidents  were  apostolically  ap- 
pointed under  the  name  of  Bishops ;  and 
presently,  as  the  Apostles  were  gradually 
withdrawn,  it  is  certain  that  all  the  principal 
Churches,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  elected 
for  themselves  a  superintendent  under  the 
same  name.  That  custom  prevailed  very 
commonly  even  before  the  death  of  St.  John, 
and  became  almost  universal  before  the  end 
of  the  first  century ;  still,  for  a  certain  time 
longer,  the  various  Churches  continued  to 
conduct  their  own  affairs  without  any  mutual 
dependence,  and  with  little  other  correspond- 
ence than  that  of  counsel  and  charity  ;  and 
the  Bishop,  in  almost  all  matters,  acted  in 
concert  with  the  Presbytery  in  the  internal 
administration  of  each. 

Thus,  in  the  unsettled  constitution  of  the 
23 


Primitive  Church,  we  may  observe  the  ele- 
ments of  three  *  forms  of  government  subsist- 
ing under  apostolical  direction,  the  Episcopal, 
the  Presbyterian,  and  the  Independent.  But 
of  these  the  second  scarcely  survived  the  de- 
parture of  the  inspired  directors,  and  imme- 
diately subsided  into  a  limited  episcopacy  ; 
and  the  third,  though  it  continued  somewhat 
longer,  so  coalesced  with  the  other  two,  that 
the  greater  part,  if  not  the  whole,  of  the  Inde- 
pendent Churches  during  the  first  half  of  the 
second  century,  were  ruled  by  a  Bishop  and 
a  Presbytery:  that  is  to  say,  the  various 
societies  which  constituted  the  body  of  Chris- 
tendom were  so  ruled,  though  as  yet  they 
exercised  no  control  over  each  other. 

In  a  very  short  time,  as  new  circumstances 
rapidly  sprang  up,  it  was  found  necessary  for 
the  common  interest  to  facilitate  a  more  gen- 
eral communication  between  societies,  which, 
though  separate  in  government,  were  united 
by  far  more  powerful  ties.  This  was  most 
reasonably  accomplished  by  the  assembling 
of  occasional  Councils,  called  Synods,  com- 
posed for  the  most  part  of  Bishops,  each  of 
whom  represented  his  own  Church,  and  ac- 
knowledged no  superiority  of  power  or  rank 
in  any  of  his  brethren.  These  associations 
of  Churches  cannot  be  traced  to  the  first  cen- 
tury ;  but  before  the  time  of  Tertullian  f  they 
were  very  common  and  extensive,  at  least  in 
Greece,  and  the  custom  rapidly  spread  over 
every  part  of  Christendom.  The  rules  or 
canons  enacted  by  these  Synods  were  re- 
ceived as  laws  of  the  Church  throughout  the 
province  which  had  sent  its  deputies  to  the 
meeting ;  they  were  frequently  published  and 
communicated  to  other  provinces,  and  the 
correspondence  and  co-operation  thus  created 
united,  in  a  certain  measure,  the  whole  body, 
and  combined  the  many  scattered  Churches 
into  that  one,  which,  even  in  those  early  days, 
was  called  the  Catholic\  Church.  But  from 
this  description  we  observe  both  the  inde- 
pendent equality  of  the  members  composing 
it,  and  also,  that   it  had  no   acknowledged 


*  Perhaps  we  might  even  say  four  —  at  least  those, 
who  maintain  the  sufficiency  of  the  occasional  and 
spontaneous  exhortation  of  any  zealous  member  of  any 
congregation  for  spiritual  instruction,  also  seek  their 
authority  in  the  partial  and  transient  practice  of  the 
Primitive  Church. 

f  De  Jejuniis. — •  Aguntur  per  Grrccias  ilia  in  locis 
concilia  ex  universis  ecclesiis,  per  qua?  et  altiora 
quseqtie  in  commune  tractantur,  et  ipsa  repnesentatio 
totius  nomiuis  Christian]  magna  veneratione  celebra- 
tur.' 

%  See  Bingham,  Antiq.  b.  i.,  c.  i.  sect.  7 


178 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


chief  or  head.  For  though  the  Metropolitans 
might  assume,  each  in  his  own  province, 
some  superiority  in  rank,  perhaps  even  in 
authority,  yet  these  among  themselves  were 
equal,  and  their  precedence  and  power  were 
strictly  confined  to  their  own  district. 

The  principal  bond  which  united  the  orig- 
inal Catholic  Church  was  the  possession  of  a 
common  canon  or  catalogue  of  sacred  books  ; 
and  thus,  when  everywhere  tried  by  the  same 
test,  the  opinions  which  might  be  stigmatized 
as  heretical  by  any  one  of  the  Churches 
were,  for  the  same  reason,  condemned  by  the 
Universal  Church  ;  and  the  spiritual  delin- 
quents, who  were  removed  from  the  com- 
munion by  a  part  of  the  Catholic  body,  were 
consequently  repudiated  by  the  whole.  It  is 
true,  that  those  who  combined  and  directed 
this  external  system  of  Catholicism  were  the 
ecclesiastical  ministers,  and  chiefly  the  Bish- 
ops ;  it  is  also  true,  that  the  influence  of  all 
these  over  the  people,  and  the  power  of  the 
latter  in  the  government  of  their  dioceses,  were 
augmented  beyond  their  original  moderation 
by  the  circumstances  which  led  the  clergy  to 
so  general  a  co-operation.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  is  extremely  doubtful  whether,  with- 
out such  a  confederation,  the  faith  itself 
loosely  scattered  over  so  broad  a  space,  could 
have  withstood  the  various  tempests  which 
were  levelled  against  it;  and  it  certainly  was 
not  possible,  that  any  general  confederation 
could  have  been  formed  among  the  Churches, 
unless  by  the  exertions  of  their  directors  — 
and  those,  too,  in  each  instance  invested  with 
some  personal  authority ;  so  that  if  there  are 
any  who  inveigh  against  the  original  Catholic 
Church  as  the  first  corruption  of  Christianity, 
and  the  parent  of  all  that  have  followed,  they 
do  not  appear  sufficiently  to  consider  either 
the  simple  objects  and  character  of  that 
Church,  or  the  perilous  circumstances  under 
which  it  coalesced,  and  combined  many  de- 
fenceless members  into  one  powerful  body. 
Under  any  circumstances,  a  close  association 
and  unity  among  religious  societies  possessing 
the  same  canon  of  faith  and  the  same  form 
of  administration  would  have  been  natural 
and  desirable;  but,  under  the  pressure  of 
common  danger  and  calamity,  it  was  not  only 
reasonable,  but  necessary.  * 


*  Semler  (Observations  Novae  in  Historiam  III. 
primor.  ssec.)  considers  it  to  have  been  the  worst 
consequence  of  the  formation  of  the  early  Church  as  a 
single  body,  that  it  restrained  the  liberty  of  individual 
judgment,  or  what  he  calls  internal  religion;  that 
it  imposed  certain  rules,  both  of  doctrine  and  disci- 
pline, upon  the  more  ignorant  and  worldly  Christians, 


The  writings  of  the  ante-Nicene  fathers 
contain  all  the  most  important  doctrines  of 
Christianity;  but  we  should  vainly  search 
those  books  for  a  complete  and  consistent 
system  of  theology.  In  fact,  their  writers 
did  not  commonly  handle  the  dogmas  of 
faith,  unless  with  a  view  to  the  confutation 
of  some  new  or  prevalent  heresy.  *  Thus 
their  arguments  were  usually  directed  to  a 
particular  purpose,  and  addressed  to  the 
views  and  prejudices  of  the  time  or  place  in 
which  they  were  published.  Many  of  them 
were  uninstructed  in  the  art  of  reasoning, 
and  almost  all  were,  in  some  degree,  infected 
either  with  the  narrow  spirit  of  Judaism,  or 
the  loose  and  speculative  genius  of  philoso- 
phy ;  so  that,  in  correcting  the  errors  of 
others,  they  often  deviated  very  widely  from 
sense  and  truth  themselves,  f     Those  contro- 


and  discouraged  any  laxity,  or,  as  he  would  say, 
freedom,  of  interpretation  or  practice.  And  on  that 
principle  he  exalts  the  character  of  the  bolder  and 
more  mystical  writers,  Clemens  Alexandrinus  and 
Origen,  who  were  not  partisans  of  the  Church,  at  the 
expense  of  Tertullian,  Cyprian,  and  others,  and 
praises  the  independence  of  the  heretics  in  thinking 
and  reasoning  for  themselves.  We  are  not,  however, 
able  to  discover  that  the  expositions  of  Scripture  con- 
tained in  the  Alexandrian,  are,  upon  the  whole,  more 
sound  and  rational  than  those  of  the  Carthaginian, 
Fathers,  while  they  certainly  abound  with  many  fanci- 
ful extravagances  from  which  the  latter  are  free;  and 
we  have  shown  that  the  tenets  of  many  of  the  early 
heretics  were  incalculably  remote  from  the  precincts 
of  reason  and  Scripture.  At  the  same  time,  we  are 
willing  to  agree  with  Semler,  that  it  were  better  far 
for  religion  to  endure  all  those  irregular  absurdities, 
than  to  support  the  Unity  of  the  Church  as  it  was 
proclaimed  in  the  Roman  Catholic  sense,  and  as  it 
was  upheld  by  execution  and  massacre.  But  it  can- 
not be  asserted  that  the  papal  system  was  the  necessa- 
ry offspring  of  the  early  Catholic  Church ;  for,  if  so, 
it  would  have  arisen  in  the  Eastern  as  surely  as  in  the 
Western  communion.  The  worst  principles  of  that 
system  proceeded  from  causes  posterior  far  to  the 
second  century :  and  the  union  of  the  religious  socie- 
ties which  at  that  time  constituted  the  Church  was, 
in  our  opinion,  an  instrument  in  God's  hands  both  for 
the  preservation  of  sound  doctrine  amidst  the  numerous 
and  irrational  deviations  of  heresy,  and  also  for  the 
association  of  the  faithful  in  discipline,  and  in  devoted 
resistance  to  the  attacks  of  persecution. 

*  '  C'est  la  matiere  de  tous  les  Sermons  des  Peres 
la  morale  et  les  heresies  du  terns.  Sans  cette  clef 
souvent  on  ne  les  entend  pas;  ou  du  inoins  on  ne  les 
peut  guuter.  Et  c'est  encore  tine  utilite  considerable 
de  l'Histoire  Ecclesiastique.  Car  quand  on  scait  les 
heresies  qui  regnoient  en  chaque  terns  et  en  chaque 
pais  on  voit  pourquoi  les  peres  revenoient  toujours 
a  certains  points  de  doctrine.'  Fleury,  Disc.  1.  sur 
PHist.  Eccles.,s.  xiv. 

t  Even  Irenaeus,  almost  the  earliest  among  them,  is 


THE  ANTE-NICENE  CHURCH. 


179 


versies,  however,  though  not  always  conduct- 
ed with  becoming  moderation,  were  not,  per- 
haps, without  their  use  even  in  those  days, 
since  they  warmed  the  zeal  and  animated  the 
industry  of  the  parties  without  endangering 
their  personal  security.  And  to  us  their  re- 
trospect may  bring  some  increase  of  charity, 
if  the  consideration  of  the  very  broad  and 
essential  points,  on  which  they  turned,  should 
haply  lead  us  to  attach  less  weight  to  those  less 
momentous  differences,  which  have  raised 
such  heats  in  later  times,  and  which  even  yet 
have  not  entirely  lost  their  bitterness. 

It  is  certain  that  a  very  important  moral 
improvement  was  immediately  introduced 
by  Christianity,  wheresoever  it  gained  foot- 
ing. The  earliest  societies  of  the  converts 
furnished  an  example  of  rigid,  but  simple 
and  unaffected  piety,  to  which  the  history  of 
man  can,  perhaps,  produce  no  parallel ;  and 
even  in  the  following  century  we  need  not 
hesitate  to  assert  the  incomparable  superiori- 
ty of  the  Christians  over  their  Pagan  contem- 
poraries: the  principles  of  their  religion,  the 
severity  of  their  discipline,  the  peculiarity  of 
their  civil  condition,  confirm  the  evidence 
which  assures  us  that  such  was  the  fact. 
But  the  golden  days  of  Christianity  were 
confined  to  its  infancy,  and  it  is  a  great  delu- 
sion to  imagine  that  its  perfect  integrity  con- 
tinued throughout  the  whole  period  of  its 
persecution,  or  to  refer  indiscriminately  to 
the  history  of  the  three  first  centuries  for  a 
model  of  Evangelical  purity.  We  must  also 
be  careful  not  to  exaggerate  the  merits  of  the 
early  Church,  nor  to  extenuate  the  abuses 
which  it  certainly  admitted,  nor  to  exculpate 
the  ministers  who  created  or  encouraged 
them. 

So  far,  indeed,  are  we  from  any  such  inten- 
tion, that  we  consider  the  present  as  a  proper 
opportunity  to  examine  with  more  specific 
notice  the  innovations  which  successively  ap- 
peared either  in  doctrine  or  discipline:  that 
we  may  ascribe  to  its  proper  age  each  of  the 
several  abuses  which  at  length  combined  to 
deform  the  structure  of  the  Catholic  Church  ; 
and  that  we  may  perceive  how  gradual  was 
their  growth,  and  how  deep  and  ancient  the 
root  from  which  many  of  them  proceeded. 

That  to  which  we  shall  first  recall  the 
reader's  attention  (for  there  are  few,  if  any, 
of  which  some  mention  has  not  already  been 
made)  is  the  claim  to  miraculous  power,  as 


not  exempt  from  this  charge ;  hia  errors  are  enume- 
rated by  Dupin,  Nouv.  Biblioth.,  Vie  S.  Irenee,  vol. 
i.  p.  73. 


inherent  in  the  Church,  which  was  asserted 
by  several  among  the  early  Christians,  from 
Justin  Martyr  downwards,  and  asserted  (as 
evidence  and  reason  have  persuaded  us)  * 
without  any  truth.  According  to  the  Apolo- 
!  gists,  and  other  writers  of  the  second  and 
third  centuries,  the  sick  were  commonly 
healed,  the  dead  were  raised,!  and  evil  spirits 
cast  out,  through  the  prayers  of  the  faithful 
in  the  name  of  Jesus.  Men  of  unquestiona- 
ble piety  eagerly  retailed,  and  may  possibly 
have  believed,  each  other's  fabrications.  Vis- 
i  ions  and  dreams  became  the  motives  of  action 
|  or  belief,  and  the  commonest  feelings  and  res- 
olutions were  ascribed  to  the  immediate  im- 
pulse and  inspiration  of  the  Deity.  Some 
nominal  converts  may  thus  have  been  en- 
rolled  under    the  banners  of  the    Church  ; 


*  See  Chap.  ii.  p.  40. 
t  The  following  is  part  of  the  celebrated  testimony 
of  Irenaeus  (lib.  ii.  cap.  31  or  57)  as  cited  by  Euse- 
bius  (lib.  v.  cap.  7): — ut  uiv  yuo  Satuorag  ikaivovnt 
pepa'iwg  xat.  uhfiiog-  wars  noi.Xuy.ig  xal  niareveir 
avrovg  ixilvovg  xa6aQio&ivrag  ana  twv  itovifBmv 
TryevfiuToJV  xat  tlrai  iv  tij  ixy.Xrpla-  oi  Si  y.al 
n-Juyratoiv  i' ^ovai  riav  ueXXurrov,  xal  hnraolag  y.al 
Qitasig  noocptjTiy.ug'  IxXXoi  Si  rovg  xuiirovrag  Sia 
rijg  Tcov  xuqcov  imSiciiug  Icorrai,  y.al  vynig 
anoy.u&LOraaiv.  ?;<?>;  Si  xa&cog  gcpausv  xal  tcxqoI 
iyinQrjaav,  y.al  nanhitirav  avv  frfitv  Ixavotg  'irsat. 
Kal  ti  yuq;  ovx  liariv  aQi6uor  tinitv  Tcov  xaQiflu- 
uTiav  6>v  xara  navTog  tov  xuauov  i/  ixxXtjaca  nana 
0iov  Xapovoa,  &c.  &c.  "  Some  effectually  expel 
devils,  so  that  the  very  persons  who  are  cleansed 
from  evil  spirits  believe  and  are  in  the  Church; 
others  have  foreknowledge  of  the  future,  and  visions 
and  prophetic  declarations ;  others  heal  the  sick  by 
imposition  of  hands ;  and  it  has  happened  (as  we 
have  said)  that  the  dead  have  been  raised  and  con- 
tinued among  us  for  some  years.  It  is  impossible  to 
enumerate  the  grace  which  the  Church  throughout 
the  whole  world  has  received  from  God,  &c." 

We  shall  here  only  remark  (as  Jortin  has  remarked 
before  us)  that  in  speaking  of  resurrection,  the  writer 
uses  the  past  tense,  while  the  other  miracles  are  de- 
scribed as  in  the  actual  course  of  present  occurrence; 
yet  the  words  avv  i;utv  cannot,  without  great  violence, 
be  understood  of  any  preceding  generation,  and  we 
doubt  no't  that  Irenaeus  intended  to  assert  that  dead 
persons  had  been  brought  to  life  in  his  own  time.  In 
a  subsequent  paragraph,  that  father  also  claims  the 
gift  of  tongues  for  his  age.  xadwg  xal  noXXwv 
axavofLiv  aStXifiov  iv  tiJ  ixy.Xrfi'ia  nQoifrjTix'a 
yraqlauara  ixuvtwv,  xal  navroSanaig  XaXovvTuiv 
Sia  IIvevpaToc  ylioooaig.  After  this  passage,  there 
is  scarcely  any  mention  made  of  that  gift  in  ecclesias- 
tical history.  We  should  observe,  that  Eusebius 
makes  the  above  citation  in  proof  of  his  assertion 
'  that  miraculous  powers  iv  ixy.Xr]oiaig  noiv  vnt- 
lunro  as  late  as  the  time  of  Irenaeus.'  He  does  not 
appear  disposed  to  claim  them  for  the  Church  at  any 
later  period. 


180 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


but  the  evil  of  the  practice  overbalanced  its  [ 
profit,  even  its  momentary  profit ;  since  the  , 
minds  of  men  were  thereby   hurried   away  • 
from  the  proper  understanding  of  the  Gospel,  \ 
and  the  true  character  of  the  religion,  to  gaze  I 
after  marvels  and  prodigies,  and  prepared  to  ' 
ascribe    to   fallacious    impressions   a  belief,  i 
which  can  only  be  sound  when  it  is  founded  ; 
in  reason.   It  is  proper,  however,  to  point  out  j 
one  general  distinction  between  these  early  ' 
miracles  and  those  which  clouded  the  Church  j 
in  later  ages ;  for,  though  it  is  insufficient  to  ! 
establish  their  credit,  it  may  lead  us  to  regard  j 
their  authors  with  more  charity.     There  ap- 
pears to  have  been  nothing  absurd  or  super- 
stitious in  the  manner  of  their  performance, 
nor  base  or  wicked  in  their  object.     They  are 
related  to  have  been  usually  wrought  by  the 
simple  invocation  of  Christ's  name;  and  it 
does  not  appear  that  their  accomplishment 
directly  tended  to  feed  avarice  or  individual 
ambition  —  neither  to  augment  the  power  of  j 
the  clergy,  nor  to  decide  religious  controversy, ' 
nor  to  subvert  any  obnoxious  heresy,  nor  to  i 
establish  any  new  doctrine,  nor  to  recom-  j 
mend  any  foolish   practice   or  superstitious  j 
observance.  *     We  can  seldom  trace  them  to  j 
any  other  motive  than  an  injudicious  zeal  for  j 
the  propagation  of  the  faith. 

The  triumphs  of  the  Exorcists  over  the  i 
powers  of  darkness  are  so  loudly  and  perpet- 
ually celebrated  by  the  oldest  Church  writers, 
that  they  may  deserve  a  separate  notice.  It 
seems,  indeed,  probable  that  the  Jews,  espe- 
cially after  their  intercourse  with  the  Chal- 
dseans  during  the  captivity,  attributed  to  the 
direct  operation  of  evil  spirits  a  great  number 
of  those  disorders  of  which  the  causes  were 
not  obvious  ;  and  such  particularly  as  were 
attended  by  distortion  of  body,  or  extraordi- 
nary mental  agitation  and  frenzy,  f  This 
delusion  necessarily  created  a  large  and  vari- 
ous multitude  of  '  Demoniacs,'  whose  mani- 
fold diseases  could  hope  for  no  relief  from 
ordinary  remedies,  as  they  proceeded  not 
from  human  accidents.  The  language  even 
of  Scripture,  when  literally  understood,  ap- 
pears to  sanction  such  an  opinion,  and  the 
literal  interpretation  has  had  its  advocates 
among  the  learned  and  pious  in  every  age  of 
the  Church.  But  the  notion  of  real  Daemo- 
niacal  agency  was  carried  to  an  extreme  of 
absurdity,  and  led,  we  fear,  to  many  acts  of 
deceit   in   the   second   and    third   centuries. 

*  This  subject  is  very  fairly  treated  by  Dr.  Jortin 
in  the  beginning  of  his  second  book, 
t  See  Lightfoot,  Horre  Hebraicae. 


1  Oh,  could  you  but  hear  (says  Cyprian)*  and 
see  those  daemons  when  they  are  tortured  by 
us,  and  afflicted  with  spiritual  chastisement 
and  verbal  anguish,  and  thus  ejected  from  the 
bodies  of  the  possessed  (obsessorum ;)  moan- 
ing and  lamenting  with  human  voice,  through 
the  power  divine,  as  they  feel  the  rods  and 
stripes,  they  confess  the  judgment  to  come. 
The  exorcists  rule  with  commanding  right 
over  the  whole  army  of  the  insolent  adversa- 
ry. Oftentimes  the  devil  promises  to  depart, 
but  departs  not ;  but  when  we  come  to  bap- 
tism, then  indeed  we  ought  to  be  assured  and 
confident,  because  the  daemon  is  then  op- 
pressed, and  the  man  is  consecrated  to  God 
and  liberated.'  The  invocation  of  Christ,  at- 
tended by  the  sign  of  the  cross,  and  pro- 
nounced by  persons  formally  appointed  to  the 
office,  was  the  method  by  which  those  stu- 
pendous effects  were  usually  produced  ;  and 
one  among  the  many  evils  which  proceeded 
from  this  absurd  practice  was  an  opinion, 
which  gained  some  prevalence  among  the 
less  enlightened  converts,  that  the  object  of 
Christ's  mission  was  to  emancipate  mankind 
from  the  yoke  of  their  invisible  enemy,  and 
that  the  promised  Redemption  was  nothing 
more  than  a  sensible  liberation  from  the 
manifest  influence  of  evil  spirits. 

Of  the  literary  forgeries  which  corrupted 
and  disgraced  the  ante-Nicene  Church,  we 
have  made  frequent  and  sorrowful  mention  ; 
and  the  great  number  f  and  popularity  of  such 
apocryphal  works  seem  indeed  to  prove  that 
the  Canon  of  the  New  Testament,  though 
very  early  received  among  the  clergy,  was 
not  in  general  circulation  among  the  people. 
They  arose  in  the  second,  even  more,  per- 
haps, than  in  the  following  age,  and  originat- 
ed partly  in  the  still  remaining  influence  of 
Judaism,  partly  in  the  connexion  between 
Christianity  and  philosophy,  which  at  that 
time  commenced.  Almost  all  the  Church 
writers  partook  more  or  less  of  one  or  the 
other  of  these  tendencies ;  Justin  Martyr, 
Tatian,  Irenaeus,  and  even  Tertullian  himself, 


*  Epist.  76.  Both  Irenaeus  and  Tertullian  are  very 
animated  on  the  same  subject. 

f  Among  these,  besides  the  Epistle  to  Abgarus,  die 
works  ascribed  to  Hermes  Trismegistus,  the  Sibyl- 
line Prophesies,  Hydaspis,  the  Apostolical  Canons 
and  Constitutions,  we  may  mention  various  apocry- 
phal histories  of  Jesus,  of  Mary,  and  his  other  rela- 
tives— of  Tiberius,  Nicodemus,  and  Joseph  of  Arima- 
thea — of  the  Apostles,  especially  St.  Peter — the  origin 
of  the  Apostles'  Creed — the  Synods  of  the  Apostles — 
the  Epistle  of  Seneca  to  Paul — the  Acts  of  Pilate, 
&c.  &c. 


THE  ANTE-NICEXE  CHURCH. 


181 


were  in  some  degree  tainted  by  the  former 
infection,  and  Clemens  Alexandrimis  and  Or- 
igen  were  deeply  vitiated  by  the  latter.  But 
we  do  not  intend  to  ascribe  the  forgeries  in 
question  to  those  respectable  fathers,  nor 
even  wholly  to  any  members  of  the  Church, 
though  we  admit  that  some  of  them  received 
undue  countenance  from  that  quarter.  We 
shall  here  only  remark,  without  pausing  again 
to  condemn  the  principle  which  created  them, 
that  their  immediate  effect  was  exceedingly 
injurious,  since  they  contributed,  together 
with  the  other  abuses  just  mentioned,  to  dis- 
seminate false  and  unworthy  notions  respect- 
ing the  nature  of  Christianity.  Foremost 
among  them,  the  gross  Millenarian  doctrine, 
which  was  the  firstborn  child  of  tradition, 
was  supported  and  diffused  by  those  writ- 
ings ;  and  it  did  not  cease  to  exercise,  in  va- 
rious parts  of  Christendom,  a  pernicious  and 
perhaps  powerful  influence,  until  it  was 
checked  by  the  pen  of  Origen  and  succeed- 
ing writers. 

The  distinction  of  the  converts  into  '  Cat- 
echumens,' and  '  Faithful,'  or  '  Believers,' 
(IIiotuI)  was  introduced  after  the  age  of  Jus- 
tin, and  before  or  during  that  of  Tertullian.* 
Its  motive  was  probably  twofold ;  —  first,  to 
prove  the  sincerity,  to  instruct  the  ignorance, 
to  ascertain  or  correct  the  morality  of  the 
ruder  proselytes,  who  were  now  numerous 
and  eager  for  baptism,  and  so  to  restrain  the 
indiscriminate  performance  of  that  rite;  next, 
to  conciliate  reverence  and  excite  curiosity 
by  the  temporary  concealment  of  the  most 
solemn  ceremonies  of  the  new  religion.  To 
this  end  the  Catechumens  were  only  admit- 
ted to  the  previous  part  of  the  service,  and, 
before  the  celebration  of  the  Holy  Sacra- 
ments,  were   dismissed :  f  all   that   followed 


*  De  Prescrip.  adv.  Hreret.  cap.  41.  He  censures 
the  heretics  for  not  making  the  distinction  in  question 
in  their  congregations. 

f  Ite,  Missa  est.  (i.  e.  Ecclesia.)  Go — it  is  dis- 
missed. This  seems,  upon  the  whole,  the  most  prob- 
able origin  of  the  words,  Missal,  Mass;  though  many 
others  have  been  proposed.  (See  Bingham,  b.  xiii., 
chap,  i.)  Ol  axoivaiVTjTOi,  TctQiTTctTi'^aTc — Non- 
communicants,  depart  —  was  the  Greek  form  of  sepa- 
rating the  two  classes.  Bingham  is  very  minute,  and 
probably  very  faithful,  in  describing  the  nature  of  the 
Missa  Catechumenorum  and  the  Missa  Fidelium,  or 
Communion  Service — though  the  forms,  as  he  gives 
them,  probably  belonged  to  the  fourth  and  the  subse- 
quent, rather  than  the  preceding,  centuries.  But  a 
summary  of  the  instructions  delivered  to  the  former  is 
given  by  the  author  of  the  Constit.  Apostol.,  lib.  vii., 
c.  39.  It  embraces  the  knowledge  of  the  Trinity,  the 
order   of  the  world's  creation  and  series  of  Divine 


was  strictly  veiled  from  them,  until  the  time 
of  their  own  initiation.  Even  from  the  above 
short  description  it  is  easy  to  discover  in  this 
early  Christian  practice  an  imitation  of  the 
system  of  Pagan  mysteries.  These,  as  is  well 
known,  were  twofold  in  number  and  impor- 
tance— the  first  or  lesser  being  of  common 
notoriety,  and  easy  access  to  all  conditions 
and  ages,  while  the  greater  were  revealed, 
with  considerable  discrimination,  to  such 
only  as  were  thought  qualified  for  the  privi- 
lege, by  their  rank,  or  knowledge,  or  virtue. 
The  name  also  passed  into  the  Liturgies  of 
the  Church;  and  the  Sacraments,  which 
were  withdrawn  from  the  profane  eye  of  the 
Catechumens,  were  denominated  mysteries. 

These  mysteries  continued  for  some  time, 
perhaps  till  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  centu- 
ry, to  be  two  only,  Baptism  and  the  Eucharist. 
We  have  proofs,  indeed,  that  in  that  age  the 
ceremonies,  at  least  of  Penitential  Absolution, 
of  Ordination,  and  Confirmation,*  were  con- 
cealed from  the  uninitiated,  as  carefully  as 
the  two  original  Sacraments ;  and  hence  no 
doubt  arose  the  error  which  has  sanctified 
them  by  the  same  name.  Regarding  the  rite 
of  Baptism,  we  have  noticed  in  a  former 
chapter  a  misapprehension  of  its  true  nature 
and  object,  which  gained  very  early  footing 
in  the  Church ;  and  the  consequent  abuse  of 
deferring  it  until  the  hour  of  death  was  clear- 
ly customary  before  the  days  of  Constantine  ; 
we  need  not  pause  to  point  out  the  evils 
which  obviously  proceeded  from  it.  f  The 
original  simple  character  of  the  eucharistical 
assemblies  of  the  primitive  Christians,  such 
as    they  are    described    by  Justin    Martyr, 


Providence,  as  exhibited  in  the  Old  Testament:  the 
Doctrine  of  Christ's  Incarnation,  Passion,  Resurrec- 
tion, and  Assumption,  and  what  it  is  to  renounce  the 
devil  and  to  enter  into  the  Covenant  of  Christ. 

*  The  passages  which  respectively  prove  these 
three  facts  are  from  Optatus  contr.  Parmen.,  liv.  ii., 
p.  57;  Chrysostom  Horn.,  18,  in  ii.  Cor.  p.  872; 
and  Innocent  I.,  Epist.  i.,  ad  Decentium  Eugubin: 
and  are  cited  by  Bingham,  Antiq.,  book  x.,  chapter 
v.  St.  Basil  (De  Spir.  Sanct.,  c.  27)  places  the  Oil 
of  Chrism  among  the  things  which  the  uninitiated 
might  not  look  upon;  while  St.  Augustin  (Coram,  in 
Psalm  ciii.,  Concio.  i.)  says,  '  Quid  est  quod  occul- 
tum  est  et  non  publicum  in  Ecclesial  Sacramentum 
Baptismi,  Sacramentum  Eucharistia.  Opera  nos- 
tra bona  vident  ct  Pagani,  Sacramenta  vero  occultan- 
tur  illis.'  The  practice  probably  varied  in  different 
Churches ;  but  the  whole  proves  that  the  Seven  Sac- 
raments were  not  yet  acknowledged  in  any. 

f  Gibbon  somewhere  proposes,  a  question,  which 
we  profess  our  inability  to  resolve,  whether  this  per- 
nicious practice  was  at  any  time  condemned  by  any 
Council  of  the  Church'? 


182 


HISTORY    OF  THE   CHURCH. 


was  first  exalted  by  the  strong  and  almost 
ambiguous  language  of  Irenseus,  and  still 
further  by  the  exaggerated  though  vague  ex- 
pressions of  subsequent  writers.  #  By  such 
means  the  Eucharist  gradually  rose  to  be 
considered  the  most  abstruse  and  awful  of 
the  mysteries.  Yet  is  it  still  doubtful  wheth- 
er this  grew  to  be  a  great  abuse  before  the 
establishment  of  the  Church ;  though  the 
secrecy  and  exclusiveness  which  surrounded 
its  most  holy  ceremony  offended  the  open 
character  of  the  religion,  and  even  lessened 
its  estimation  among  the  wise  and  virtuous, 
by  introducing  an  unworthy  assimilation  to 
the  mummeries  of  Paganism. 

It  was  an  opinion  in  the  third  century, 
originating,  perhaps,  with  Tertullian,  but 
more  expressly  declared  by  Dionysius,  '  That 
the  holy  martyrs  were  the  assessors  of  Christ 
and  participators  in  his  kingdom,  and  partak- 
ers in  his  judgment,  sitting  in  judgment  with 
him.'f  While  we  read  this  extravagant  con- 
ceit of  that  early  age,  we  might  almost  be 
disposed  to  praise  the  moderation  of  later 
times,  which  were  contented  to  invest  those 
holy  sufferers  with  the  character  of  media- 
tors. But  long  even  before  the  age  of  Dio- 
nysius, and  probably  before  any  thought  had 
been  raised  respecting  their  immediate  exal- 
tation or  beatification,  it  had  been  a  natural 
and  even  pious  custom  to  celebrate  the  birth- 
days of  those  who  had  offered  themselves  up 
as  sacrifices  for  their  religion.  By  their  birth- 
days (their  ytviG/U/x)  were  understood,  not  the 
days  of  their  introduction  to  the  sins  and  af- 
flictions of  earth,  but  of  their  release  from 
such  bondage  and  their  resurrection  to  glory. 
These  days  of  their  nativity  to  everlasting 
life  were  observed  (as  indeed  it  was  fit)  in 
joyous  commemoration  of  the  piety  of  the 
departed,  and  of  the  example  which  they  had 
bequeathed  to  posterity.  Assemblies  were 
held  for  this  purpose  at  the  tombs  of  the  mar- 
tyrs, or  on  the  spots  where  they  had  perished, 
and  their  frequency  is  attested  by  Tertullian, 
Cyprian,  Origen,  and  others  of  the  oldest 
fathers.  The  Maqruqwv  yiriSXta  were  the 
saints'  days  of  the  early  Christians,  and  may 
be  traced  at  least  as  far  back  as  the  execution 

*  The  passages  in  Irenaeus  which  have  given  occa- 
sion to  the  warmest  controversy,  and  not  wholly  with- 
out ground,  are  lib.  iv.,  c.  17  (or  32)  and  18  (or  34), 
and  lib.  v.,  c.  2,  Miracula  Sacra  Coena?  vel  Cyprianus 
audet  narrare.     Semler.  Observ.  Nov.,  &c. 

t  Tertull.  de  Resurrectione  Carnis,  cap.  43.  Nemo 
enim  peregrinatus  a  corpore  statim  immoratur  penes 
Dominum,  nisi  ex  martyrii  prerogativa,  Paradiso 
scilicet  non  Inferis  deversurus.     And  lib.  de  Anima, 


of  Polycarp ;  *  and  as  the  places  of  meeting 
were  not  then  consecrated  by  chapels  or 
sanctuaries,  and  as  the  mortal,  whose  eutha- 
nasia was  commemorated,  was  not  yet  made 
an  object  of  superstitious  adoration,  it  would 
be  too  severe  to  charge  upon  those  innocent 
demonstrations  of  popular  reverence  the  sys- 
tem of  idolatrous  impiety  which  was  built  in 
later  ages  on  that  foundation,  f 

The  use  of  prayers  and  even  of  offerings 
for  the  dead  was  earlier  than  the  age  of  Ter- 
tullian ;  X  nor  is  it  any  wonder  that  the  nu- 
merous converts  from  Paganism  should  bring 
over  with  them  some  fragments  of  their  for- 
mer observances.  But  there  is  no  just  rea- 
son to  suspect  that  the  ante-Nicene  Church 
studied  to  turn  them  to  its  own  profit,  or  at 
least  that  they  were  made  to  minister  to  the 
avarice  of  the  clergy.  If  they  were  encour- 
aged, it  was  rather  through  the  hope  of  in 
creasing  by  such  indulgence  the  number  of 
the  proselytes. 

The  mortification  of  occasional  fasting  was 
probably  enjoined  in  the  earliest  age.  For 
the  ceremony  of  Baptism,  as  we  learn  from 
Justin,  both  the  neophyte  and  the  congrega- 
tion were  prepared  by  abstinence  ;  and  in  the 
time  of  Tertullian,  the  Bishops,  if  he  belies  § 
them  not,  found  their  advantage  in  increasing 
the  number  of  such  observances.  The  first 
general  fast  was  on  Good  Friday,  and  it  does 
not  appear  that  any  others  were  very  soon 
added,  or  at  least  universally  received.     Yet 

cap.  55.  Dionys.  ap.  Euseb.,  liv.  vi.,  cap.  42. 
TotJ  XmOTov  nuQidnoi,  xai  rijg  fiactiXeiag  avTov 
y.oivuitol  y.ai  f.iiroj(oi  ri]g  xolozwg  avroii,  y.al 
ovvdixixLovreg  avTco. 

*  In  the  Epistle  of  the  Church  of  Smyrna  to  that 
of  Philomelium  (in  Euseb.,  liv.  iv.,  cap.  15),  the 
writers,  after  mention  of  the  martyrdom  of  Polycarp, 
express  their  intention,  '  by  God's  permission,  to 
meet  at  his  tomb  and  celebrate  his  birth-day.'  See 
Cave,  Primitive  Christianity,  p.  ii.,  ch.  7. 

f  We  do  not  mean  that  there  was  no  tendency  to 
superstition  in  the  honors  paid  to  martyrs  even  in 
the  third  century.  Relics  were  already  coming  into 
consideration,  the  blood  of  the  sufferers  was  eagerly 
collected  in  sponges,  and  other  similar  extravagances 
are  recorded ;  but  these  were  the  natural  excesses  of 
popular  enthusiasm,  and  would  have  ceased  with  the 
cessation  of  persecution,  if  they  had  not  afterwards 
been  perpetuated  and  systematized  by  the  arts  of  a 
corrupt  priesthood. 

%  Tertull.  de  Monogamia,  c.  10. 

§  He  may  do  so,  for  in  his  '  Liber  de  Jejuniis '  he 
is  writing  in  favor  of  Montanism  against  the  Church. 
Bene  autem  quod  et  Episcopi  universae  plebi  mandare 
jejunia  assolent  ;  non  dico  de  industria  stipium 
confer endarum,  ut  vestrcE  captures  est,  sed  inter- 
dum  et  ex  aliqua  solicitudinis  Ecclesiastics  causa. 
See  Thomassin,  Traite  d«s  Jeunes  de  l'Eglise. 


THE  ANTE-NICENE  CHURCH. 


183 


there  can  be  no  doubt,  that  long  before  the 
fourth  century  at  least  some  *  part  of  Lent 
was  strictly  observed,  and  a  partial  fast  (till 
three  in  the  afternoon)  on  the  fourth  and 
sixth  days  of  every  week,  is  by  some  referred 
to  very  high  antiquity.  Upon  the  whole  it 
would  seem,  however,  that,  until  the  esta- 
blishment of  the  Church,  a  great  variety  pre- 
vailed in  this  department  of  its  discipline, 
dependent  in  some  measure  on  the  circum- 
stances of  particular  provinces,  and  the  indi- 
vidual regulations  of  the  Bishops  presiding 
there. 

When  we  consider  in  what  countries  the 
religion  was  revealed,  and  among  what  peo- 
ple it  first  spread,  it  is  natural  to  search  for 
the  oldest  forms  of  its  external  economy  in 
the  Jewish,  and  for  those  somewhat  less  an- 
cient in  the  Pagan,  system ;  —  and  thus  we 
find  them  to  have  originated,  so  far  at  least 
as  the  origin  of  either  can  be  discovered  with 
any  certainty.  There  cau  be  little  doubt,  for 
instance,  that  the  very  early  distinction  be- 
tween Clergy  and  Laity  was  immediately  de- 
rived from  the  corresponding  institution  of 
Judaism.  The  gradations  and  offices  of  the 
original  Priesthood,  and  the  power  of  the 
Presbytery,  proceeded  from  the  same  source,f 
and  the  subsequent  introduction  of  the  more 
dignified  term  Sacerdos  attested  the  continu- 
ation of  the  same  influence.  Again,  '  There 
seems  to  be  nothing  more  uncontested  among 
learned  men  than  that  the  Jews  had  set 
forms  of  worship  in  all  parts  of  Divine  Ser- 
vice, and  that  the  Apostles  freely  used  these 
in  all  instances  in  which  they  thought  it  nec- 
essary or  becoming  to  join  with  them.  Their 
ordinary  service  was  of  two  sorts  —  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Temple  and  the  service  of  the 
Synagogue.  These  differed  in  many  re- 
spects ;  but  both  agreed  in  this,  that  the  pub- 
lic prayers  in  both  were  offered  up  in  a 
certain  constant  form  of  words.'  J     To  what 


*  The  Quadragesimal  Fast  (■zianaoay.oarij)  is  by 
some  supposed  to  indicate  the  number  of  hours  of 
abstinence  which  preceded  the  festival  of  the  Resur- 
rection. But  in  the  time  of  Chrysostom  (who  calls 
Lent  '  the  remedy  and  physic  of  the  soul ')  and  of 
Theodosius  the  Great  (who  suspended  all  criminal 
proceedings  and  punishments  during  its  continuance) 
the  entire  period  was  unquestionably  observed.  See 
Cave  on  the  Early  Church,  chapter  vii. 

•f-  There  is  a  passage  in  St.  Clement's  First  Epistle 
to  the  Corinthians,  chap.  40,  in  which  the  system  of 
Jewish  discipline  is  indirectly  proposed  as  a  model 
for  the  imitation  of  Christians. 

J  Bingham  (Church  Antiq.  Book  xiii.,  chap,  v.) 
in  prosecution  of  this  subject,  exhibits  too  warmly 
the  zeal  of  an  advocate. 


extent  this  practice  was  imitated  in  the  prim- 
itive Church  remains  extremely  uncertain, 
notwithstanding  the  controversial  labors  of 
many  learned  men.  Perhaps  this  very  un- 
certainty should  be  sufficient  to  convince  us, 
that  the  earliest  forms  of  services  were  ex- 
tremely short  and  variable  —  otherwise  more 
ample  specimens  of  them  would  have  reach- 
ed posterity.  On  the  other  hand,  the  scanty 
passages  which  are  adduced  from  Ignatius, 
Justin,  Irenoeus,  and  Tertullian,  certainly 
prove,  that  there  were  some  fixed  prayers  in 
use  in  some  of  the  ancient  Churches,  which 
may  or  may  not  have  been  common  to  them 
all.  And  this  usage  was  an  imitation,  imper- 
fect as  it  was,  of  the  Jewish  offices.  On  the 
other  hand  there  are  many  of  the  early  Ec- 
clesiastical terms,  and  some  few  ceremonies 
chiefly  of  the  third  century,  which  are  more 
usually  considered  of  Pagan  derivation,  though 
some  of  them  may  with  equal  Justice  be  as- 
cribed to  a  Jewish  original.  The  oldest  name 
for  the  chancel  was  bvaiaon'oiov,  Ara  Dei,  or 
Altare ;  oblations  were  made  there,  and  '  the 
unbloody  sacrifice '  offered  up,  and  frankin- 
cense smoked,  and  lamps  were  lighted,  even 
during  the  persecutions  of  the  Church  ;  even 
votive  donations  (donaria  —  av«^,'«ara)  were 
suspended  in  the  yet  rude  and  ill-constructed 
temples  of  Christ.  But  the  simple  superstition 
of  the  Faithful  in  those  ages  did  not  proceed 
to  more  dangerous  excesses.  It  was  reserved 
for  the  following  century  to  fill  those  temples 
with  images,  and  to  introduce  into  the  Sanc- 
tuaries of  God  the  predominating  spirit  of 
Paganism. 

In  reference  to  the  facts  which  we  have 
now  stated,  and  which  carry  with  them  the 
plain  conclusions  to  which  we  proceed,  it 
seems  only  necessary  to  observe  — first,  that 
we  are  not  to  attend  to  those  writers  who 
represent  the  ante-Nicene  Church  as  the  per- 
fect model  of  a  Christian  society  —  as  the 
unfailing  storehouse  whence  universal  and 
perpetual  rules  of  doctrine  and  discipline 
may  be  derived  with  confidence,  and  follow- 
ed with  submission.  The  truth  is  far  other- 
wise ;  and  though  we  ought  assuredly  to 
distinguish  the  authority  of  the  apostolical 
from  that  of  the  later  uninspired  writers,  still 
even  the  works  of  those  first  Fathers  are  not 
without  much  imperfection,  and  furnish,  be- 
sides, very  insufficient  materials  for  the  con- 
struction or  defence  of  any  system  ;  and  in 
the  extensive  variety  both  of  opinions  and 
arguments  which  distinguishes  their  success- 
ors from  Justin  to  Eusebius,  we  cannot  fail 
to  observe,  that  the  former  are  sometimes 


184 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


erroneous,  and  the  latter  very  commonly 
feeble  and  inconsequential.  From  such  facts 
we  are  compelled  to  infer,  that  the  true  na- 
ture and  design  of  Christ's  mission  on  earth 
were  not  yet  very  perfectly  comprehended 
by  the  mass  of  Christians  in  the  second  and 
third  centuries.  Indeed,  it  was  scarcely  pos- 
sible that  it  could  be  otherwise,  since  they 
consisted  of  converts,  or  the  children  of  con- 
verts, many  of  whom  were  imbued  with  the 
deep  and  unbending  prejudices  of  Judaism, 
and  the  others  attached  by  long  hereditary 
affection  to  the  splendid  ceremonies  of  Pa- 
ganism. To  either  of  these  classes  it  was 
necessary  to  address  a  peculiar  form  of  argu- 
ment, and  to  present  a  peculiar  view  of  the 
religion,  that  there  might  be  any  just  hope  of 
persuading  them  to  embrace  it.  We  should 
also  mention  that  some  of  the  errors  of  the 
third,  and  even  of  the  second  century,  may 
be  ascribed  to  the  undue  weight  already  at- 
tached to  apostolical  tradition,  and  the  au- 
thority that  was  blindly  attributed  to  any 
precept  or  usage,  however  obscurely  traced 
to  that  uncertain  source. 

But,  in  the  second  place,  we  are  equally 
bound  to  remark,  that  the  fundamental  doc- 
trines of  Christianity  shine  with  a  steady  and 
continuous  light  through  the  strange  mists  in 
which  the  ante-Nicene  Church  has  some- 
times involved  them ;  it  was  a  great  advan- 
tage which  that  age  possessed  over  those 
which  followed,  that  it  confined  itself  to 
plain  and  scriptural  expressions,  and  was 
contented  to  deliver  the  truths  of  God  in  the 
language  of  the  holy  writings.  Moreover, 
we  should  add,  that  among  the  abuses  which 
we  have  described,  though  some  were  shame- 
ful to  their  inventors,  and  injurious  to  the 
cause,  there  were  many  which,  in  their  ori- 
gin, were  comparatively,  if  not  absolutely, 
innocent :  in  many  instances  they  arose  rath- 
er from  the  circumstances  of  the  converts 
than  from  the  design  of  the  priesthood,  and 
there  were  few,  if  any,  among  them  which 
might  not  have  been  arrested  after  the  esta- 
blishment of  Christianity,  if  that  security 
which  gave  power  to  the  ministers  of  re- 
ligion had  conferred  wisdom  and  true  piety 
along  with  it. 

To  conclude,  then  : — a  general  view  of  the 
Church  of  the  three  first  ages  presents  to  us 
a  body  always  unconnected  with  the  State, 
frequently  at  variance  with  it ;  surrounded 
by  multitudes  of  heresies,  many  of  them 
very  monstrous,  which  it  combated  with  the 
sword  of  the  Spirit  alone  ;  under  a  govern- 
ment in  which  the  gradually-increasing  in- 


fluence of  the  Bishop  was  still  for  the  most 
part  extremely  limited  by  the  power  of  his 
presbytery ;  with  a  rule  of  faith  not  curiously 
definite  on  abstruse  questions,  but  simply 
conceived  and  scripturally  expressed — rising 
into  strength  and  confirming  its  consistency, 
and,  finally,  making  good  its  long-neglected 
claims  to  toleration  and  respect.  A  closer 
examination  of  the  same  body  discloses  to  us 
a  number  of  stains  and  defects,  proceeding  at 
different  moments  from  various  causes,  and 
spreading,  in  some  degree,  as  that  advanced 
in  magnitude:  but  they  had  not  yet  pene- 
trated to  its  heart,  they  might  still  have  been 
checked,  and  even  removed,  by  an  influential 
and  truly  Christian  priesthood.  It  is  true 
that  the  substantial  and  fatal  corruptions  of 
after  ages  sprang,  in  many  instances,  directly 
from  them;  but  the  crime  of  those  conse- 
quences must  rest,  for  the  most  part,  with 
those  who  combined  and  perpetuated  the 
first  abuses ;  for  these  were  indeed  rather  the 
produce  of  circumstances  than  the  work  of 
men.  We  have  also  observed,  in  the  vari- 
ous conditions  of  apostolical  Christianity,  the 
scattered  elements  of  some  forms  of  govern- 
ment and  discipline,  which,  though  they  were 
very  early  absorbed  by  the  episcopal  system, 
should  not  be  passed  over  in  silence,  since 
they  are  still  pleaded  as  precedents  and  imi- 
tated as  models  by  many  excellent  Christians. 

II.  From  Constantine  to  Gregory  the  Great. 
Fleury,  who  is  the  most  moderate  and  rea- 
sonable of  the  Roman  Catholic  historians, 
laments  that  after  the  first  six  centuries  the 
brightest  days  of  the  Church  were  passed 
away.*  In  his  first  Discourse  he  represents 
the  brilliancy  of  that  period  in  vivid  and 
exaggerated  colors.  The  reverence  due  to 
the  sanctified  martyr — the  solemn  aspect  of 
monastic  solitude — the  piety  and  disinterest- 
ed poverty  of  the  early  prelates — the  purity 
of  their  election — the  austerity  of  their  life — 
the  magnificence  of  the  offices — the  severity 
of  discipline — the  venerable  names  of  tradi- 
tion f  and  antiquity — are  objects  of  his  warm 


*  Discours  sur  l'Hist.  Eccles.  depuis  l'an  600  jus- 
ques  a  l'an  1100.  '  Les  beaux  jours  de  l'Eglise  sont 
passes,  mais  Dieu  n'a  pas  rejette  son  peuple  ni  oublie 
ses  promesses,'  &c.  &c. 

f  '  It  was  one  of  the  rules  of  discipline  not  to  com- 
mit it  to  writing,  but  to  preserve  it  by  a  secret  tra- 
dition among  the  Bishops  and  Priests,  chiefly  that 
regarding  the  administration  of  the  sacraments;  and 
the  better  to  keep  that  secret,  that  the  Bishops  should 
confide  their  ecclesiastical  letters  to  the  Clergy  only. 
So,  when  the  ancients  speak  of  observing  the  canons , 


PARTICULAR  INNOVATIONS. 


185 


and  indiscriminate  eulogy.  But  it  was  an 
error  (for  to  Fleury  we  would  not  willingly 
ascribe  the  intention  of  deceiving)  to  con- 
found the  three  earliest  with  the  three  fol- 
lowing centuries ;  as  if  the  same  had  been 
the  government,  discipline,  spirit  of  the  Cath- 
olic Church  from  the  age  of  St.  Clement  to 
that  of  St.  Gregory.  Even  the  first  of  thf<se 
periods  was  somewhat  removed  from  apos- 
tolical perfection  ;  but  in  the  second  the  dis- 
tance was  incalculably  multiplied,  and  that, 
not  only  according  to  the  customary  progress 
of  unreformed  abuse,  but  also  through  a 
change  of  principles  in  the  administration  of 
the  Church,  which  proceeded  from  other 
causes. 

Particular  Innovations.  At  present,  before 
we  enter  on  any  general  review  of  the  out- 
ward form  and  position  of  the  Church,  or 
even  of  its  internal  administration,  we  shall 
mention,  as  in  continuation  of  the  subject 
which  has  been  most  lately  treated,  some 
particular  innovations  in  belief  and  discipline 
which  either  began  or  were  established  dur- 
ing the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  centuries.  The 
first,  and  by  far  the  most  important  of  these, 
was  the  institution  of  the  monastic  system,  of 
which  it  cannot  be  properly  said  that  there 
existed  any  vestige  before  the  beginning  of 
the  fourth  age,  and  which,  before  its  termina- 
tion, had  fixed  its  roots  deeply,  and  struck 
them  with  pernicious  vitality  into  the  very 
heart  of  Christendom.  Its  origin  and  pro- 
gress will  be  the  object  of  future  inquiry  ;  at 
present  we  shall  confine  our  notice  to  a  sub- 
ject very  closely  connected  with  it — the  celi- 
bacy of  the  Clergy.  In  the  first  ages  the 
Church  writers  advocated  the  universal  law- 
fulness of  marriage  against  the  heretical  rigor 
of  the  Encratites,  of  Saturninus  and  Basil- 
ides,  of  the  Montanists,  and  even  the  Nova- 
tians  ;  so  that  any  undue  respect  for  celibacy 
which  may  have  prevailed  during  the  three 
first  ages  cannot  justly  be  attributed  to  the 
Church  :  it  was  also  very  partial  and  vague 
in  its  nature,  and  wholly  unsupported  by  ca- 


lmagine  not  that  they  speak  of  written  canons;  they 
speak  of  all  that  was  practised  through  a  constant 
tradition.  For  we  must  believe,  according  to  the 
maxim  of  St.  Augustin,  that  that  which  the  Church 
has  observed  at  every  time,  and  in  every  place,  is 
apostolical  tradition.  In  fact,  from  what  other  source 
could  have  come  those  universal  practices,  such  as  the 
veneration  of  relics,  the  prayer  for  the  dead,  the  ob- 
servance of  Lent!'  Fleury,  Discours  sur  1'Hist.  des 
Six  Premiers  Siecles,  &c.  &c.  —  Of  the  three  prac- 
tices here  instanced,  two  at  least  were  much  posterior 
to  the  times  of  the  Apostles. 

24 


nouical  regulations.  Afterwards,  there  can  be 
no  question  that  the  cause  which  first  gave 
impulse  to  the  principle,  and  carried  it  into 
practice,  and  subjected  it  to  repeated  legisla- 
tion, was  the  growing  prevalence  of  Mona- 
chism,  and  the  popular  veneration  which  was 
found  to  attach  to  excessive  austerities.  Al- 
ready at  the  Council  of  Nice  *  it  was  propos- 
ed to  forbid  the  marriage  of  the  Clergy  ;  but 
through  the  opposition  of  an  Egyptian  Bish- 
op, named  Paphnutius,  it  was  only  enacted, 
that  all  Clerks  who  had  been  married  before 
they  took  orders  should  be  allowed  to  retain 
their  wives,  according  to  the  ancient  tradition 
of  the  Church,  but  that  they  should  not  mar- 
ry a  second  time.f  Such  continued  both  the 
rule  and  practice  of  the  Eastern  Church  ;  it 
was  confirmed  by  the  Council  in  Trullo  in 
the  year  692,  with  an  exception  against  Bish- 
ops, who  were  obliged,  on  then*  promotion, 
to  separate  from  their  wives ;  and  this  law 
was  never  afterwards  altered.  But  in  the 
West,  where  the  spirit  of  sacerdotal  domina- 
tion more  strongly  prevailed,  many  attempts 
were  made  in  those  days  to  enforce  perfect 
celibacy  on  all  the  orders  of  the  ministry, 
and  their  constant  repetition  proves  their  in- 
efiicacy.  Siricius,  who  held  the  See  of  Rome 
from  385  to  398,  published  some  letters  or 
decretals,  which  have  acquired  the  weight  of 
canons  in  the  Roman  Church.  One  of  his 
great  objects  was  to  discourage  the  marriage 
of  the  Clergy,  but  it  does  not  appear  J  that 
his  regulations  much  exceeded  the  severity 
of  those  of  Nice.  However,  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted, that  the  perseverance  of  his  succes- 
sors was  not  fruitless,  at  least  so  far  as  their 
immediate  influence  extended;  and  we  are 
assured  that  at  the  end  of  the  fifth  century, 
the  rule  of  celibacy  was  very  commonly  ob- 
served by  the  Clergy  of  Rome.  §    But  a  hun- 


*  Eleven  years  earlier  it  was  enacted,  by  the  tenth 
canon  of  the  Council  of  Ancyra,  that  when  a  Deacon 
declared  his  intention  to  marry,  at  the  time  of  his  or- 
dination, he  might  be  allowed  to  do  so,  but  not  other- 
wise. Dupin.  Nouv.  Bibl.  tome  ii.  p.  312.  Bingham, 
Church  Antiq.  b.  iv.  ch.  v. — Dupin,  Nouv.  Biblioth., 
tome  i.  (Abrege  de  la  Discipline)  mentions,  as  the 
rule  of  the  early  (ante-Nicene)  Church,  that  it  was 
permitted  to  a  Priest  to  keep  his  wife,  but  not  to 
marry  again :  on  a  Deacon  there  was  no  such  restraint. 
It  is  impossible  to  trace  that,  which  is  mentioned  as 
being  imposed  upon  the  Priest,  to  the  first  ages ;  but 
in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  perhaps  some- 
what earlier,  it  was  undoubtedly  established,  that  no 
man  who  was  ordained  Priest  could  marry. 

t  Socrates,  lib.  i.,  c.  11.     Sozotnen,  lib.  i.,  c.  23. 

%  Dupin,  Nouv.  Bibl.,  Vie  de  Sirice. 

§  A  distinction  in  this  respect  was  observed  a  cen- 


186 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


dred  years  afterwards,  Gregory,  as  we  have 
seen,  was  still  engaged  in  the  same  struggle 
against  the  natural  affections  and  the  com- 
mon reason  of  man,  and  he  transmitted  it, 
still  unfinished,  to  his  distant*  posterity.  His 
object  was  clerical  celibacy  in  the  strictest 
sense ;  but  we  should  remark  that  no  ordin- 
ance going  to  that  extent  had  yet  been  enact- 
ed by  any  general  Council,  even  of  the  West- 
ern Church,  and  that  the  common  practice 
was  still  in  opposition  to  it ;  a  great  number, 
probably  far  the  larger  proportion,  of  the  Ger- 
man, French,  English,  and  Spanish  Clergy 
continued  to  avail  themselves  at  least  of  that 
portion  of  their  scriptural  right,  which  the 
Council  of  Nice  had  left  them. 

The  penitential  discipline  of  the  ante- 
Nicene  Church  was  exceedingly  severe,  even 
in  the  season  of  persecution,  and  it  was  by 
rigor  rather  than  indulgence  that  it  sought  to 
secure  the  fidelity  and  increase  the  number 
of  its  members.  For  the  space  of  fifteen,  or 
sometimes  of  twenty  years,  it  might  be  for 
his  whole  life,  the  repentant  sinner  was  ex- 
cluded from  the  precincts  of  the  Church,  and 
exposed  to  the  contempt  or  compassion  of 
every  beholder.  After  this  long  endurance, 
when  the  gates  of  the  sanctuary  were  at 
length  unclosed  to  him,  it  was  only,  perhaps, 
that  he  might  worship  there  for  some  addi- 
tional years  in  the  attitude  of  prostration, 
muffled  and  unshaven,  fasting  and  covered 
with  ashes,  f  A  discipline  which,  in  some 
ages,  would  be  deemed  barbarous  if  it  were 
not  impracticable,  was  found  very  effectual 
in  those  early  times,  both  in  preserving  indi- 
vidual morality,  and  in  upholding  the  exter- 
nal show  and  dignity  of  the  Church.  It 
seems  to  have  been  maintained  in  its  original 
spirit  throughout  the  fourth  century,  \  and  its 

tury  earlier  between  the  Catholic  and  theArian  Clergy; 
the  laxity  of  the  latter,  who  were  almost  universally 
married,  was  made  matter  of  reproach  by  their  more 
rigid  adversaries. 

*  In  the  ninth  century  (about  the  year  860)  we  ob- 
serve Hulderic,  Bishop  of  Augsburg,  vigorously  re- 
sisting the  Edicts  of  Pope  Nicholas;  and  two  hundred 
and  twenty  years  afterwards,  when  Gregory  VII.  at 
length  achieved  the  object  which  had  foiled  his  prede- 
cessors for  above  six  centuries,  he  encountered  an 
opposition  which  could  scarcely  have  been  surmounted 
by  a  less  extraordinary  character. 

t  Fleury,  Discours  sur  les  Six  Premiers  Siecles, 
&c.  et  passim.  Cyprian  is  the  most  ancient  Father 
who  is  mentioned  as  having  laid  down  rules  of  pen- 
ance. But  some  derive  such  rules  from  the  discipline 
imposed  in  the  Pagan  system  previous  to  initiation  in 
the  great  mysteries. 

%  See  Dupin,  Nouv.  Bibl.  tome  ii.  p.  247,  Vie  de 


rigor  was  still  further  aggravated  by  the  ne- 
cessity of  public  confession.  The  measure 
of  Pope  Leo,  which  substituted  private  con- 
fession, may  have  been  made  necessary  by 
the  universal  profession  of  Christianity,  and 
the  degeneracy  of  many  who  professed  it. 
But  not  only  was  it  attended  by  an  immedi- 
ate relaxation  in  the  penitential  discipline  of 
Ae  Church  (for  secret  penance  very  speedily 
followed  secret  confession,)  but  it  became,  in 
process  of  time,  one  of  the  most  abundant 
sources  of  sacerdotal  influence. 

During  the  four  first  centuries  there  was 
no  mention  or  thought  of  Purgatory — neither 
St.  Ambrose,  nor  even  St.  Jerome,  had  any 
belief  in  such  an  intermediate  state.  But 
St.  Augustin*  expresses  himself  somewhat 
more  ambiguously ;  for  if,  in  some  passages, 
he  rejects  the  supposition  as  vain  and  improb- 
able, in  others  he  admits  that  the  truth  cannot 
be  certainly  ascertained,  but  may  deserve  in- 
vestigation. During  the  two  following  ages, 
the  plausible  scheme  gained  some  little  credit 
among  the  Clergy  of  the  West,  and  most  es- 
pecially among  the  monastic  orders  ;  but  the 
credit  of  establishing  it  among  the  unques- 
tionable truths  of  the  Church  is  due  to  the 
superstition  or  the  craft  of  Gregory  the  Great. 
In  the  Fourth  Book  of  his  Dialogues  he  main- 
tains the  existence  of  a  purgatory  for  the  ex- 
piation of  the  more  venial  offences  of  persons, 
whose  general  excellence  may  have  deserved 
such  indulgence.  He  then  takes  occasion  to 
remark,  that  many  discoveries  had  lately  been 
made  respecting  the  condition  of  souls  after 
death,  which  had  not  been  penetrated  by  an- 
tiquity, and  for  this  reason — that  as  this  world 
was  approaching  to  its  end,  men  saw  more 
closely  into  the  secrets  of  the  next.f  A  theory 


S.  Ambroise.  1.  Sinners  were  expected  to  request 
that  they  might  be  admitted  to  penance.  2.  The  cir- 
cumstance of  their  doing  penance  separated  them  from 
the    Communion.     3.    They   did   penance   publicly. 

4.  They  practised  a  number  of  fastings,  austerities, 
and  humiliations  during  the  whole  time  of  penance. 

5.  They  could  be  admitted  to  that  penance  once  only. 
Of  course  the  penance  here  mentioned  was  the  severest 
which  the  Church  ever  inflicted  for  the  most  enormous 
sins. 

*  Mosheim  (cent.  v.  p.  ii.  c.  iii.)  remarks  that 
'  the  famous  Pagan  doctrine  concerning  the  purifica- 
tion of  departed  souls  by  means  of  a  certain  kind  of 
fire  was  more  amply  explained  and  confirmed  now 
than  it  had  hitherto  been,'  and  he  refers  to  St.  Augus- 
tin, De  viii.  Questionibus  ad  Dulcitium  N.  xiii.  tome 
vi.  De  Fide  et  Operibus,  cap.  xvi.  p.  182.  DeFide, 
Spe  et  Charitate,  sect.  118,  p.  222.  Enarrat.  Psalm 
xxxv.  s.  3. 

t  See  Dupin,  Nouv.  Bibl.,  Vie  de  St.  Gregoire  I. 


PARriCULAR  INNOVATIONS. 


187 


which  had  been  tolerated  by  St.  Augustin, 
and  defended,  however  absurdly,  by  St.  Gre- 
gory, found  easy  acceptance  in  the  Western 
Church  ;  it  was  eagerly  seized  by  the  Bene- 
dictine Monks,  and  was  presently  perceived 
to  be  so  profitable  in  its  operation  on  the 
people,  that  it  soon  became  one  of  the  dear- 
est and  most  necessary  tenets  of  the  Roman 
Communion. 

The  general  influence  of  Paganism  on  the 
Christian  ceremonies  was  already  discover- 
able in  the  second  and  third  ages;  and  the 
particular  practice  which,  in  its  abuse,  was 
especially  destined  to  assimilate  two  forms  of 
worship  essentially  dissociable,  and  to  bring 
them  together,  too,  on  that  very  point  where 
their  difference  had  been  the  widest,  may  be 
traced,  perhaps,  to  the  early  but  innocent  rev- 
erence which  was  paid  to  martyrs.  During 
the  progress  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries 
many  new  concessions  were  made,  on  vari- 
ous and  important  points,  to  the  popular 
genius  of  the  old  superstition.  Expiatory 
processions  and  supplications  were  framed 
and  conducted  after  the  ancient  models. 
The  sanctity  which  had  been  inherent  in  the 
Temples  of  the  Gods  was  now  transferred  to 
the  Christian  Churches,  *  which  began  to 
rival  the  splendor  and  magnitude,  if  they 
failed  to  emulate  the  elegance,  of  their  pro- 
fane competitors.  If  any  inspiration  had 
been  communicated  to  the  devout  Pagan  by 
sleeping  within  the  holy  precincts,  the  same 
descended  upon  the  Convert  when  he  re- 
posed upon  a  martyr's  tomb.  If  any  purity 
had  been  conferred  by  customary  lustration, 
it  was  compensated  by  the  frequent  use  of 
holy  water.  Other  such  compromises  might 
be  mentioned ;  and  so  completely  was  the 
spirit  of  the  rejected  worship  transfused  into 
the  system  which  succeeded  it,  that  the  very 
miracles  which  the  Christian  writers  of  those 
days  credulously  retailed  concerning  their 
saints  and  martyrs  were,  in  many  instances, 
only  ungraceful  copies  of  the  long-exploded 
fables  of  heathenism  :  f  so  poisonous  was  the 
expiring  breath  of  that  base  superstition,  and 
so  fatal  the  garment  which  it  cast,  even  dur- 
ing its  latest  struggles,  over  its  heavenly  de- 
stroyer. But  in  no  respect  was  its  malice  so 
lastingly  pernicious  as  when  it  fastened  upon 


*  The  ancient  privilege  of  sanctuary  was  conferred 
upon  Christian  Churches  by  Constantine,  and  after- 
wards extended  by  Theodosius  II.  to  the  consecrated 
precincts. 

t  See  Jortin,  Eccl.  Hist.  vol.  iv.  p.  73,  124,  220, 
238,  &c.  &c. ;  and  Middleton's  Letter  from  Rome, 
passim. 


Christianity  the  badge  of  his  own  character 
by  the  communication  of  idolatrous  worship. 
It  is  true  that  in  the  ante-Nicene  Church 
martyrs  were  reverenced,  and  even  relics 
held  in  some  estimation  ;  but  no  description 
of  image,  whether  carved  or  painted,  was 
tolerated  in  the  Churches  of  Christ,  and  it 
was  through  that  distinction  chiefly  that  they 
claimed  exclusive  sanctity.  In  the  fourth 
and  fifth  centuries  the  previous  veneration 
for  the  saints  was  exalted  into  actual  worship, 
their  lives  and  their  miracles  were  recited 
and  devoured  with  ardent  credulity,  aston- 
ishing prodigies  were  performed  by  frag- 
ments of  their  bones  or  garments,  distant  and 
dangerous  pilgrimages  were  undertaken  to 
obtain  their  ashes,  or  only  to  pray  at  their 
tombs  ;  and  this  rage  was  encouraged  by  the 
unanimous  acclamation  of  the  ecclesiastical 
directors.  Yet  does  it  not  appear  that  any 
one,  even  the  least  considerate  among  those 
writers,  warmly  advocated  the  worship,  or 
even  the  use,  of  images ;  *  the  opinions  and 
practice  of  some  of  them  were  certainly  op- 
posed to  it.  Among  the  Emperors,  both 
Valens  and  Theodosius  enacted  laws  against 
the  painting  or  graving  the  likeness  of  Christ. 
Nevertheless  we  perceive  (from  passages  in 
Gregory  of  Nyssa,  St.  Cyril,  St.  Basil,  and 
others)  that  representations  of  the  combats  of 
the  martyrs,  and  of  some  scriptural  scenes, 
had  already  obtained  place  in  some  of  the 
Churches,  though  they  were  not  yet  in  gene- 
ral honor.  Thus  the  seeds  were  sown,  and 
as  they  were  watered  by  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  vulgar,  ever  prone  to  some  sort  of  sensible 
worship,  and  fondly  nourished  by  the  head- 


*  St.  Epiphanius,  in  his  letter  to  John  of  Jerusa- 
lem, translated  by  St.  Jerome,  and  written  towards 
the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  writes  as  follows:  — 
'  Having  entered  into  a  church  in  a  village  in  Pales- 
tine, named  Anablatha,  I  found  there  a  veil  which  was 
suspended  at  the  door,  and  painted  with  a  represen- 
tation, whether  of  Jesus  Christ  or  of  some  Saint,  for 
I  do  not  well  recollect  whose  image  it  was,  but  seeing 
that,  in  opposition  to  the  authority  of  Scripture,  there 
was  a  human  image  in  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  I 
tore  it  in  pieces,  and  gave  order  to  those  who  had 
care  of  that  Church  to  bury  a  corpse  with  the  veil. 
And  as  they  grumbled  out  some  answer,  that  "  since 
he  has  chosen  to  tear  the  veil  he  might  as  well  find 
another,"  I  promised  them  one,  and  I  now  discharge 
that  promise.'  Baronius,  Bellarmine,  and  some  oth- 
ers, have  disputed  the  genuineness  of  this  passage  by 
arguments,  which  have  been  very  easily  and  candidly 
confuted  by  Dupin,  Nouv.  Bibl.  Vie  de  S.  Epiphane. 
St.  Augustin  somewhere  praises  the  religious  severity 
of  the  ancient  Romans,  who  worshipped  God  without 
images. 


188 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


strong  prejudice  of  the  heathen  converts ; 
and  as  the  fathers  of  the  Church  did  not  in- 
terpose to  root  them  out,  they  spread  with 
rapid,  though,  perhaps,  silent  growth,  and 
before  the  end  of  the  sixth  century  the  use  of 
images  was  very  generally  permitted  through- 
out the  Christian  world.  During  the  pontifi- 
cate of  Gregory  the  Great,  Severus,  Bishop 
of  Marseilles,  observing  that  the  people  wor- 
shipped the  images  which  were  placed  in  his 
Church,  tore  them  down  and  destroyed  them : 
on  this  occasion  the  Pope  addressed  to  him 
two  epistles,  in  which,  while  he  praised  the 
zeal  that  combated  any  show  of  idolatry, 
he  maintained  the  propriety  of  filling  the 
Churches  with  idols ;  '  for  there  is  a  great 
difference,'  he  says,  'between  worshipping 
an  image,  and  learning,  from  the  history  rep- 
resented by  that  image,  what  it  is  that  we 
ought  to  worship;  for  that  which  writing 
teaches  to  those  who  can  read,  painting  makes 
intelligible  to  all  who  have  eyes  to  see.  It  is 
in  such  representation  that  the  ignorant  per- 
ceive what  they  ought  to  follow;  it  is  the 
book  of  the  illiterate.  On  this  account  it  is 
of  great  service  to  the  barbarians,  to  which 
circumstance  you,  who  are  placed  in  the 
midst  of  barbarians,  should  be  peculiarly  at- 
tentive, so  as  to  cause  them  no  scandal  by  an 
indiscreet  zeal.'  This  passage  probably  dis- 
closes the  principal  motive  of  that  attachment 
to  the  cause  of  the  images  which  was  after- 
wards so  warmly  manifested  by  the  Church 
of  Rome ;  at  least,  it  teaches  us,  that  the 
places,  which  they  had  gradually  usurped 
during  the  three  preceding  ages  in  the  Chris- 
tian Churches,  were  at  length  confirmed  to 
them,  and  secured  by  the  highest  authority. 
We  may  pause  once  more  to  condemn  the 
sophistry  which  distinguished  between  the 
use  and  the  worship,  and  coldly  forbade  the 
ignorant  barbarian  to  adore  an  object  which 
could  not  seriously  be  placed  in  his  hands 
with  any  other  prospect. 

The  Church  in  connexion  with  the  State. 
From  the  above  review  of  the  principal 
abuses   in   doctrine   and   discipline  *    which 

*  Dupin  has  collected  from  the  works  of  Atlianasius 
a  sort  of  summary  of  the  discipline  of  that  age.  Among 
the  particulars  we  observe,  that  there  were  Priests, 
and  even  Bishops,  who  were  married,  though  in  small 
number;  that  the  people  and  Clergy  continued  to 
choose  their  Bishops;  that  there  were  no  transla- 
tions ;  that  Lent  was  observed  as  a  fast ;  Easter  as  a 
solemn  festival;  that  the  Gospel  was  read  in  the 
vulgar  tongue.  It  is  St.  Jerome  who  has  somewhere 
declared,  that  fasting  is  not  so  truly  called  a  virtue 
as  the  foundation  of  every  virtue. 


took  root  in  the  Church  during  the  three 
centuries  following  its  establishment,  let  us 
proceed  to  consider  that  body ;  first,  in  re- 
gard to  its  connexion  with  the  state ;  secondly, 
in  respect  to  its  own  internal  administration. 
As  the  Pagan  system  was  merely  an  engine 
of  State,  so  its  entirs  regulation,  even  to  the 
performance  of  its  most  sacred  rights  and 
offices,  was  consistently  and  properly  intrust- 
ed to  the  control  and  exercise  of  the  civil 
magistrate.  The  power  which  directed  it, 
the  power  which  its  ministers  possessed  to 
enforce  their  decrees,  was  not  distinguished 
from  that  with  which  they  were  invested 
for  any  other  purpose,  —  it  was  strictly  and 
exclusively  temporal.  Christianity  rose  from 
a  very  different  foundation  ;  it  claimed  to  be 
a  direct  revelation  from  Heaven  ;  its  truth, 
not  its  utility,  was  the  fact  which  its  profess- 
ors unbendingly  asserted  by  their  arguments 
and  their  sufferings ;  they  believed  that  it  was 
the  work  of  God  which  they  were  forward- 
ing, and  that  their  souls  were  placed  for  ever 
in  his  retributive  hands.  From  this  lofty 
ground  they  were  enabled  to  discern  that 
there  was  a  limit  to  all  human  authority,  and 
that  there  was  a  Power  above,  which  was 
greater  than  the  might  of  Emperors.  That 
heavenly  power  they  considered  to  be,  iu 
some  degree,  communicated  to  Christ's  min- 
isters on  earth,  and  associated  with  their 
spiritual  office. 

During  the  period  preceding  the  accession 
of  Constantine,  the  exercise  of  this  power 
was  confined  to  preserving  the  purity  of  the 
apostolical  doctrine,  to  augmenting  the  num- 
ber, enforcing  the  morality,  and  preventing 
the  apostasy  of  the  converts.  It  was  working 
silently  among  the  faithful,  and  had  already 
established  a  solemn  and  indissoluble  con- 
nexion between  the  clergy  and  the  lower 
orders ;  but  it  had  not  hitherto,  on  any  occa- 
sion, been  brought  into  open  communication 
with  the  temporal  power,  either  to  co-operate 
or  to  contend  with  it,  nor,  indeed,  was  its 
existence  yet  acknowledged,  or  perhaps  per- 
ceived, by  the  latter.  *     Let  us  now  advance 


*  Paul  of  Samosata  was  the  subject  and  favorite  of 
Zenobia,  and  that  Queen  was  engaged  in  hostile  de- 
signs against  the  Roman  empire  at  the  time  when 
Aurelian,  on  the  solicitation  of  the  Italian  Bishops, 
deposed  the  heretic.  Semler  (Observat.  Novae,  sec. 
iii.  sec.  lv.)  seems  to  infer  from  this  coincidence,  that 
the  whole  accusation  against  Paul  proceeded  from 
political  rather  than  from  spiritual  differences,  which 
is  not  probable ;  but  we  so  far  agree  with  him  as  to 
attribute  the  interference  of  the  Emperor  entirely  to 
that  motive.     It  is  an  isolated  fact  in  the  history  of 


INTERNAL  ADMINISTRATION. 


189 


one  century,  and  consider  the  position  of  the 
Church  as  it  then  stood  in  connexion  with 
the  State.  Its  real  substantial  weight  pro- 
ceeded, in  fact,  from  one  cause,  and  from  one 
only, — the  influence  of  the  Clergy  over  the 
people.  Many  circumstances  at  tins  time 
contributed  to  confirm  and  consolidate  that 
influence  —  the  judicial  authority  and  ac- 
knowledged dignity  of  the  Bishops,  the  in- 
crease in  their  number  and  wealth,  the  pop- 
ular character  of  their  election,  their  public 
and  powerful  eloquence.  Moreover,  there 
can  be  no  question  that  even  the  spirit- 
ual control  of  the  ecclesiastics  was  exerted 
with  greater  confidence,  when  the  civil  pow- 
er was  at  hand  to  support  them  ;  while  their 
zeal  was  warmly  and  successfully  employed 
in  asserting  the  vast  superiority  of  that  con- 
trol, and  the  interests  connected  with  it,  over 
any  that  were  merely  temporal  and  worldly. 
To  these  considerations  we  should  add,  that 
during  the  three  preceding  centuries  the  no- 
bility of  the  Roman  empire  had,  for  the  most 
part,  fallen  into  decay  ;  no  body  had  grown 
up  in  the  State  to  supply  the  defect  of  the  ar- 
istocratical  influence,  and  hence  it  rose  that 
the  vacant  place  in  the  social  system  was 
occupied  by  the  Christian  hierarchy.  This 
order,  sometimes  powerful  from  other  causes, 
always  possessed  peculiar  advantages  for  the 
acquisition  of  popular  influence,  through  the 
very  office  which  forces  it  into  contact  with 
the  lower  classes,  and  through  the  attractive 
character  of  its  duties,  which  are  such  as  can 
never  fail,  when  faithfully  and  discreetly  dis- 
charged, to  conciliate  the  affections  of  those 
for  whose  happiness  alone  they  are  imposed. 
From  the  above  and  similar  causes,  the 
authority  of  the  Church  grew  with  great  ra- 
pidity even  during  the  first  century  after  its 
alliance  with  the  State  ;  of  the  boldness  thus 
communicated  to  its  individual  Ministers, 
both  in  speech  and  action,  some  instances 
have  been  mentioned,  and  many  might  be 
added.  Indeed,  the  mere  existence  of  eigh- 
teen hundred  magistrates  (to  speak  of  the 
Bishops  only)  who  held  their  offices  for  life, 
over  whose  nomination  the  civil  power  had 
no  direct  control,  who  were  connected  by  in- 
timate relations  with  the  people,  and  who,  for 
the  most  part,  were  bound  together  by  com- 
mon opinions  and  principles  and  interests, 
was  alone  sufficient  to  establish  a  counter- 
poise against  the  weight  of  imperial  despot- 


the  ante-Nicene  Church,  and  probably  only  proves 
Aurelian's  willingness  to  avail  himself  of  any  charge 
to  punish  a  magistrate  who  was  in  favor  with  his 
enemy. 


ism.  In  fact,  under  the  uncertain  sceptre  of 
the  successors  of  Constantine,  it  might  have 
been  difficult  to  moderate  the  progress  of  ec- 
clesiastical power,  had  it  not  been  checked 
and  dissipated  by  the  perpetual  dissensions 
which  divided  the  Church  itself. 

The  same  cause  which  restrained  the  vigor, 
polluted  the  character,  of  the  Church  ;  for  be- 
ing unable  immediately  to  repress  by  its  own 
spiritual  weapons  the  violent  animosities  of 
its  ministers,  and  impatient  of  the  gradual  in- 
fluence of  time  and  reason,  in  a  dark  and  dis- 
astrous moment  it  had  recourse  to  that  tem- 
poral sword  which  was  not  intended  for  its 
service,  and  which  it  has  never  yet  employed 
without  disgrace  or  with  impunity.  Thus 
was  it,  indeed,  a  blind,  if  not  suspicious  affec- 
tion, which  led  even  the  most  orthodox  Em- 
perors to  labor  for  the  '  Unity  of  the  Church  ;' 
since  it  was  the  unfailing  effect  of  their  meas- 
ures to  influence  and  nourish  the  intolerance 
of  the  ruling  party,  without  entirely  quench- 
ing even  one  among  the  thousand  eternal 
fountains  of  dissent.  We  repeat  that  the  most 
fatal  consequence  which  has  in  any  age  result- 
ed from  the  connexion  between  Church  and 
State,  is  the  application  of  the  penalties  of  the 
one  to  the  disorders  of  the  other, — the  correc- 
tion of  spiritual  offences  by  temporal  chas- 
tisements. But  that  abuse  of  the  civil  power 
is  so  far  from  being  the  necessary  conse- 
quence of  that  connexion,  that  it  is  manifestly 
injurious  to  the  interests  of  both  ;  and  since 
its  wickedness  and  its  folly  have  been  expos- 
ed and  acknowledged,  there  can  now  be  no 
circumstances  under  which  a  wise  govern- 
ment would  employ  such  interference,  or  an 
enlightened  priesthood  desire  it. 

Internal  administration  of  the  Church.  It 
has  been  observed  that  in  the  ante-Nicene 
Church  the  power  of  the  Bishop  was  closely 
limited  by  that  of  the  Presbytery  of  his  dio- 
cese, though  less  so  in  the  third,  as  it  would 
seem,  than  in  the  preceding  century.  During 
the  three  following  ages  that  restraint  was 
gradually  loosened,  though  not  yet  entirely 
cast  away.  The  affairs  of  the  diocese  were 
still,  in  name  at  least,  conducted  '  with  the  as- 
sent of  the  clergy'  (cum  assensu  clericorum;) 
and  their  influence,  in  many  places,  was  prob- 
ably more  than  nominal.  Still  we  cannot  fail 
to  observe  that  a  higher  and  more  independ- 
ent authority  was  assumed  by  the  Prelates ; 
a  broader  interval  was  interposed  between 
the  different  ranks  of  the  hierarchy  ;  the  gov- 
ernment lost  most  of  the  remains  of  its  pop- 
ular character,  and  assumed  the  form  of  an 
active  and  powerful  aristocracy.     Some  of 


190 


HISTORY   OF  THE  CHURCH. 


the  causes  of  this  change  have  been  incident- 
ally mentioned  in  the  preceding  pages ;  and 
among  them  we  should  particularly  notice 
the  prevalence  of  councils,  both  general  and 
provincial,  by  which  the  public  affairs  of  the 
Church  were  now  regulated,  and  in  which 
the  only  influential  members  were  the  Bish- 
ops.* The  legislative  authority  thus  exercis- 
ed by  the  order,  added  to  the  judicial  power 
which  was  vested  in  the  individual,  raised  the 
prelacy  to  a  necessary  and  legal  preeminence 
before  the  next  inferior  grade  of  the  ministry. 
It  would  appear,  moreover,  especially  from 
the  records  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries, 
that  the  greater  portion  of  the  learning  of  those 
times  was  in  possession  of  the  episcopal  or- 
der. Such  reasons  are  sufficient  to  account 
for  the  aggrandizement  of  that  order :  while, 
at  the  same  time,  they  show  us,  that  the  steps 
by  which  it  rose  were  neither  unlawful  nor 
dishonorable.  The  change  in  the  form  of 
Church  government  naturally  followed  the 
change  in  other  circumstances  ;  and  it  would 
be  unjust  to  qualify  that  as  usurpation,  which 
proceeded  from  causes  independent  of  private 
interest  or  professional  ambition.  It  is  not 
denied  that  such  motives  may  frequently  have 
stimulated  many  to  individual  encroachment ; 
but  the  elevation  of  the  body  was  the  natural 
effect  of  ecclesiastical,  of  political,  and  even 
of  moral  combinations. 

Having  observed  in  what  respect  the  alter- 
ation in  the  general  administration  of  the 
Church  extended  to  the  economy  of  its  sev- 
eral dioceses,  we  shall  shortly  retrace  some 
of  those  early  vestiges  of  the  monarchical  form 
of  administration,  which  were  already  dis- 
cernible during  the  rise  and  progress  of  the 
religious  aristocracy  ;  or,  in  other  words,  we 
shall  search  among  the  component  parts  of 
the  episcopal  system  for  some  elements  of  the 
papal  government.  Before  the  establishment 
of  the  Church,  notwithstanding  one  or  two 
attempts  at  aggression  on  the  part  of  Rome, 
which  were  immediately  repelled,  the  various 


*  Fifteen  Councils  are  recorded  to  have  been  held 
in  France  alone  during  the  fourth,  and  five-and-twen- 
ty  during  the  fifth  century.  The  Bishops  still  attend- 
ed as  the  deputies  of  their  people,  but  Presbyters 
appear  now  to  have  been  never  present,  unless  as 
representatives  of  their  Bishop.  Many  canons  of  the 
Councils  of  the  fifth  century  (especially  of  that  of  Or- 
ange held  in  441)  declare  that  no  Council  shall  ever 
separate  without  appointing  the  time  of  the  next 
meeting.  The  ancient  canonical  regulation  for  meet- 
ing twice  a  year  was  still  in  force,  but  in  those  dis- 
turbed ages  it  was  not  easily  observed.  See  Guizot, 
Coins  d'Histoire  Moderne,  Ie^on  iii. 


Sees  were,  without  any  acknowledged  dis- 
tinction, equal  and  independent.  Thus  far 
at  least,  the  Bishop  of  that  city  had  no  superi- 
ority, or  even  claim  to  superiority,  above  his 
brethren  ;  and  it  was  to  the  imperial  dignity 
of  his  See  that  he  owed  any  accidental  and 
voluntary  deference  which  may  have  been 
offered  to  him.  The  next  circumstance, 
second  in  time  and  very  considerable  in  in- 
fluence, which  contributed  to  his  exaltation, 
was  the  name  (for  it  was  little  more  than  the 
name)  of  Patriarch.  This  title  was  conferred 
first  upon  three,  subsequently  upon  four,  of 
the  Prelates  of  the  Eastern  Church  ;  but  in 
the  West  it  was  confined  to  the  Bishop  of 
Rome  :  and  the  distinction  was  not  without 
effect  in  creating,  especially  among  the  dis- 
tant and  the  ignorant,  that  sort  of  blind  and 
indefinite  respect  which  is  so  easily  converted 
into  submission. 

The  next  event  which  may  be  mentioned 
as  having  augmented  the  authority  of  the  See 
was  the  removal  of  the  civil  government  from 
Rome  to  Ravenna  by  Honorius.  The  do- 
mestic importance  of  the  Bishop  was  essen- 
tially increased,  and  facilities  for  usurpation 
were  created  by  the  absence  of  the  Emperor. 

That  which  follows,  perhaps,  next  in  time 
(for  we  are  disposed  to  place  it  towards  the  end 
of  the  fifth  century,)  but  which  yields  to  none 
in  importance,  was  the  special  protection 
vouchsafed  by  St.  Peter  to  the  same  See,  and 
at  this  time  loudly  asserted  by  it.  While  some 
have  invented  circumstantial  fables  respect- 
ing the  marvellous  success  of  that  apostle  in 
Italy  and  at  Rome,  others  have  advanced  in- 
genious arguments  to  show  that  he  never  at 
all  visited  that  city.  To  us,  so  far  as  any 
opinion  can  be  formed  on  so  obscure  a  mat- 
ter, it  appears  probable  that  St.  Peter  died  at 
Rome,  as  well  as  St.  Paul ;  and  during  their 
previous  residence  there,  it  is  not  impossible 
that  the  one  may  have  presided  over  the 
Jewish,  while  the  other  superintended  the 
heathen,  converts.  But  the  question  itself 
can  now  possess  so  little  importance  in  the 
mind  of  any  reasonable  being,  that  we  care 
not  to  leave  it  in  uncertainty.  However,  it  is 
undisputed,  that  in  the  fifth  and  the  following 
ages  a  vast  accession  of  honor  and  sanctity 
accrued  to  the  See  of  Rome  from  its  perse- 
verance in  that  claim.  In  times  when  the 
particular  protection  of  heaven  was  believed 
to  attend  the  possession  of  the  meanest  relic 
of  the  most  obscure  martyr  ;  when  stupend- 
ous prodigies  were  performed  by  the  fragment 
of  the  garment  of  some  nameless  saint,  or  the 
dust  which  had  been  brought  from  his  tomb, 


FROM  GREGORY  TO  CHARLEMAGNE. 


191 


was  it  strange  that  a  peculiar  impression  of 
holiness  should  attach  to  that  spot  where  the 
chief  of  the  Apostles  had  suffered  a  harbarous 
death,  and  where  his  bones  still  lay  unviolated 
in  sacred  repose  ?  But  this  was  not  all — the 
martyr  of  Christ  had  been  at  the  same  time 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  ;  and  the  keys  which  had 
been  confided  to  his  inspired  wisdom  were 
still  preserved,  through  a  long  and  uninter- 
rupted chain,  to  the  Bishops  his  successors. 
Such  assertions  were  first  advanced  about 
this  period,  or  very  soon  afterwards ;  and  it 
is  one  of  the  most  certain  proofs  of  the  credit 
they  obtained,  that  applications  now  began 
very  commonly  to  be  made,  from  many  parts 
of  Europe,  for  counsel  or  opinion,  on  points 
of  discipline  or  faith  to  the  Roman  See.  It 
might,  indeed,  not  rarely  happen,  that  its  re- 
scripts were  not  obeyed  or  respected  ;  but 
still  the  appeal  was  becoming  customary,  and 
each  successive  reference  confirmed  a  prac- 
tice which  could  not  fail  in  time  to  give  some 
authority  to  the  decision.  These  are  some 
of  the  leading  circumstances  which  were  so 
far  improved  by  the  genius  of  two  among  the 
Popes,  and  the  perseverance  of  almost  all, 
that,  at  the  death  of  Gregory  the  Great,  the 
Bishop  of  Rome,  though  he  might  in  vain 
dispute  the  name  of  universal  supremacy 
with  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  was 
unquestionably  acknowledged  to  be  the  lead- 
ing member  of  the  ecclesiastical  aristocracy 
of  Europe,  the  spiritual  head  or  president  of 
the  Western  hierarchy.  * 

III.  From  Gregory  to  Charlemagne.  An 
account  of  the  general  changes  which  took 
place  in  the  Church,  during  the  two  centuries 
between  Gregory  and  Charlemagne,  has  been 
given  in  a  preceding  chapter;  and  in  respect 
to  particular  abuses  in  belief  or  discipline,  it 
appears  not  that  any  remarkable  novelty  pre- 
sented itself  during  this  period.  Among  its 
leading  features,  we  have  observed,  first,  an 


*  Still  it  is  not  asserted  that  his  authority  was 
generally  acknowledged  even  in  the  West.  Fleury 
(lib.  xxxv.  s.  19.)  fairly  admits  that  Gregory  exer- 
cised no  definite  jurisdiction  beyond  the  Churches 
which  immediately  depended  on  the  Holy  See,  and 
were  therefore  called  Suburbicarian  (Giannon.  Stor. 
di  Nap.  lib.  ii.  c.  8.)  those  of  the  South  of  Italy, 
Sicily,  and  some  other  islands.  It  is  true  that  the 
Bishop  of  Aries  was  his  vicar  in  Gaul,  as  that  of 
Thessalonica  was  in  Western  lllyria;  and  that  he 
exercised  some  inspection  over  the  Churches  of  Africa 
for  the  assembling  of  Councils  and  the  observation 
of  the  canons ;  but  he  possessed  no  ordinary  official 
authority  over  those  Churches,  nor  did  they  yet  ac- 
knowledge any  direct  positive  dependence  on  Rome. 


increasing  dissimilarity  in  character  and  in- 
stitutions between  the  Eastern  and  Western 
Churches,  which  gradually  loosened  the 
bonds  of  their  union,  and  prepared  them  for 
dissolution.  The  alterations  which  caused 
the  distinction  originated  for  the  most  part  in 
the  West,  and  are  chiefly  to  be  ascribed  to 
the  entire  social  revolution  which  was  effect- 
ed by  the  barbarian  conquests :  whereas,  in 
the  East,  the  undisputed  supremacy  of  the 
civil  power  and  the  unvarying  character  of 
the  government  prevented  any  important  in- 
novations. They  prevailed,  indeed,  to  such 
an  extent,  that  even  the  divisions  which  dur- 
ing this  period  disturbed  the  Oriental  Com- 
munion,— those  respecting  the  '  two  wills  of 
Christ,'  and  the  'worship  of  images,' — receiv- 
ed in  both  instances  their  first  impulse  from 
the  throne.  In  the  West  the  subdivision  of 
the  empire  into  numerous  and  variously- 
constituted  kingdoms,  the  peculiar  institu- 
tions, the  superstitions  and  the  ignorance  of 
the  people,  opened  an  extensive  field  for  ec- 
clesiastical exertion.  That  many  among  the 
clergy  availed  themselves  of  these  circum- 
stances for  personal  or  professional  aggrand- 
izement, the  voice  of  history  is  ever  forward 
to  proclaim  to  us ;  but  the  private  piety  of 
the  more  numerous  and  obscure  members  of 
that  order,  who  interposed,  not  ineffectually, 
their  l-eligious  offices  to  alleviate  the  wretch- 
edness and  soften  the  barbarism  of  those 
dreary  times,  is  slightly  and  incidentally  re- 
corded, though  better  deserving  of  celebrity, 
since  its  claims  are  on  the  gratitude  of  the 
latest  posterity. 

The  second  characteristic  of  this  period 
(and  we  here  confine  ourselves  to  the  West- 
ern Church)  was  the  continued  and  even  in- 
ordinate growth  of  episcopal  authority.  A 
great  number  of  causes  contributed  to  that 
result,  some  of  which  had  been  in  continual 
operation  since  the  establishment  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  others  had  grown  up  in  later  ages. 
The  most  direct  and  effectual  were  the  ex- 
tensive and  increasing  domains  of  the  Bish- 
ops; the  judicial  and  even  municipal  power 
which  they  exercised  in  their  metropolis; 
their  political  influence  in  the  great  national 
assemblies ;  the  exclusive  possession  of  a 
contracted  learning,  which  still  was  mistaken 
for  wisdom  in  an  age  nearly  destitute  of  both. 
To  these  we  may  add  the  removal  of  some 
restraints.  The  superintendence  of  the  me- 
tropolitans was  abolished,  and  it  was  supplied 
by  no  other ;  for  the  civil  governments  were 
then  too  weak  and  unstable  to  enforce  a  dis- 
puted authority,  while  that  of  the  Pope  was 


192 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


distant  and  indefinite,  even  where  it  was 
acknowledged  to  be  rightful.  *  On  the  other 
hand,  the  degraded  condition  of  the  priest- 
hood and  the  independence  conferred  on  the 
prelate  by  the  disuse  of  popular  election, 
placed  him  above  any  apprehension  of  oppo- 
sition or  censure  from  the  lower  ranks  of  the 
clergy.  And  since  the  Councils,  to  whose 
legislation  he  was  liable,  were  entirely  com- 
posed of  his  own  order,  he  had  little  reason 
to  expect  severity  from  that  quarter.  We 
have  observed  into  what  great  license  that 
unbridled  episcopal  power  was  carried. 

Thirdly.  The  Bishop  of  Rome  failed  not 
to  profit,  at  least  in  an  equal  degree,  by  the 
various  causes  which  conspired  to  the  exalta- 
tion of  his  brethren  ;  and  let  us  add  to  these, 
since  we  can  add  it  with  truth,  that  the  con- 
duct of  the  Popes  during  this  period  was  for 
the  most  part  such  as  inspired  i-espect,  and 
even  commanded  gratitude.  If  they  were 
stained  with  the  superstitions  of  the  day,  they 
lost  nothing  in  popular  opinion  by  that  fail- 
ing ;  born  at  Rome  and  at  once  elevated  from 
the  native  priesthood,  not  translated  from  a 
foreign  See,  they  began  with  some  claims  on 
the  attachment  of  their  subjects,  and  they 
maintained  them  by  the  severe  and  uncor- 
rupted  sauctity  of  their  morals.  But  besides 
these  circumstances,  we  should  also  recollect 
that  two  events  occurred  in  the  eighth  cen- 
tury, which  exclusively  promoted  the  ad- 
vancement of  that  See — -the  political  separa- 
tion of  Rome  from  the  Eastern  empire,  and 
the  donation  of  Pepin.  During  the  short  re- 
public which  followed  the  former,  the  nations 
(as  Gibbon  has  remarked)  began  once  more 
'to  seek,  on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber,  the  kings, 
the  laws,  and  the  oracles  of  then-  fate ;'  and 
the  solid  power  conferred  by  the  latter,  and 
confirmed  by  Charlemagne,  did  much  more 
than  compensate  for  the  loss  of  a  recent  and 
precarious  independence.  Once  more  asso- 
ciated as  a  powerful  member  of  the  Western 
empire,  Rome  reoccupied  the  proper  field 
of  her  ambition  and  her  triumphs.  It  is 
true  that  the  nature  of  her  warfare,  and  the 
character  of  her  weapons,  were  now  wholly 
changed ;  nevertheless,  the  temporalities  so 
profusely  conferred  upon  her,  failed  not  to 
give  great  additional  efficacy  to  her  spiritual 


*  It  would  scarcely  appear,  for  instance,  that  the 
Pope  had  any  official  communication  with  the  Church 
of  Gaul  between  Gregory  I.  and  Gregory  II.,  i.  e. 
for  about  a  hundred  and  ten  years.  Yet  the  Bishop 
of  Aries  presided  over  that  Church  in  the  character, 
or  rather  under  the  name,  of  his  Vicar.  See  Guizot, 
Hist,  de  la  Civil,  de  la  France,  le^on  xix. 


claims  —  claims  which  she  had  already  ad- 
vanced with  some  boldness,  but  which  she 
was  now  qualified  to  press,  if  disposed  so  to 
press  them,  to  the  last  extremity  of  usurpation. 

The  Athanasian  Creed.  Before  we  take 
leave  of  this  period,  it  is  proper  to  mention, 
that  the  first  appearance  of  the  Creed,  com- 
monly called  Athanasian,  is  ascribed  to  it 
with  great  probability.*  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  this  exposition  of  faith  was  com- 
posed in  the  West,  and  in  Latin  ;  but  the 
exact  date  of  its  composition  has  been  the 
subject  of  much  difference.  The  very  defi- 
nite terms,  in  which  it  expresses  the  Church 
doctrine  of  the  Incarnation,  are  sufficient  to 
prove  it  posterior  to  the  Councils  of  Ephesus 
and  Chalcedon,  or  later  than  the  middle  of 
the  fifth  century.  Again,  if  we  are  to  con- 
sider the  doctrine  of  the  double  procession  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  as  being  expressly  declared 
in  it  since  that  mystery  was  scarcely  made 
matter  of  public  controversy  until  the  eighth 
century,  it  might  seem  difficult  to  refer  a 
creed,  positively  asserting  the  more  recent 
doctrine,  to  an  earlier  age.  But  the  historical 
monuments  of  the  Church  do  not  quite  sup- 
port this  supposition  ;  the  Creed,  such  prob- 
ably as  it  now  exists,  is  mentioned  by  the 
Council  of  Autun  f  in  the  year  670,  and  its. 
faithful  repetition  by  the  Clergy  enjoined 
and  we  find  the  same  injunction  repeated  in 
the  beginning  of  the  ninth  age.  Thus  it 
gradually  gained  ground  ;  nevertheless,  there 
seems  to  be  great  reason  for  the  opinion,  that 
it  was  not  universally  received  even  in  the 
Western  Church  until  nearly  two  centuries 
afterwards. 

Considered  as  an  exposition   of  doctrine, 

*  Bishop  Pearson,  Archbishop  Usher,  Hamond, 
L'Estrange,  Dr.  Cave,  Schelstrate,  Pagi,  and  Du 
Pin,  are  all  of  opinion  that  this  creed  was  composed, 
not  by  Athanasius,  but  by  a  later  and  a  Latin  writer. 
Vossius,  Quesnel,  and  others,  go  so  far  as  to  ascribe 
it  to  Vigilius  Tapsensis,  an  African  Bishop,  who 
lived  at  the  end  of  the  fifth  century.  This  last  posi- 
tion, however,  is  not  indisputable ;  though  Vigilius 
certainly  published  some  writings  under  the  name  of 
Athanasius,  with  which  this  creed  is  frequently 
joined. 

f  '  Siquis  Presbyter,  Diaconus,  Subdiaconus,  vel 
Clericus,  Symbolum,  quod  inspirante  S.  Spiritu 
Apostoli  tradiderant,  vel  Fidem  S.  Athanasii  Pra- 
sulis  irreprehensibiliter  non  recensuerit  ab  Episcopo 
condamnetur. '  Cone.  Augustodun,  Can.  ult.,  aa 
cited  by  Bingham.  At  a  Council,  held  at  Toledo  in 
675,  an  exposition  of  this  Trinitarian  doctrine  waw 
published,  very  nearly  resembling  that  contained  in 
the  Athanasian  Creed.  (Semler.  Cent.  vii.  cap.  iii.) 
In  794  Theodulphus  Aurelianensis  again  mentions  the 
Creed  as  Athanasius's. 


JURISDICTION  Ob'  THE  CLERGY. 


193 


the  Athanasian  creed  contains  a  faithful  sum- 
mary of  the  high  mysteries  of  Christianity  as 
interpreted  by  the  Church  of  Rome.  Con- 
sidered as  a  rule  of  necessary  faith  enforced 
by  the  penalty  of  eternal  condemnation,  the 
same  creed  again  expresses  one  of  the  most 
rigid  principles  of  the  same  Church.  The 
Unity  of  the  Church  comprehended  unity  of 
belief:  there  could  be  no  salvation  out  of  it ; 
nor  any  hope  for  those  who  deviated  even 
from  the  most  mysterious  among  its  tenets. 
And  thus,  by  constant  familiarity  with  the 
declaration  of  an  exclusive  faith,  the  heart  of 
many  a  Romish  priest  may  have  been  closed 
against  the  sufferings  of  the  heretic,  rescued 
(as  he  might  think)  by  the  merciful  chastise- 
ment of  the  Church  from  the  flames  which 
are  never  quenched ! 

It  would  be  irrelevant  in  this  work,  and 
wholly  unprofitable,  to  inquire,  how  far  any 
temporary  circumstances  may  have  justified 
the  introduction  of  the  Athanasian  creed  into 
the  Liturgy  of  our  own  Church — constructed 
as  that  Church  is  on  the  very  opposite  princi- 
ple of  universal  charity.  But  we  cannot  for- 
bear to  offer  one  remark,  naturally  suggested 
by  the  character  and  history  of  this  creed, 
that  if,  at  any  future  time,  it  should  be  judged 
expedient  to  expunge  it,  there  is  no  reason, 
there  is  scarcely  any  prejudice,  which  could 
be  offended  by  such  erasure.  *  The  sublime 
truths  which  it  contains  are  not  expressed  in 
the  language  of  Holy  Scripture  ;  nor  could 
they  possibly  have  been  so  expressed,  since 
the  inspired  writers  were  not  studious  mi- 
nutely to  expound  inscrutable  mysteries. 
Neither  can  it  plead  any  sanctity  from  high 
antiquity  or  even  traditional  authority  ;  since 

*  The  opinions  of  some  of  our  own  Churchmen  on 
this  subject,  are  collected  by  Clarke  in  his  Book  on 
the  Trinity.  The  expression  of  Bishop  Tomline 
cannot  be  too  generally  known — 'We  know  (he 
says)  that  different  persons  have  deduced  different 
and  even  opposite  doctrines  from  the  words  of  Scrip- 
ture, and  consequently  there  must  be  many  errors 
among  Christians;  but  since  the  Gospel  nowhere  in- 
forms us  what  degree  of  error  will  exclude  from  eter- 
nal happiness,  I  am  ready  to  acknowledge  that  in  my 
judgment,  notlnvithstanding  the  authority  of  former 
limes,  our  Church  would  have  acted  more  wisely  and 
more  consistently  with  its  general  principles  of  mild- 
ness and  toleration,  if  it  had  not  adopted  the  damna- 
tory clauses  of  the  Athanasian  Creed.  Though  I 
firmly  believe  that  the  doctrines  themselves  of  this 
Creed  are  all  founded  in  Scripture,  I  cannot  but  con- 
ceive it  to  be  both  unnecessary  and  presumptuous  to 
say,  that  "except  every  one  do  keep  them  whole  and 
undefiled,  without  doubt  he  shall  perish  everlasting- 
ly." '     Exposition,  part  iii.  art.  viii. 


25 


it  was  composed  many  centuries  after  the 
time  of  the  apostles,  in  a  very  corrupt  age  of 
a  corrupt  Church,  and  composed  in  so  much 
obscurity,  that  the  very  pen  from  which  it 

proceeded  is  not  certainly  known  to  us 

The  inventions  of  men,  when  they  have  been 
associated  for  ages  with  the  exercise  of  re- 
ligion, should  indeed  be  touched  with  respect 
and  discretion  ;  but  it  is  a  dangerous  error  to 
treat  them  as  inviolable  ;  and  it  is  something 
worse  than  error  to  confound  them  in  holi- 
ness and  reverence  with  the  words  and 
things  of  God. 

IV.  There  are  two  subjects  which  we 
have  hitherto  refrained  from  noticing,  not- 
withstanding their  great  importance — the 
Jurisdiction  and  Judicial  Immunities  of  the 
Clergy,  and  the  Revenues  of  the  Church. 
We  have  purposely  deferred  them  until  this 
occasion  ;  because  both  were  deeply  influ- 
enced by  the  ecclesiastical  policy  of  Charle- 
magne ;  and  the  former  can  scarcely  be  said 
to  have  assumed  any  definite  or  tangible  form 
before  his  reign.  United,  they  constituted 
the  temporal  power  of  the  Clergy  ;  and  that 
object  will  be  so  constantly  before  our  eyes 
in  the  future  pages  of  this  History,  that  we 
must  no  longer  delay  to  examine  the  materi- 
als which  formed  it. 

Jurisdiction  of  the  Clergy.  The  arbitrative 
authority  of  the  Primitive  Bishops  was  tole- 
rated or  overlooked  by  the  Pagan  Emperors  ; 
if  it  received  no  direct  discouragement  from 
the  civil  power,  it  was  never  aided  nor  even 
recognised  by  it.  It  reached  of  course  only 
those  who  voluntarily  sought  it,  and  was 
binding  upon  none  who  chose  to  appeal 
from  it  to  the  secular  courts.  The  ecclesi- 
astical offences  of  Bishops  were  subject  to 
the  decision  of  provincial  councils;  but  in 
respect  to  all  temporal  matters,  they  were  on 
the  same  footing  with  the  other  subjects  of 
the  empire. 

The  arbitration  of  the  Bishops  was  ratified 
by  Constantine ;  and  the  magistrates  were 
instructed  to  execute  the  episcopal  decrees.  * 
At  the  same  time  it  seems  certain  that  this 
power  was  for  some  time  confined  (1.)  to 
spiritual  differences  and  offences;  (2.)  to 
such  questions  of  a  temporal  nature  as  were 
brought  before  the  Bishop  by  the  joint  refer- 

*  Gibbon  (who  quotes  Euseb.  Vit.  Const,  iv.  27; 
and  Sozom.  i.  9)  has  treated  this  subject  in  his  twen- 
tieth chapter;  but  in  the  following  account  we  have 
chiefly  followed  Fleury,  in  his  Seventh  Discourse; 
and  Giannone,  Storia  di  Napoli,  1.  ii.  c<  8;  1.  iii.  c 
6;  1.  vi.  c.  7. 


/ 


194 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


ence  of  both  parties ;  (3.)  to  civil  suits,  in 
which  both  parties  were  Clerks.  And  it  is 
even  probable,  that,  in  the  second  of  these, 
the  decision  of  the  Bishop  was  then  liable  to 
an  appeal  to  the  civil  tribunals.  The  suc- 
ceeding Emperors,  for  nearly  two  hundred 
years,  were  contented  to  publish  such  occa- 
sional edicts,  as  seem  rather  intended  to 
check  any  encroachments  by  which  the  ec- 
clesiastical privileges  may  have  gained  or 
suffered,  than  to  alter  the  nature  of  the  laws 
on  that  subject.  For  instance,  in  the  year 
398,  Honorius  proclaimed  that  it  was  permit- 
ted to  those  who  desired  it,  to  plead  before 
the  Bishop,  but  in  civil  matters  only ;  and  in 
408,  he  ordered  the  arbitrative  sentence  of 
the  Bishop  to  be  executed  without  appeal  to 
the  civil  officers.  In  456,  Marcian  ordained, 
that  a  plaintiff  who  should  object  to  bring  a 
Clerk  before  the  Archbishop  had  no  resource, 
except  to  summon  him  before  the  Praetorian 
Prefect,  which  he  might  do.  In  452,  Valen- 
tinian  III.  declared,  that  the  Bishop  had  no 
power  to  judge  even  Clerks,  unless  by  their 
own  consent,  and  in  virtue  of  a  compromise  ; 
because  ecclesiastics  had  no  tribunal  estab- 
lished by  law,  nor  any  legal  cognizance, 
except  of  religious  matters.  There  were 
constitutions  of  Arcadius  and  Honorius  and 
of  Theodosius  to  the  same  effect.  Thus  far, 
then,  it  seems  clear,  that  the  Episcopal 
Courts  (if  we  are.  to  give  them  that  name) 
possessed  no  coercive  authority  over  laymen, 
nor  indeed  any  which  could  properly  be  de- 
signated jurisdiction. 

The  first  change  was  introduced  by  Jus- 
tinian ;  and  it  is  important  to  observe  exactly 
to  what  extent  it  went.  That  legislator,  wil- 
ling to  enlarge  the  privileges  of  the  Church, 
enacted  (1.),  That  in  Civil  actions  Monks  and 
Clerks  should,  in  the  first  instance,  go  before 
the  Bishop,  who  should  decide  the  difference 
without  any  publicity  or  judicial  parade ; 
still,  if  either  party,  within  ten  days,  declared 
himself  discontented  with  the  decision,  that 
the  civil  magistrate  should  take  cognizance 
of  the  cause,  not  as  a  superior,  in  form  of 
appeal,  but  as  an  equal,  examining  a  new 
question.  Their  agreement  was  conclusive  ; 
if  they  differed,  an  appeal  was  open  to  the 
Imperial  court.  (2.)  In  criminal  causes  a 
Clerk  might  be  sued  either  before  the  Bishop 
or  in  the  ordinary  Courts ;  but  if  the  defend- 
ant should  be  found  guilty  by  a  lay  judge, 
still  the  sentence  could  not  be  executed,  nor 
the  priest  degraded,  without  the  approbation 
of  the  Bishop.  In  case  that  was  refused, 
there  was  a  direct  appeal  to  the  Emperor. 


(3.)  The  Bishops  were  entirely  exempted 
from  lay  jurisdiction.  It  may  seem  scarcely 
necessaiy  to  add,  that  all  cognizance  of  spir- 
itual matters,  from  the  crime  of  Heresy  down 
to  what  were  held  the  more  venial  offences 
of  Simony,  clerical  insubordination,  and  even 
the  violation  of  the  ecclesiastical  discipline 
by  laymen,  was  confided,  as  it  had  always 
been,  to  the  unrestricted  authority  of  the 
Church.  Still  we  should  observe,  that  as 
temporal  power  was  yet  entrusted  to  the 
spiritual  judges  for  the  enforcement  of  their 
sentence,  the  penalties  which  they  could  im- 
mediately inflict  were  censure,  suspension, 
deposition,  fasting,  penance,  excommunica- 
tion— penalties  which,  in  those  ages,  not  only 
inspired  terror,  but  involved  much  positive 
suffering — but  to  touch  the  person  or  proper- 
ty of  the  culprit  the  aid  of  the  secular  author- 
ity was  still  necessary. 

After  the  time  of  Justinian,  we  are  not 
informed  that  any  material  change  was  intro- 
duced into  this  department  of  the  constitution 
of  the  Eastern  Church  ;  in  fact  and  practice 
it  is  not  probable  that  the  Clergy  then  en- 
croached with  any  success  on  the  civil,  which 
was  so  nearly  identified  with  the  imperial, 
power,  and  which  at  all  times  was  jealously 
maintained.  In  the  West,  during  the  period 
of  dark  confusion  which  divided  Justinian 
from  Charlemagne,  some  additions  were 
made  to  the  immunities  of  the  Clergy  in  most 
of  the  provinces,  and  especially  in  Gaul ;  but 
neither  were  these  universally  acknowledged, 
nor  securely  enjoyed  ;  and  it  was  not  till  the 
great  restorer  of  the  Western  Empire  had 
leisure  to  legislate  for  the  happiness  (as  he 
believed)  of  his  subjects,  that  the  character 
of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  and  immunity 
was  wholly  and  permanently  altered.  Char- 
lemagne voluntarily  conceded  to  the  Church 
(1.)  that  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Bishop  should 
extend  to  all  causes  which  either  of  the  par- 
ties, whether  Clerks  or  not,  chose  to  refer  to 
it,  and  that  there  should  be  no  appeal  from 
his  decision  ;  *  (2.)  that  the  whole  body  of 
the  Clergy  should  be  entirely  exempt  from 
secular  jurisdiction.  The  enormous  extent 
of  power  f  conferred  by  the  first  of  these 
Capitularies  was  confirmed  by  the  right  of 
imprisonment  (the  Jus  Carceris),  which  was 
also  granted  to  the  episcopal  Judge  ;  so  that 


*  Tiie  testimony  of  one  bishop  was  received  in 
every  cause  as  conclusive. 

t  By  the  Council  held  at  Aries  in  813,  the  edicts 
of  which  were  confirmed  by  Charlemagne,  it  was  or- 
dained, '  that,  if  judges  and  people  in  power  do  not 
pay  deference  to  the  bishop's  instructions,  he  shall 


JURISDICTION  OF   THE  CLERGY. 


195 


the  rncaus  which  he  thus  possessed  of  execut- 
ing his  own  decisions,  rendered  him,  in  a 
great  degree,  independent  of  the  civil  author- 
ities. The  effect  of  the  second  was  to  widen 
the  distinction,  already  too  broad,  which  sub- 
sisted between  Clerks  and  Laymen,  and  to 
increase  the  distrust  with  which  the  sacred 
orders  already  began  to  be  regarded,  by  en- 
tirely withdrawing  their  offences  from  the 
cognizance  of  secular  justice.  It  seems,  in- 
deed, to  be  true,  that  Charlemagne  thus  grant- 
ed to  the  Clergy  both  greater  power  and 
greater  immunity,  than  the  existing  state  of 
society  permitted  them  to  exert  or  enjoy. 
Such,  nevertheless,  were  become  their  rights; 
and  in  so  far  as  the  mere  possession  of  them 
was  the  object  of  the  struggles  which  they 
maintained  in  after  ages,  we  cannot  justly 
censure  them.  Neither  ought  we  to  forget, 
that  a  different,  and  even  a  more  solid  ground- 
work of  judicial  authority  began  to  fall  into 
their  occupation  during  this  period.  Many 
of  the  Sees  were  already  enriched  with  large 
territorial  endowments,  and  consequently  ex- 
ercised all  the  rights  in  those  days  annexed 
to  them  ;  and  not  the  least  valuable  among 
these  was  the  administration  of  justice.  By 
this  circumstance  the  character  of  the  Ec- 
clesiastical jurisdiction  became  inextricably 
complicated  ;  and  the  lines,  by  which  it  was 
separated  from  the  authority  of  the  civil  tribu- 
nals, were  rendered  so  indistinct  even  where 
they  really  existed,  that  incessant  and  una- 
voidable occasions  were  afforded  for  artful 
encroachment  on  the  one  hand,  and  violent 
aggression  on  the  other.  But  these  were 
the  evils  of  after  ages  ;  the  design  of  Charle- 
magne was  probably  no  more,  than  to  vest 
extensive  judicial  power  in  the  most  enlight- 
tened  body  in  his  empire ;  and  no  doubt  he 
trusted  to  prevent  its  abuse  by  the  vigorous 
exercise  of  his  own  supremacy. 

In  the  mean  time,  while  the  Episcopal 
order  was  thus  generally  strengthened  and 
aggrandized,  the  particular  interests  of  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  were  especially  promoted. 
Adrian  I.,  a  man  of  great  talents  and  much 
influence  with  the  French  King,  occupied 
the  Papal  Chair  at  this  crisis  ;  and  while  he 
profited,  as  he  was  justified  in  doing,  by  the 
voluntary  and  legitimate  donations  of  that 
Monarch,  he  also  adopted  (as  some  historians 
think)  a  less  ingenuous  method  of  exalting  his 


give  information  thereof  to  the  king.  All  the  people 
shall  obey  the  bishop,  even  the  counts  and  judges ;  and 
they  shall  act  in  concert  for  the  maintenance  of  peace 
and  justice."     See  Fleury,  H.  E.  1.  46,  sect.  ii. 


own  See.  So  much,  at  least,  is  certain,  that 
two  instruments,  now  denominated  the '  False 
Decretals,'  and  the  '  Donation  of  Constantine,' 
the  two  most  celebrated  monuments  of  hu- 
man imposture  and  credulity,  were  put  forth 
about  the  conclusion  of  the  eighth  century, 
and  immediately  and  universally  received  as 
genuine.  Probably  they  were  the  composi- 
tion of  some  monk  or  scribe  of  that  age.* 
Their  direct  object  was  the  unlimited  ad- 
vancement of  the  Roman  See  ;  and  for  that 
purpose,  the  Decretals  furnished  the  spiritual, 
the  donation  the  temporal,  authority  ;  the  for- 
mer, professing  to  be  a  compilation  of  the 
epistles  and  decrees  of  primitive  Popes  and 
early  Emperors,  derived  from  the  first  ages 
the  ghostly  omnipotence  of  Rome.f  While 
the  latter  proclaimed  no  less  than  that  Con- 
stantine, on  removing  the  seat  of  government 
to  the  East,  had  consigned  the  Western  Em- 
pire to  the  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual  gov- 
ernment of  the  Bishop  of  Rome — unbounded 
dominion  over  Churches,  and  nations,  and 
kings,  was  delegated  to  the  successor  of  St. 
Peter  and  the  Vicar  of  Christ.  It  was  assert- 
ed that  the  original  deed  of  the  Emperor  had 
been  recently  discovered  :  the  monstrous  for- 
gery went  forth,  and  spread  itself  through  the 
world  without  confutation,  seemingly  without 
suspicion ;  and  it  continued  for  above  six 
hundred  years  to  form  the  most  prominent, 
and  not  the  least  solid,  among  the  bulwarks 
of  Papacy. 

If,  indeed,  Charlemagne  shared  in  thi3 
matter  the  credulity  of  his  subjects,  we  may 
reasonably  infer  the  very  narrow  extent  of  his 
own  learning,  and  his  little  familiarity  with 

*  See  Mosh.  Cent.  viii.  p.  ii.  chap.  ii.  The  former 
of  these  forgeries  is  frequently  called  the  '  Decretals  of 
Isidore.'  There  was  a  celebrated  Bishop  of  Seville  of 
that  name  in  the  sixth  century,  and  it  was  probably 
thought,  that  it  would  add  some  authority  to  the  Col- 
lection, if  it  could  be  received  as  his  work.  But, 
unfortunately,  it  contains  some  mention  of  the  Sixth 
General  Council,  which  was  later  than  the  death  of 
that  Isidore.  The  clumsiness  of  the  fabrication  is  ac- 
knowledged and  exposed  by  Fleury,  liv.  xliv.  sect.  22. 

f  The  false  Decretals  advanced  to  this  end,  to  the 
great  detriment  both  of  Church  and  State,  chiefly  by 
three  methods:  (1.)  They  diminished  the  frequency 
of  provincial  councils  by  asserting  for  the  Pope  the 
exclusive  right  to  summon  them;  and  those  councils 
contributed  very  usefully  both  to  the  discipline  and 
independence  of  the  Church.  (2.)  They  gave  great 
encouragement  to  Episcopal  license  by  subjecting  the 
Bishops  to  Papal  authority  only,  and  thus  offering 
them  a  fair  prospect  of  impunity.  (3.)  They  disturb- 
ed the  course,  and  diverted  the  efficacy,  of  justice,  by 
promoting  the  practice  of  appeal  to  the  Roman  See. 


196 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


the  annals  of  the  preceding  ages.  That  he 
did  so  is  not  impossible  ;  at  least,  it  appears 
certain,  that  his  capitulary  respecting  Epis- 
copal jurisdiction  was  in  part  founded  on  an- 
other forgery — a  Constitution  which  was  for 
many  ages  attached,  under  the  name  of  Con- 
stantine,  to  the  Theodosian  Code,  but  which 
has  long  been  condemned  as  a  production  of 
the  eighth  or  preceding  century.  The  credit 
of  this  preliminary  fraud  may  have  embold- 
ened its  patrons  to  make  a  more  audacious 
attempt  on  his  facility.  Upon  the  whole, 
however,  we  are  very  far  from  attributing  so 
decided  a  course  of  policy  in  so  great  a 
Prince  to  the  success  of  an  ecclesiastical  im- 
posture. Without  any  knowledge  of  the  pre- 
tensions or  existence  of  those  fabrications, 
there  were  reasons  sufficient  why  Charle- 
magne should  be  willing  to  aggrandize  a 
Prelate  whose  interests  were  closely  connect- 
ed with  his  own  ;  and  to  propitiate  an  order  * 
of  which  the  power  was  very  considerable, 
and  the  influence  still  greater  than  the  power ; 
from  which  he  was  receiving  and  expecting 
eminent  personal  as  well  as  political  services ; 
which  he  considered  as  a  counterpoise  to  the 
licentiousness  of  his  nobles,  and  to  which  he 
looked  for  the  gradual  improvement  and  civ- 
ilization of  his  subjects.  It  should  be  remem- 
bered, too,  that  during  the  whole  of  his  long 
reign  he  maintained  the  royal  authority  in- 
disputably paramount  to  every  other,  and  that 
if  his  posterity,  some  of  whom  were  the  fee- 
blest of  the  human  race,  had  inherited  any 
share  of  his  talent  or  vigor,  the  subsequent 
usurpations  of  the  Clergy  could  not  have  been 
accomplished,  and  might  not  have  been  med- 
itated ;  while  the  advantages,  which  Charle- 
magne reasonably  anticipated  for  the  State 
from  their  subordinate  co-operation  with  the 
Prince,  would  have  been  certainly  and  splen- 
didly realized. 

V.    Revenues  of  the  Church.    During  the 
three  first  centuries  the  clergy  were  support  - 


*  The  increase  of  Papal  power  was  very  fairly 
balanced  within  the  Church  by  the  general  augmen- 
tation of  Episcopal  authority  and  influence  which  ac- 
companied it.  The  entire  Ecclesiastical  body  was 
exceedingly  aggrandized,  but  in  such  measure  that  the 
head  did  not  immediately  exceed  the  proportion  of 
the  other  principal  members.  It  is  true  that,  by  the 
seeds  then  sown,  the  disease  of  after  ages  was  engen 
dered;  but  time  was  required  to  give  them  efficacy, 
and  during  the  century  which  followed  Charlemagne, 
the  power  of  the  Bishops,  or  (as  they  called  it)  their 
independence,  was  boldly  and  not  uncommonly  as- 
serted. 


ed  by  the  voluntary  oblations  of  the  faithful ; 
these  were,  in  the  first  instance,  daily  or 
weekly :  they  were  offered  on  the  altar,  and 
for  the  most  part  by  communicants.  This 
example  led  at  an  early  period  to  the  pay- 
ment of  monthly  offerings,  which  were  placed 
in  the  treasury  of  the  Church.  '  Every  one ' 
(says  Tertullian*)  '  brings  a  moderate  contri- 
bution once  a  month,  or  when  he  chooses, 
and  only  if  he  chooses  and  is  able  ;  for  there 
is  no  compulsion,  but  the  gift  is  spontaneous 
— being,  as  it  were,  the  deposit  of  piety.' 
The  sums  which  were  thus  presented  by  the 
generous  devotion  of  the  converts,  and  which, 
in  the  third  century  at  least,  were  far  from  in- 
considerable, were  entrusted  to  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Bishop ;  and  employed  in  the 
maintenance  of  the  clergy,  f  in  the  support 
of  public  worship,  in  the  relief  of  widows  and 
orphans,  and  persons  suffering  persecution. 
It  also  appears,  that,  before  the  reign  of  Dio- 
cletian, the  Church  had  become  possessed  of 
some  fixed  property,  which  that  Emperor  con- 
fiscated ;  we  do  not  learn  whether  it  was  ob- 
tained by  purchase  or  donation  ;  \  in  either 
case  it  must  have  borne  a  very  trifling  pro- 
portion to  the  revenues  derived  from  custom- 
ary oblation. 

Constantine  restored  and  confirmed  to  the 
Church  such  property  as  it  had  acquired 
under  the  heathen  Emperors,  and  then  enact- 
ed laws  to  permit  and  encourage  its  increase. 
Thus  the  sources  of  ecclesiastical  wealth 
were  varied  and  multiplied,  and  the  work 


*  Apolog.  c.  29.  His  words  are  these — '  Neque  pre- 
tio  ulla  res  Dei  constat.  Etiam  siquod  Areas  genus 
est,  non  de  oneraria  summa  quasi  redemptae  religionis 
congregatur:  modicam  unusquisque  stipem  menstrua 
die,vel  cum  velit,etsi  modo  velit  etsi  modo  possit,  ap- 
ponit.  Nam  nemo  compellitur,  sed  spoute  confert.  Hasc 
quasi  depositapietatis  sunt.'  The  term  (stipem)  is  bor- 
rowed from  the  use  of  the  heathen  in  the  collections 
made  by  them  for  religious  purposes.  Tertullian  pro- 
ceeds to  enumerate  several  charitable  objects  to  which 
the  Christian  offerings  were  applied.  '  Egenis  alendis 
humandisque,et  pueris  ac  puellis  re  et  parentibus  des- 
titutis,  jetateque  domitis  senibus,  item  naufragis  et  si 
qui  in  metallis  et  si  qui  in  insulis  vel  in  custodiis  dun- 
taxat  ex  causa  Dei  sectas  alumni  confessionis  sua? 
fmnt.' 

f  The  monthly  salaries  given  to  the  Ministers  of 
the  Gospel  are  mentioned  by  Cyprian  by  the  name  of 
Jlensurnae  Divisiones. 

%  Padre  Paolo  (Hist.  Eccles.  Benefices)  ascribes  it 
to  donations  made  during  the  confusion  which  pre- 
vailed in  the  empire  after  the  imprisonment  of  Valeri- 
an, when  the  general  Roman  law,  which  forbade  the 
bequeathing  of  real  estates  to  any  college,  society,  or 
corporation,  without  the  approbation  of  the  Senate  or 
the  Prince,  may  have  been  violated  with  safety 


REVENUES. 


197 


which  was  begun  by  Constantine  was  some- 
what advanced  by  his  immediate  successors. 
Occasional  allowances  were  advanced  from 
the  exchequer;  the  estates  of  martyrs  and 
confessors  dying  without  heirs  were  settled 
on  the  Church ;  presently  those  of  all  clergy- 
men so  dying  were  similarly  disposed  of;  * 
and  while  some  Princes  transferred  to  the 
Christian  establishment  the  temples  of  the 
Heathen  and  their  revenues,  there  were  oth- 
ers who  extended  the  same  principle  to  the 
Churches  of  the  heretics.  At  the  same  time, 
the  original  oblations  continued  to  be  abun- 
dantly supplied  ;  and  a  still  broader  field  was 
opened  by  the  general  and  unlimited  permis- 
sion which  was  given  to  bestow  real  property 
upon  the  Church,  both  by  donation  and  lega- 
cy. The  disposition  not  uncommonly  exist- 
ing to  act  on  that  permission  was  encouraged 
by  the  baser  portion  of  the  clergy  ;  and  their 
persuasions  were  sometimes  conducted  with 
so  little  decency,  that  it  became  necessary  to 
impose  a  legal  restraint  f  upon  their  cupidity. 
Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  occasional  interrup- 
tion, the  tide  flowed  onward  ;  the  partial  de- 
relictions of  the  ecclesiastical  body  were 
forgotten  in  their  general  power,  their  dignity, 
and  their  virtues  ;  \  and,  before  the  close  of 

*  The  former  by  a  law  of  Constantine,  the  latter 
by  one  of  Theodosius  II.  and  Valentinian  III.  See 
Bingham's  Antiq.  book  v.  ch.  iv. 

t  There  is  a  remarkable  law  of  Valentinian  (made 
in  370,  and  particularly  addressed  to  Dauiasus, 
Bishop  of  Rome),  which  forbids  Churchmen  to  fre- 
quent the  houses  of  widows  and  orphans,  or  to  receive 
any  gifts,  directly  or  indirectly,  by  will  or  donation, 
from  women  to  whom  they  might  have  attached  them- 
selves under  pretext  of  religion.  '  Ecclesiastici  aut 
ex  ecclesiaticis  viduarum  et  pupillorum  domus  non 
adeant,  sed  publicis  exterminentur  judiciis,  si  eos 
affines  eorum  vel  propinqui  putaverint  defurendos. 
Cetisemus  etiam  ut  memorati  nihil  de  ejus  mulieris, 
cui  se  privatim  sub  pretextu  religionis  adjunxerint, 
liberalitate  quacunque  vel  extremo  judicio  possint 
adipisci,  et  omne  in  tantum  inefficax  sit  quod  alicui 
horum  ab  his  fuerit  derelictum,  ut  nee  per  subjectam 
personam  valeant  aliquid  vel  donatione  vel  testamento 
recipere.'  (Lege  20.  Cod.  Theod.  de  Episc.  et  Ec- 
cles.)  This  was  presently  (in  390)  followed  by  an- 
other to  the  same  effect,  but  more  generally  expressed. 
The  former  would  not  seem  to  preclude  gifts  to  the 
Church,  as  a  body,  only  to  individual  ministers;  the 
latter  goes  so  far  as  to  ordain  '  nullam  Ecclesiam, 
nullum  Clericum,  nullum  pauperem  scribat  hoeredes.' 
We  may  here  also  observe,  that  Charlemagne  made  a 
law  to  prevent  the  Church  from  receiving  any  gifts 
which  disinherited  children  and  kindred.  See  Padre 
Paolo,  ch.  vi. 

%  The  most  pious  among  the  Fathers  raised  their 
voices  very  early  against  the  practice  of  making 
over  fixed  property  to  the  Church.     St.  Chrysostom 


the  fifth  century,  the  Church  had  very  amply 
profited  by  the  pious  generosity  of  the  faith- 
ful. 

The  increase  of  ecclesiastical  revenues  was 
further  aided  by  certain  exemptions  granted 
to  the  clergy  by  the  first  Christian  Emperors. 
These,  though  not  so  general  as  some  have 
supposed,  were  numerous  and  important.  It 
appears  certain  that  Church  lands  were  liable 
to  the  ordinary  tax  (census  agrorum)  or  ca- 
nonical tribute  ;  *  and  also,  that  they  contin- 
ued subject  after  donation  to  all  burdens 
which  might  have  been  previously  charged 
upon  them ;  but  a  law  of  Theodosius  II. 
exempted  them  from  all  extraordinary  im- 
positions. Moreover,  ecclesiastics  were  not 
liable,  even  from  the  time  of  Constantine,  to 
the  census  capitum  or  capitation  tax ;  they 
were  also  excepted  (by  Honorius  and  Theo- 
dosius II.)  from  the  payment  of  a  number  of 
occasional  imposts,  many  of  which  are  speci- 
fied by  Bingham ;  and  it  was  not  a  trifling 
privilege,  even  in  a  pecuniary  view,  that  they 
were  relieved  from  the  discharge  of  all  the 
civil  offices  of  whatsoever  degree,  which 
were  attached  to  the  possession  of  fixed  pro- 
perty. So  studious  were  those  early  princes 
to  observe  the  distinction  between  the  spirit- 
ual and  the  temporal  character,  and,  while 
they  prevented  the  encroachments  of  the 
clergy  on  that  which  did  not  belong  to  them, 
to  give  them  the  full  benefit  of  that  which 
was  peculiarly  their  own. 

The  ancient  manner  of  dispensing  the 
revenues  of  the  Church  was  for  some  time 
maintained  without  any  remarkable  altera- 
tion.    All  alms  and   incomes  arising  from 


(Homil.  86.  in  Matt.)  attributes  the  great  corruption 
of  the  Bishops  and  other  Churchmen  to  the  possession 
of  lands  and  fixed  revenues;  since  they  forsook  their 
spiritual  occupations  to  sell  their  corn  and  wine,  to 
increase  the  value  of  their  property,  or  to  defend  it  in 
courts  of  law.  He  looks  back  with  admiration  on 
the  Apostolical  purity  of  the  Church,  when  it  was 
nourished  only  by  oblation  and  charity.  It  is  like- 
wise related  of  St.  Augustin,  that  he  would  neither 
purchase  land,  nor  even  accept  inheritances  whioh 
were  left  to  the  Church;  also  maintaining,  that  the 
system  of  oblation  and  tithe  would  be  better  calculat- 
ed to  preserve  the  peculiar  character  of  the  clergy. 
P.  Simon  observes  that  the  possession  of  any  great 
wealth  was  for  a  long  time  confined  to  the  Churches 
of  the  principal  cities.  The  opulence  of  the  Bishop 
of  Rome,  as  mentioned  by  Ammianus  Marcellinus 
(lib.  xxvii.),  must  have  been  derived  almost  entirely 
from  oblation ;  but  towards  the  end  of  the  sixth  cen- 
tury we  find  that  Prelate  in  enjoyment  of  ample 
'  Patrimonies,'  not  in  Italy  only,  but  far  beyond  its 
limits.  See  Fleury,  liv.  xxxv.  sect.  15. 
*  See  Bingham,  book  v.  ch.  iii. 


198 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


real  *  estates  were  yet  in  common,  under  the 
immediate  care  of  Deacons  and  Subdeacons, 
but  under  the  control  and  at  the  discretion  of 
the  Bishop,  who  ordered  all  the  distributions. 
The  whole  of  the  clergy  in  every  Church 
was  maintained  from  the  general  funds  of 
that  Church ;  and  in  many  places  we  find 
that  great  multitudes  of  poor  were  nourished 
by  the  same  resources. 

We  are  not  informed  that  any  material 
change  in  the  application  of  its  revenues  at 
any  time  took  place  in  the  Eastern  Church  ; 
and  we  may  even  be  allowed  to  doubt, 
whether  its  property  received  any  veiy  great 
augmentation  after  the  fifth  or  sixth  century. 
At  least  such  increase  was  incessantly  watch- 
ed by  a  powerful  and  jealous  Sovereign  ;  f 
and  the  political  revolutions,  which  finally 
raised  the  hierarchy  of  the  West  to  such  in- 
ordinate opulence,  extended  neither  in  act 
nor  influence  beyond  the  Adriatic.  The 
prevalence  of  the  monastic  spirit  did  not 
fail,  indeed,  to  create  new  establishments, 
enriched  by  new  endowments  ;  but  even  that 
spirit,  after  two  or  three  centuries  from  the 
days  of  St.  Basil,  blazed  with  little  compara- 
tive ardor  in  the  East,  where  it  was  neither 
renovated  by  perpetual  reformations,  nor 
nourished  and  diversified  by  the  interested 
patronage  of  Papacy. 

But  in  the  West,  the  confusion  introduced 
by  the  invaders  made  it  necessary,  even  in 
the  fifth  century,  to  legislate  more  expressly 
respecting  the  revenues  of  the  Church.  It 
was  discovered  that  the  confidence,  placed 
from  the  earliest  ages  in  the  discretion  of  the 
Bishop,  was  now  occasionally  abused,  and 
began  to  require  the  restraint  of  some  canon- 
ical regulations.  It  was,  therefore,  ordained 
about  the  year  470  +  that  the  revenue  should 


*  See  Padre  Paolo,  Eccles.  Benef.  ch.  vi. 

f  At  an  early  period  stewards  were  appointed  to 
superintend  the  temporalities  of  the  Churches,  and 
were  chosen  by  the  Bishop.  But  as  abuses  were 
found  to  proceed  from  this  arrangement,  the  Council 
of  Chalcedon  decreed,  that  the  stewards  should  for 
the  future  be  chosen  from  among  the  clergy,  and  that 
the  administration  of  the  revenues  should  no  longer 
be  left  in  the  power  of  the  Bishop.  That  office  be- 
came afterwards  so  considerable  in  the  Church  of 
Constantinople,  that  the  Emperors  took  from  the 
clergy  the  nomination  of  the  stewards  into  their  own 
hands.  This  practice  lasted  till  the  time  of  Isaac 
Comnenus,  who  remitted  that  right  to  the  discretion 
of  the  Patriarch.  See  P.  Simon's  History  of  Eccle- 
siastical Revenues. 

%  We  follow  the  probable  conclusion  of  Padre 
Paolo,  without  being  ignorant  that  this  division  has 
been   sometimes   ascribed   to   Pope   Sylvester   (who 


be  divided  into  four  parts ;  the  first  for  tne 
Bishop,  the  second  for  the  rest  of  the  Clergy, 
the  third  for  the  fabric  of  the  Church,  the 
fourth  for  the  poor.  The  duties  of  hospital- 
ity, which  included  the  entertainment  of 
indigent  strangers,  were  annexed  to  the 
Episcopal  office.  This  distribution  related 
only  to  the  income  of  the  several  Churches: 
the  funds  whence  they  proceeded,  whether 
immovables,  oblations,  or  alms,  continued, 
as  heretofore,  the  common  property  of  the 
body.  In  the  meantime,  it  would  be  incor- 
rect to  suppose  that  the  above  division  was 
necessarily  made  into  four  equal  portions: 
the  great  variation  in  the  number  of  the  cler- 
gy and  of  the  poor,  in  the  size  and  splendor 
of  the  fabrics,  in  the  extent  of  the  diocese, 
must  have  subjected  so  very  broad  a  rule  to 
very  frequent  modification. 

During  the  tumultuous  ages  which  follow- 
ed, it  is  asserted,  without  any  improbability, 
that  the  bishops  and  clergy  in  many  places 
enlarged  their  own  portions  to  the  neglect  of 
the  sacred  buildings  and  the  destitution  of 
the  poor;  that  the  minister  frequently  con- 
verted to  his  own  use  the  offerings  deposited 
in  his  own  church  ;  and,  in  some  places,  that 
the  lands  themselves  were  divided  for  the 
usufruct  of  particular  individuals.  These 
innovations  may  have  gained  footing  insen- 
sibly at  different  times,  in  different  places ; 
and  the  last  was  ultimately  absorbed  in  that 
great  change  in  the  nature  and  distribution 
of  church  property  which  was  introduced  by 
the  system  of  feudalities. 

Those  estates,  which  the  Franks  and  Lom- 
bards called  Fiefs,  were,  by  the  Latins,  de- 
signated Beneficia,  as  being  held  by  the 
bounty  of  the  Prince.  This  term  was  orig- 
inally confined  to  baronial  or  military  ten- 
ures, and  thence  it  afterwards  passed  into 
the  service  of  the  church.  To  the  endow- 
ments of  sees  or  churches,  in  those  times  so 
commonly  made  by  princes,  the  word  '  Ben- 
efice '  was  applied,  perhaps  without  impro- 
priety ;  it  was  easily  extended  to  such  digni- 
ties as  were  conferred  by  the  bishops  with 
the  permission  of  the  princes ;  and  thus  it 
became  common  to  all  the  separate  portions 
of  the  ecclesiastical  estates.  These  altera- 
tions, though  not  completed  till  a  much  later 
period,  *  were  in  gradual  process  during  the 

lived  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  before),  on  the 
faith  of  some  writings  falsely  attributed  to  him. 

*  Some  footsteps  of  the  foundations  of  Benefices 
and  the  right  of  patronage  may  perhaps  be  discovered 
in  the  10th  Canon  of  the  First  Council  of  Orange, 


REVENUES. 


199 


seventh  and  eighth  centuries ;  in  the  mean- 
time the  territorial  possessions  of  the  Church 
were  spreading  widely  ;  and  they  had  already 
swelled  to  a  bulk  too  great  for  their  security, 
when  Charlemagne  ascended  the  throne  of 
the  Western  empire. 

Some  portion  of  those  possessions  was  un- 
questionably acquired  by  methods  disgraceful 
to  individual  churchmen,  or  through  the  cor- 
ruptions of  the  Church  itself;  and  this  was 
more  especially  the  case  (for  reasons  which 
we  have  already  given)  in  the  Latin  com- 
munion. As  to  the  former  means — the  gross 
ignorauce  of  the  barbarian  conquerors,  and 
their  hereditary  reverence  for  the  ministers 
of  religion,  offered  irrisistible  temptation  to 
the  astute  avarice  of  the  French  and  Italian 
clergy  :  for  thus,  besides  that  general  abuse  of 
spiritual  influence  for  the  spoliation  of  weak, 
or  superstitious,  or  dying  persons,  which  was 
common  to  them  with  their  Eastern  brethren, 
peculiar  facilities  and  invitations  to  imposture 
were  almost  pressed  upon  them  by  the  pop- 
ular credulity.  The  efficacy  of  gifts  to  expiate 
offences  was  a  profitable  principle,  for  which 
the  minds  of  the  converts  were  already  pre- 
pared by  their  previous  prejudices  :  the  wild 
rapacity  of  the  savage  is  usually  associated 
with  reckless  profusion  ;  and  we  cannot  doubt 
that  many  individuals  of  the  sacred  order  suc- 
cessfully availed  themselves  of  dispositions 
so  favorable  to  their  own  temporal  interests. 
Respecting  the  corruptions  of  the  Church,  it 
would  probably  be  too  much  to  assert,  that 
masses  for  the  release  of  soids  and  the  fruit- 
ful fable  of  Purgatory  were  actually  invented 
for  the  purpose  of  enriching  that  body  ;  but 
we  need  not  hesitate  to  assign  that  among  the 
leading  causes  of  the  encouragement  which 
was  given  to  them.  The  pernicious  swarm 
of  superstitious  practices,  such  as  the  wor- 
ship of  images,  the  adoration  of  Saints,  and, 
above  all,  the  demoralizing  custom  of  pilgrim- 
held  in  441: — '  But  the  custom  of  that  time  (as  P. 
Simon  remarks)  was  far  different  from  the  present 
practice.'  Again,  about  the  year  500,  under  Pope 
Symmachus)  it  appears  that  to  some  Churchmen  por- 
tions of  land  were  assigned  to  be  enjoyed  by  them  for 
life;  this  appears  from  an  Epistle  of  that  Pope  to 
Ca?sarius,  where  he  prohibits  the  alienation  of  Church 
lands,  unless  it  should  be  in  favor  of  Clerks  meriting 
such  reward — '  nisi  Clericis  honorem  mentis,  aut 
Monasteriis,  religionis  intuitu,  aut  certe  peregrinis 
necessitas  largari  suaserit — sic  tamen  ut  ha>c  ipsa  non 
perpetuo,  sed  temporal! ter,  donee  vixerint,  perfruan- 
tur.'  But  the  establishment  of  the  modern  system  of 
Benefices  is  not  commonly  referred  to  an  earlier  pe- 
riod than  the  end  of  the  tenth,  or  the  beginning  of  the 
eleventh  century. 


age,*  was  nourished  and  multiplied  princi- 
pally with  that  object;  and  the  state  of  the 
Church  at  that  period  affords  just  grounds  for 
the  melancholy  reflection,  that  the  grossest 
perversions  of  religious  truth  were  carefully 
fostered,  if  they  were  not  actually  produced, 
by  the  most  sordid  of  human  motives. 

The  Monastic  orders  did  not  lag  behind 
their  secular  competitors  in  the  race  of  ava- 
rice ;  it  appears  indeed  that  a  great  proportion 
of  the  rewards,  at  least  during  the  seventh  and 
eighth  centuries,  flowed  into  their  establish- 
ments ;  and  though  their  members  did  not 
possess  the  same  facilities  of  private  acquisi- 
tion, the  communities  have  obtained  their  full 
share  of  the  profits  of  ecclesiastical  corruption 
in  all  ages  of  the  Church. 

It  would  be  unjust,  however,  to  suppose 
that  any  very  material  part  of  the  property 
of  the  Church  was  amassed  by  the  shameful 
methods  which  we  have  mentioned;  they 
have  contributed,  indeed,  somewhat  to  swell 
its  treasures  and  greatly  to  soil  its  reputation  ; 
but  the  most  solid,  and  by  far  the  largest  por- 
tion of  its  riches  was  derived  from  sources 
not  only  lawful  but  honorable.  The  most 
abundant  of  these  was  the  pious  or  politic 
munificence  of  those  Princes  who  employed 
the  Clergy  as  the  means  of  improving,  or  of 
governing,  their  people.  Such  were  extreme- 
ly common  during  the  sixth,  seventh,  and 
eighth  centuries  ;  and  the  respect  and  prefer- 
ence which  they  thus  demonstrated  for  the 
sacred  order,  evince  its  moral  as  well  as  in- 
tellectual superiority  over  other  classes  of 
their  subjects.  Again,  the  voluntary  dona- 
tions of  wealthy  individuals  were  not  always 
made  from  superstitious  hope  or  idle  persua- 
sion ;  but  much  more  frequently,  because  the 
Church  was  the  only  channel  through  which 
the  charity  of  the  rich  could  effectually  re- 
lieve the  poor.  This  object  was  connected 
with  many  even  of  the  earliest  donations,  and 


*  Pilgrimages,  chiefly  to  the  shrines  of  St.  Peter 
at  Rome,  and  St.  Martin  at  Tours,  were,  in  the 
eighth  age,  so  common,  that  it  is  made  a  matter  al- 
most of  reproach  to  Charlemagne  himself  (by  his 
historian  Eginhart,)  that  in  the  course  of  his  long 
reign  he  had  undertaken  only  four.  The  Council  of 
Chalons  (in  813)  acknowledges  the  abuses  of  pilgrim- 
age. '  The  clergy  pretend  thereby  to  purge  them- 
selves from  sin,  and  to  be  restored  to  their  functions; 
the  laity  to  acquire  impunity  for  sins  past  or  future; 
the  powerful  convert  them  into  a  pretext  of  extor- 
tion, the  poor  of  mendicity.  Still,  we  praise  the 
devotion  of  those,  who,  to  accomplish  the  penance 
which  their  priest  has  imposed  on  them,  make  such 
pilgrimages  accompanied  by  prayer,  alms,  and  cor- 
rection of  morals  '     Fleury,  H.  E.,  1.  xlvi.,  sect,  v 


200 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


is  conspicuous  in  the  numerous  monuments 
of  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries  ;  *  and  the 
large  sums  which  were  thus  entrusted  to  reli- 
gious persons  or  establishments  for  that  pur- 
pose, while  they  multiplied  and  maintained  the 
indigent  dependants  of  the  Church,  became  the 
safest  and  the  noblest  ground  of  its  influence 
and  popularity.  Again,  a  great  proportion 
of  the  territorial  endowments  of  the  cathedrals 
and  monasteries  consisted  of  unappropriated 
and  uncultivated  lands.  These  were  gradu- 
ally brought  to  fertility  by  the  superior  skill 
and  industry  of  their  new  possessors  ;  and 
they  thus  acquired  the  most  substantial  right 
of  possession  by  labors  which  were  beneficial 
to  society.  Lastly — the  abundance  of  some 
establishments  and  the  economy  of  others 
frequently  enabled  the  community  to  amass 
sums  which  were  expended  from  time  to 
time  in  the  purchase  of  additional  estates. 
These  were  annexed  to  the  original  patrimo- 
ny ;  and  since,  in  the  general  insecurity  of 
property  prevailing  in  turbulent  ages,  there 
were  few  individuals  who  exercised  foresight 
or  economy,  these  virtues,  almost  peculiar  to 
the  ecclesiastical  establishments,  were  a  sure 
and  effective  instrument  of  their  prosperity. 

On  the  other  hand,  they  were  peculiarly 
exposed  to  the  evils  of  that  turbulence,  both 
by  their  wealth  and  their  defencelessness. 
Amidst  the  tumults  of  unsettled  governments 
and  uncivilized  society,  what  had  been  lav- 
ished by  the  bounty  of  one  was  frequently 
torn  away  by  the  rapacity  of  another ;  and 
not  the  nobles  only,  and  other  powerful  sub- 
jects engaged  in  the  work  of  spoliation,  but 
even  princes  f  would  sometimes  reward  their 
greedy  followers  by  grants  of  Church  proper- 
ty. By  such  injustice  its  increasing  dimen- 
sions were  restrained  ;  and  if  we  have  suffi- 
cient reason  to  lament  that  the  means  by 
which  it  was  acquired  were  not  all  without 
reproach,  there  may  at  least  be  room  for  rea- 
sonable doubt,  whether,  upon  the  whole,  the 
Church  did  not  suffer  as  much  by  violence 
as  it  gained  by  fraud,  in  ages  equally  favor- 
able to  the  exercise  of  both. 


*  See  Muratori's  Dissert,  xxxvii.  De  Hospitali- 
bus,  &c;  and  also  his  lvith,  De  Religione  per  Itali- 
ain,  post  ann.  500. 

t  Charles  Martel,  for  instance,  very  amply  com- 
pensated his  military  followers  for  their  successful 
defence  of  Christianity  by  the  monasteries  and  other 
ecclesiastical  endowments,  which  he  distributed  among 
them.  He  thus  incurred  the  indignation  of  St.  Boni- 
face; but  as  to  the  celebrated  vision  of  Pulcherius, 
there  seems  great  reason  to  doubt  whether  the  Bishop 
did  not  precede  the  Prince  in  the  race  of  mortality. 
See  Baron,  apud  Selden,  ch.  v 


There  is  another  source  of  ecclesiastical 
Avealth  which  we  have  not  yet  mentioned, 
because  it  acquired  no  certain  existence  be- 
fore the  reign  of  Charlemagne  —  the  posses- 
sion of  Tithes ;  but  it  is  here  proper  to  employ 
a  few  sentences  on  that  subject.  It  seems 
quite  clear  that  no  sort  of  tithe  was  paid  to 
the  ante-Nicene  Church,  nor  imposed  by  any 
of  its  councils,  nor  even  directly  claimed 
by  its  leading  ministers.  The  Levitical  insti- 
tution is  indeed  mentioned  both  by  Cyprian 
and  Origen  ;  by  the  former  *  slightly  and  al- 
most incidentally  ;  by  the  latter  with  rather 
more  fulness,  f  in  a  homily  respecting  the 
first-fruits  in  the  law.  But  even  Origen  goes 
no  farther  in  his  conclusion,  than  'that  the 
command  concerning  the  first-fruits  of  corn 
and  cattle  should  still  be  observed  according 
to  the  letter  ;'  and  we  have  no  evidence  to 
persuade  us  that  even  that  limited  position 
was  carried  into  general  practice. 

In  the  records  of  Constantine's  generosity 
to  the  new  establishment  there  is  no  mention 
made  of  tithes  :  nevertheless,  the  expressions 
both  of  St.  Ambrose  and  St.  Augustin  on  this 
subject  forbid  us  to  doubt,  that  such  payment 
was  voluntarily,  though  perhaps  very  partially 
made,  at  least  in  the  Western  Church,  before 
the  end  of  the  fourth  century.  St.  Ambrose 
boldly  claims  it  as  due  by  the  law  of  God — 
'  It  is  not  enough  that  we  bear  the  name  of 
Christians,  if  we  do  not  Christian  works:  the 
Lord  exacts  of  us  the  annual  tithe  of  all  our 
corn,  cattle,'  &c.  &c.  '  Whosoever  is  con- 
scious that  he  hath  not  faithfully  given  his 
tithes,  let  him  supply  what  is  deficient;  and 
what  is  the  faithful  payment  of  tithes,  except 
to  offer  to  God  neither  more  nor  less  than 
"that  portion,  whether  of  your  corn  or  your 
wine,  or  the  fruit  of  your  trees,  or  your  cattle, 
or  of  the  produce  of  your  garden,  your  busi- 

*  Epist.  66.  De  Unitat.  Eccles.  sec.  xxm.  In  the 
former  place  he  is  reproaching  one  Geminius  Fausti- 
nus,  a  priest,  for  having  undertaken  the  discharge  of  a 
secular  office — 'qure  nunc  ratio  et  forma  in  Clero  ten- 
etur,  ut  qui  in  Ecclesia  Domini  ad  ordinationem  Cler- 
icalem  promoventur,  nullo  modo  ab  administratione 
divina  avocentur,  sed,  in  honore  sportulantium  fra- 
trum,  tanquam  Decimas  ex  fructibus  accipientes  ab 
altari  et  sacrificiis  non  recedant. .  .  .'  In  the  latter, 
while  deploring  the  lukewarm  devotion  of  the  faith- 
ful, he  complains,  '  at  nunc  de  patrimonio  nee  deci- 
mas damus.'     See  Selden,  chap.  4. 

f  This  may  surprise  those  historians  who  distin- 
guish Origen  from  the  Church  writers,  and  exalt  him 
accordingly.  Had  Cyprian  published  a  homily  to  in- 
culcate the  divine  obligation  of  paying  first-fruits  to 
the  priest,  he  would  have  been  stigmatized  as  the  most 
avaricious  (he  is  already  denounced  as  the  most  am 
bitious)  among  those  early  churchmen. 


REVENUES. 


201 


ness,  or  your  hunting  ?  Of  all  substance 
which  God  has  given  to  man,  he  has  reserved 
the  tenth  part  to  himself,  and,  therefore,  man 
may  not  retain  that  which  God  has  appro- 
priated to  his  own  use.'  St.  Augustin,  in  a 
homily  on  that  subject,  presses  the  same  right 
to  the  same  extent,  *  in  terms  not  less  posi- 
tive; with  this  difference,  however,  that  he 
puts  forward  more  zealously  the  charitable 
purpose  of  the  institution.  About  the  same 
time  St.  Chrysostom  and  St.  Jerome  added 
their  exhortations  to  the  same  effect,  though 
they  did  not  specify  so  exactly  the  nature  of 
the  contribution,  nor  insist  so  strongly  on  the 
divine  obligation.  There  can  be  no  question 
that  the  exertions  of  individual  ministers  ef- 
fectually influenced  the  more  devout  among 
their  listeners,  especially  in  the  Western  na- 
tions, and  in  somewhat  later  ages:  according- 
ly we  find  that  in  sundry  places  Tithes  f  were 
paid  both  to  monasteries,  to  the  poor,  and  to 
the  clergy,  by  many  pious  individuals  during 
the  four  centuries  which  followed.  It  has 
also  been  asserted  (though  the  evidence  is 
not  sufficiently  clear)  that  they  already  en- 
gaged the  attention,  and  even  claimed  the 
authority,  of  one  or  two  provincial  J  councils. 
Moreover,  it  seems  probable,  that  some  spe- 
cial endowments  of  them  were  made  on  par- 
ticular Churches  before  the  time  of  Charle- 
magne, though  these  were  few  in  number, 
and  scarcely  earlier  than  the  end  of  the 
seventh  age.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is 
unquestionably  certain  that  no  canon  or 
other  law  for  the  purpose  of  compelling  the 
payment  of  tithes  were  generally  received 
before  the  concluding  part  of  the  eighth  cen- 
tury. The  offerings  hitherto  contributed  un- 
der that  name  were  made  in  compliance  with 
the  doctrine  which  pleaded  the  divine  right, 

*  Quodcunque  te  pascit  ingenium  Dei  est;  et  inde 
decimas  expetit  unde  vivis;  de  militia,  de  negotio,  de 
artificio  redde  decimas:  aliud  eniin  pro  terra  dependi- 
mus,  aliud  pro  usura  vitae  pensamus.  Selden  appears 
to  share  in  a  doubt  which  has  been  raised,  whether 
the  Homily  in  question  be  really  the  production  of 
Augustin. 

\  These  may  not  have  been  in  fact  exactly  tenths, 
but  some  indefinite  proportion  of  things  titheable,  va- 
rying according  to  the  abundance  or  devotion  of  the 
contributor. 

%  We  refer  particularly  to  Seidell's  oth  chap.,  and 
his  remarks  on  the  Council  of  Mascon  (in  586). 
Thomassin  (Vetus  et  Nova  Ecclesia?  Disciplina,  P. 
III.  1.  i.  c.  vi.)  presses  the  authority  of  the  Second 
Council  of  Tours.  At  any  rate  the  prelates  on  that 
occasion  proceeded  no  farther  than  exhortation  — 
commonemus,  —  those  of  Macon  decree  —  statuimus 
et  decern  imus. 

26 


or  with  the  precepts,  or  perhaps  even  with 
the  practice  of  particular  Churches,  but  they 
were  not  yet  exacted  either  by  civil  or  eccle- 
siastical legislation  —  not  even  in  the  West ; 
and  in  the  Eastern  Church  we  have  not  ob- 
served that  any  law  has  at  any  time  been 
promulgated  on  this  subject. 

The  first  strictly  legislative  act  which  con- 
ferred on  the  clergy  the  right  to  tithe  was 
passed  by  Charlemagne.  In  the  year  778, 
the  eleventh  of  his  reign  over  France  and 
Germany,  in  a  general  assembly  of  estates, 
both  spiritual  and  temporal,  held  under  him, 
it  was  ordained,  '  That  every  one  should  give 
his  tenth,  and  that  it  should  be  disposed  of 
according  to  the  orders  of  his  bishop.'  * 
Other  constitutions  to  the  same  effect  were 
afterwards  published  by  the  same  prince,  and 
repeated  and  confirmed  by  some  of  his  de- 
scendants ;  they  were  iterated  by  the  canons 
of  numerous  provincial  councils,  f  and  re- 
echoed from  the  pulpits  of  France  and  Italy. 
Nevertheless,  it  was  found  exceedingly  dif- 
ficult to  enforce  them.  \      The   laity  were 


*  Ut  uuusquisque  suam  decimam  donet;  atque  per 
jussionem  Episcopi  sni  (or  Pontificis,  as  some  copies 
read)  dispensetur.  This  must  be  understood  with 
some  limitation,  since  the  tripartite  division  of  tithes 
seems  to  be  properly  ascribed  to  Charlemagne ;  that 
of  one  share  for  the  bishop,  and  clergy,  a  second  for 
the  poor,  a  third  for  the  fabric  of  the  Church.  It 
seems  uncertain  what  part  of  these  was  at  first  in- 
tended for  the  maintenance  of  a  resident  clergy. 
Parochial  divisions,  such  as  they  now  exist,  were 
still  not  very  common,  though  they  may  be  traced  to 
the  endowment  of  churches  by  individuals  as  early  as 
the  time  of  Justinian.  The  rural  churches  were,  in 
the  first  instance,  chapels  dependent  on  the  neighbor- 
ing cathedral,  and  were  served  by  itinerant  ministers 
of  the  bishop's  appointment.  It  was  some  time  be- 
fore any  of  them  obtained  the  privileges  of  baptism 
and  burial;  but  these  were  indeed  accompanied  by  a 
fixed  share  of  the  tithes,  and  appear  to  have  implied 
in  each  case  the  independence  of  the  Church  and  the 
residence  of  a  minister. 

f  The  celebrated  Council  of  Francfort  (in  794) 
published  a  canon  for  the  universal  payment  of  tithes, 
besides  the  rents  due  to  the  Church  for  benefices. 
See  Fleury,  1.  xliv.  s.  lx.  and  Thomassin,  P.  III.  1 
i.  cap.  vii. 

J  There  is  an  epistle  of  Alcuin,  in  which  he  exhorts 
his  master  not  yet  to  impose  upon  the  tender  faith  of 
his  new  converts,  the  Saxons  and  Huns,  what  he 
calls  the  '  yoke  of  tithes.'  The  passage  deserves  ci- 
tation— '  Vestra  sanctissima  pietas  sapienti  consilio 
prasvideat,  si  melius  sit  rudibus  populis  in  principio 
fidei  jugum  imponere  Decimarum,  ut  plena  fiat  per 
singulas  domus  exactio  illarum;  an  apostoli  quoqtie 
ab  ipso  Deo  Christo  edocti  et  ad  pravlicandum  mundo 
missi  exactioncs  Decimarum  exegissent,  vel  alicui 
demandassent  dari,  considerandum  est.     Scimus  quia 


202 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


strongly  disposed  to  disobey  such  commands 
as  went  to  diminish  their  revenues,  and  the 
violation  of  any  law  was  easy  in  those  disor- 
dered times.  But  the  long  and  lawful  perse- 
verance of  the  clergy  at  length  prevailed; 
and,  during  a  contest  of  nearly  four  centuries, 
they  gradually  entered  into  the  possession  of 
an  unpopular,  but  unquestioned  right. 

We  can  scarcely  consider  the  payment  of 
tithes  to  have  been  universally  enforced  until 
the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  when  ecclesi- 
astical authority  had  risen  to  a  great  height, 
through  the  exaltation  of  the  See  of  Rome. 
The  first  of  the  General  Councils  which  men- 
tions them  is  the  Ninth,  that  of  Lateran,  held 
under  Calixtus  II.,  about  the  year  1119  ;  but 
even  there  they  are  spoken  of  only  as  they 
were  received  by  special  consecrations.  Nor 
does  it  appear  that  the  payment  was  expressly 
commanded  as  '  a  duty  of  common  *  right ' 
before  the  Pontifical  Council  held  in  the  year 
1215.  It  was  held  under  Innocent  III. ;  and 
in  that  age,  and  especially  during  that  pon- 
tificate, the  canons  of  the  church  were  not 
lightly  received  nor  contemned  with  security. 

Such  are  the  principal  quarters  from  which 
the  revenues  of  the  Western  church  were 
derived.  They  varied  in  fruitfulness  in  dif- 
ferent times  and  provinces,  according  to  the 
extent  of  ecclesiastical  influence,  or  the  de- 
gree of  civil  anarchy  which  prevailed.  In 
the  ages  immediately  following  the  barbarian 
conquests,  they  may  have  lost  by  the  violence 
of  the  invaders  more  than  they  gained  by 
their  piety  or  superstition ;  but  those  losses 
were  afterwards  compensated  by  a  liberality 


Decimatio  substantive  nostra  valde  bona  est.  Sed 
melius  est  illam  amittere  quam  fidem  perdere.  Nos 
vero  in  fide  Catholica  nati,  nutriti  et  edocti  vix  con- 
sentimus  substantiam  nostram  pleniter  decimari  ; 
quanto  magis  tenera  fides  et  infantilis  animus  et 
avara  mens  illorum  largitati  non  consentitT  The 
passage  is  quoted  by  Selden  in  Chapter  v. 

*  See  Selden,  chap.  vi.  There  were  various  pon- 
tifical decrees  respecting  Tithes  by  Nicholas  II., 
Alexander  II.,  and  Gregory  VII.  in  the  eleventh 
century.  Selden  mentions  the  direct  command  of 
Nicholas  in  1059.  '  Pra?cipimus  ut  Decinwe  et  Prim- 
itise  sen  oblationes  vivorum  et  mortuoruin  Ecclesiis 
Dei  fideliter  reddantur  a  Laicis,  et  ut  in  dispositione 
Episcoporum  sint:  quas  qui  retinuerint  a  S.  Ecelesioe 
Communione  separentur.'  Ten  years  earlier  we  ob- 
serve that  Leo  IX.,  in  his  council  against  Simony, 
restored  Tithes  to  all  the  Churches,  with  I  lie  admis- 
sion, '  that  no  mention  was  at  that  time  made  of  them 
in  Apulia,  and  some  other  parts  of  the  world.'  A 
double  division  of  them  is  on  that  occasion  mentioned 
—  between  the  Bishop,  and  the  Altar,  or  Minister  of 
the  Church.     See  Wibertus,  ap.  Pagi.,  Vit.  Leo  IX. 


which  was  sometimes  heedless,  sometimes 
political ;  and,  upon  the  whole,  in  spite  of  oc- 
casional spoliations,  the  funds  of  the  Church 
continued  to  extend  themselves.  They  did 
not,  however,  reach  any  unreasonable  extent 
until  the  reign  of  Charlemagne  and  those  of 
his  successors;  but  thenceforward,  as  their 
security  increased  with  their  magnitude,  they 
swelled  to  such  inordinate  dimensions,  and 
assumed  so  substantial  a  shape,  that  they  are 
not  incredibly  asserted  to  have  comprehended, 
in  the  twelfth  century,  one  half  of  the  culti- 
vated soil  of  Europe.  Nevertheless,  it  is  im- 
possible to  dispute,  that  by  far  the  greater 
proportion  of  that  property  was  acquired  by 
just  and  lawful  means;  and  that  we  may  not 
depart  from  this  inquiry  with  the  impression, 
that  the  prosperity  of  the  Church  was  either 
universally  abused,  or  wholly  unmerited,  it 
is  proper  to  mention  some  of  the  blessings 
which  it  conferred  upon  society,  during  a 
period  when  the  condition  of  man  stood  most 
in  need  of  aid  and  consolation. 

General  Benefits  conferred  by  the  Church. 
We  do  not  here  propose  to  enumerate  the 
beneficial  effects  of  the  religion  itself,  which 
are  scarcely  contested  by  any  one  ;  but  only 
to  mention  some  of  the  good  fruits  of  the 
Institution  called  the  Church  —  benefits  pro- 
duced in  subservience  to  Christianity,  in  as 
far  as  its  principles  and  motives  were  derived 
from  that  source,  but  in  contradistinction  to 
it,  in  as  far  as  its  outward  form,  government 
and  discipline  were  of  human  creation.  With 
all  its  earthly  imperfections  and  impurities, 
the  Church  was  still  a  powerful,  if  not  neces- 
sary, instrument  for  the  support  of  the  relig- 
ion and  the  diffusion  of  its  principles ;  and 
even  among  those  very  imperfections  there 
were  some  which  it  pleased  Providence  to 
turn  to  its  own  honor,  by  converting  them  to 
the  service  of  man. 

Before  the  end  of  the  fifth  century,  the 
ecclesiastical  body  was  in  possession  of  very 
considerable  dignity  and  power  throughout 
the  whole  of  Christendom  ;  and  in  that  body 
the  episcopal  order  had  risen  into  a  pre- 
eminence, not  indeed  in  unison  with  its  an- 
cient humility,  but  attributable  to  its  activity 
and  its  virtues  more  than  to  its  ambition,  and 
perhaps  to  the  circumstances  of  the  empire 
even  more  than  to  either.  In  the  enjoyment 
of  extensive  revenues,  of  some  *  municipal 


*  See  Cod.  Justin.  1.  i.,  tit.  iv.  De  Episcopali 
Audientia,  s.  26,  SO.  The  superintendence  of  public 
works,  and  of  the  funds  for  defraying  their  expenses, 
was  intrusted  to  the  bishop,  together  with  some  of  the 
leading  men  in  the  city. 


BENEFITS  CONFERRED  BY  THE  CHURCH. 


203 


authority,  of  certain  judicial  privileges  and 
immunities,  of  high  rank  and  reputation,  and 
of  very  powerful  influence  over  the  people, 
and  united  for  all  grand  purposes  by  common 
principles  and  common  interests,  the  hierar- 
chy occupied  the  first  station  among  the  sub- 
jects of  the  empire.  Its  weight  was  felt  and 
acknowledged  by  every  rank  of  society,  from 
the  court  downwards:  the  more  so,  as  it 
formed  the  only  moral  tie  which  bound  them 
together.  The  Unity  of  the  Church  was  not 
•Merely  the  watchword  of  bigotry,  the  signal 
for  injustice  and  oppression,  but  also  a  princi- 
ple of  some  effect  in  maintaining  the  unity  of 
Christendom.  Such  was  the  position  of  the 
Church,  and  such  the  means  at  its  disposal, 
when  the  Western  Empire  was  overthrown 
and  occupied  by  unbelieving  barbarians. 

At  this  crisis  it  is  not  too  much  to  assert, 
that  the  Church  was  the  instrument  of  Heav- 
en for  the  preservation  of  the  Religion.  Chris- 
tianity itself  (unless  miraculously  sustained) 
would  have  been  swept  away  from  the  surface 
of  the  West,*  had  it  not  been  rescued  by  an 
established  body  of  ministers,  or  had  that 
body  been  less  zealous  or  less  influential. 
Among  the  conquered,  the  common  people 
were,  for  the  most  part,  recent  and  not  always 
very  serious  converts  from  polytheism ;  the 
higher  classes  were  neither  numerous  nor 
powerful,  nor  had  any  interest  in  the  support 
of  Christianity  :  the  clergy  alone  composed 
the  vital  and  efficient  portion  of  the  aristocra- 
cy. Among  the  conquerors,  the  rudest  sol- 
dier brought  with  him  a  superstitious  rever- 
ence for  the  office  and  person  of  a  religious 
minister,  which  prepared  him  for  adhesion  to 
the  religion  itself,  especially  where  the  minis- 
ters were  honored  and  the  ceremonies  splen- 
did ;  and  the  illiterate  prince  readily  gave 
attention  to  the  counsels  of  the  bishops,  who 

*  Guizot — who  treats  ecclesiastical  matters  with 
profoundness,  ingenuity,  and  judgment,  and  has 
brought  to  that  subject  (a  rarer  merit)  a  mind  unbias- 
sed by  the  prejudices  of  a  churchman,  or  the  antipa- 
thies of  a  sectarian  or  an  infidel,  and  that  fearless, 
uncompromising  candor  which  becomes  a  philosopher 
and  a  historian — Guizot  (Histoire  Generate,  &c.  Le- 
con  II.)  has  expressed  the  same  opinion  with  the 
same  confidence.  '  Je  ne  crois  pas  tiop  dire  en  af- 
firmant qu'a  la  fin  du  quatrieme  et  commencement  du 
cinquieme  siecle,  c'est  l'Eglise  Chretinne  qui  a  sauve 
le  Christanisme.  C'est  l'Eglise,  avec  ses  institutions, 
ses  magislrats,  son  pouvoir  qui  s'est  defendue  vigour- 
eusement  contre  la  dissolution  interieure  de  l'empire, 
contre  la  Barbarie;  qui  a  conquis  les  barbares,  qui 
est  devenue  le  lien,  le  moyen,  le  principe  de  civilisa- 
tion entre  le  monde  Romain  et  le  monde  barbare,' 
&c.  &c. 


were  the  most  learned  and  the  most  respected 
among  his  new  subjects.  Thence  resulted 
the  gradual  conversion  *  of  the  invaders,  by 
the  agency  of  the  visible  Church.  Without 
those  means  —  had  Christianity  then  existed 
as  a  mere  individual  belief,  or  even  under  a 
less  vigorous  form  of  human  government — 
the  religious  society  woidd  have  possessed 
neither  the  energy  nor  discipline  necessary  for 
resistance  to  the  deluge  which  endangered  it. 
Let  us  next  inquire,  what  influence  did  the 
Church  afterwards  exert  on  the  society  which 
it  had  assembled  in  the  name  of  Christ  ?  by 
what  exertions,  by  what  habits,  did  it  enforce 
the  principles  of  the  religion  which  it  had 
preserved  ?  First — by  the  general  exercise  of 
charity.  The  generosity  of  its  benefactors 
had  often  been  directed,  in  part  at  least,  to 
that  purpose.  That  excellent  rule  which  had 
been  received  from  the  earliest  ages  was  not 
discontinued  ;  the  relief  of  the  poor  was  as- 
sociated with  the  ministry  of  religion  ;  the 
worldly  necessities  of  the  wretched  were  al- 
leviated by  their  spiritual  Pastors,  and  the 
most  excellent  virtue  of  Christianity  was  in- 
culcated by  the  practice  of  its  Ministers.  We 
intend  not  to  exalt  the  merit  of  that  body  in 
dispensing  among  the  indigent  the  funds  en- 
trusted to  them  for  that  purpose  ;  we  only  as- 
sert its  great  utility  as  a  channel  for  the  trans- 
mission of  blessings,  which  in  those  ages 
could  not  otherwise  have  reached  their  object 
— as  a  sacred  repository,  where  the  treasures 
of  the  devout  were  stored  up  for  the  mitiga- 
tion of  misery  which  had  no  other  resource 
or  hope.  Secondly — the  penitential  discipline 
of  the  Church  was  extremely  efficacious  in 
enforcing  the  moral  precepts  of  the  religion  ; 
and  whatsoever  advantage  may  have  been 
conferred  on  ancient  Rome  by  the  venerable 
office  of  the  Censor,  whatsoever  restraints 
may  have  been  imposed  on  the  habits  of  a 
high-minded  people  by  the  fear  of  ignomini- 
ous reproach ;  awe  more  deep  and  lasting 
must  have  been  impressed  upon  the  supersti- 
tious crowd  by  the  terrible  denunciations  of 
the  Church,  by  the  deep  humiliation  of  the 
penitent,  by  his  prolonged  exposure  to  public 
shame,  by  the  bitterness  and  intensity  of  his 
remorse.  Without  affecting  to  regret,  as 
some  have  done,  the  present  disuse  of  the 
penitential  system  in  the  present  enlightened 


*  That  their  Conversion  was,  in  the  first  instance, 
imperfect,  perhaps  in  many  cases  merely  nominal,  has 
been  already  admitted.  Still,,  where  the  affair  was 
with  a  nation,  and  that  too  a  very  barbarous  nation 
it  was  impossible,  humanly  speaking,  that  it  could 
have  been  otherwise  than  imperfect. 


204 


HISTORY   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


state  both  of  society  and  religion,  we  cannot 
close  our  eyes  against  its  extraordinary  pow- 
er, as  an  instrument  of  moral  improvement, 
in  ages  when  the  true  spirit  of  religion  was 
less  felt  and  comprehended ;  when  education 
furnished  very  slender  means  for  self-correc- 
tion ;  and  when  even  the  secular  laws  were 
feebly  or  partially  executed.  Thirdly — After 
the  fifth  century  the  office  of  Legislation 
throughout  the  Western  provinces  devolved 
in  a  great  measure  on  the  ecclesiastical  body 
—directly,  in  so  far  as  they  composed,  or  as- 
sisted in,  public  assemblies ;  indirectly,  as 
they  influenced  the  councils  of  Princes  and 
their  nobility.  Their  power  was  effectually 
exerted  for  the  improvement  of  the  barbarous 
system  of  the  invaders,  the  suppression  of  ab- 
surd practices,  and  the  substitution  of  reason- 
able principles.  '  I  have  already  spoken,' 
says  Guizot,  '  of  the  difference  which  may  be 
observed  between  the  laws  of  the  Visigoths, 
proceeding  in  a  great  measure  from  the  Coun- 
cils of  Toledo,  and  those  of  the  other  barba- 
rians. It  is  impossible  to  compare  them  with- 
out being  struck  by  the  immense  superiority 
in  the  ideas  of  the  Church  in  matters  of  legis- 
lation and  justice,  in  all  that  affects  the  pursuit 
of  truth  and  the  destiny  of  man.  It  is  true 
that  the  greater  part  of  these  ideas  were  bor- 
rowed from  the  Roman  legislation  ;  but  if  the 
Church  had  not  preserved  and  defended  them, 
if  it  had  not  labored  to  propagate  them,  they 
would  have  perished.'  Fourthly — In  further- 
ance of  this  faithful  discharge  of  its  duties 
to  the  human  race,  the  Church  unceasingly 
strove  to  correct  the  vices  of  the  social  sys- 
tem. The  worst  of  these,  and  the  principal 
object  of  her  hostility,  was  the  abomination 
of  slavery  ;  and  if  it  be  too  much  entirely  to 
attribute  its  final  extirpation  to  the  persever- 
ance of  the  Church  in  pressing  the  principles 
of  the  Faith,  and  if  it  has  been  speciously  in- 
sinuated that  her  motives  in  the  contest  were 
not  always  disinterested,  at  least  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  dispute  either  her  zeal  in  the  righteous 
cause,  or  the  power  and  success  with  which 
she  pleaded  it,*  or  the  great  probability  that, 


*  II  y  en  a  line  preuve  irrecusable:  la  plupart  des 
formules  d'affranchissement,   a  diverses  epoques,  se 


without  such  advocacy  so  steadily  pursued 
through  so  long  and  hopeless  a  period,  the 
complete  emancipation  of  the  lowest  classes 
would  have  been  accomplished  much  later, 
perhaps  not  wholly  accomplished  even  at  this 
moment.  Fifthly  —  The  same  spirit  which 
was  so  well  directed  to  improve  the  internal 
fabric  of  society  turned  itself  also  to  the  pre- 
vention of  civil  outrage  and  even  of  interna- 
tional warfare.  In  this  attempt,  indeed,  it 
had  not  equal  success,  since  it  had  to  contend 
with  the  most  intractable  of  human  passions ; 
but  the  pages  even  of  profane  history  abound 
with  proofs  of  the  pacific  policy  and  interpo- 
sitions of  the  Church :  nor  were  they  entirely 
suspended  even  after  the  fatal  moment,  when 
it  engaged  as  a  party  in  the  temporal  affairs 
of  Europe,  and  so  frequently  found  its  own 
policy  and  strength  and  triumph  in  the  dis- 
cord, devastation,  and  misery  of  its  neigh- 
bors. Lastly  —  From  considerations  which 
are  more  immediately  connected  with  the 
happiness  of  mankind,  we  may  descend  to 
mention  a  theme  of  praise  which  is  seldom 
withheld  from  the  Church  by  any  description 
of  historians — that  of  having  preserved  many 
valuable  monuments  of  ancient  genius  ;  and 
also  of  having  nourished,  even  in  the  worst 
times,  such  sort  of  literary  instruction  and 
acquirement  as  was  then  perhaps  attainable. 
It  is  true  that  these  advantages  were  not  gen- 
erally diffused  among  the  people ;  that  little 
desire  was  evinced  by  the  Clergy  to  com- 
municate such  knowledge,  or  by  the  Laity  to 
share  in  it :  still  was  it  a  possession  useful,  as 
well  as  honorable,  to  those  who  cherished 
and  maintained  it,  and  through  them,  in  some 
degree,  to  their  fellow-subjects.  Some  lan- 
guid rays  it  must  have  reflected  even  at  the 
moment  upon  the  surface  of  society;  at  least 
it  was  preserved  as  a  certain  pledge  of  future 
improvement,  as  an  inviolable  and  everlasting 
treasure,  consecrated  to  the  brighter  destinies 
of  a£;es  to  come. 


fondent  sur  un  motif  religieux ;  c'est  an  nom  des  idees 
retigieuses,  des  esperances  de  l'avenir,  de  l'egalite 
religieuse  des  hommes,  que  l'affranchissement  est 
presque  toujours  prononce. — Guizot,  Hist.  Generate, 
Lecon  VI. 


INDEPENDENCE  OF  PAPAL  ELECTION. 


205 


PART    III. 


FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  CHARLEMAGNE  TO  TILAT  OF 
POPE  GREGORY  VII.  814—1085. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

On  the  Government  and  Projects  of  the  Church 
during  the  Ninth  and  Tenth  Centuries. 

Division  of  the  Subject  into  Three  Parts.  (I.)  Indepen- 
dence of  Papal  Election — Original  Law  and  Practice — 
First  Violation — Posterity  of  Charlemagne — Charles  the 
Bald — Otho  the  Great — Henry  III. — Alterations  under 
Nicholas  II. — Reflections.  (II.)  Encroachment  of  Eccle- 
siastical on  Civil  Authority — Indistinct  Limits  of  Tem- 
poral and  Spiritual  Power — Till  the  time  of  Charle- 
magne— After  that  time — Influence  of  Feudal  System 
— Kind  of  Authority  conferred  by  it  on  the  Clergy — 
Military  Service — of  Church  Vassals — of  Clergy — lat- 
ter forbidden  by  Charlemagne — Superstitious  Methods 
of  Trial — By  Hot  Iron — the  Cross — the  Eucharist — Po- 
litical Offices  of  the  Clergy — Influence  from  Intellectual 
Superiority — Plunder  of  Church  Property — Lay  Impro- 
priators— Advocates — Louis  le  Debonnaire — his  Pe- 
nance— Council  at  Paris  in  820 — Charles  the  Bald — 
Council  of  Aix  la  Chapelle — Lothaire,  King  of  Lorraine 
— his  Excommunication — Hincmar,  Archbishop  of 
Rheims — his  Conduct  on  two  occasions— Charles  the 
Bald  accepts  the  Empire  from  the  Pope — General  Re- 
flections— Robert,  King  of  France — his  Excommunica- 
tion and  Submission — Episcopal  distinct  from  Papal 
Encroachment.  (III.)  Internal  Usurpation  of  the  Ro- 
man See — Its  Original  Dignity — Metropolitan  Privileges 
— Appellant  Jurisdiction  of  Pope — The  False  Decretals 
— Contest  between  Gregory  IV.  and  the  French  Bish- 
ops— between  Adrian  II.  and  Hincmar — Character  of 
Hincmar — Consequence  of  regular  Appeals  to  the  Pope 
— Vicars  of  the  Roman  See — Exemption  of  Monasteries 
from  Episcopal  Superintendence — Remarks. 

That  we  may  avoid  the  confusion  usually 
attending  the  compression  of  a  long  series 
of  incidents,  we  shall  here  endeavor  to  dis- 
tinguish the  points  which  chiefly  claim  our 
notice,  rather  than  follow  chronologically  the 
course  of  events ;  and  though  it  may  not  he 
possible,  nor  even  desirable,  to  prevent  the 
occasional  encroachments  of  subjects  in  some 
respects  similar,  yet  in  others  very  different, 
we  shall  not  allow  it  to  perplex  our  narra- 
tive. It  is  an  obscure  and  melancholy  region 
into  which  we  now  enter ;  but  it  is  not  al- 
together destitute  of  interest  and  instruction, 
since  we  can  discern,  through  the  ambiguous 
twilight,  those  misshapen  masses  and  dis- 
orderly elements  out  of  which  the  fabric  of 
Papal  despotism  presently  arose,  and  even 
trace  the  irregular  progress  of  that  stupen- 
dous structure. 

We  shall  best  attain  this  end  by  giving  a  se- 
parate consideration  to  three  subjects,  which 
will  be  found  to  include  the  whole  ecclesias- 


tical policy  of  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries. 
Other  matters  relating  to  that  period,  and 
possessing  perhaps  even  greater  general  im- 
portance, will  be  treated  in  the  next  chapter ; 
but  at  present  we  shall  confine  our  inquiry 
to  the  following  objects : — I.  The  endeavors 
of  the  Popes  to  free  their  own  election  from 
Imperial  interference  of  every  description, 
whether  to  nominate  or  to  confirm.  II.  The 
efforts  of  the  Church  to  usurp  dominion  over 
the  Western  empire;  and  generally  to  ad- 
vance the  spiritual  as  loftier  and  more  legiti- 
mate than  the  highest  temporal  authority. 
HI.  The  exertions  of  the  See  of  Rome  to  sub- 
due to  itself  the  ecclesiastical  body,  and  thus 
to  establish  a  despotism  within  the  Church. 
In  the  two  first  of  these  objects  we  may  re- 
gard the  Church  as  waging  for  the  most  part 
an  external  warfare  :  the  last  occasioned  her 
intestine  or  domestic  struggles  ,  and  the  ex- 
amination of  them  will  necessarily  lead  to 
some  mention  of  the  peculiarities  introduced 
by  the  feudal  system ;  of  its  influence  on  the 
manners,  morals,  and  property  of  the  clergy. 

I.  On  the  independency  of  Papal  election. 
The  original  law  and  practice  in  this  matter 
had  passed,  with  some  variations  but  little 
lasting  alteration,  through  the  succession  both 
of  the  Greek  and  barbarian  sovereigns  of 
Rome,  from  the  time  of  Constantine  to  that 
of  Charlemagne,  and  that  Prince  also  trans- 
mitted it  unchanged  to  his  posterity.  It  was 
this — that  the  Pope  should  be  elected  by  the 
priests,  nobles,  and  people  of  Rome,  but  that 
he  should  not  be  consecrated  without  the 
consent  of  the  Emperor.  This  arrangement 
was  found,  for  above  eight  centuries,  to  be 
consistent  with  the  dignity  of  the  Roman 
Bishop,  and  it  was  not  till  his  spiritual  pride 
had  been  inflated  by  temporal  power,  that  it 
was  discovered  to  be  doubly  objectionable — 
it  was  no  longer  to  be  endured,  either  that 
laymen  should  interfere  in  the  election  of  the 
Pope,  or  the  Emperor  in  his  consecration 
Both  these  restraints  became  offensive  to  the 
lofty  principles  of  ecclesiastical  independence; 
but  the  latter  was  that  which  it  was  first  at- 
tempted to  remove. 

Charlemagne  was  succeeded  by  his  son 


206 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


Lewis,  commonly  called  the  Meek,  a  feeble 
and  superstitious  monarch  ;  and  of  these  de- 
fects both  Stephen  V.*  and  Pascal  I.  so  far 
availed  themselves,  as  to  exercise  the  pontifi- 
cal functions  without  awaiting  his  confirma- 
tion. But  when  Eugene  II.  would  have 
followed  their  example,  Lothaire,  who  was 
associated  to  the  empire,  complained  of  the 
usurpation  and  resumed  the  Imperial  right. 
Lewis  died  in  840,  and  was  succeeded  on  the 
throne  of  France  by  Charles  the  Bald. 

That  Prince  reigned  for  thirty-seven  years 
with  scarcely  greater  vigor  than  his  prede- 
cessor; but  his  reign  is  on  several  accounts 
important  in  the  history  of  Popery,  and  chief- 
ly on  the  following.  Two  years  before  his 
death  the  Imperial  throne  became  vacant. 
Charles  was  ambitious  to  possess  it ;  he  went 
to  Rome,  accepted  it  at  the  hands  of  John 
VIII. ;  and  then,  that  he  might  make  a  wor- 
thy return  for  this  office,  he  released  the  See 
from  the  necessity  of  Imperial  consent  to  the 
consecration  of  its  Bishop.  The  claims  which 
were  derived  by  subsequent  Popes  from 
John's  assumed  donation  of  the  empire  will 
be  mentioned  hereafter,  and  it  will  appear 
on  how  slight  a  ground  they  rested ;  but  the 
interference  of  the  Emperor  in  Papal  elec- 
tions was  on  this  occasion  directly  and  un- 
equivocally withdrawn. 

Neither  the  interests  nor  the  honor  of  the 
See  gained  any  thing  by  its  independence. 
From  that  time  (the  event  took  place  in  875) 
till  960,  the  most  disgraceful  confusion  pre- 
vailed in  the  elections,  and  clearly  proved 
that  the  restraint  heretofore  imposed  by  civil 
superintendence,  had  been  salutary ;  and  if 
the  emperors  during  that  stormy  period  did 
not  reclaim  their  former  right,  we  should 
rather  attribute  the  neglect  to  their  weakness 
than  to  their  acknowledged  cession  of  it.  For 
in  the  year  960,  Otho  the  Great,  on  the  invi- 
tation of  John  XII.,  resumed  the  Imperial 
authority  in  Italy,  and  exercised,  as  long  as 
he  lived,  the  most  arbitrary  discretion  in  the 
election,  and  even  appointment,  of  the  Pon- 
tiff. He  presently  degraded  John,  and  sub- 
stituted in  his  place  Leo  VIII. ;  and  under 
that  Pope  (or  anti-Pope — for  it  is  disputed) 
a  Lateran  council  f  was  held  in  964,  which 
conferred  on  Otho  and  all  his  successors  not 
merely  the  kingdom  of  Italy,  but  the  regula- 
tion of  the  Holy  See  and  the  arbitrary  elec- 
tion of  its  bishops.     And  for  the  guidance  of 


*  Generally  called  Stephen  IV.     See  Baron,  ami. 
816.  s.  96. 

t  Giannone,  Stor.  Nap.,  lib.  viii.,  cap.  vi. 


their  successors,  Otho  left  an  edict  prohib- 
iting the  election  of  any  Pope  without  the 
previous*  knowledge  and  consent  of  the  em- 
peror, which  was  enforced  during  the  next 
eighty  years  by  all  who  possessed  the  power 
to  do  so.  But  in  the  century  following,  in 
the  year  1047,  we  observe  that  the  same  right 
was  once  more  conceded  to  an  emperor,  Hen- 
ry III. ;  and  on  this  occasion  an  artful  dis- 
tinction was  drawn  by  the  Italians,  which 
led,  no  doubt,  to  the  ultimate  independence 
of  election :  the  privilege  of  nominating  the 
Pope  was  granted  to  Henry  personally,  f  not 
to  the  throne. 

This  important  advantage  was  followed 
almost  immediately  by  another  of  still  great- 
er consequence.  Nicholas  II.,  under  the  di- 
rection of  Hildebrand,  found  means  to  restore 
the  original  principle  of  election,  modified  as 
follows :  the  right  of  appointment  was  vested 
in  the  College  of  cardinals,  with  the  consent 
of  the  people,  and  the  approbation  of  the  em- 
peror. But  the  last  mentioned  restriction 
was  expressly  understood  to  extend  only  to 
the  emperor  of  the  time  being,  and  to  such 
of  his  successors  as  should  personally  obtain 
the  privilege.  This  grand  measure  was  ac- 
complished in  a  council  held  at  Rome  in 
1059,  fourteen  years  before  the  accession  of 
Gregory  VII. ;  and  so  the  matter  rested, 
when  he  took  possession  of  the  chair. 

We  observe  from  this  short  account,  that, 
after  an  interrupted  struggle  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years,  an  absolute  independence 
of  election  was  not  yet  confessedly  effected. 
The  contest  had  fluctuated  very  consider- 
ably ;  the  first  advantages  were  entirely  on 
the  side  of  the  Pope  ;  in  fact,  at  the  death  of 
Charles  the  Bald,  the  victory  seemed  perfect- 
ly secure :  and  the  century  which  followed 
was  so  clouded  by  the  mutual  dissensions  of 
the  princes;  it  was  marked  by  such  positive 
weakness  in  their  states,  such  vices  in  their 
personal  character  and  internal  administra- 
tion, as  to  be  in  the  highest  degree  favor- 
able to  the  confirmation  and  extension  of 
papal  privileges.  Why  then  was  it,  that  the 
privilege  in  question  was  not  at  that  time 
extended  nor  even  permanently  confirmed  ? 
Why  was  it  even  that  the  next  interference 
of  the  emperor  took  place  at  the  solicitation 
of  a  Pope  ?  Chiefly  because  the  removal  of 
Imperial  superintendence  had  thrown  the 
election  entirely  into  the  hands  of  an  unprin- 


♦Mosheim,  Cent,  x.,  p.  ii.,c.  ii. 
t  He  had  occasion  to  exert  it  three  times.     See 
J  below,  chap.  xvi. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ENCROACHMENTS. 


207 


cipled  nobility,*  an  intriguing  clergy,  and  a  ve- 
nal populace,  whose  united  fraud  and  violence 
usually  favored  the  most  flagitious  candi- 
date, and  promoted  his  success  by  means  the 
most  shameful.  And,  therefore,  through  this 
lawless  period  we  read  of  Popes  tumultuous- 
ly  chosen  and  hastily  deposed  ;  hurried  from 
the  monastery  to  the  chair,  from  the  chair  to 
prison  or  to  death.  Their  reigns  were  usual- 
ly short  and  wasted  in  fruitless  endeavors  to 
prolong  them  ;  their  sacred  duties  were  for- 
gotten or  despised,  and  their  personal  char- 
acters were  even  more  detestable  than  those 
of  the  princes  their  contemporaries.  Fur- 
ther, we  may  observe,  that  when  the  Church 
began  to  recover  from  the  delirium  of  the 
tenth  century;  when  one  great  man  did  at 
length  arise  within  it,  Hildebrand,  the  future 
Gregory,  his  influence  was  immediately  ex- 
erted, not  only  against  Imperial  interference 
to  confirm,  but  against  popular  license  to 
elect :  for  he  had  learned  from  long  and  late 
experience,  that  no  scheme  for  the  universal 
extension  of  Papal  authority  could  be  made 
effective,  until  the  Popes  themselves  were 
secured  from  the  capricious  insolence  of  a 
domestic  tyrant.     If  things    had  not  been 

*  From  the  deposition  of  the  last  Carlovingian 
king  to  the  reign  of  Otho  the  Great,  (a  space  of  near- 
ly fifty  years,)  the  authority  of  the  princes  who  held 
the  imperial  title  was  always  vacillating  and  con- 
tested. In  the  meantime  the  city  of  Rome  was  no 
part  of  the  kingdom  of  Italy,  but  depended  on  the 
imperial  crown  only;  so  that  during  the  vacancy  of 
the  empire  it  recovered  its  independence,  and  thus 
fell  under  the  turbulent  oligarchy  of  its  own  nobles. 
These  provided  the  candidates  for  the  pontifical 
throne ;  and  whosoever  among  them  succeeded  in 
obtaining  it,  secured,  by  means  of  the  church  rev- 
enues, a  great  preponderance  over  all  the  others,  and 
became  as  it  were  the  chiefs  of  the  republic.  (See 
Sismondi,  Repub.  Ital.  chap,  iii.;  to  whose  work 
we  are  compelled  to  refer  the  reader  for  the  few  facts 
which  are  ascertained  respecting  the  revolutions  of 
the  Roman  Government  during  this  period.)  For 
the  further  degradation  of  the  Roman  See  the  influ- 
ence of  female  arts  and  charms  was  triumphantly  ex- 
erted. *  Jamais  les  femmes  n'eurent  autant  de  credit 
Buir  aucun  gouvernement  que  celles  de  Rome  en  ob- 
tinrent,  dans  le  dixieme  siecle,  sur  celui  de  leur  pa- 
trie.  Or  auroit  dit  que  la  beaute  avoit  succede  a 
tous  les  droits  de  1'  empire.'  The  names  and  scandals 
of  Theodora  and  Marozia  are  distinguished  in  the 
ecclesiastical  annals  of  the  tenth  century.  In  the 
rapid  succession  of  popes,  those  most  marked  by  dis- 
grace or  misfortune  may  have  been  Leo  V.,  John  X., 
John  XL,  John  XII.,  Benedict  VI.,  John  XIV.; 
but  to  pursue  the  details  of  their  history  would  be 
alike  painful  and  unprofitable:  for  their  crimes  would 
teach  us  no  lessons,  and  even  their  sufferings  would 
scarcely  raise  our  compassion. 


thus — if  Papal  elections  had  been  regularly 
and  conscientiously  conducted  when  the 
civil  governments  of  Europe  were  at  the 
lowest  point  of  contentious  and  stupid  im 
becility — the  aera  of  Pontifical  despotism 
would  have  been  anticipated  by  nearly  three 
centuries,  and  the  empire  of  opinion  would 
have  been  more  oppressive  and  more  last- 
ing, as  the  age  was  more  deeply  immersed 
in  ignorance  and  barbarism. 

II.  Encroachment  of  Ecclesiastical  on  Civil 
Authority.  We  proceed  to  examine  the  en- 
croachments of  Church  upon  State  during 
the  same  period  ;  and  this  part  of  our  subject 
might  again  be  subdivided  under  three  heads 
— the  general  usurpations  of  the  See  of  Rome 
on  any  temporal  rights — the  particular  usur- 
pations of  national  councils  of  Bishops  on  the 
civil  authorities — and  the  individual  usurpa- 
tions of  the  episcopal  office  on  that  of  the 
secular  magistrate.  But,  not  to  perplex  this 
matter  by  an  attempt  at  exceeding  minute- 
ness, we  shall  rather  follow  the  course  of 
events  and  illustrate  them  with  such  obser- 
vations as  they  may  appear  severally  to  de- 
mand. The  first  edict  which  permitted  legal 
jurisdiction  to  the  Episcopal  order,  and  sup- 
ported its  decisions  by  civil  authority,  sowed 
the  seeds  of  that  confusion  which  afterwards 
involved  and  nearly  obliterated  the  limits 
of  temporal  and  spiritual  power.  There  is 
scarcely  any  crime  which  an  ingenious  cas- 
uist might  not  construe  into  an  offence  against 
religion,  and  subject  to  ecclesiastical  cogni- 
zance, in  a  rude  and  illiterate  age  ;  while,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  best  defined  and  most 
certain  rights  of  an  unarmed  and  dependent 
authority  were  liable  to  continual  outrage 
either  from  a  sovereign  possessing  no  fixed 
principles  of  government,  or  from  a  lawless 
aristocracy  more  powerful  than  the  sove- 
reign. In  the  Eastern  empire,  indeed,  this 
evil  was  greatly  neutralized  by  the  decided 
and  unvarying  supremacy  of  the  civil  power, 
nor  was  it  immediately  felt  even  in  the  West ; 
at  least  we  read  little  or  nothing  about  the 
usurpation  of  the  Clergy,  until  after  the  death 
of  Charlemagne.  The  Popes,  it  is  true,  had  • 
displayed,  from  a  very  early  period,  great 
anxiety  to  enlarge  their  authority ;  but  the 
efforts  of  Leo  and  even  of  Gregory  were 
confined  to  the  acquisition  of  some  privilege 
from  their  own  Metropolitans,  or  some  title 
or  province  from  their  rival  at  Constanti- 
nople. The  dream  of  universal  empire  seems 
at  no  time  to  have  warmed  the  imagination 
of  those  more  moderate  Pontiffs.     It  is  not 


£03 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


that  we  may  not  occasionally  discover  both 
in  the  writings  and  in  the  conduct  of  the  pre- 
lates of  earlier  days  an  abundance  of  spiritual 
zeal  ever  ready  to  overflow  its  just  bounds, 
and  gain  somewhat  upon  the  secular  empire. 
The  latter,  too,  found  its  occasions  to  retort ; 
but  we  may  remark,  that  while  its  operations 
were  o-enerally  violent  and  interrupted,  those 
of  the  clergy  were  more  systematic  and  con- 
tinuous. In  the  meantime  the  distinction  be- 
tween the  two  parties  was  becoming  wider, 
and  their  differences  were  approaching  near 
to  dissension,  before,  and  even  during,  the 
reign  of  Charlemagne  :  howbeit,  the  vigor- 
ous grasp  of  that  monarch  so  firmly  wielded 
the  double  sceptre,  that  the  rent  which  was 
beginning  to  divide  it  *  was  barely  percepti- 
ble, when  it  fell  from  his  hand  ;  but  scarcely 
had  it  begun  to  tremble  with  the  feeble  touch 
of  Lewis  his  son,  when  its  ill-cemented  ma- 
terials exhibited  a  wide  and  irreparable  in- 
coherence. 

The  extraordinary  change  which  had  tak- 
en place  in  the  institutions  of  the  Western 
Empire  during  the  two  preceding,  and  which 
was  progressive  during  the  two  present,  cen- 
turies, greatly  increased  both  to  church  and 
state  the  facility  of  mutual  encroachment. 
Until  the  permanent  settlement  of  the  north- 
ern nations  generally  introduced  the  feudal 
system  of  government,  the  Clergy,  though 
enjoying  great  immunities  and  ample  pos- 
sessions, yet,  as  they  lived  under  absolute 
rule,  had  little  real,  and  no  independent  pow- 
er, excepting  such  as  indirectly  accrued  to 

*  In  die  '  Capitularies  of  Interrogations'  proposed 
bv  Charlemagne,  three  years  before  his  death, — 
'  First,'  (he  says)  '  I  will  separate  the  bishops,  the 
abbots,  and  the  secular  nobles,  and  speak  to  them  in 
private.  I  will  ask  them  why  they  are  not  willing 
to  assist  each  other,  whether  at  home  or  in  the 
camp,  when  the  interests  of  their  country  demand  itl 
Whence  come  those  frequent  complaints  which  1 
hear,  either  concerning  their  property  or  the  vassals 
which  pass  from  the  one  to  the  other'?  In  what  the 
ecclesiastics  impede  the  service  of  the  laity,  the  laity 
that  of  the  ecclesiastics'?  To  what  extent  a  bishop 
or  abbot  ought  to  interfere  in  secular  affairs ;  or  a 
count  or  other  layman  in  ecclesiastical  matters,'  &c. 
(Fleury,  H.  Eccl.  1.  xiv.  sect.  51.  Guizot,  Hist.  Mod. 
Lecon  21.)  Soon  afterwards,  in  826,  the  Council 
of  Paris,  after  proposing  some  very  extravagant  epis- 
copal claims,  observes,  as  one  great  obstacle  to  har- 
mony, that  the  princes  have  long  mixed  too  much  in 
ecclesiastical  matters,  and  that  the  clergy,  whether 
through  avarice  or  ignorance,  take  unbecoming  in- 
terest in  secular  matters.  Again,  at  the  Synod  of 
Aix-la-Chapelle  (in  836)  all  the  evils  of  the  time  are 
expressly  attributed  to  the  mutual  encroachments  of 
the  spiritual  and  secular  power3. 


them  through  their  influence.  If  they  had 
lands,  no  jurisdiction  was  necessarily  annex- 
ed to  them  ;  they  had  no  place  in  legislative 
assemblies  ;  they  had  no  control,  as  a  body, 
in  the  direction  of  the  state. 

The  devout  spirit  of  the  Barbarians  pres- 
ently increased  the  extent  of  their  landed 
possessions  without  withholding  from  them 
any  of  the  rights  which,  according  to  their 
system,  were  inseparable  from  land  ;  and  thus 
they  entered  upon  temporal  jurisdiction  co- 
extensive with  their  estates.  By  these  means 
the  Episcopal  Courts  became  possessed  of 
a  double  jurisdiction — over  the  Clergy  and 
Laity  of  their  diocese  for  the  cognizance  of 
crimes  against  the  ecclesiastical  law,  and  over 
the  vassals  of  their  barony  as  lords  para- 
mount ;  and  these  two  departments  they  fre- 
quently so  far  confounded  as  to  use  the  spirit- 
ual weapon  of  excommunication  to  enforce 
the  judgments  of  both.*  In  the  next  place  the 
Clergy  became  an  order  in  the  state,  and  thus 
entered  into  the  enjoyment  of  privileges  en- 
tirely unconnected  with  their  spiritual  char- 
acter. Yet  the  necessary  effect  of  the  union 
of  ecclesiastical  with  secular  dignities  was  to 
blend  two  powers  in  the  same  person  almost 
undistinguishably  ;  and  to  confound,  by  in- 
discriminate use,  the  prerogatives  of  the  bish- 
op with  those  of  the  baron.  Again,  the  Bish- 
ops being  once  established  as  feudal  lords, 
had  great  advantages  in  increasing  their  pos- 
sessions, owing  to  the  influence  which  neces- 
sarily devolved  on  them,  not  only  from  their 
greater  virtues  and  knowledge,  but  also  from 
the  command  of  spiritual  authority.  And 
as  the  vassals  of  the  Church  grew  gradually 
to  be  better  secured  from  oppression  and  out- 
rage than  those  of  the  lay  nobility,  its  pro- 
tection was  more  courted  and  its  patrimonial 
domain  more  amply  extended. 

At  the  first  establishment  of  the  system, 
vassalage  to  an  ecclesiastic  conferred  exemp- 
tion from  military  service ;  but,  among  rude 
and  warlike  nations,  when  the  greater  force 
was  generally  the  better  law,  this  privilege 


*  This  subject  is  treated  clearly,  though  shortly,  by 
Burke,  in  his  Abridgment  of  English  History.  Mos- 
heim,  who  ascribes  the  secular  encroachments  of 
the  Bishops  to  their  acquisition  of  secular  titles,  de- 
nies that  such  titles  were  conferred  on  them  before 
the  tenth  age.  Louis  Thomassin  (De  Disciplin. 
Eccles.  Vet.  et  Nova)  endeavors  to  trace  the  prac- 
tice to  the  ninth  and  even  to  the  eighth  century. 
Whatever  may  be  the  fact  respecting  the  titles,  the 
jurisdiction  certainly  gained  great  ground  during  the 
ninth  age;  more,  perhaps,  through  the  superstition 
of  the  people,  and  the  weakness  of  the  princes,  than 
by  its  own  legitimacy. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ENCROACHMENTS. 


209 


could  not  possibly  be  of  long  duration.  It 
was  withdrawn  universally,  at  different  times, 
by  different  princes,  according  to  their  power 
or  their  necessities.  The  Church  fiefdoms 
thus  assumed  a  very  different  appearance, 
and  the  spirituality  of  the  sacred  character 
became  still  further  corrupted ;  for,  as  soon 
as  the  vassals  became  military,  it  was  found 
difficult  to  hold  them  in  subjection  to  an  un- 
armed lord,  and  the  Clergy  were,  in  many 
instances,  obliged  to  descend  from  their 
peaceful  condition,  assume  the  sword  and 
helmet,  and  conduct  their  subjects  into  bat- 
tle :  in  many  instances  they  did  so  without 
any  such  obligation.  *  This  direct  derelic- 
tion of  the  pastoral  character  became  the  im- 
mediate means  of  securing  their  property  f 
and  increasing  their  power;  but,  notwith- 
standing the  contempt  to  which  the  peaceful 
virtues  are  occasionally  exposed  among  rude 
and  military  nations,  it  is  probable  that  they 
lost  thereby  as  much  in  influence  as  they 
gained  in  power. 

Again,  the  strange  and  irrational  method 
of  Trials  which  even  now  came  generally 
into  use,  must  have  tended,  by  the  inter- 
mixture of  superstition,  to  enlarge  the  do- 
minion of  ecclesiastical  influence.  The  or- 
dinary proofs  by  fire,  by  water,  by  hot  iron, 
indicate  some  imposture  perhaps  only  prac- 
ticable by  the  more  informed  craft  of  the 
clergy.  The  proofs  of  the  Cross  and  the 
Eucharist  bear  more  obvious  marks  of  sa- 
cerdotal superintendence.];  The  clergy  dis- 
graced themselves  by  upholding  such  abuses 


*  The  practice  crept,  without  the  same  excuse,  and 
of  course  with  much  less  frequency,  into  the  Greek 
Church.  In  the  year  713  a  Subdeacon  commanded 
the  troops  of  Naples ;  and  the  Admiral  of  the  Em- 
peror's fleet  was  a  Deacon.  (Fleury,  ix.  172,  &c.) 
But  the  low  ecclesiastical  rank  which  these  officers 
held  would  prove,  if  it  were  necessary,  that  they  did 
not  take  the  field  as  feudal  lords.  In  the  West  this 
practice  appears  to  have  commenced  soon  after  the 
admission  of  barbarians  to  the  clerical  order;  which, 
if  we  are  to  judge  by  names,  scarcely  took  place  be- 
fore the  seventh  century. 

f  In  the  address  (already  mentioned)  which  was 
presented  on  this  subject  to  Charlemagne  by  his  peo- 
ple, it  is  remarkable  that  the  petitioners  felt  it  neces- 
sary to  offer  a  solemn  assurance,  that  their  motive 
for  disarming  the  Clergy  was  not  (as  might,  it  seems, 
have  been  suspected)  a  design  to  plunder  their  prop- 
erty. We  may  add,  that  the  indecent  violation  of 
the  sacerdotal  character  is  a  reason,  which  seems  to 
have  been  overlooked  by  both  parties. 

X  Even  the  trial  by  Duel,  which  seems  the  farthest 
removed  from  priestly  interference,  was  preceded  by 
eorne  religious  forms ;  great  precautions  were  taken 
to  prevent  the  arms  from  being  enchanted ;   and  in 

27 


of  their  judicial  authority,  and  they  divide 
that  disgrace  with  the  Kings  and  the  civil 
magistrates  of  the  time  ;  but  they  had  not 
the  crime  of  introducing  them.  They  re- 
ceived and  executed  them  as  they  were  hand- 
ed down  from  a  remote  and  blind  antiquity 
and  it  is  but  justice  to  add,  that  they  made 
frequent  attempts  to  abolish  them.  * 

Moreover,  through  the  free  spirit  which 
formed  the  only  merit  of  the  feudal  system, 
the  affairs  of  the  state  were  more  or  less 
regulated  by  public  assemblies,  and  the  high- 
er ranks  of  the  clergy  found  a  place  in  these. 
Thus,  again,  were  they  placed  in  contact 
with  the  great  temporal  interests  of  their 
country,  and  invited  to  examine  and  direct 
them  ;  and  no  doubt  their  feudal  temporal- 
ities, as  well  as  their  spiritual  influence,  added 
weight  and  authority  to  their  counsel.  But, 
besides  these,  which  some  might  overbear 
and  others  might  affect  to  despise,  their  po- 
litical consideration  was  derived  from  an- 
other— a  more  honorable  and  a  more  certain 
instrument  of  power — their  intellectual  su- 
periority. The  learning  of  the  age  continued 
still  to  be  confined  to  their  order  ;f  few 
among  the  laity  could  even  read,  and  there- 
fore few  were  qualified  for  any  public  duty, 
and  thus  the  various  offices  requiring  any 
degree  of  literature  fell  necessarily  into  the 
hands  of  the  clergy.  Those  who  consider 
their  advance  to  such  offices  as  usurpations 
do  not  sufficiently  weigh  the  circumstances 
of  the  times  ;  they  do  not  reflect  that  there 
are  moral  as  well  as  physical  necessities,  and 
that  a  state  of  society  is  not  even  possible,  in 

case  of  any  injustice  a  miracle  was  constantly  ex- 
pected to  remedy  it. 

*  A  council  held  at  Attigni,  probably  in  822,  un- 
der Lewis  the  Meek,  especially  prohibited  the  Trial 
by  the  Cross;  according  to  which,  the  two  parties 
stood  up  before  a  cross,  and  whichever  of  them  fell 
first  lost  his  cause.  Again,  at  the  Council  of  Worms 
(in  829,)  these  judgments  were  strongly  discouraged. 
Agobard,  Archbishop  of  Lyons,  an  influential  pre- 
late, had  written  expressly  against  them.  The  Coun- 
cil of  Valence,  held  in  855,  published  the  following 
canon.  '  Duels  shall  not  be  suffered,  though  author- 
ized by  custom.  He  who  shall  have  slain  his  adver- 
sary shall  be  subject  to  the  penance  of  homicide;  he 
who  shall  have  been  slain,  shall  be  deprived  of  the 
prayers  and  sepulture  of  the  church.  The  Emperor 
shall  be  prayed  to  abolish  that  abuse  by  public  ordi- 
nance.' See  Fkury,  1.  xlvi.,  s.  48.  1.  xlvii,  s.  30.  1. 
xlix.,  s.  23. 

f  In  many  of  the  councils  held  during  the  ninth 
century,  canons  were  enacted  enjoining  die  Bishop  to 
suspend  a  Priest  for  ignorance,  and  to  promote  ana 
regulate  the  schools  which  were  established  for  die 
education  of  the  clergy. 


210 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


which  the  only  persons  at  all  qualified  to  fill 
the  offices  of  the  state  should  be  the  only 
persons  excluded  from  them.  It  is  far  from 
our  intention  to  advocate  any  general  depar- 
ture from  the  spiritual  character  in  the  sacred 
orders ;  and  the  divines  of  the  ninth  and 
tenth  centuries  would  undoubtedly  have  been 
great  gainers  both  in  virtue  and  in  happiness, 
had  they  preserved  that  character  pure  and 
uncontaminated.  But  it  was  made  impos- 
sible by  the  political  system  under  which 
they  lived,  that  it  could  be  so  ;  and  without 
seeking  any  excuse  for  the  individual  mis- 
conduct of  thousands  among  them,  we  can- 
not avoid  perceiving,  that  their  interference 
in  temporal  affairs,  to  a  certain  extent,  was 
absolutely  unavoidable — and  where  and  by 
whom,  in  those  unsettled  ages,  were  the  lim- 
its of  that  interference  to  be  drawn  and  pre- 
served ? 

If  the  clergy  were  in  many  respects  gainers 
by  the  imperfection  of  civil  government,  it 
would  be  partial  to  conceal,  that  they  were 
sufferers  by  it  also.  In  times  of  confusion 
(and  those  days  were  seldom  tranquil)  the 
property  of  the  Church  was  the  constant  ob- 
ject of  cupidity  and  invasion.*  On  such  oc- 
casions no  inconsiderable  portion  of  its  rev- 
enues passed  into  the  hands  of  lay  impropri- 
ators, who  employed  curates  at  the  cheapest 
rate,  f  And  both  Bishops  and  Monasteries 
were  obliged  to  invest  powerful  lay  protec- 

*  The  councils  of  the  ninth  century  abound  with 
complaints  of  the  spoliation  of  Church  property  by 
laymen,  who  are  frequently  specified ;  and  new  Ca- 
pitularies were  continually  enacted  to  prevent  or  allay 
differences  between  the  Clergy  and  the  laity.  The 
confusion  generally  prevalent  is  proved  by  the  capit- 
ularies published  at  Quercy  (in  857,)  by  which  every 
diocesan  is  exhorted  to  preach  against  pillage  and 
violence,  as  well  as  by  the  Letters  of  Hincmar  pub- 
lished in  859,  and  that  of  the  Bishops  of  France  to 
King  Lewis,  attributed  to  the  same  prelate.  The 
frequency  too  of  personal  assaults  on  the  Clergy  is 
evinced  by  various  regulations  for  their  protection, 
and  even  more  so,  perhaps,  by  the  slight  punishment 
attached  to  such  offences.  Some  promulgated  in 
France  (probably  in  S22)  ordain  as  follows  — '  the 
murderer  of  a  Deacon  or  Priest  is  condemned  to  a 
penance  of  twelve  years  and  a  fine  of  900  sous ;  the 
murderer  of  a  Bishop  is  to  abstain  from  flesh  and 
wine  for  the  whole  of  his  life,  to  quit  the  profession  of 
arms,  and  abstain  from  marriage.'  Yet  the  confir- 
mation of  this  canon  was  thought  highly  important 
by  the  episcopal  order.  Fleury  1.  xlvi,s.  48;  l.xlix, 
6.40. 

t  An  abuse  (as  Mr.  Hallam  remarks)  which  has 
never  ceased  in  the  Church.  Middle  Ages, chap.  vii. 
We  take  this  opportunity  of  acknowledging  various 
obligations  to  that  historian. 


tors,  under  the  name  of  Advocates,  with  con- 
siderable fiefs,  as  the  price  of  their  protection 
against  depredators.  But  those  Advocates 
became  themselves  too  often  the  spoilers,  and 
oppressed  the  helpless  ecclesiastics  for  whose 
defence  they  had  been  engaged. 

We  have  thought  it  right,  though  at  the 
risk  of  some  repetition,  to  premise  this  gen- 
eral view  of  the  relative  situation  of  the  cler- 
gy and  laity  during  the  period  which  we  are 
describing  ;  otherwise  it  would  be  difficult  to 
form  any  just  and  impartial  views,  or  even 
any  very  definite  notions,  of  the  real  charac- 
ter of  the  events  which  it  contains. 

Penance  of  Lewis  the  Meek.  In  the  civil 
war  which  took  place  in  the  year  833  be- 
tween Lewis  the  Meek  *  and  his  sons,  Pope 
Gregory  IV.  presented  himself  in  France  at 
the  camp  of  the  rebels.  The  motive  which 
he  pretended  was  to  reconcile  the  combatants 
and  terminate  a  dissension  f  so  scandalous 
to  Christendom  ;  and  such  really  may  have 
been  his  design.  At  least  it  is  certain  that 
his  interference  was  a  single  and  inconse- 
quent act,  unaccompanied  by  any  insolence 
of  pretension  ;  the  Pope  offered  his  media- 
tion, and,  though  we  may  suspect  his  impar- 
tiality, he  advanced  no  claim  of  apostolical 
authority  to  dispose  of  the  crown.  We  shall, 
therefore,  pass  on  from  this  event  to  one 
which  immediately  followed  it,  and  which 
French  historians  consider  as  the  first  in- 
stance of  ecclesiastical  aggression  on  the 
rights  of  their  sovereign.  Lewis  was  betray- 
ed by  his  soldiers  into  the  hands  of  his  sons, 
who  immediately  deposed  him  and  divided 
the  empire  amongst  themselves:  but  fearing 
that  he  might  hereafter  be  restored  by  popu- 
lar favor,  they  determined  to  inflict  upon  him 
a  still  deeper  and  even  hopeless  humiliation. 
An  assembly  held  at  Compiegne  condemned 
him  to  perform  public  penance,  and  he  sub- 
mitted with  some  reluctance  to  the  sentence. 
Having  received  a  paper  containing  the  list 

*  Charlemagne  died  in  814;  Lewis  the  Meek  in 
840,  and  his  successor,  Charles  the  Bald,  in  S77. 
The  empire  passed  from  Charlemagne's  descendants 
to  the  German  Conrad  just  a  century  after  his  death ; 
and  in  987  his  dynasty  was  extinguished  in  France 
by  the  accession  of  Hugh  Capet. 

fBaron.,  ann.  833,  s.  v.  Gregory  held  the  See 
from  828  to  844.  It  was  made  a  complaint  against 
the  Emperor  by  Agobard,  the  Archbishop  of  Lyons 
(ap.  Baron.,  ann.  833,  s.  vi.)  that  he  did  not  address 
the  Pope  with  the  due  expressions  of  respect — since 
he  saluted  him,  in  a  letter,  Brother  and  Papa  indis- 
criminately: the  paternal  appellation  should  alone,  it 
seems,  have  been  adopted. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ENCROACHMENTS. 


211 


of  his  pretended  crimes,  and  confessed  his 
guilt,  he  prostrated  himself  on  a  rough  mat 
at  the  foot  of  the  altar,  cast  aside  his  baldric, 
his  sword,  and  his  secular  vestments,  and  as- 
sumed the  garb  of  a  penitent.  And,  after  the 
Bishops  had  placed  their  hands  on  him,  and 
the  customary  psalms  and  prayers  had  been 
performed,  he  was  conducted  in  sackcloth  to 
the  cell  assigned  for  his  perpetual  i-esidence. 
It  was  intended  by  those  who  condemned 
him  to  this  ignominy,  thereby  to  disqualify 
their  former  sovereign  for  every  office  both 
civil  and  military.  But  neither  does  it  ap- 
pear that  such  was  the  necessary  conse- 
quence of  canonical  penance,  unless  when 
imposed  for  life  ;  *  nor  could  they  have  for- 
gotten that  eleven  years  previously  the  same 
monarch  had  already  performed  a  public 
penance,  for  certain  political  offences  then 
charged  on  him.  It  proved  then,  as  might 
have  been  expected,  that  the  ceremony  de- 
scribed had  no  more  important  effect  than  the 
temporary  humiliation  of  the  royal  person. 
Probably  his  popularity  was  increased  by  the 
show  of  persecution  ;  and,  as  soon  as  politi- 
cal circumstances  changed  in  his  favor,  the 
Bishops  immediately  reconciled  the  penitent 
to  the  Church,  and  replaced  him  on  the 
throne,  f 

This  stretch  of  Episcopal  power  is  blamed 
by  many  Roman  Catholic  historians,  who, 
at  the  same  time,  are  careful  to  show  that  it 
was  simply  an  act  of  penance,  not  of  deposi- 
tion, justified  by  the  memorable  submission 
of  Theodosius  to  ecclesiastical  discipline. 
Nevertheless,  we  cannot  injustice  otherwise 
consider  it,  than  as  a  daring  outrage  commit- 
ted on  the  highest  temporal  authority,  with 
the  intention  of  perpetuating  the  deposition 
of  Lewis  by  the  pretext  of  penance.  Yet  it 
had  been  surpassed  in  azi  earlier  age  and  in 
a  different  country,  by  a  measure  of  episcopal 
usurpation  which  is  less  generally  recorded. 
At  the  twelfth.  Council  of  Toledo,  in  G82,  the 
bishops  undertook  to  decide  on  the  succes- 
sion to  the  crown.  Vamba,  king  of  the  Vis- 
igoths, having  done  penance  and  assumed  the 
monastic  habit,  formally  abdicated  in  favor 
of  Ejwigius  ;  on  which  matter  the  prelates 
pronounced  as  follows — '  We  have  read  this 


*  The  prohibition  to  carry  arms  or  discharge  civil 
offices  did  not  extend  beyond  the  duration  of  the  pen- 
ance. See  Fleury,  1.  xlvii.  s.  40.  Baron,  ami.  SS2. 
s.  i. ;   aim.  833.  s.  xix. 

f  We  read  in  Baronius  (ann.  834,  s.  i.,)  that,  dur- 
ing the  time  of  his  deposition,  violent  and  unseason- 
able tempests  prevailed,  which  instantly  dispersed  at 
his  restoration. 


act  and  think  right  to  give  it  our  confirmation. 
Wherefore  we  declare  that  the  people  is  ab- 
solved from  all  obligation  and  oath  by  which  it 
was  engaged  to  Vamba,  and  that  it  should  re- 
cognise fur  its  only  master  Ervigius,  whom 
God  has  chosen,  whom  his  predecessor  has 
appointed,  and,  what  is  still  more,  whom  the 
whole  people  desires.'  *  Still  we  may  observe 
that,  even  in  this  instance,  the  prelates  did 
not  professedly  proceed  to  the  whole  length 
of  deposition,  though  such  was  unquestion- 
ably the  real  nature  of  the  measure.  We 
may  also  remind  the  reader,  that  the  aggres- 
sions which  have  been  thus  far  mentioned 
were  entirely  the  work  of  the  episcopal  or- 
der, not  in  any  way  directed  or  influenced  by 
the  See  of  Rome.  It  is  very  true  that  they 
may  have  prepared  the  way  for  the  more 
extensive  usurpations  of  Papacy,  and  the  au- 
thority which  had  been  insulted  by  provincial 
bishops  could  scarcely  hope  to  be  long  held 
sacred  by  the  Chief  of  the  whole  body:  still 
the  Pope  had  not  yet  found  himself  sufficient- 
ly powerful  to  engage  in  the  enterprise. 

Charles  the  Bald.  The  long  reign  of  Charles 
the  Bald  furnishes  more  numerous  instances 
of  the  exercise  of  ecclesiastical  influence  in 
affairs  of  state,  some  of  which  deserve  our 
notice.  That  prince  and  Lewis  of  Bavaria 
being  desirous  to  dispossess  their  brother 
Lothaire  of  a  portion  of  his  dominions,  did 
not  presume,  notwithstanding  great  military 
advantages  which  they  had  obtained  over 
him,  to  proceed  in  their  design  without  the 
sanction  of  the  Clergy.  To  that  end  they 
summoned  a  council  of  Bishops  and  Priests  f 
at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  in  the  year  842,  and  sub- 
mitted the  question  to  their  consideration. 
The  assembly  condemned  the  crimes  and 
incapacity  of  Lothaire,  and  declared  that 
God  had  justly  withdrawn  his  protection 
from  him  ;  but  it  would  not  permit  his  bro- 
thers to  occupy  his  kingdom  until  they  had 
made  a  public  vow  to  govern  it,  not  after  the 
example  of  Lothaire,  but  accordiug  to  the 
will  of  God.  The  Bishops  then  pronounced 
their  final  decision  in  these  words — '  Receive 
the  kingdom  by  the  authority  of  God,  and 
govern  it  according  to  his  will ;  we  counsel, 
we  exhort,  we  command  you  to  do  so.'  The 
effect  of  this  sentence  was  not,  indeed,  the 
entire  spoliation  of  Lothaire,  who  retained  his 
throne  to  the  end  of  his  life  ;  but  certain  pro- 
vinces, already  in  the  occupation  of  the  con- 

*  It  is  the  first  canon  of  the  Council,  and  is  cited 
by  Fleury,  1.  xl.  s.  29. 

f  Fleury,  H.  E.  1.  xlviii.  s.  11.  Baron.,  ann.  842. 
s.  1,2,3. 


212 


HISTORY   OF  THE  CHURCH. 


querors,  were  immediately,  and,  as  it  would 
seem,  permanently  transferred  to  their  scep- 
tre in  consequence  of  the  episcopal  award. 

In  the  year  859  Charles  presented  to  the 
Council  of  Savonieres  a  formal  complaint 
against  Venilo,  Archbishop  of  Sens,  which 
breathes  the  lowest  spirit  of  humiliation.  'By 
his  own  election'  (the  King  says,)  '  and  that 
of  the  other  Bishops,  and  by  the  will  and 
consent  and  acclamation  of  the  rest  of  my 
subjects,  Venilo,  with  the  other  Bishops  and 
Archbishops,  consecrated  me  King,  accord- 
ing to  the  tradition  of  the  Church,  and  anoint- 
ed me  to  the  kingdom  with  the  holy  chrism, 
and  raised  me  to  the  throne  with  the  diadem 
and  sceptre.  After  which  consecration  and 
regal  elevation  I  ought  to  have  been  degraded 
by  no  one  without  the  hearing  and  judgment 
of  the  Bishops,  by  whose  ministry  I  was 
consecrated  to  royalty,  who  are  called  the 
thrones  of  God.  In  them  God  sits ;  by  them 
he  makes  known  his  judgments ;  and  to  their 
paternal  corrections  and  penal  authority  I 
was  prepared  to  subject  myself,  and  am  now 
subject.'  *  These  words  (as  Fleury  admits) 
are  remarkable  in  the  mouth  of  a  king,  and  es- 
pecially of  a  king  of  France  ;  but  the  example 
of  his  predecessor,  enforced  by  his  own  mis- 
fortunes f  and  feebleness,  may  have  reduced 
Charles  to  the  necessity  of  such  degradation. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  can  we  feel  astonish- 
ment that  the  Hierarchy  took  advantage  of 
what  appeared  the  voluntary  and  gratuitous 
prostration  of  royalty  ?  When  we  blame  the 
ambition  of  those  who  received  the  offering, 
should  we  forget  the  weakness  and  pusillan- 
imity of  those  who  presented  it? 

A  year  or  two  afterwards,  Lothaire,  King 
of  Lorraine,  grandson  of  Lewis  the  Meek, 
divorced  his  wife  in  order  to  espouse  his  con- 
cubine. It  appears  that  no  less  than  three 
Councils  of  Bishops  sanctioned  the  act  of 
their  monarch ;  nevertheless  the  repudiated 
queen  made  her  appeal  to  Rome.  Nicholas 
I.  was  then  Pope,  and  he  interfered  in  her 
favour  with  his  usual  vehemence  and  per- 

*The  original  is  cited  by  Baronius,  aim.  859.  s. 
xxvi.  The  Bishops  had  a  very  simple  process  of 
reasoning,  by  which  they  proved  their  supremacy. 
A  Bishop  can  consecrate  a  King,  but  a  King  cannot 
consecrate  a  Bishop:  therefore  a  Bishop  is  superior 
to  a  King.  We  might  well  wonder  that  any  serious 
attention  should  ever  have  been  paid  to  such  undis- 
guised nonsense,  if  we  did  not  recollect  what  undue 
weight  is  always  attached  to  ceremony  in  ignorant 
ages. 

t  It  should  also  be  recollected  that  this  was  the 
crisis  of  the  general  dissolution  of  government  and 
society  into  the  feudal  form. 


severance:  the  threat  of  excommunication 
was  long  suspended  over  the  king,  who  em- 
ployed submissive  language  and  persisted  in 
disobedience.  There  is  some  *  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  the  Pope,  towards  the  end  of  his 
life,  executed  his  menace  ;  and  if  so,  it  may 
seem  a  strange  return  for  the  generosity  of 
Charlemagne  to  the  Holy  See,  that  the  first 
discharge  of  its  deadliest  bolt  should  have 
been  directed,  within  fifty  years  from  his 
death,  against  one  of  his  own  descendants. 
But  he  had  in  some  degree  secured  this  re- 
tribution by  his  own  imprudence  :  for  it  was 
his  custom  to  engage  the  Bishops  to  pervert 
the  ecclesiastical  censures  to  the  service  of  the 
civil  government.  The  confusion  between 
the  two  powers  was  thus  augmented ;  and 
the  misapplication  of  the  great  spiritual  wea- 
pon to  the  purposes  of  the  state  naturally  led 
to  the  second  abuse,  which  turned  it,  for 
Church  purposes,  against  the  state. 

On  the  death  of  Lothaire,  Adrian  II.  en- 
deavored  to  exclude  Charles  the  Bald  from 
the  succession  to  his  states,  and  to  confer 
them  on  the  Emperor  Lewis.  To  effect  this 
object  he  addressed  one  letter  to  the  nobles 
of  the  kingdom  of  Lothaire,  in  which  he  ex- 
horted them  to  adhere  to  the  Emperor  on 
pain  of  anathema  and  excommunication  ;  and 
a  second  to  the  subjects  of  Charles,  in  which 
he  eidogized  the  Emperor,  and  repeated  the 
same  menaces.  He  continued  to  the  follow- 
ing purpose  ; — '  If  any  one  shall  oppose  him- 
self to  the  just  pretensions  of  the  Emperor, 
let  him  know  that  the  Holy  See  is  in  favor 
of  that  Prince,  and  that  the  arms  which  God 
has  placed  in  our  hands  are  prepared  for  his 
defence.'  We  may  consider  this  as  the  first 
attempt  of  papal  ambition  to  regulate  the 
successions  of  princes.  It  was  unsuccessful ; 
Charles,  with  the  aid  of  Hincmar,  Archbishop 
of  Rheims,  and  other  Prelates,  had  already 
placed  himself  in  possession  of  the  throne 
when  the  legates  of  Adrian  arrived  ;  and  the 
subsequent  efforts  of  the  Pontiff  to  oblige  him 
to  abdication  were  repelled  with  courage  and 
constancy  both  by  the  king  and  his  metro- 
politan, f 


*  Fleury  (1.  li.  s.  7.)  collects  the  fact  from  the 
Pope's  letter  to  Charles,  in  favor  of  Heltrude,  widow 
of  Count  Berenger,  and  sister  of  Lothaire.  But  many 
historians  are  silent  respecting  it,  and  in  the  first  in- 
tercourse between  Lothaire  and  Adrian  II.  the  suc- 
cessor of  Nicholas,  we  can  discover  no  proof  that  the 
King  was  then  lying  under  the  sentence. 

t  The  Pope  commanded  Hincrnar  to  abstain  from 
the  communion  of  Charles,  if  he  continued  refractory. 
The  Archbishop  (professedly  in  the  name  of  his  fel- 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ENCROACHMENTS. 


213 


Lewis  III.  and  Hincmar  o/Rheims.  These 
events  took  place  about  the  year  870 ;  and 
ten  years  afterwards  the  same  Hincmar  was 
equally  firm  in  defending  the  rights  of  the 
Church  when  they  were  in  opposition  to  the 
claims  of  the  king,  Lewis  III.  That  Prince 
was  desirous  to  intrude  into  the  See  of  Beau- 
vais  an  unworthy  minister,  and  pressed  his 
appointment  by  supplication  and  menace. 
Hincmar  defended  the  original  liberty  of  elec- 
tions which  had  been  restored  by  Lewis  the 
Meek,  and  the  independence  of  the  Church. 
'  That  you  are  the  master  of  the  elections,  and 
of  the  ecclesiastical  property,  are  assertions 
proceeding  from  hell  and  from  the  mouth  of 
the  serpent.  Remember  the  promise  which 
you  made  at  your  consecration,  which  you 
subscribed  with  your  hand,  and  presented  to 
God  on  the  altar  in  the  presence  of  the  Bish- 
ops. Reconsider  it  with  the  aid  of  your 
Council,  and  pretend  not  to  introduce  into  the 
Church  that  which  the  mighty  Emperors, 
your  predecessors,  pretended  not  in  their 
time.  I  trust  that  I  shall  always  preserve 
towards  you  the  fidelity  and  devotion  which 
are  due  ;  I  labored  much  for  your  election  ; 
do  not  then  return  me  evil  for  good  by  per- 
suading me  to  abandon  in  my  old  age  the  ho- 
ly regulations  which  I  have  followed,  through 

low-subjects)  replied,  among  other  matters, — '  Let  the 
Pope  consider  that  he  is  not  at  the  same  time  king 
and  bishop;  that  his  predecessors  have  regulated  the 
Church,  which  is  their  concern — not  the  State,  which 
is  the  heritage  of  kings ;  and  consequently  that  he 
should  neither  command  us  to  obey  a  king  too  distant 
to  protect  us  against  the  sudden  attacks  of  the  Pagans, 

nor  pretend  to  subjugate  us — us  who  are  Franks 

If  a  Bishop  excommunicates  a  Christian,  contrary  to 
rule,  he  abuses  his  power;  but  he  can  deprive  no  one 
of  eternal  life  who  is  not  deprived  of  it  by  his  sins. 
It  is  improper  in  a  Bishop  to  say  that  any  man  not 
incorrigible  should  be  separated  from  the  Christian 
name  and  consigned  to  condemnation;  and  that  too, 
not  on  account  of  his  crimes,  but  for  the  sake  of  with- 
holding or  conferring  a  temporal  sovereignty.  If  then 
the  Pope  is  really  desirous  to  establish  concord,  let 
him  not  attempt  it  by  fomenting  dissensions;  for  he 
will  never  persuade  us  that  we  cannot  arrive  at  the 
kingdom  of  Heaven  except  by  receiving  the  king 
whom  he  may  choose  to  give  us  on  earth.'  Again,  in 
an  answer  of  Charles  to  an  epistle  of  Adrian,  that 
Prince  argues  respecting  the  distinction  between  the 
temporal  and  the  spiritual  power,  and  also  alleges  the 
peculiar  supremacy  of  the  kings  of  France.  To  prove 
these  and  similar  points,  he  refers  not  only  to  the 
Archives  of  the  Roman  Church,  but  to  the  writings  of 
St.  Gelasius,  St.  Leo,  St.  Gregory,  and  even  St.  Au- 
gustin  himself.  (See  Hist.  Litteraire  de  la  France. 
Fleury,  1.  lii.,  s.  8,  22.)  Hincmar  wrote  many  of 
that  king's  letters,  and  may  probably  have  been  the 
author  of  this. 


the  grace  of  God,  during  six  and  thirty  years 

of  episcopacy '    A  subsequent  letter 

by  the  same  Prelate  contained  even  stronger 
expressions  to  the  following  effect  —  'It  is 
not  you  who  have  chosen  meto  govern  the 
Church  ;  but  it  is  I  and  my  colleagues  and 
the  rest  of  the  faithful  who  have  chosen  you 
to  govern  the  kingdom,  on  the  condition  of 
observing  the  laws.  We  fear  not  to  give 
account  of  our  conduct  before  the  Bishops, 
because  we  have  not  violated  the  Canons. 
But  as  to  you,  if  you  change  not  what  you 
have  ill  done,  God  will  redress  it  in  his  own 
good  time.  The  Emperor  Lewis  lived  not  so 
long  as  his  father  Charles  ;  your  grandfather 
Charles  lived  not  so  long  as  his  father,  nor 
your  father*  as  his  father;  and  when  you  are 
at  Compiegne,  where  they  repose,  cast  down 
your  eyes  and  look  where  lies  your  father 
and  where  your  grandfather  is  buried ;  and 
presume  not  to  exalt  yourself  in  the  presence 
of  Him  who  died  for  you  and  for  us  all,  and 

who  was  raised  again,  and  dies  no  more 

You  will  pass  away  speedily ;  but  the  Holy 
Church  and  its  ministers  under  Jesus  Christ 
their  Chief  will  subsist  eternally  according  to 
his  promise.'  This  vain  menace  of  temporal 
retribution  (for  as  such  it  was  obviously  in- 
tended) was  however  singularly  accomplish- 
ed ;  Lewis,  in  the  vigor  of  youth,  died  in  the 
following  year;  and  the  strange  coincidence 
may  have  encouraged  future  Prelates  to  in- 
dulge in  similar  predictions  which  proved  not 
equally  fortunate. 

We  have  already  mentioned  that  Charles 
the  Bald,  about  fifteen  years  after  his  contest 
with  Pope  Nicholas,  condescended  to  accept 
the  vacant  empire  as  the  donation  of  John 
VIII.  The  immediate  result  of  this  act  was, 
that  the  government  of  Italy  and  the  Imperial 
throne  were,  for  some  years  afterwards,  placed 
in  a  great  measure  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Pope,  who  shamelessly  abused  his  influence.f 
But  it  had  a  more  lasting  and  still  more  per- 
nicious consequence,  in  so  far  as  it  furnished 
to  the  more  powerful  Pontiffs  of  after  ages 
one  of  their  pretexts  for  interference  in  the 
succession  to  the  Imperial  throne.  The  cere- 
mony of  coronation  to  which  Charlemagne 
had  consented  to  submit  at  Rome  was  their 
only  foundation  for  the  pretension  that  the 
empire  had  been  transferred  from  the  Greeks 
to  the  Latins  by  papal  authority  ;  and  on  the 
same  ground  it  was  subsequently  transferred 


*  Lewis  the  Stammerer. 

t  See   Mosh.  Cent.  ix.   p.   ii.  c.  ii.     Giannone 
Stor.  Nap.  lib.  viii.     Introduct. 


214 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


by  the  same  agency  from  the  French  to  the 
Italians,  from  the  Italians  to  Otho  I.  and  the 
Germans.  The  mere  act  of  ministry  in  a 
customary,  and,  as  was  then  thought,  a  neces- 
sary solemnity,  was  exalted  into  a  display  of 
superiority  and  an  exercise  of  power ;  and 
many  among  the  ignorant  vulgar  were  really 
led  to  believe  that  the  rights  of  sovereignty 
were  conferred  by  the  form  of  consecration. 
But  the  condescension  of  Charles  the  Bald, 
though  conceding  no  very  definite  privilege, 
nor  any  which  could  be  reasonably  binding 
on  his  successors,  yet  furnished  a  pretence 
which  was  somewhat  more  substantial  than  a 
mere  ceremony.* 

On  a  review  of  this  short  narrative,  we 
perceive  that  the  Prelates  of  the  ninth  century 
advanced,  for  the  first  time,  claims  of  temporal 
authority  ;  that  such  claims  were  asserted  by 
national  assemblies  of  Bishops  even  more 
daringly  than  by  the  Popes ;  and  that  they 
were  so  immoderate  as  to  be  inconsistent  with 
the  necessary  rights  of  Princes,  and  the  vigor 
and  stability  of  civil  government.  We  ob- 
serve, moreover,  that  the  Hierarchy,  though 
on  some  particular  occasions  their  efforts  were 
frustrated,  had  made,  during  the  period  of 
sixty-three  years  from  the  death  of  Charle- 
magne to  that  of  Charles  the  Bald,  very  con- 
siderable strides  in  the  advancement  of  their 
power  and  privileges.  The  immediate  suc- 
cessor of  Charles,  Lewis  the  Stammerer,  was 
consecrated  to  the  throne  of  France  by  the 
Pope ;  and  a  Council  of  Bishops  assembled  at 
Troyes  about  the  same  time  (in  878,)  publish- 
ed, as  the  first  Canon,  '  that  the  Powers  of  the 
world  should  treat  the  Bishops  with  every 
sort  of  respect,  and  that  no  one  should  pre- 
sume to  sit  down  in  their  presence  unless  by 
their  command ; '  as  the  last,  '  that  all  those 
Canons  be  observed,  under  pain  of  deposition 
for  clerks,  and  privation  of  all  dignity  for 
laymen. '     The  Pope  and  the  King  were  both 


*  Some  of  the  expressions  of  the  Pope  delivered  on 
this  occasion  should  be  cited.  '  Unde  nos,  tantis 
indiciis  divinitus  incumbentibus,  luce  clarius  agnitis, 
superni  decreti  consilium  manifest^  cognovimus.  Et 
quia  pridem  Apostolicse  memorise  Decessori  nostro 
Papre  Nicolao  idipsum  jam  inspiratione  divina 
revelatnm  fuisse  comperimus,  clegimus  merito  et 
approbavimus  una  cum  annisu  et  voto  omnium  Fra- 
trum  et  Coepiscoporum  nostrorum  et  aliorum  Sanctce 
Rom.  Ecclesise  Ministrorum,  amplique  senatus,  toti- 
usqueRom.  populi  gentisque  togata;,  et  secundum  pris- 
cam  consuetudinem,  solemniter  ad  Imperii  Romani 
Sceptra  proveximus,  et  Augustali  nomine  decoravi- 
masj  ungentes  eum  oleo  extrinsecus,  ut  interioris 
quoque  Spiritus  Sancti  unctionis  monstraremus  virtu- 
tem,  &c  '     See  Baron.     Ann.  876,  s.  6. 


present  at  this  Council,  and  the  latter  appeaj-a 
to  have  sanctioned  the  very  bold  usurpation 
contained  in  the  last  clause. 

Soon  after  this  period  the  Popes  became  sj 
much  embarrassed  by  domestic  inquietude 
and  disorder,  that  they  had  little  leisure  to 
extend  their  conquests  abroad  ;  and  thus  for 
above  a  century  the  thunders  of  the  Vatican 
murmured  with  extreme  faintness,  or  alto- 
gether slept.  But  the  principle  of  ecclesias- 
tical supremacy,  and  the  disposition  to  submit 
to  it  were  not  extinguished  in  the  tumults  of 
the  tenth  age  ;  and  the  storm,  when  it  again 
broke  forth,  seemed  even  to  have  gained 
strength  from  the  sullen  repose  which  had 
preceded  it.  The  occasion  was  this — Robert, 
King  of  France,  had  married  a  relative,  four 
degrees  removed,  indeed,  but  still  too  near 
akin  for  the  severity  of  canonical  morality. 
Gregory  V.  in  a  Council  of  Italian  Bishops, 
held  at  Rome  in  the  year  998,  launched  a 
peremptory  order,  that  the  king  should  put 
away  his  wife,  and  both  parties  perform  seven 
years  of  penance.  The  king  resisted  ;  but  so 
united  was  the  Church  at  that  time,  and  so 
powerful,  that  he  was  presently  excommuni- 
cated by  his  own  Prelates,  and  shunned  by 
his  nobles  and  people.  At  length,  after  some 
ineffectual  struggles,  he  submitted  to  anathe- 
mas so  generally  respected  and  enforced,* 
and  complied  with  both  the  injunctions  of  the 
Pontiff.  This  is  the  third  instance  of  an 
authoritative  interference  on  the  part  of  the 
Popes  in  the  concerns  of  sovereigns  which 
we  have  had  occasion  to  mention,  and  we 
may  here  remind  the  reader  that  two  of  them 
were  on  the  ground  of  uncanonical  mar- 
riages. 

It  is  not  our  intention  to  enumerate  the 
many  trifling  occasions  on  which  the  claims 
of  the  Church  were  brought  into  collision 
with  the  rights  or  dignity  of  monarchs :  the 
instances  which  have  been  produced  are  the 
most  important,  and  they  are  worthy  of  more 
particular  reflection  than  can  here  be  bes- 
towed on  them.  But  at  present  it  must  suffice 
to  have  noticed,  even  thus  briefly,  the  earliest 
movements  by  which  the  spirit  of  ecclesias- 


*  Petrus  Damiani,  who  wrote  about  sixty  years 
afterwards,  relates,  that  the  ecclesiastical  censure  was 
so  exactly  observed,  that  no  one  would  hold  any  com- 
munion with  the  king,  excepting  two  servants  who 
carried  him  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  that  even  these 
burnt  the  vessels  which  he  had  used.  But  that  au- 
thor throws  suspicion  on  a  narration  not  improbable, 
by  adding  that  the  fruit  of  the  marriage  was  a  mon- 
ster which  had  the  head  and  neck  of  a  goose.  See 
Fleury,  1.  lvii.,s.  57. 


USURPATIONS  OF   THE  ROMAN  SEE. 


215 


tical  ambition  pressed  towards  universal  do- 
mination, and  to  have  called  some  attention 
to  those  bold,  but  irregular,  encroachments, 
which  furnished  to  after  ages  precedents  for 
wider  and  more  systematic  usurpation. 

III.  Internal  usurpations  of  the  Roman  See. 
We  have  already  mentioned  that,  from  a  very 
early  period,  the  Bishop  of  Rome  possessed 
the  first  rank  among  the  rulers  of  the  Church  ; 
and  if,  after  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  it  was 
disputed  with  him  by  the  Patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople, it  was  at  no  time  contested  (at 
least  after  the  time  of  Constantine)  in  the 
western  Churches.  It  is  equally  true,  that 
his  preeminence  in  rank  was  unattended  by 
any  sort  of  authority  beyond  the  limits  of  his 
own  diocese  ;  and  the  sort  of  superintendence 
which  it  might  seem  his  duty  to  exercise  over 
ecclesiastical  affairs,  was  confined  to  the  sim- 
ple right  of  remonstrance.  More  than  this 
is  not  asserted  by  moderate  Catholics,  nor  can 
an  impartial  Protestant  concede  less. 

We  have  also  noticed  some  of  the  steps 
which  were  taken  by  early  Popes,  not  only  to 
extend  the  boundaries  of  their  jurisdiction, 
but  to  establish  an  absolute  authority  within 
them.  Their  earliest  success  was  the  transfer 
to  the  Holy  See  of  the  Metropolitan  privileges 
throughout  the  diocese.  Among  these  the 
most  important  were  the  consecration  of 
bishops,  the  convocation  of  synods,  and  the 
ultimate  decision  of  appeals — privileges  which 
might,  obviously  be  applied  to  restrain  the 
power  and  independence  of  the  bishops. 
During  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  some  lit- 
tle progress  was  made  towards  that  object. 
Valentinian  III.  made  to  Leo  I.  some  conces- 
sions which  were  valuable,  though  that  Pope 
had  no  means  of  enforcing  them ;  but  the 
acquisitions  of  Gregory  the  Great  were  more 
substantial,  and  that  most  especially  so  was 
the  establishment  of  the  appellant  jurisdiction 
of  the  see.  A  more  general  subjection  of 
Metropolitan  to  Papal  authority  was  intro- 
duced by  the  Council  of  Frankfort ;  and  such 
was  the  relative  situation  of  the  parties  on  the 
accession  of  Charlemagne  to  the  empire. 
But  presently  afterwards,  as  if  impatient  of 
the  tedious  progress  of  gradual  usurpation, 
the  Spirit  of  Papacy  called  into  existence,  by 
an  effort  of  amazing  audacity,  a  new  system 
of  government,  and  a  new  code  of  principles, 
which  led  by  a  single  step  to  the  most  abso- 
lute power.  The  false  Decretals  were  im- 
posed on  the  credulity*  of  mankind.     Still 

*  Hincmar  was   not,  indeed,  blindly  submissive  to 


the  moment  was  not  yet  arrived  in  which  it 
was  possible  to  enforce  all  the  rights  so  boldly 
claimed  on  their  authority  ;  and  though  some 
ground  was  gained  by  Pope  Nicholas  I.,  their 
efforts  were  not  brought  into  full  operation 
till  the  pontificate  of  Gregory  VII. 

In  recording  some  instances  of  the  temporal 
interference  of  the  Church,  we  have  remarked 
the  success  of  episcopal,  as  distinct  from  papal 
presumption,  and  observed  the  independence, 
as  well  as  the  force,  with  which  the  Councils 
of  Bishops  acted  against  the  secular  powers. 
The  ninth  has  been  peculiarly  characterized 
as  the  Age  of  the  Bishops;  it  becomes  there- 
fore more  important  to  examine  the  relation 
in  which  they  then  stood,  even  in  the  moment 
of  their  highest  glory,  to  the  power  which  was 
now  spreading  in  every  direction  from  Rome. 
It  has  been  mentioned  that  when  the  sons  of 
Lewis  the  Meek  were  in  revolt  against  their 
father,  Pope  Gregory  IV.  presented  himself 
(as  has  been  mentioned)  at  the  camp  of  the 
rebels,  and  under  pretence  of  mediation,  fa- 
vored (as  was  thought)  their  party.  On  this 
occasion,  certain  French  prelates,  who  re- 
mained faithful  to  Lewis,  addressed  an  epistle 
to  the  Pope,  wherein  they  accused  him  of 
having  violated  the  oath  which  he  had  taken 
to  the  Emperor;  they  denied  his  power  to 
excommunicate  any  person,  or  make  any 
disposition  in  their  dioceses,  without  their 
permission ;  they  boldly  declared  that  if  he 
came  with  the  intention  of  excommunicating 
them,  he  should  return  himself  excommuni- 
cated ;  and  even  proceeded  so  far  as  to  threat- 
en him  with  deposition.  The  Pope  was 
alarmed  ;  but,  on  the  assurance  of  his  attend- 
ants that  he  had  received  power  from  God  to 
superintend  the  affairs  of  all  nations  and  the 
concord  of  all  Churches,  and  that,  with  au- 
thority to  judge  every  one,  he  was  not  himself 
subject  to  any  judgment,  he  wrote  in  answer, 
that  ecclesiastical  is  placed  high  above  secular 
power,  and  that  the  obedience  of  the  Bishops 
was  due  to  him  rather  than  to  the  Emperor; 
that  he  could  not  better  discharge  his  oath 
than  by  restoring  concord  ;  and  that  none 
could  withdraw  themselves  from  the  Church 
of  Rome  without  incurring  the  guilt  of  schism. 
The  irritation  of  the  parties  is  sufficiently 
discovered  in  their  letters ;  but  their  firmness 
was  not  put  to  trial ;  for  the  rebels  obtained 
by  treachery  a  temporary  success,  and  the 


the  Decretals;  but  it  was  their  authority  which  he 
questioned  rather  than  their  authenticity — proving 
that  his  national  or  episcopal  spirit  of  independence 
was  greater  than  his  critical  sagacity. 


216 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


Pope  returned  to  Italy  without  either  pro- 
nouncing or  receiving  excommunication. 

The  occurrence  which  we  shall  next  men- 
tion took  place  thirty  years  afterwards  ;  and 
it  is  the  more  remarkable,  because  the  two 
greatest  ecclesiastics  of  that  age,  Nicholas  I. 
and  Hincmar  of  Rheims,  were  placed  in  di- 
rect opposition  to  each  other.  The  circum- 
stances were  nearly  the  following.  A  Bishop 
of  Soissons,  named  Rothadus,  incurred  the 
displeasure  of  Hincmar,  and  after  being  con- 
demned in  two  Councils  held  at  Soissons  in 
862,  under  the  direction  of  the  Metropolitan, 
was  first  excommunicated,  and  very  soon  af- 
terwards deposed  and  imprisoned.  Rothadus, 
on  the  first  sentence,  appealed  to  the  see  of 
Rome,  and  found  a  very  willing  and  proba- 
bly partial  judge  in  Nicholas.  The  Pope  in- 
stantly despatched  to  Hincmar  a  peremptory 
order,  either  to  restore  Rothadus  within  thirty 
days,  or  to  appear  at  Rome  in  person  or  by 
legatt  for  the  determination  of  the  difference, 
on  pain  of  suspension  from  his  ministry.  In 
the  year  following,  Hincmar  sent  Odo,  Bishop 
of  Beauvais,  to  Rome,  with  the  commission 
to  request  the  Pope's  confirmation  of  the  acts 
of  the  synod  of  Soissons.  But  Nicholas,  on 
the  contrary,  rescinded  its  decisions,  and  de- 
manded, with  repeated  menaces,  the  imme- 
diate liberation  of  Rothadus,  in  order  to  the 
personel  prosecution  of  his  appeal  at  Rome. 
Through  the  interference  of  Charles  the 
Bald,  tie  prisoner  was  released;  and  after 
some  delays,  the  deputies  of  Hincmar  also 
appeared  before  the  pontifical  tribunal.  The 
decision  was  such  as  all  probably  anticipated : 
all  the  charges  against  Rothadus  were  ascrib- 
ed to  the  malice  and  perfidy  of  his  enemy  ; 
he  was  ordered  to  resume  the  episcopal  vest- 
ments, and  a  legate  was  sent  to  escort  him  on 
his  return  to  his  country  and  his  see.  It  does 
not  appear,  from  the  particulars  *  of  this  con- 
test, that  Hincmar  and  the  Bishops  who  sup- 
ported him  went  so  far  as  to  deny  the  right  of 
a  deposed  Bishop  to  appeal  to  Rome  against 
the  sentence  of  his  Metropolitan  ;  indeed,  they 
rested  their  defence  on  much  lower  ground, 
*  Besides  the  ecclesiastical  historians,  see  the  Life 
of  Nicholas  in  the  Breviarium  Pontif.  Romanor.  R. 
P.  Francisci  Pagi,  tome  ii.  That  Pope,  in  his  Epis- 
tle '  Ad  nniversos  Galliae  Episcopos,'  admits,  how- 
ever, that  the  authority  of  the  Decretals  was  not  yet 
universally  received  in  the  Gallican  Church.  We 
•:ead  in  the  same  author,  that  Adrian  II.  commanded 
the  Gallican  Bishops  to  raise  Actardus  of  Nantes  to 
the  first  Metropolitan  see  which  might  be  vacant;  and 
that,  in  the  year  871,  he  was  raised  to  that  of  Tours, 
hut  with  the  addition — Regc,  clero,  ac  populo  postu- 
lantibus. 


and  thus  conceded  that  which  was  most  im- 
portant. At  any  rate,  the  triumph  of  Nich- 
olas was  complete  ;  and  though  the  right  in 
question  was  first  advanced  by  him,  and  on 
no  more  solid  authority  than  the  (forged)  'De- 
cretals of  the  Ancient  Pontiffs,'  he  prevailed 
with  scarcely  any  difficulty  against  the  most 
learned  canonist  and  the  most  independent 
ecclesiastic  of  those  days. 

About  five  years  after  the  restoration  of 
Rothadus,  Hincmar  found  himself  once  more 
in  contest  with  the  Holy  See ;  *  and  his  zeal 
on  this  occasion  may  possibly  have  been  an- 
imated by  the  recollection  of  his  former  hu- 
miliation. His  vigorous  opposition  to  Adrian 
II.,  respecting  the  succession  to  the  crowrn 
of  Lorraine,  has  been  already  noticed ;  and 
if  he  failed  when  he  would  have  vindicated 
the  independence  of  the  Church  of  France 
from  Roman  superintendence,  his  success 
was  even  more  remarkable  when  he  defend- 
ed the  rights  of  the  throne  from  similar  in- 
vasion. 

The  visit  of  John  VIII.  to  France,  during 
the  year  878,  certainly  confirmed,  and  prob- 
ably extended,  papal  authority  in  that  coun- 
try. Before  the  Council  had  assembled  at 
Troyes,  he  obtained  the  consent  of  the  king 
to  some  regulations,  one  of  which  was,  that 
no  metropolitan  should  be  permitted  to  or- 
dain, until  he  had  received  the  pallium  or 
vest  from  Rome.  During  the  Session  of  the 
Council  we  observe  the  following  declaration 
to  have  been  made  by  Hincmar  himself: — ;In 
obedience  to  the  Holy  Canons,  I  condemn 
those  whom  the  Holy  See  has  condemned, 
and  receive  those  whom  it  receives,  and  hold 
that  which  it  holds  in  conformity  with  Scrip- 
ture and  the  Canons.'  The  Bishops  who 
were  present  professed  the  strictest  unanimity 
with  the  Pontiff;  and  the  good  understand- 
ing which  was  then,  perhaps,  established  be- 
tween the  Churches  of  Rome  and  France, 
and  which  assumed  the  inferiority,  f  if  not 


*  In  853,  Hincmar  had  deposed  a  number  of  Clerks 
ordained  by  his  predecessor,  whose  canonical  right  to 
the  See  was  disputed.  In  866,  Pope  Nicholas  order- 
ed a  revision  of  that  affair;  Hincmar  maintained  the 
sentence  vigorously  ;  but  Nicholas,  having  Charles  on 
his  side,  obtained  once  more  a  complete  triumph,  and 
restored  the  Ecclesiastics  to  their  rank  in  the  Church. 
In  both  these  disputes  it  would  appear  that  the  popu- 
lar voice  was  against  Hincmar. 

t  The  following  is  the  substance  of  an  Address  to 
the  Pope,  made  by  the  Bishops  at  this  Council — the 
original  may  be  found  in  Baronius.  Ann.  878,  s.  17, 
&c. :  'We,  the  Bishops  of  Gaul  and  Belgium,  your 
sons,  servants,  and  disciples,  deeply  suffer  through 
the  wounds  which  have  been  inflicted  upon  our  Holy 


USURPATIONS  OF  THE  ROMAN  SEE. 


217 


the  dependence  of  the  latter,  appears  to  have 
subsisted  long,  with  no  material  interruption. 
Character  of  Hincmar.  Hincmar  died  a 
few  years  afterwards.  He  was  descended 
from  a  noble  family ;  and  the  early  part  of 
his  life  he  so  divided  between  the  Court  and 
the  Cloister,  and  displayed  so  much  ability 
and  enthusiasm  in  the  discharge  of  the  duties 
attached  to  either  situation,  as  to  combine  the 
practical  penetration  of  a  Statesman  with  the 
rigor  of  a  zealous  Ecclesiastic.  He  was  rais- 
ed to  the  See  of  Rheims  in  the  year  845,  at 
the  age  of  thirty-nine,  and  filled  it  for  nearly 
forty  years  with  firmness  and  vigor.  In  the 
ninth  century,  when  the  mightiest  events 
were  brought  about  by  ecclesiastical  guid- 
ance, he  stands  among  the  leading  charac- 
ters, if,  indeed,  we  should  not  rather  consider 
him  as  the  most  eminent.  He  was  the  great 
Churchman  of  the  age :  on  all  public  occa- 
sions of  weighty  deliberation,  at  all  public 
ceremonies  of  coronation  or  consecration, 
Hincmar  is  invariably  to  be  found  as  the  ac- 
tive and  directing  spirit.  His  great  know- 
ledge of  canonical  law  enabled  him  to  rule 
the  Councils  of  the  Clergy ;  his  universal 
talents  rendered  him  necessary  to  the  state, 
and  gave  him  more  influence  in  political  af- 
fairs than  any  other  subject :  while  his  cor- 
respondence *  attests  his  close  intercourse 
with  all  the  leading  characters  of  his  age.  In 
the  management  of  his  Diocese,  he  was  no 
less  careful  to  instruct  and  enlighten  than 
strict  to  regulate  ;  and  while  he  issued  and 
enforced  his  Capitularies  of  Discipline  with 
the  air  and  authority  of  a  civil  despot,  he 
waged  incessant  warfare  with  ignorance.  It 
is  indeed  probable  that  he  possessed  less  the- 
ological learning  than  his  less  celebrated  con- 
temporary, Rabanus  Maurus ;  but  he  had 
much  more  of  that  active  energy  of  character 


Mother,  the  mistress  of  all  Churches,  and  unanimous- 
ly repeat  the  sentence  which  you  have  launched  against 
your  enemies,  excommunicating  those  whom  you  have 
excommunicated,  and  anathematizing  those  whom  you 

have  anathematized And  since  we  also  have 

matter  for  lamentation  in  our  own  Churches,  we  hum- 
bly supplicate  you  to  assist  us  with  your  authority, 
and  promulgate  an  ordinance  (Capitulum)  to  show  in 
what  manner  we  ought  to  act  against  the  spoliators 
of  the  Church  ;  that,  being  fortified  by  the  censure  of 
the  Apostolical  See,  we  may  be  more  powerful  and 
confident,'  &c. 

*  Frodoard  mentions  423  letters  of  Hincmar,  be- 
sides many  others  not  specified.  He  was  present  at 
thirty-nine  important  Councils,  at  most  of  which  he 
presided.  His  history  and  character  are  very  well 
illustrated  by  Guizot  in  his  28th  Lecon  de  la  Civil, 
en  France. 

28 


so  seldom  associated  with  contemplative  hab- 
its. It  is  also  true  that  he  was  crafty,  imperi- 
ous, and  intolerant ;  that  he  paid  his  sedulous 
devotions  to  the  Virgin,*  and  was  infected 
with  other  superstitions  of  his  age.  His 
occasional  resistance  to  the  see  of  Rome  has 
acquired  for  him  much  of  his  celebrity ;  but 
if  Divine  Providence  had  so  disposed,  that 
Hincmar  had  been  Bishop  of  Rome  for  as 
long  a  space  as  he  was  Primate  of  France, 
he  would  unquestionably  have  exalted  papal 
supremacy  with  more  courage,  consistency, 
and  success,  than  he  opposed  it. 

Popish  usurpations.  We  have  observed  that 
one  of  the  most  successful  means  of  papal 
usurpation  within  the  Church  was  the  en- 
couragement of  appeals  to  Rome.  It  is  in- 
deed scarcely  possible  to  measure  the  advan- 
tages which  the  see  derived  from  that  prac- 
tice ;  and  perhaps  we  do  not  value  it  too 
highly  when  we  ascribe  to  it  chiefly  a  vague 
notion  of  the  Pope's  omnipotence,  which  seems 
to  have  made  some  impression  among  the 
laity  during  the  ninth  century.  Before  we 
quit  this  subject,  we  should  mention  a  remon- 
strance from  the  pen  of  Hincmar,  which  was 
addressed  to  the  Pope  under  the  name  of 
Charles  the  Bald,  and  towards  the  end  of  his 
life.  In  this  letter  the  Emperor  is  made  to 
complain,  that  it  is  no  longer  deemed  suffi- 
cient that  Bishops,  condemned  by  their  Metro- 
politans, should  cross  the  Alps  for  redress,  but 
that  every  Priest,  who  has  been  canonically 
sentenced  by  his  Bishop,now  hurries  to  Rome 
for  a  repeal  of  the  sentence.  The  origin  of 
appeals  to  Rome  is  traced  to  the  Council  of 
Sardica ;  but  by  that  authority  they  were 
properly  liable  to  two  restrictions — they  were 
permitted  to  Bishops  only,  and  were  necessa- 
rily determined  on  the  spot.  The  inferior 
orders  were  amenable  to  their  respective 
Bishops,  who  judged  in  conjunction  with 
their  Clergy  ;  and  the  only  lawful  appeal  from 
the  decision  was  to  a  Provincial  Council. 
The  second  restriction  had  been  confirmed 
by  the  Canons  of  the  African  Church,  which 
in  former  days  had  defended  its  independence 
against  the  aggressions  of  Rome,  and  which 
now  furnished  weapons  to  the  Prelates  of 
Gaul,  invaded  after  so  long  an  interval  by  the 
persevering  ambition  of  the  same  adversary. 
Another  method  of  papal  encroachment 
was  the  appointment  of  a  Vicar  in  distant 
provinces,  to  whom  the  Pope  delegated  his 
assumed  authority,  and  by  whose  acknow- 

*  This  appears  from  his  epitaph,  written  by  himself, 
in  some  very  indifferent  hexameter  and  pentameter 
verses. 


213 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


ledgment  the  existence  of  that  authority  was 
in  fact  admitted. 

In  the  year  876,  John  VIII.  designated  the 
Archbishop  of  Sens  as  Primate  of  the  Gauls 
and  Germany,  and  Vicar  of  the  Pope  for  the 
Convocation  of  Councils  and  other  ecclesias- 
tical affairs ;  and  especially  to  promulgate  the 
pontifical  edicts,  and  superintend  their  execu- 
tion. The  Bishops  of  France  hesitated  to 
receive  the  yoke  so  manifestly  prepared  for 
them  ;  and  on  this  occasion  we  again  observe 
Hincmar  of  Rheims  defending  and  directing 
their  opposition.  He  protested  before  the 
assembled  Council,  that  this  attempt  was 
contrary  to  the  Holy  Canons ;  he  appealed  to 
the  regulations  of  Nice,  which  subjected  every 
province  to  its  own  Metropolitan,  and  con- 
firmed the  original  privileges  of  the  Church- 
es ;  he  fortified  the  decisions  of  Nice  by  the 
authority  of  St.  Leo  and  other  Popes ;  he 
deuied  that  the  particular  jurisdiction  which 
the  Pontiff  confessedly  exercised  over  certain 
distant  provinces  (as  Macedonia  and  parts  of 
Illyria)  absorbed  the  rights  of  the  Metropoli- 
tans ;  and,  while  he  admitted  that  the  Popes 
had  more  than  once  established  their  Vicars 
in  Gaul  itself,  he  contended  that  the  office 
was  temporary,  instituted  for  occasional  and 
specific  purposes,  such  as  the  prevention  of 
simony,  the  conversion  of  unbelievers,  the 
restoration  of  discipline,  and  that  it  ceased 
with  the  particular  abuses  which  had  made  it 
necessary.*  The  weight  of  antiquity,  which 
furnishes  a  conclusive  argument  in  ignorant 
ages,  was,  without  question,  on  the  side  of 
Hincmar.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Pope  had 
engaged  the  Emperor  in  the  defence  of  his 
claims;  and,  as  it  was  one  part  of  his  policy 
to  coalesce  with  the  national  hierarchy  when- 
ever the  rights  of  princes  could  be  assailed 
with  advantage,  so  was  it  another  to  draw 
the  princes  into  his  own  designs  against  the 
power  and  independence  of  their  Clergy. 

And  here  it  is  proper  to  notice  another 
privilege,  which,  though  its  origin  may  be 
traced  to  Gregory  the  Great,  was  little  exer- 
cised by  the  Popes  until  the  ninth,  or  the 
beginning  of  the  tenth  age.  Hitherto  the 
monasteries,  with  very  few  exceptions,  were 
subject  to  the  Bishop  of  the  diocese  in  which 
they  stood,  and  who  in  many  cases  had  been 
their  founders.  Exemptions  from  episcopal 
jurisdiction  were  now  granted  with  some 
frequency,  and  the  establishments  thus  privi- 


*Fleury,  H.  E.  lib.  lii.,  s.  33.  Frodoardus  (in  a 
passage  cited  by  Baronius,  Ann.  876.  s.  24)  admits 
the  powerful  resistance  of  Hincmar  on  this  occasion. 


ledged  acknowledged  a  direct  dependence  on 
the  Pope.  He  had  many  motives  for  this 
policy,  but  that  which  most  concerns  our 
present  subject  is  the  following.  To  secure 
his  triumph  over  the  liberties  of  the  Church, 
it  was  necessary  to  divide  it ;  and  his  scheme 
of  reducing  the  higher  ranks  of  the  Clergy 
was  mainly  promoted  by  a  practice  which 
curtailed  their  authority  in  a  very  important 
branch,  which  transferred  that  authority  to 
himself,  and  at  the  same  time  created  lasting 
jealousy  and  dissension  between  the  regular 
and  secular  orders. 

Two  other  objects  may  be  mentioned  to 
which  the  ambition  of  Rome  was  steadily  and 
effectually  directed — to  establish  the  princi- 
ple that  Bishops  derived  their  power  entirely 
from  the  Pope,  and  to  prevent  the  convoca- 
tion of  Councils  without  his  express  command. 
Towards  the  accomplishment  of  the  second, 
very  great  though  very  gradual  progress  was 
made  during  the  ninth  age  by  a  series  of 
usurpations,  of  which  the  earliest  served  as 
precedents  whereon  to  found  the  practice. 
The  greater  obscurity  and  confusion  of  the 
tenth  century  were  more  favorable  to  the  suc- 
cess of  the  first ;  *  and  if  it  be  true  that,  even 
after  that  time,  there  were  to  be  found  some 
bolder  Prelates,  both  in  France  and  Germany, 
who  disputed  these  and  others  among  the 
pontifical  claims,  it  cannot  be  questioned  that 
they  had  then  acquired  so  much  prevalence, 
and  had  struck  so  deeply  into  the  prejudices 
and  habits  of  men,  that  a  powerful  hand  alone 
was  wanted  to  call  them  into  light  and  action, 
and  to  give  them  the  most  fatal  efficacy. 

The  preceding  pages  have  presented  to  us 
a  variety  of  incidents  hitherto  nearly  novel  in 
the  history  of  the  Church,  but  with  which 
experience  will  presently  render  us  familiar. 
We  have  been  astonished  by  the  arrogant 
claims  of  the  Episcopal  Order  and  the  extent 
of  political  power  which  it  actually  possessed, 
and  shocked  by  the  ill  purpose  to  which  it 
sometimes  applied  that  power.  But  our  most 
thoughtful  attention  has  still  been  fixed  upon 
the  proceedings  of  the  Pope.  We  have  ob- 
served him,  in  the  first  place,  contending  with 
the  Emperor  for  the  independence  of  his  own 
election  with  a  great  degree  of  success ;  next 
we  have  beheld  him  engaged  in  occasional 
contests  with  the  most  powerful  Sovereigns 
of  the  age,  not  only  in  those  domestic  concerns 
which  might  seem  to  give  some  plea  for 
ecclesiastical  interference,  but  about  affairs 
strictly  secular,  and  the  very  successions  to 


*See  Mosheim,  Cent,  x.,  p.  2,  c.  2. 


ITS  OPINIONS. 


219 


their  thrones;  and,  lastly,  we  have  noticed 
the  movements  of  that  more  confined,  but 
scarcely  more  legitimate  ambition,  which 
pretended  to  depress  the  superior  ranks  of 
the  Clergy,  to  despoil  them  of  their  privi- 
leges, and  to  remove  them  to  so  humble  a 
distance  from  the  Roman  See,  that  the  Pope 
might  seem  to  concentrate  (if  it  were  possi- 
ble) in  his  own  person  the  entire  authority  of 
the  ecclesiastical  order.  The  particular  facts 
by  which  these  designs  were  manifested  be- 
long, for  the  most  part,  to  the  ninth  century  ; 
but  the  grand  pontifical  principles,  if  they 
suffered  a  partial  suspension,  yet  lost  none  of 
their  force  and  vitality  during  that  which  fol- 
lowed. And  upon  the  whole  it  is  a  true  and 
unavoidable  observation,  that  the  period  dur- 
ing which  the  mighty  scheme  first  grew  and 
developed  itself,  embraced  that  portion  of  pa- 
pal history  which,  above  all  others,  is  most 
scandalously  eminent  for  the  disorders  *  of 
the  See,  and  for  the  weakness  and  undis- 
guised profligacy  of  those  who  occupied  it.  f 


CHAPTER  XV. 

On.  the  Opinions,  Literature,  Discipline,  and 
External  Fortunes  of  the  Church. 

I.  On  the  Eucharist — Original  Opinions  of  the  Church — 
Doctrine  of  Paschasius  Radbert  combated  by  Ratram 
and  John  Scotus — Conclusion  of  the  Controversy — Pre- 
destination— Opinions  and  persecution  of  Gotteschal- 
cus  —  Millennarianism  in  the  Tenth  Century  —  its 
strange  and  general  Effect.  II.  Literature — Rabanus 
Maurus,  John  Scotus,  Alfred — its  Progress  among  the 
Saracens — Spain — South  of  Italy — France — Rome — 
Pope  Sylvester  II.  III.  Discipline  of  the  Church — 
Conduct  of  Charlemagne  and  his  Successors — St.  Ben- 
edict of  Aniane.  Institution  of  Canons  regular — Epis- 
copal election — Translations  by  Bishops  prohibited. 
Pope  Stephen  VI. — Claudius  Bishop  of  Turin — Peniten- 
tial System.  IV.  Conversion  of  the  North  of  Europe 
— of  Denmark,  Sweden,  Russia — of  Poland  and  Hun- 
gary— how  accomplished  and  to  what  Extent — The 
Normans —  The  Turks. 

The  particulars  contained  in  the  preceding 
Chapter  present  an  imperfect  picture  of  the 


*  This  is  more  particularly  true  of  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, but  even  the  ninth  was  not  exempt  from  the 
same  charge.  To  this  age  belongs  the  popular  story 
of  the  female  Pope;  the  pontificate  of  Joan  is  record- 
ed to  have  commenced  on  the  death  of  Leo  IV.,  in 
855,  and  to  have  lasted  for  about  two  years.  Histori- 
ans agree  that  very  great  confusion  prevailed  at  Rome 
respecting  the  election  of  Leo's  successor,  and  that 
Benedict  III.  cfid  not  prevail  without  a  severe  and 
tumultuous  struggle  with  a  rival  named  Anastasius. 
The  rule  of  Pope  Joan  is  now  indeed  generally  dis- 
credited; but  the  early  invention  of  the  tale,  and  the 
belief  so  long  attached  to  it,  attest  a  condition  of 
things  which  made  it  at  least  possible. 

t  The  Lives  of  the  Popes  (Liber  Pontificalis)  were 


condition  of  Religion  during  the  ninth  and 
tenth  centuries.  They  are  sufficient,  perhaps, 
to  exhibit  the  outlines  of  the  visible  Church, 
as  it  was  gradually  changing  its  shape  and 
constitution,  and  passing  through  a  region  of 
disorder  and  darkness,  from  a  state  of  con- 
tested rights  and  restricted  authority  to  a  sit- 
uation of  acknowledged  might  and  unbound- 
ed pretension.  They  may  also  have  discov- 
ered to  us,  in  some  manner,  the  process  of  the 
change,  and  certain  of  the  less  obvious  means 
and  causes  through  which  it  was  accomplish- 
ed :  still  the  inquiry  has  been  confined  to  the 
external  Church  ;  it  has  gone  to  examine  a 
human  and  perishable  institution — no  far- 
ther ;  it  has  illustrated  the  outworks  which 
man  had  thrown  up  for  the  protection  (as  he 
imagined)  of  God's  fortress — nothing  more. 
It  remains,  then,  to  complete  the  task,  and  to 
notice  some  circumstances  in  the  history  of 
this  period  unconnected  with  the  ambitious 
struggles  of  Popes  or  Bishops. 

It  is  observable  that,  during  the  seventh 
and  eighth  ages,  Religion  lost  much  of  its 
vigor  and  efficacy  in  France  and  Italy,  while 
it  took  root  and  spread  in  Britain ;  during 
the  ninth,  it  arose,  through  the  institutions 
of  Charlemagne,  with  renovated  power  in 
France;  in  the  course  of  the  tenth,  its  pro- 
gress in  Germany  made  some  amends  for 
its  general  degradation.  These  fluctuations 
corresponded,  upon  the  whole,  with  the  lite- 
rary revolutions  of  those  countries.  Learning 
was,  in  those  days,  the  only  faithful  ally  and 
support  of  religion,  and  the  causes  which 
withered  the  one  never  failed  to  blight  the 
other.  Indeed,  as  learning  was  then  almost 
wholly  confined  to  the  Clergy,  it  naturally 
partook  of  a  theological  character ;  and  as  the 
season  of  scholastic  sophistry  had  not  yet  set 
in,  the  theology  did  not  so  commonly  ob- 
scure, it  even  commonly  illustrated,  the  re- 
ligion. 

Religious  zeal,  when  informed  by  imper- 
fect education,  and  unrestrained  by  a  mod- 
erate and  charitable  temper,  is  rarely  unat- 
tended by  religious  dissension  ;  and  thus  it 
happened,  that,  while  the  intellectual  torpor 
of  the  tenth  century  was  little  or  nothing 
agitated  by  such  disputes,  the  ninth,  which 
was    partially   enlightened,   witnessed   three 


written  by  Anastasius,  a  librarian,  who  died  before 
882 ;  they  reach  as  far  as  the  death  of  Nicholas  I.  in 
867.  The  lives  of  some  other  Popes,  as  far  as  889, 
were  added  by  another  librarian  named  Guillaume. 
From  889  to  1050  (where  the  Collection  of  Cardinal 
d'Aragon  begins)  there  is  a  suspension  of  pontifical 
biography. 


220 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


important  controversies.  The  first  was  that 
which  Photius  carried  on  with  the  Roman 
See,  regarding  Image  worship  and  other 
differences,  the  work  of  preceding  genera- 
tions ;  and  it  has  been  already  treated.  The 
other  two  respected  the  manner  of  Christ's 
presence  at  the  Eucharist,  and  the  doctrine 
of  Salvation  by  Grace,  and  they  shall  now  be 
noticed :  it  will  afterwards  be  necessary  to 
say  a  few  words  on  the  Discipline  of  the 
Church  ;  and  we  shall  then  observe  the  pro- 
gress of  Christianity  among  distant  and  bar- 
barous nations,  as  well  as  the  severe  reverse 
which  afflicted  it. 

I.  Ecclesiastical  Controversies.  Mosheim  * 
asserts  without  hesitation,  that  it  had  been 
hitherto  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the 
Church,  that  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ 
were  really  administered  to  those  who  re- 
ceived the  Sacrament,  and  that  they  were 
consequently  present  at  the  administration, 
but  that  the  sentiments  of  Christians  concern- 
ing the  nature  and  manner  of  this  presence 
were  various  and  contradictory.  No  Council 
had  yet  determined  with  precision  the  man- 
ner in  which  that  presence  was  to  be  under- 
stood ;  both  reason  and  folly  were  hitherto 
left  free  in  this  matter ;  nor  had  any  imperi- 
ous mode  of  faith  suspended  the  exercise  of 
the  one,  or  controlled  the  extravagance  of  the 
other.  The  historian's  first  position  is  laid 
down,  perhaps,  somewhat  too  peremptorily  ; 
for  though  many  passages  may  be  adduced 
from  very  ancient  fathers  in  affirmation  of  the 
bodily  presence,  the  obscurity  or  different 
tendency  of  others  would  rather  persuade  us, 
that  even  that  doctrine  was  also  left  a  good 
deal  to  individual  judgment.  The  second  is 
strictly  true  ;  and  the  question  which  had 
escaped  the  vain  and  intrusive  curiosity  of 
oriental  theologians,  was  at  length  engendered 
in  a  Convent  in  Gaul.  In  the  year  831,  Pas- 
chasius  Radbert,  a  Benedictine  Monk,  after- 
wards Abbot  of  Corbie,  published  a  treatise 
'  concerning  the  Sacrament  of  the  Body  and 
Blood  of  Christ,'  which  he  presented,  fifteen 
years  afterwards,  carefully  revised  and  aug- 
mented, to  Charles  the  Bald.  The  doctrine 
advanced  by  Paschasius  may  be  expressed  in 
the  two  following  propositions: — First,  that 
after  the  consecration  of  the  bread  and  wine, 
nothing  remains  of  those  symbols  except  the 
outward  figure,  under  which  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  were  really  and  locally  pres- 
ent. Secondly,  that  the  body  of  Christ,  thus 
present,  is  the  same  body  which  was  born  of 


*Cent.  ix.  p.  2,  c.  3. 


the  Virgin,  which  suffered  upon  the  cross, 
and  was  raised  from  the  dead.*  Charles  ap- 
pears decidedly  to  have  disapproved  of  this 
doctrine.  And  it  might  perhaps  have  been 
expected  that,  after  the  example  of  so  many 
princes,  he  would  have  summoned  a  Council, 
stigmatized  it  as  heresy,  and  persecuted  its 
author.  He  did  not  do  so;  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, adopted  a  method  of  opposition  worthy 
of  a  wiser  Prince  and  a  more  enlightened 
age.  He  commissioned  two  of  the  ablest 
writers  of  the  day,  Ratramn  f  and  Johannes 
Scotus,  I  to  investigate  by  arguments  the  sus- 


*  Pachasius  derived  three  consequences  from  his 
doctrine.  1.  That  Jesus  Christ  was  immolated  anew 
every  day,  in  reality  but  in  mystery.  2.  That  the 
Eucharist  is  both  truth  and  figure  together.  3.  That 
it  is  not  liable  to  the  consequences  of  digestion.  The 
first  of  these  positions  assumes  a  new  and  express 
creation  on  every  occasion  of  the  celebration  of  the 
Sacrament.  The  disputes  arising  from  the  third  af- 
terwards gave  birth  to  the  heresy  named  Stercoranism. 
— Fleury,  1.  xlvii.,  s.  35.  Sender  (sec.  ix.  cap.  iii.) 
is  willing  to  deduce  Paschasius'  doctrine  from  the 
Monophysite  Controversy,  and  the  opinions  respect- 
ing '  one  incarnate  nature  of  Christ,'  which  had  still 
some  prevalence  in  the  East. 

■f  A  monk  of  Corbie.  His  book  was  long  received 
under  the  name  of  Bertram ;  and  some  have  even 
supposed  it  to  be  the  work  of  John  Scotus  on  the 
same  subject,  but  clearly  without  reason.  Dupin, 
Hist.  Eccl.,  Cent.  ix.  c.  vii.  Fleury,  1.  xlix.,  s.  52, 
53.  Semler,  loc.  cit.  Ratramn  proposes  the  sub- 
ject in  the  following  manner: — "  Your  Majesty  in- 
quires whether  the  body  and  blood  of  Jesus  Christ, 
which  is  received  in  the  Church  by  the  mouth  of  the 
faithful,  is  made  in  mystery — that  is,  if  it  contains 
any  thing  secret  which  only  appears  to  the  eyes  of 
faith — or  if,  without  any  veil  of  mystery,  the  eyes  of 
the  body  perceive  without,  that  which  the  view  of  the 
spirit  perceives  within;  so  that  all  which  is  made  is 
manifestly  apparent.  You  inquire  besides,  whether 
it  is  the  same  body  which  was  born  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  which  suffered,  died,  and  was  buried;  and 
which,  after  its  resurrection,  ascended  to  Heaven, 
and  sat  on  the  right  hand  of  the  Father."  Respect- 
ing the  second  question,  the  opinion  of  Ratramn  was 
in  direct  opposition  to  that  of  Paschasius ;  but,  in 
the  treatment  of  the  first,  it  would  be  difficult  certain- 
ly to  pronounce  on  what  they  differed,  or  indeed  on 
what  they  agreed.  There  is  moreover  extant  an 
anonymous  composition,  which  combats  the  second 
proposition  of  Paschasius — first  in  itself,  and  then  in 
its  consequence — that  Jesus  Christ  suffers  anew  on 
every  occasion  that  mass  is  celebrated.  The  writer 
acknowledges  the  real  presence  as  a  necessary  tenet. 
•  Every  Christian'  (thus  he  commences)  '  ought  to 
believe  and  confess  that  the  body  and  blood  of  the 
Lord  is  true  flesh  and  true  blood;  whoever  denies 
this  proves  himself  to  be  without  faith.'  It  appears 
indeed  true  that  Paschasius'  second  proposition  gave 
much  more  general  offence  than  the  first. 

%  John  Scotus  Erigena  (i.  e.  John  the   Irishman) 


ITS  OFLMONS. 


221 


picious  opinion.  The  composition  of  the 
former  is  still  extant,  and  has  exercised  the 
ingenuity  of  the  learned  even  in  recent  times ; 
but  they  have  not  succeeded  in  extricating 
from  the  perplexities  of  his  reasoning,  and, 
perhaps,  the  uncertainty  of  his  belief,  the  real 
opinious  of  the  author.  The  work  of  Johan- 
nes Scotus  is  lost ;  but  we  learn  that  his 
arguments  were  more  direct,  and  his  senti- 
ments more  perspicuous  and  consistent ;  he 
plainly  declared,  that  the  bread  and  wine 
were  no  more  than  symbols  of  the  absent 
body  and  blood  of  Christ,  and  memorials  of 
the  last  supper.  Other  theologians  engaged 
in  the  dispute,  and  a  decided  superiority,  both 
in  number  and  talents,*  was  opposed  to  the 
doctrine  of  Paschasius — yet  so  opposed,  that 
there  was  little  unanimity  among  its  adversa- 
ries, and  no  very  perfect  consistency  even  in 
their  several  writings.f 

The  controversy  died  away  before  the  end 
of  the  ninth  century,  without  having  occa- 
sioned any  great  mischief,  and  the  subject 
was  left  open  to  individual  inquiry  or  neglect, 
as  it  had  even  been.  The  intellectual  lethargy 
of  the  century  following  was  not  to  be  dis- 
turbed by  an  argument  demanding  some 
acuteness,  and  susceptible  of  much  sophistry  ; 
and  an  age  of  entire  ignorance  has  at  least 
this  advantage  over  one  of  superficial  learn- 
ing, I  that  it  suffers  nothing  from  the  abuse 
of  the  human  understanding.  But  very  early 
in  the  eleventh  century,  the  dispute  was  again 
awakened :  it  assumed,  under  different  cir- 
cumstances and  other  principles,  another 
aspect  and  character,  and  closed  in  a  very 

was  a  layman  of  great  acuteness  and  much  profane  learn- 
ing, and  irreproachable  moral  character.  He  was  in 
high  estimation  at  the  court  of  Charles  the  Bald,  and 
honored  by  the  personal  partiality  of  that  prince.  He 
is  described  in  the  Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France,  to  have 
been  of  *  tres  petite  taille,  vif,  penetrant,  et  enjoue.' 
Fleury  (1.  xlviii.,  s.  48)  disputes  the  great  extent  of 
his  theological  acquirements,  and  perhaps  with  justice. 
His  book  on  the  Eucharist  was  burnt  about  two  hun- 
dred years  afterwards  by  the  hand  of  his  disciple 
Berenger,  on  ecclesiastical  compulsion. 

*  Hincmar  appears  to  have  held  the  doctrine  of  the 
real  presence;  and  it  is  difficult  to  pronounce  whether 
or  not  he  confined  his  meaning  to  a  spiritual  presence. 

t  The  worship  of  the  elements  is  not  mentioned  by 
any  of  the  disputants — it  was  an  extravagance  of 
superstition  too  violent  for  the  controversialists  of  the 
ninth  century. 

%  As  early  as  the  conclusion  of  the  eighth  century, 
ix  .ieresy  respecting  the  nature  of  Jesus  Christ  appear- 
ed in  the  Western  Church — that  of  the  Adoptians. 
It  was  condemned  by  Charlemagne  in  three  Councils, 
between  the  years  790  and  800,  and  presently  disap- 
peared. 


different  termination.  But  as  this  event  be- 
longs more  properly  to  the  life  of  Gregory 
VII.  we  shall  not  anticipate  the  triumph  of 
that  Pontiff,  nor  deprive  his  name  of  any  ray 
of  that  ambiguous  splendor  which  illustrates  it. 
Opinions  of  Godeschalcus.  The  subject  of 
Predestination  and  Divine  Grace,  which  had 
already  *  been  controverted  in  France  with 
some  acuteness,  and,  what  is  much  better, 
with  candor  and  charity,  was  subjected  to 
another  investigation  in  the  ninth  century. 
Godeschalcus,  otherwise  called  Fulgentius, 
was  a  native  of  Germany,  and  a  monk  of 
Orbais,  in  the  diocese  of  Soissons.  He  was 
admitted  to  orders,  during  the  vacancy  of  the 
See,  by  the  Chorepiscopus — a  circumstance 
to  which  the  subsequent  animosity  of  Hinc- 
mar is  sometimes  attributed.  He  possessed 
considerable  learning,  but  a  mind  withal  too 
prone  to  pursue  abstruse  and  unprofitable 
inquiries.  Early  in  life  he  consulted  Lupus, 
Abbot  of  Ferrara,  on  the  question,  whether, 
after  the  resurrection,  the  blessed  shall  see 
God  with  the  eyes  of  the  body  ?  The  Abbot 
concluded  a  reluctant  reply  to  the  following 
effect : — '  I  exhort  you,  my  venerable  brother, 
no  longer  to  weary  your  spirit  with  suchlike 
speculations,  lest,  through  too  great  devotion 
to  them,  you  become  incapacitated  for  exam- 
ining and  teaching  things  more  useful.  Why 
waste  so  many  researches  on  matters,  which 
it  is  not  yet,  perhaps,  expedient  that  we  should 
know  ?  Let  us  rather  exercise  our  talents  in 
the  spacious  fields  of  Holy  Writ ;  let  us  apply 
entirely  to  that  meditation,  and  let  prayer  be 
associated  to  our  studies.  God  will  not  fail 
in  his  goodness  to  manifest  himself  in  the 
manner  which  shall  be  best  for  us,  though  we 
should  cease  to  pry  into  things  which  are  placed 
above  us.'  The  speculations  of  Godeschalcus 
were  diverted  by  this  judicious  rebuke,  but 
not  repressed  ;  and  the  books  of  Scripture 
were  still  rivalled  or  superseded  in  his  atten- 
tion by  those  of  Augustin.  Accordingly  he 
involved  himself  deeply  and  inextricably  in 
the  mazes  of  fatalism.  About  the  year  846, 
he  made  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  and  on  his 
return,  soon  afterwards,  he  expressed  his 
opinions  on  that  subject  ve^  publicly  in  the 
diocese  of  Verona.  Information  was  instant- 
ly conveyed  to  Rabanus  Maurus,  Archbishop 
of  Mayence,  the  most  profound  theologian  of 
the  age.  That  Prelate  immediately  replied  ; 
and  in  combating  the  errror  of  a  professed 
Augustinian,  protected  himself  also  by  the 
authority  of  Augustin.f 

*  In  the  fifth  century. — See  chap.  xi. 

f  Rabanus  was   the  most   profound  divine  in  the 


222 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


Happy  had  it  been  for  the  author  of  the 
controversy,  if  his  adversary  had  allowed  it  to 
remain  on  "that  footing  ;  but  the  doctrine  was 
becoming  too  popular,  and  threatened  moral 
effects  too  pernicious  *  to  be  overlooked  by 
the  Church.  Rabanus  assembled,  in  848,  a 
Council  at  Mayence,  at  which  the  king  was 
present,  and  Godeschalcus  was  summoned 
before  it.  Here  he  defended,  in  a  written 
treatise,  the  docmne  of  double  predestination 
—that  of  the  elect,  to  eternal  life  by  the  free 
Grace  of  God— that  of  the  wicked,  to  ever- 
lasting damnation  through  their  own  sins. 
His  explanations  did  not  satisfy  the  Council, 
and  the  tenet  was  rejected  and  condemned  ; 
but  its  advocate  was  not  considered  amenable 
to  that  tribunal,  as  he  had  been  ordained  in 
the  diocese  of  Rheims  ;  wherefore  Rabanus 
consigned  him  to  the  final  custody  of  Hiuc- 
mar,  who  then  held  that  See. 

The  unfortunate  heretic  (he  had  now  de- 
served that  appellation)  profited  nothing  by 
this  change  in  jurisdiction.  Hincmar,  in  the 
following  year,  caused  him  to  be  accused 
before  the  Council  of  Quiercy  sur  Oise,  when 
he  was  pronounced  incorrigible,  and  deposed 
from  the  priesthood.  Moreover,  as  the  pen- 
alty of  his  insolence  and  contumacy,  he  was 
condemned  to  public  flagellation  and  perpetual 
imprisonment.  The  sentence  was  rigidly  ex- 
ecuted, and  Charles  was  not  ashamed  to 
countenance  it  by  his  royal  presence.  It  is 
affirmed,  that  under  the  prolonged  agony  of 
severe  torture,  the  sufferer  yielded  so  far  as 
to  commit  to  the  flames  the  Texts  which  he 
had  collected  in  defence  of  his  opinions  ;  and 
if  he  did  so,  it  was  human  and  excusable 
weakness,  f     But  it  is  certain   that  he  was 

ninth  century,  as  Augustin  was  in  the  fifth,  but  the 
spirit  of  the  one  age  was  original  thought  and  reason- 
ing— that  of  the  other,  blind  and  servile  imitation: 
therefore  Rabanus  was  contented  to  cite  and  explain 
Augustin;  and  the  controversy  descended  from  lofty 
philosophical  investigation  to  logical,  and  even  critical 
subtility.  The  object  in  the  fifth  age  was,  to  solve 
an  abstruse  and  difficult  question;  that  in  the  ninth, 
to  penetrate  the  real  opinions  of  an  ancient  writer. 

*  In  one  of  the  letters  written  on  this  subject, 
Rabanus  asserts  that  the  doctrine  of  Godeschalcus  had 
already  driven  many  to  despair,  and  that  several  began 
to  inquire — '  Wherefore  should  I  strive  and  labor  for 
my  salvation  1  In  what  does  it  profit  me  to  be  right- 
eous, if  I  am  not  predestined  to  happiness  1  What 
evil  may  I  not  safely  commit,  if  I  am  surely  predes- 
tined to  life  eternal  1  '  This  natural  inference,  how- 
ever disavowed  by  the  more  ingenious  teachers  of  the 
doctrine,  is  very  liable  to  be  drawn  by  the  people, 
even  in  ages  much  more  enlightened  than  the  ninth. 

t  Godeschalcus   solicited   permission   to   maintain 


confined  to  the  walls  of  a  convent  for  almost 
twenty  *  years,  and  that  at  length,  during  the 
agonies  of  his  latest  moments,  he  was  required 
to  subscribe  a  formulary  of  faith,  as  the  only 
condition  of  reconciliation  with  the  Church — 
that  he  disdained  to  make  any  sacrifice,  even 
at  that  moment,  to  that  consideration,  and 
that  his  corpse  was  deprived  of  Christian 
sepulture  by  the  unrelenting  bigotry  of  Hinc- 
mar. 

The    precise  extent  f    of  Godeschalcus's 
errors  is,  according  to  the  usual  history  of 


the  truth  of  his  doctrine  in  the  presence  of  the  King, 
the  Clergy,  and  the  whole  people,  by  passing  through 
four  barrels  filled  with  boiling  water  and  oil  and  pitch, 
and  afterwards  through  a  large  fire.  If  he  should 
come  out  unhurt,  let  the  doctrine  be  acknowledged 
and  received;  if  otherwise,  let  the  flames  take  their 
course.  Milner,  whose  account  of  this  Controversy 
should  be  mentioned  with  praise,  can  scarcely  pardon 
this  desire  of  his  persecuted  favorite — as  if  the  cham- 
pion of  Predestination  had  been  less  liable  than  his 
neighbors  to  the  superstitious  contagion  of  his  age. 
In  this  case,  however,  his  imperfection  was  peculiarly 
excused  by  the  more  deliberate  absurdity  of  Hincmar 
himself,  who  had  so  far  degraded  his  genius  as  to 
write  a  serious  treatise  on  '  Trials  by  Hot  and  Cold 
Water.'     See  Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France. 

*  His  death  is  usually  referred  to  the  year  866. 
We  should  observe  that  his  sufferings  did  not  escape 
the  compassion  of  some  of  hiscontemporaries.  Remy, 
who  succeeded  Amolon  in  the  see  of  Lyons,  wrote  on 
the  subject  with  some  warmth.  '  It  is  an  unprece- 
dented instance  of  cruelty,  which  has  filled  the  world 
with  horror,  that  he  was  lacerated  with  stripes,  as 
eye-witnesses  attest,  until  he  cast  into  the  fire  a  me- 
morial containing  the  passages  from  scripture  and  the 
fathers  which  he  drew  up  to  present  to  the  Council ; 
while  all  former  heretics  have  been  convicted  by 
words  and  reasons.  The  long  and  inhuman  detention 
of  that  wretched  man  ought  at  least  to  be  tempered  by 
some  consolation,  so  as  rather  to  win  by  charity  a 
brother  for  whom  Jesus  Christ  died,  than  to  overwhelm 
him  with  misery.' — See  Fleury,  1.  xlix.,  s.  5. 

f  Godeschalcus  appears  to  have  propounded  three 
leading  questions  to  Rabanus  and  the  other  Doctors. 
(1.)  Whether  it  could  be  said  that  there  was  any 
predestination  to  evil.  (2.)  Concerning  the  will  and 
death  of  Christ  for  all  men ;  whether  God  has  a  true 
will  to  save  any  but  those  which  are  saved.  (3.)  Con- 
cerning free  will The  theologians  of  Mayence, 

however,  very  prudently  confined  their  attention  to 
the  first — 'Whether  it  can  be  said  that  God  predesti- 
nates the  wicked  to  damnation  1'  (Dupin,  H.  E., 
Cen.  ix.)  About  four  years  afterwards,  Amolon, 
Archbishop  of  Lyons,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Hinc- 
mar, reduced  (or  rather  expanded)  the  errors  to  sev- 
en; one  of  them  being  the  following — '  that  God  and 
the  Saints  rejoiced  in  the  fall  of  the  reproved.' 
(Fleury,  H.  E.  lib.  xlviii.,  s.  59.)  This  was  ob- 
viously a  consequence;  and  no  doubt  the  heretic  had 
easy  means  of  getting  rid  of  it.  For  a  full  and  per- 
haps faithful  account  of  the  whole  controversy,  see 


ITS  OPIFIONS. 


223 


such  controversies,  a  matter  of  difference,  and 
for  the  usual  reason,  that  consequences  were 
imputed  by  his  adversaries  which  his  follow- 
ers disclaimed.  But  it  is  certain  that  his 
proselytes  multiplied  during  the  continuance 
of  his  imprisonment,  and  that  some  provincial 
Councils  declared  in  his  favor  ;  and  it  is  pro- 
bable that  his  doctrines  have  been  uninter- 
ruptedly perpetuated,  not  by  sects  only,  but 
by  individuals  in  the  bosom  of  the  Church, 
from  that  age  to  the  present. 

Millennarian  error.  The  dispute,  however, 
did  not  long  survive  its  author,  and  seems  to 
have  expired  before  the  end  of  the  century  ; 
and  during  the  concluding  part  of  that  which 
followed, — in  the  absence  of  political  talent, 
of  piety,  of  knowledge,  of  industry,  of  every 
virtue,  and  every  motive  which  might  give 
energy  to  the  human  character — in  the  sup- 
pression even  of  the  narrow  controversial 
spirit  which  enlivens  the  understanding,  how- 
ever it  may  sometimes  pervert  the  principles, 
— a  very  wild  and  extraordinary  delusion  arose 
and  spread  itself,  and  at  length  so  far  prevail- 
ed as  not  only  to  subdue  the  reason,  but  to 
actuate  the  conduct  of  vast  multitudes.  It 
proceeded  from  the  misinterpretation  of  a 
well-known  passage  in  the  Revelations,  f 
1  And  he  laid  hold  on  the  Dragon,  that  old 
Serpent,  which  is  the  devil  and  Satan,  and 
bound  him  a  thousand  years,  and  cast  him  into 
the  bottomless  pit,  and  shut  him  up,  and  set  a 
seal  upon  him,  that  he  should  deceive  the 
nations  no  more  till  the  thousand  years  should 
be  fulfilled  ;  And  after  that  he  must  be  loosed 
a  little  season.'  It  does  not  appear  that  the 
earlier  Divines  derived  from  this  prophecy 
that  specific  expectation  respecting  the  mo- 
ment of  the  world's  dissolution,  which  now 
became  general ;  nor  do  we  learn  that  the 
people  before  this  time  much  busied  them- 
selves about  a  matter  which  could  not  possi- 
bly affect  their  own  generation  ;  but  about  the 
year  960,  as  the  season  approached  nearer, 
one  Bernhard,  a  hermit  of  Thuringia,  a  per- 
son not  destitute  of  knowledge,  boldly  pro- 
mulgated (on  the  faith  of  a  particular  revela- 
tion from  God)  the  certain  assurance,  that  at 
the  end  of  the  thousandth  year  the  fetters  of 
Satan  were  to  be  broken  ;  and,  after  the  reign 


Hist.  Litter,  de  la  France,  Cen.  ix.,  vol.  iv.  p.  263. 
It  is,  however,  worth  remarking,  that  the  Divines  on 
both  sides  alike  professed  to  support  the  doctrine  of 
the  Church,  as  taught  by  the  Fathers,  and  especially 
St.  Augustin;  whose  authority  on  this  question  was 
universally  admitted,  while  his  real  opinion  was  dis- 
puted. 

f  Chap.  xx.  2  and  3. 


of  Antichrist  should  be  terminated,  that  the 
world  would  be  consumed  by  sudden  confla- 
gration. There  was  something  plausible  in 
the  doctrine,  and  it  was  peculiarly  suited  to  the 
gloomy  superstition  of  the  age  ;  the  Clergy 
adopted  it  without  delay  ;  the  pulpits  loudly 
resounded  with  it ;  *  it  was  diffused  in  every 
direction  with  astonishing  rapidity,  and  em- 
braced with  an  ardor  proportioned  to  the 
obscurity  of  the  subject,  and  the  greediness 
of  human  credulity.  The  belief  pervaded 
and  possessed  every  rank  f  of  society,  not  as 
a  cold  and  indifferent  assent,  but  as  a  motive 
for  the  most  important  undertakings.  Many 
abandoned  their  friends  and  their  families, 
and  hastened  to  the  shores  of  Palestine,  with 
the  pious  persuasion  that  Mount  Sion  would 
be  the  throne  of  Christ  when  he  should 
descend  to  judge  the  world ;  and  these,  in 
order  to  secure  a  more  partial  sentence  from 
the  God  of  mercy  and  charity,  usually  made 
over  their  property,  before  they  departed,  to 
some  adjacent  Church  or  Monastery.  Others, 
whose  pecuniary  means  were  thought,  per- 
haps, insufficient  to  bribe  the  justice  of  Hea- 
ven, devoted  their  personal  service  to  the 
same  establishments,  and  resigned  their  very 
liberty  to  those  holy  mediators,  whose  plead- 
ings, they  doubted  not,  would  find  favor  at 
the  eternal  judgment  seat.  Others  permitted 
their  lands  to  lie  waste,  and  their  houses  to 
decay  ;  or,  terrified  by  some  unusual  pheno- 
menon in  the  Heaven,  betook  themselves  in 
hasty  flight  to  the  shelter  of  rocks  and  caverns,! 
as  if  the  temples  of  Nature  were  destined  to 
preservation  amidst  the  wreck  of  man  and 
his  works. 

The  year  of  terror  arrived,  and  passed 
away  without  any  extraordinary  convulsion  ; 
and  at  present  it  is  chiefly  remarkable  as 
having  terminated  the  most  shameful  century 
in  the  annals  of  Christianity.  The  people  re- 
turned to  their  homes,  and  repaired  their  build- 
ings, and  resumed  their  former  occupations ; 


*Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France,  x.  Sie"cle.  Mosheiin 
(Cen.  x.,p.  2,  c.  iii.)  cites  a  passage  from  the  Apolo- 
geticum  of  Abbo,  Abbot  of  Fleury — '  De  fine  quoque 
mundi  coram  populo  sermonem  in  Ecclesia  Parisiorum 
adolescentulus  audivi,  quod  statim  finito  mille  annorum 
numero  Anti-Christus  adveniret,  et  non  longo  post 
tempore  universale  judicium  succederet;  cui  prsedica- 
tioni  ex  Evangeliis  ac  Apocalypsi  et  libro  Danielis, 
qua  potui  virtute  restiti,  &c.' 

t  Not  Nobles  only,  but  Princes,  and  even  Bishops, 
are  mentioned  as  having  made  a  pilgrimage  to  Pales- 
tine on  this  occasion. 

J  An  opportune  eclipse  of  the  sun  produced  this 
effect  on  the  army  of  Otho  the  Great. 


224 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


and  the  only  lasting  effect  of  this  stupendous 
panic  was  the  augmentation  of  the  temporal 
prosperity  of  the  Church.  * 

11.  State  of  Learning.  The  intellectual 
energy  of  Europe  (if  we  except  perhaps  the 
British  Islands  f)  was  in  a  condition  of  gradu- 
al decay  from  the  fifth  till  the  middle  of  the 
seventh  and  eighth  century ;  J  and  it  was 
then  that  the  progress  of  ignorance  reached 
its  widest  and  darkest  boundaries.  It  was 
arrested  by  the  genius  of  Charlemagne  ;  and 
the  beacon  which  was  set  up  by  his  mighty 
hand  shone  forth  even  upon  his  degenerate 
descendants,  some  of  whom  lighted  their 
torches  at  its  embers.  Thus,  during  the 
whole  of  the  ninth  century,  the  western 
world,  and  France  especially,  was  animated 
by  much  literary  exertion,  and  enlightened 
even  by  the  ill-directed  talents  of  many  learn- 
ed men.  The  name  of  Alcuin  was  not  dis- 
graced by  those  of  his  successors,  Itabanus, 
Eginhard,  Claudius,  Godeschalcus,  Pascha- 
sius,  Ratramn,  Hincmar,  and  Johannes  Sco- 
tus.§  The  theological  works  of  the  first  of 
these  were  so  highly  esteemed,  as  not  only  to 


*  Almost  all  the  donations  which  were  made  to  the 
Church  in  this  century  proceeded  from  this  avowed 
motive.  '  Appropinquarite  jam  mundi  termino,  &c. 
Since  the  end  of  the  world  is  now  at  hand.'  Mosh., 
Cen.  x.,  p.  2,  ch.  iii.  These  monuments  sufficiently 
attest  the  generality  of  the  delusion. 

f  The  Venerable  Bede  flourished  in  the  early  part 
of  the  eighth  century.  He  brought  down  his  Eccle- 
siastical History  as  far  as  731,  and  appears  to  have 
died  four  years  afterwards. 

%  This  decline  is  very  commonly  imputed  to  the 
despotism  of  the  Church,  and  the  triumph  of  the  papal 
principle  of  a  blind  faith,  r.nd  absolute  submission  over 
the  independence  of  re-son.  But  this  is  a  mistake  pro- 
ceeding from  an  imperfect  knowledge  of  ecclesiastical 
history.  At  the  period  in  question,  the  Church  had  not 
by  any  means  attained  the  degree  of  authority  necessa- 
ry for  that  purpose:  it  was  not  yet  sufficiently  organized, 
nor  even  sufficiently  united,  to  possess  any  power  of 
universal  individual  tyranny;  the  Ro  mis  h  system  was 
still  only  in  its  infancy;  the  Episcopal  system, which 
was  predominant,  was  full  of  disorder  and  disunion — 
the  principle  in  question  was  certainly  to  be  found  in 
the  archives  of  the  Church,  but  the  day  was  not  yet 
arrived  to  enforce  it.  It  came  indeed  into  full  effect 
in  the  twelfth  and  following  ages,  and  not  earlier  than 
the  twelfth;  but  learning  then  revived  in  despite  of  it, 
and  grew  up  to  overthrow  it.  The  truth  is,  that  the 
degradation  of  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries  are 
sufficiently  accounted  for  by  the  political  confusion,  or 
rather  anarchy,  then  so  generally  prevalent,  as  to 
make  any  moral  exellence  almost  impossible,  and  to 
debase  the  Church  in  common  with  every  thing  else. 

§  Guizot  has  selected  Hincmar  and  Johannes  Sco- 
tus  as  the  two  representatives  of  the  learning  of  the 


furnish  materials  for  contemporary  instruc- 
tion, but  also  to  maintain  great  authority  in 
the  religious  discussions  of  the  four  following 
centuries  ;  and  the  last,  the  friend  and  com- 
panion of  Charles  the  Bald,  displayed  an 
accuracy  of  philosophical  induction,  and  a 
freedom  and  boldness  of  original  thought, 
which  would  have  subjected  him,  in  a  some- 
what later  age,  to  ecclesiastical  persecution. 
We  should  mention,  too,  that  in  the  same  age 
in  which  the  genius  of  an  Irishman  instruct- 
ed the  Court  of  France,  the  foundations  of 
English  learning  were  deeply  fixed  and  sub- 
stantially constructed  by  the  wisdom  and 
piety  of  Alfred.  The  comparative  languor 
of  Italy  was  excited  by  the  disputes  at  that 
time  so  warmly  waged  between  the  Roman 
and  Eastern  Churches,  and  which  served  to 
sharpen  the  ingenuity,  while  they  degraded 
the  principles,  of  both. 

At  Constantinople,  the  Emperor  Theophi- 
lus,  and  his  son,  Michael  III.,  made  some 
endeavors  towards  the  revival  of  letters  in  the 
ninth  age  ;  but  the  scattered  rays  which  may 
have  illustrated  the  East  at  that  time,  were 
overpowered  by  the  pre-eminence  of  Photius, 
so  that  little  has  reached  posterity  excepting 
his  celebrity.  It  is  true  that,  in  the  century 
following,  while  the  advance  of  learning  was 
almost  wholly  suspended  in  Europe,  and  its 
growing  power  paralyzed,  Constantine  Por- 
phyrogeneta  made  some  zealous  attempts  to 
revive  the  industry  of  his  country  ;  but  as  his 
encouragement  was  directed  rather  to  the 
imitation  of  ancient  models  than  to  the  de- 
velopement  of  original  thought,  the  impulse 
was  faintly  felt ;  and,  so  far  from  creating  any 
strong  and  lasting  effect,  it  failed  to  excite 
even  the  momentary  energy  of  the  Greeks. 

But,  during  the  same  period,  there  occurred 
in  the  Eastern  world  a  phenomenon  which  is 
among  the  most  remarkable  in  the  history  of 
literature,  and  which  no  penetration  could 
possibly  have  foreseen.  We  have  recounted 
that,  in  the  seventh  century,  the  companions 
and  successors  of  Mahomet  desolated  the 
face  of  the  earth  with  their  arms,  and  dark- 
ened it  by  their  ignorance  ;  and  the  acts  of 
barbarism  ascribed  to  them,  and  whether 
truly   ascribed   or  not,*   generally   credited, 

age — the  former  as  the  centre  of  die  theological  move- 
ment; the  latter  as  the  philosopher  of  his  day.  It  is,- 
indeed,  impossible  to  convey  any  faithful  notion  of 
the  literature  of  any  age  without  entering  into  some 
such  detail. 

*  The  burning  of  the  Alexandrian  Library  by  the 
Saracens  stands  on  authority  about  as  good  as  the 
similar  Vandalism  charged  on  Gregory  the  Great. 


DISCIPLINE. 


225 


attest  at  least  tlieir  contempt  of  learning,  and 
their  aversion  for  the  monuments  which  they 
are  stated  to  have  destroyed.  In  the  eighth 
century,  the  conquerors  settled  with  tranquil- 
lity in  the  countries  which  they  had  subdued, 
which,  in  most  instances,  they  converted,  and 
which  they  continued  to  possess  and  govern. 
In  'the  ninth,  under  the  auspices  of  a  wise 
and  munificent  Caliph,  they  applied  the  same 
ardor  to  the  pursuit  of  literature  which  had 
heretofore  been  confined  to  the  exercise  of 
arms.  Ample  schools  were  founded  in  the 
principal  cities  of  Asia,*  Bagdad,  and  Cnfa, 
ami  Bassora  ;  numerous  libraries  were  formed 
with  care  and  diligence,  and  men  of  learning 
and  science  were  solicitously  invited  to  the 
splendid  court  of  Almamunis.  Greece,  which 
had  civilized  the  Roman  republic,  and  was 
destined,  in  a  much  later  age,  to  enlighten 
the  extremities  of  the  West,  was  now  called 
upon  to  turn  the  stream  of  her  lore  into  the 
barren  bosom  of  Asia:  for  Greece  was  still  the 
only  land  possessing  an  original  national  lite- 
rature. Her  noblest  productions  were  now 
translated  into  the  ruling  language  of  the 
East,  and  the  Arabians  took  pleasure  in  pur- 
suing the  speculations,  or  submitting  to  the 
rules,  of  her  philosophy.  The  impulse  thus 
given  to  the  genius  and  industry  of  Asia  was 
communicated  with  inconceivable  rapidity, 
along  the  shores  of  Egypt  and  Africa,  to  the 
schools  of  Seville  and  Cordova ;  and  the  shock 
was  not  felt  least  sensibly  by  those  who  last 
received  it.  Henceforward  the  genius  of 
learning  accompanied  even  the  arms  of  the 
Saracens.  They  conquered  Sicily;  from 
Sicily  they  invaded  the  Southern  Provinces 
of  Italy ;  and,  as  if  to  complete  the  eccentric 
revolution  of  Grecian  literature,  the  wisdom 
of  Pythagoras  was  restored  to  the  land  of  its 
origin  by  the  descendants  of  an  Arabian 
warrior. 

The  adopted  literature  of  that  ingenious 
people,  augmented  by  some  original  discov- 
eries, passed  with  a  more  pacific  progress 
from  Spain  into  France,  from  France  into 
Italy,  even  to  the  pontifical  chair.  In  the 
year  999,  Gerbert,  a  Frenchman,  was  raised 
to  that  eminence  under  the  title  of  Sylvester 
II.  This  eminent  person,  whose  talents, 
though  peculiarly  calculated  for  the  compre- 
hension of  the  abstract  sciences,  were  not 
disqualified  for  less  severe  application,  stea- 
dily devoted   his   industry,  his   intelligence, 


*  Contemporary  with  the  foundation  of  Oxford; 
and  where  are  they  now  1  The  history  and  charac- 
ter of  the  Turks  can  answer  that  question 

29 


and  his  power  to  the  acquirement,  the  ampli- 
fication, *  and  the  diffusion  of  knowledge. 
Among  the  vulgar,  indeed,  he  obtained  a 
formidable  reputation  for  magical  skill ;  but 
he  was  honored  by  the  wise  and  the  great 
even  of  his  own  days ;  and  of  Sylvester  that 
may  be  more  justly  affirmed,  which  a  Roman 
Catholic  writer  has  rather  chosen  to  predicate 
of  the  papal  energy  of  Leo.  IX.,  *  that  he 
undertook  to  repair  the  ruins  of  the  tenth 
century.' 

III.  Discipline  of  the  Church.  At  no  for- 
mer period  had  the  Western  Church  suffered 
such  complete  disorganization  as  during  the 
first  half  of  the  eighth  century:  the  longer  it 
was  connected  with  the  barbarous  political 
system  of  the  conquerors — the  more  closely 
it  became  associated  with  their  institutions, 
their  habits,  and  their  persons ;  as  they  were 
gradually  admitted  to  ecclesiastical  dignities 
— -the  more  shameful  was  the  license,  the 
deeper  the  corruption  which  pervaded  it. 
The  progress  of  the  malady  was  arrested  by 
Charlemagne  —  not  with  a  reluctant  or  ir- 
resolute hand,  but  with  the  vigor  which  the 
occasion  required,  and  which  was  justified  by 
his  noble  designs.  He  repressed  the  disorders 
of  the  Bishops ;  he  assembled  numerous  Coun- 
cils, and  he  enforced  the  observance  of  their 
canons ;  thus  he  infused  sudden  energies  into 
a  body  too  torpid  for  self-reform ;  and  he 
endeavored  to  perpetuate  the  impulse  by 
promoting  education  and  rewarding  litera- 
ture. The  last,  in  truth,  was  that  which  gave 
his  other  measures  their  efficacy ;  for  above 
sixty  years  after  his  death,  under  the  feeble 
sceptres  of  Lewis  and  Charles,  the  spirit  sent 
forth  by  Charlemagne  continued  to  animate 
the  Church.  Very  general  activity  and  supe- 
rior intelligence  distinguished  the  Clergy, 
especially  the  higher  orders ;  and  the  frequen- 
cy with  which  they  assembled  their  Councils, 
and  the  important  regulations  which  they 
enacted,  evinced  a  zeal  for  the  restoration  of 
ecclesiastical  discipline,  which  was  not  wholly 
without  effect.  Lewis  was  probably  sincere 
in  his  co-operation  for  that  purpose  ;  but  the 
merit  of  having  directed,  or  even  vigorously 
stimulated,  the  exertions  of  his  prelates  cannot 


*  Some  ingenious  inventions  of  Gerbert  are  men- 
tioned in  the  Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France.  His  various 
virtues  are  highly  extolled  in  the  same  work;  and  the 
only  fault  which  his  eulogists  can  find  in  his  character 
is,  '  that  he  used  too  much  flattery  in  making  his  court 
to  the  great.'  The  grandees  of  the  tenth  century 
appear  to  have  pardoned  him  this  imperfection. 


« 


226 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


justly  be  ascribed  to  so  weak  a  prince. 
Respecting  Charles,  there  seems  reason  to 
suspect,  that  he,  as  well  as  his  nobles,  regard- 
ed with  some  jealousy  the  progress  of  reform, 
and  that  the  attempts,  so  numerous  during 
his  reign,  should  rather  be  attributed  to  the 
perseverance  of  the  Bishops,  and  especially 
of  Hincmar,  than  to  the  virtue  or  wisdom  of 
the  secular  government.  In  proof  of  this 
opinion  (which,  if  true,  is  not  without  import- 
ance) we  may  mention  the  following  circum- 
stance. In  the  year  844,  Councils  were  held 
at  Thionville  and  Verneuil  *  for  the  remedy 
of  abuses  both  in  Church  and  State ;  their 
regulations  were  confirmed  and  amplified  in 
the  year  following  at  Meaux,  and  after  that 
at  Paris  ;  and  on  this  last  occasion  the  prelates 
recurred  with  some  impatience  to  the  exhor- 
tations which  they  had  frequently  and  inef- 
fectually addressed  to  the  Throne,  and  to 
that  neglect  they  presumed  to  ascribe  the 
temporal  calamities  which  then  afflicted  the 
country.  Presently  afterwards,  in  an  assem- 
bly of  Barons  held  at  Epernay,  the  Canons 
of  Meaux  and  Paris  were  taken  into  consider- 
ation ;  and  while  those  which  restricted  eccle- 
siastics received  the  King's  assent,  others 
which  touched  the  vices  of  the  nobility  were 
entirely  rejected.f  Nevertheless,  Councils 
continued  to  meet  with  great  frequency  J 
during  this  reign  ;  but  we  must  not  suppose 
that  all  of  them  had  the  same  grand  object ; 
some  were  convoked  to  arrange  the  disputes 
of  the  Bishops,  either  among  themselves,  or 
with  the  Pope,  or  with  the  King  ;  others  met 
to  restrain,  had  it  been  possible,  the  general 
licentiousness  of  the  times  ;  §  and  of  many  it 

*  It  appears  from  one  of  the  Canons  here  published, 
that,  in  contempt  of  Charlemagne's  Capitulary,  the 
military  service  of  the  Bishops  was  already  renewed, 
if  indeed  it  was  ever  wholly  discontinued. 

fFleury,  1.  xlviii.,  s.  35. 

^  France  was  at  this  time  the  principal  scene  of 
ecclesiastical  exertion.  During  the  forty-six  years  of 
Charlemagne's  reign,  the  number  of  Councils  which 
met  in  France  was  thirty-five.  Lewis,  in  twenty-six 
years,  held  twenty-nine;  but  no  less  than  sixty-nine 
were  assembled  during  the  thirty-seven  years  of 
Charles  the  Bald.  Their  frequency  then  gradually 
decreased ;  and  in  the  following  hundred  and  ten 
years,  to  the  accession  of  Hugh  Capet,  we  observe  no 
more  than  fifty-six. 

§  The  disorders  of  the  age  are  vividly  depicted  in 
the  prefatory  Exposition  of  the  Council  of  Mayence  in 
888.  '  Behold  the  magnificent  edifices,  which  the 
servants  of  God  were  wont  to  inhabit,  destroyed  and 
burnt  to  ashes ;  the  altars  overthrown  and  trampled 
under  foot,  the  most  precious  ornaments  of  the 
Churches  dispersed  or  consumed ;  the  Bishops,  Priests, 


was  the  principal  purpose  to  launch  excom- 
munication and  anathema  against  the  spolia- 
tors of  ecclesiastical  property,  and  to  protect 
the  persons  of  clerks  and  monks  and  nuns 
from  the  violence  of  the  laity. 

It  is  not  easy  either  to  specify  any  partic- 
ular changes  introduced  into  the  discipline  of 
the  Church  during  these  ages,  or  precisely  to 
determine  the  rigor  of  that  discipline  ;  for 
such  innovations  are  for  the  most  part  of  slow 
and  almost  insensible  growth  ;  and,  though 
the  canonical  regulations  are  in  themselves 
sufficiently  explicit,  their  enforcement  de- 
pended in  each  diocese  on  the  authority  or 
character  of  the  Bishop.  If,  indeed,  it  had 
been  possible  at  once  to  force  into  full  oper- 
ation the  principles  of  the  'False  Decretals,' 
the  sudden  revolution  thus  occasioned  would 
have  been  perceptible  to  the  eye  of  the  most 
careless  historian  ;  but  the  pretensions  which 
they  contained  were  utterly  disproportioned 
to  the  power  which  the  See  then  possessed 
of  asserting  them.  Their  tacit  acknowledg- 
ment led  to  their  gradual  adoption  ;  and  in 
the  patient  progress  of  this  usurpation  every 
step  that  was  gained  gave  fresh  vigor,  as  well 
as  loftier  ground,  to  the  usurper ;  but  in  the 
ninth  century  the  French  were  too  indepen- 
dent entirely  to  submit  to  the  servitude  in- 
tended for  them,  and  in  the  tenth  the  Popes 
were  too  weak  and  contemptible  effectually 
to  impose  it.  Nevertheless,  time  and  igno- 
rance were  steadily  engaged  in  sanctifying 
the  imposture,  and  preparing  it  for  more 
mischievous  service  in  the  hand  of  Hilde- 
brand. 

Though  we  propose  to  defer  a  little  longer 
any  general  account  of  the  Monastic  Order, 
it  is  proper  here  to  notice  that  very  power 


and  other  Clerks,  together  with  Laymen  of  every  age 
and  sex,  overtaken  by  sword  or  fire,  or  some  other 
manner  of  massacre,  &c.'  Similar  calamities  are 
even  more  particularly  detailed  by  the  Council  of 
Trosle  in  909,  attended  with  some  charges  of  spiritual 
negligence  in  the  Bishops  themselves.  (See  Fleury, 
1.  liv.,  s.  2  and  44.)  In  865,  Pope  Nicholas  address- 
ed some  strong  pacific  exhortations  to  the  princes  of 
France: — 'Parcite  gladio:  humanum  fundere  sangui- 
nem  formidolosius  exhorrescite;  cesset  ira,  sedentnr 
odia,  sopiantur  jurgia,  et  omnis  ex  vobis  simultas 
radicitus  evellatur. .  . .  Non  in  vobis  vana?  gloria? 
typus,  non  alterius  usurpandi  terminos  ambitio,  sed 
jnstitia,  charitas,  et  concordia  regnet  et  summum  pax 
inter  vos  teneat  omnino  fastigium.'  But  such  gener- 
al addresses  had  probably  little  effect;  and  the  first 
authoritative  interference  of  the  Church  for  the  partial 
restoration  of  peace,  and  the  institution  of  the  Tr^ve 
de  Dieu,  took  place  in  the  first  half  of  the  eleventh 
century. 


DISCIPLINE. 


227 


ful  renovation  of  the  system  which  was  ac- 
complished about  this  time  by  Benedict  of 
Aniane — a  venerable  name,  which  yields  to 
none  save  Benedict  of  Nursia,  in  the  reve- 
rence of  monkish  annalists.  He  was  con- 
temporary with  Charlemagne  and  his  suc- 
cessor, and  was  called  in  817  to  preside  at 
the  Council  assembled  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  for 
the  reform  of  monastic  abuses.  The  regula- 
tions which  were  then  enacted,  though  they 
offended  the  simplicity  of  the  primitive  rule 
by  many  frivolous  injunctions,  were  still  use- 
ful in  recalling  to  some  form  of  discipline  the 
broken  ranks  of  the  regular  clergy.  We 
should  also  mention,  that  the  institution  of 
Canons  Regular,  by  Chrodegand,  Bishop  of 
Metz,  was  undertaken  during  the  same  pe- 
riod, and  was  completed  under  Lewis  the 
Meek  in  a  Council,  also  held  at  Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle, in  82G. 

The  original  form  of  Episcopal  election 
had  been  habitually  violated  by  the  barbarian 
kings ;  and  if  it  was  nominally  restored  by 
Charlemagne,  it  still  appears  that  he  contin- 
ued in  practice  to  profit  by  the  usurpation  of 
his  predecessors,  and  to  fill  up  vacant  sees 
by  his  own  direct  appointment.  Lewis,  how- 
ever, had  not  been  long  on  the  throne,  when 
he  published  (seemingly  at  the  Parliament  of 
Attigni  in  822)  a  capitulary  to  reinstate  the 
Church  in  her  pristine  rights.  Nor  was  this 
concession  merely  formal ;  on  the  contrary, 
it  was  brought  into  immediate  force,  and  for 
some  time  actually  directed  the  form  of  elec- 
tion. For  instance,  we  observe  that,  in  the 
year  845,  Hincmar  was  raised  to  the  See  of 
Itheims  '  by  the  Clergy  and  people  of  Rheims, 
by  the  Bishops  of  the  province,  with  the  con- 
sent of  the  Archbishop  of  Sens,  the  Bishop 
of  Paris,  and  the  Abbot  of  St.  Denis  his  su- 
perior, and  with  the  approbation  of  the  King  ;' 
and  from  several  monuments  of  that  age,  and 
especially  the  letters  of  Hincmar  *  himself, 

*  It  appears  that,  as  soon  as  the  vacancy  was  de- 
clared, the  King  appointed  from  among  the  Bishops  a 
visiter  to  the  vacant  see,  who  presided  at  the  election. 
The  only  persons  eligible  (or  very  nearly  so)  were  the 
Clergy  of  the  diocese ;  but  they  were  not  the  only 
electors ;  the  monasteries  and  the  Curates,  or  paro- 
chial Clergy,  sent  their  deputies.  Nor  were  the  no- 
ble laymen  or  the  citizens  of  the  city  excluded — on 
the  principle  '  that  all  should  assist  in  the  election  of 
one  whom  all  were  bound  to  obey.'  (See  Fleury,  1. 
xlvi.,s.  47;  1.  xlviii.,  s.  38;  I.  liii.,  s.  33.)  Still 
it  would  appear,  even  from  the  expression  of  Hinc- 
mar, in  an  epistle  to  Charles  on  this  subject,  as  well 
as  from  a  Canon  of  the  Council  of  Valence  held  in 
855,  that  the  Church  exercised  the  privilege  rather 
as  an  indulgence  from  the  Sovereign,  than  by  its  own 


we  learn,  that,  at  least  during  the  reign  of 
Charles,  the  Church  continued  in  the  recov- 
ered possession  of  her  original  liberty. 

Translation  of  Bishops.  The  translation 
of  Bishops  continued  to  be  prohibited  during 
the  ninth  century,  according  to  the  ancient 
canons;  and  though  the  rule  might  be  occa- 
sionally violated  by  the  interference  of  the 
Prince,  and  though  the  Pope  did  occasion- 
ally, though  rarely,  exercise  that  pernicious 
power  which  the  Decretals,  false  as  they 
were,  and  fatal  to  ecclesiastical  discipline, 
nevertheless  gave  him,  the  clergy  and  the 
people  labored  to  maintain  the  ancient  and 
salutary  practice.  It  appears,  however,  from 
a  very  strange  occurrence,  which  is  related 
to  have  passed  in  this  age,  that  the  Bishops 
of  Rome,  however  willing  to  exert  their 
groundless  authority  elsewhere,  were  ex- 
tremely jealous  of  any  translation  to  their 
own  See.  In  the  year  892,  Formosus  was 
raised  from  the  See  of  Porto  to  that  of  Rome  ; 
he  was  a  prelate  of  great  piety  and  consid- 
erable attainments,  but  he  offered  the  first 
instance  of  the  elevation  of  a  foreign  Bishop 
to  the  throne  of  St.  Peter.  He  held  it  for 
about  four  years,  and  died  in  possession  of  it. 
But  scarcely  were  his  ashes  cold,  when  his 
successor,  Stephen  VI., — a  name  which  has 
earned  peculiar  distinction  even  among  the 
pontifical  barbarians  of  those  days, — sum- 
moned a  Council  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the 
deceased.  Formosus  was  dragged  from  his 
grave  and  introduced  into  the  midst  of  the 
assembly.  He  was  then  solemnly  reinvested 
with  the  ornaments  of  office,  and  placed  in 
the  Apostolical  chair,  and  the  mockery  of  an 
advocate  to  plead  in  his  defence  was  added. 
Then  Stephen  inquired  of  his  senseless  pre- 
decessor— '  Wherefore,  Bishop  of  Porto,  hast 
thou  urged  thy  ambition  so  far,  as  to  usurp 
the  See  of  Rome?'  The  Council  immedi- 
ately passed  the  sentence  of  deposition  ;  and 
the  condemned  carcass,  after  being  stripped 
of  the  sacred  vestments  and  brutally  mutila- 
ted, was  cast  contemptuously  into  the  Tiber. 
But  the  day  of  retribution  was  near  at  hand, 
for,  in  the  order  of  Providence,  the  most  re- 
volting offences  are  sometimes  overtaken  by 
the  swiftest  calamities.    Only  a  few  weeks 

original. and  lawful  right.  '  The  Prince  shall  be  pe- 
titioned to  leave  to  the  Clergy  and  People  the  liberty 
of  election.  •  .The  Bishop  shall  be  chosen  from  the 
Clergy  of  the  Cathedral  or  of  the  Diocese,  or  at  least 
of  its  immediate  neighborhood.  If  a  Clerk  attached 
to  the  service  of  the  Prince  is  proposed,  his  capacity 
and  his  morals  shall  be  rigorously  examined,  &c  '— 
Council  of  Valence. 


228 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


elapsed,  and  Stephen  himself  was  seized,  and 
driven  from  the  See  and  thrown  into  an  ob- 
scure dungeon,  loaded  with  chains,  where  he 
was  presently  strangled. 

It  had  been  hitherto  the  practice  of  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  to  retain  on  his  election  the 
name  by  which  he  had  been  previously 
known  :  the  first  exception  to  this  rule  took 
place  in  the  tenth  century.  In  956,  Octavi- 
anus,  a  noble  Roman,  was  raised  to  the  See 
at  the  age  of  eighteen,  and  expressed  his 
determination  to  assume  the  name  of  John 
XII.  *  It  does  not  appear  that  his  boyish 
inclination  was  opposed  ;  and  it  is  certain 
that  the  precedent  was  very  soon  and  very 
generally  followed.  Neither  was  the  exam- 
ple of  Formosus  forgotten  in  succeeding 
elections,  though  it  was  not  so  commonly 
imitated  ;  but  before  the  end  of  this  age  we 
find  that  Gerbert,  Archbishop  of  Ravenna, 
became,  by  a  double  change,  Sylvester,  Bish- 
op of  Rome,  without  any  offence  or  reproach. 

Among  the  inferior  clergy,  the  canonical 
discipline  was  extremely  rigid  :  it  was  strict- 
ly forbidden  to  undertake  the  charge  of  two 
churches,  to  hold  a  prebend  f  in  a  monastery 
with  a  parochial  cure,  or  even  to  exchange 
one  church  for  another.  That  these  regu- 
lations were  sometimes,  perhaps  generally, 
enforced,  appears  from  the  earnestness  with 
which  they  are  pressed  by  Hincmar  ;  and  it 
is  from  his  Synodal  Statutes,  \  even  more  than 


*  See  Pagi.  Breviar.  Gest.  Rom.  Pont.  Vit.  Jo- 
han.  XII. 

t  A  Prebend  then  signified  the  dividend  afforded 
to  a  Canon  for  his  subsistence.  The  prohibition  was 
repeated  in  889  by  the  Council  of  Metz ;  which  seems 
to  prove  that  it  was  either  not  generally  received,  or 
imperfectly  obeyed. 

%  We  have  very  little  space  for  quotations,  but  the 
following  are  curious: — '  I  have  often  notified  to  you 
respecting  the  poor  who  are  inscribed  in  the  Books 
of  the  Church,  how  you  ought  to  treat  them  and  dis- 
tribute to  them  a  part  of  the  tithe.  I  have  forbidden 
you  to  receive,  in  return  for  their  portion  (called  ma- 
tricula,)  either  present  or  service,  in  the  house  or 
elsewhere.  I  persist  in  forbidding  it;  since  such 
conduct  is  to  sell  charity.  I  declare  to  you,  that  the 
priest  who  does  so,  shall  be  deposed,  and  even  the 
portion  of  the  tithe  which  is  given  to  other  paupers 
shall  be  refused  to  him.'  Again — '  I  learn  that  some 
among  you  neglect  their  churches  and  buy  private 
property  which  they  cultivate,  and  build  houses  there 
in  which  women  reside;  and  that  they  do'  not  be- 
queath their  property  to  the  Church,  according  to  the 
Canons,  but  to  their  relatives  or  others.  Be  inform- 
ed that  I  shall  punish  with  the  utmost  rigor  of  the 
Rules  those  whom  I  shall  find  guilty  of  this  abuse.' 
It  was  another  of  Hincmar's  meritorious  endeavors 
to  restrict  the  abuse  of  private  patronage,  by  refusing 


from  the  Canons  of  Councils,  that  we  learn 
the  practice  of  the  Gallican  Church  during 
the  ninth  century  :  that  of  the  Churches  of 
Italy  was  probably  less  severe. 

Claudius,  Bishop  of  Turin.  The  practice 
of  Auricular  Confession,  which,  though  gen- 
erally prevalent,  was  not  universally  received 
in  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  may  be  said  to 
have  completed  its  establishment  during  the 
two  following  ages.  We  observe,  too,  in  the 
annals  of  those  times,  that  the  transfer  *  of  re- 
lics from  place  to  place  was  carried  on  with 
extraordinary  ardor,  proportioned  to  the  sanc- 
tity attached  to  them,  and  to  the  wonders 
which  they  are  recorded  to  have  wrought. 
This  superstition  was,  indeed,  boldly  assailed 
by  one  real  Christian, — Claudius,  Bishop  of 
Turin,  f  the  Protestant  of  the  ninth  century. 


ordination  to  every  unworthy  candidate.  See  Fleu- 
ry,  1.  Hi.,  s.  28. 

*  The  travels  of  St.  Vitus  from  Leucadia  to  Rome, 
from  Rome  to  Saxony,  mav  not  perhaps  deserve  to 
be  traced  by  us ;  but  we  may  be  excused  for  pursuing 
the  history  of  a  pious  prelate,  whose  living  virtues 
we  found  occasion  to  mention — St.  Martin  of  Tours. 
About  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century,  the  approach 
of  the  Normans  made  it  expedient  to  remove  the  ven- 
erable relics  of  that  Saint  from  Tours  to  Auxerre, 
where  he  was  confided,  as  a  temporary  deposit,  to  the 
care  of  the  Bishop.  During  one-and-thirty  years  of 
exile,  St.  Martin  continued  to  perform  the  most  stu- 
pendous miracles  ;  and  thus  he  became  so  valuable  to 
the  Bishop  of  Auxerre,  that  when  restitution  was  de- 
manded, that  prelate  at  once  refused  it.  Hereupon 
the  Archbishop  of  Tours  prevailed  upon  a  powerful 
Baron,  whose  domains  were  adjacent,  to  avenge  the 
perfidy  and  to  recover  the  treasure  by  force.  Thii3 
St.  Martin  returned  triumphantly  to  his  native  city, 
escorted  by  a  band  of  six  thousand  soldiers.  The  sto- 
ry is  told  in  the  last  chapter  of  Fleury,  Book  liii. 
Again,  in  the  year  826,  two  holy  Abbots  set  out  from 
France  to  Rome,  in  order  to  bring  away  the  bodies 
of  St.  Sebastian,  and  even  of  St.  Gregory  himself. 
They  returned  triumphant — the  former  had  been  sol- 
emnly granted  to  the  Emperor  by  the  Pope;  the  lat- 
ter they  had  stolen  away  by  a  pious  artifice.  Their 
success  is  recorded  by  Eginhard,  or  Einhard,  the  con- 
temporary biographer  of  Charlemagne.  But  the  loss 
has  never  been  acknowledged  by  the  Romans,  nor  is 
it  probable  that  they  ever  sustained  it. 

f  He  was  a  native  of  Spain,  and  died  in  his  diocese 
of  Turin,  about  the  year  840.  His  vigorous  opposi- 
tion to  the  worship  of  images  could  not  be  so  gener- 
ally unpopular  on  the  other  side  of  the  Alps  as  in  Ita- 
ly ;  yet  we  observe  that  one  of  his  principal  opponents 
was  Jonas,  a  Bishop  of  Orleans.  It  was  another  of 
his  errors  that  he  denied  that  the  power  of  the  priest- 
hood, to  bind  and  loose,  extended  beyond  this  world; 
and  the  last,  and  probably  the  greatest,  that  he  as- 
serted the  term  Apostolical  Father  to  be  properly 
applied,  not  to  him  who  filled  the  chair  of  the  Apos- 
tle, but  to  him  who  discharged  the  duties  attached  to 


EXTERNAL  FORTUNES. 


229 


'Wherefore  (he  indignantly  exclaimed)  do 
not  the  worshippers  of  the  wood  of  the  Cross, 
in  conformity  with  their  new  principles,  adore 
chaplets  of  thorns,  because  Christ  was  crown- 
ed with  thorns, — or  cradles,  linen,  or  boats, 
because  he  made  use  of  them, — or  spears,  be- 
cause he  was  pierced  with  that  weapon  ?  Or 
why  do  they  not  fall  down  before  the  image 
of  an  ass,  because  he  rode  on  that  animal  ? 
Christ  Jesus  did  not  command  us  to  wor- 
ship the  Cross,  but  to  bear  it — to  renounce 
the  world  and  ourselves.'  The  inconsistency 
which  the  pious  Bishop  objected  to  his  Church 
was  indeed,  to  a  great  extent,  removed  by  the 
multiplied  corruptions  of  after  ages ;  *  but 
the  remonstrances  of  the  Reformer  roused 
the  indignation  of  his  contemporaries ;  his 
endeavor  to  distinguish  the  corruptions  from 
the  substance  of  the  system  brought  down 
upon  him  the  usual  reproaches  of  hostility 
and  schism  from  the  more  rigid  Churchmen 
of  the  day ;  and  had  he  lived  in  an  age  in 
which  the  secular  power  was  subservient  to 
to  their  principles,  he  would  have  been  va- 
riously known  to  posterity,  as  a  chastised 
heretic  or  as  a  blessed  martyr. 

During  this  same  period  the  penitential 
system  of  the  Church  underwent  a  more 
regular  organization  ;  ecclesiastical  f  punish- 
ments were  adjusted  with  more  discrimina- 
tion to  the  offence  of  the  penitent,  and  greater 
uniformity  of  practice  was  established  in  the 
different  dioceses.  The  Liturgy  received 
several  improvements ;  indeed  it  assumed  at 
this  time  the  form  in  which  it  was  transmit- 
ted, with  veiy  slight,  if  any,  variation  to  the 
more  splendid  ages  of  the  Roman  Church. 
The  celebration  of  the  religious  offices,  their 
rules,  and  their   history  employed  the  dili- 


it.  The  works  for  which  Claudius  was  particularly 
celebrated,  were  his  Commentaries  on  Scripture,  both 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament. 

*  See  Gilly's  Introduction  to  the  History  of  the 
Waldenses. 

fThe  following  passage  (from  Hincmar's  Instruc- 
tions to  his  Clergy,  published  about  857)  shows  the 
extent  to  which  the  arm  of  the  Clergy  then  reached, 
as  well  as  the  manner  in  which  it  acted.  '  As  soon 
as  a  homicide,  or  any  other  public  crime,  shall  have 
been  committed,  the  curate  (the  resident  clergyman) 
shall  signify  to  the  culprit  to  present  himself  before 
the  Doyen  and  the  other  curates,  and  to  submit  to  pe- 
nance; and  they  shall  send  information  to  their  supe- 
riors, who  reside  in  the  city,  so  that,  in  the  course  of 
a  fortnight,  the  offender  may  appear  before  us  and  re- 
ceive public  penance  with  imposition  of  hands.  The 
day  on  which  the  crime  was  committed  shall  be  care- 
fully noted  down,  as  well  as  that  on  which  the  penance 
was  imposed.  When  the  curates  shall  assemble  at 
the  calends  they  shall  confer  together  respecting  their 


genceof  the  learned,*  and  received  elaborate 
and  useful  illustrations.  The  credit  of  these 
exertions  belongs  indeed  entirely  to  the  theo- 
logians of  the  ninth  century ;  but  the  works 
which  they  raised,  after  resisting  the  tempests 
which  followed,  continued  to  constitute  an 
important  portion  of  the  ecclesiastical  edifice. 

IV.  External  progress  of  Christianity. 
During  the  period  which  we  have  now  des- 
cribed, while  the  centre  and  heart  of  Chris- 
tendom was  for  the  most  part  cold  and  cor- 
rupted, the  vital  stream  was  ceaselessly  flow- 
ing towards  the  northern  extremities  of  Eu- 
rope. It  would  be  an  attractive,  and  it  might 
be  a  profitable  employment  to  trace  the  fee- 
ble and  sometimes  ineffectual  missions,  which 
introduced  our  holy  religion  among  the  Pa- 
gans of  Denmark,  Sweden,  Russia,  and  Nor- 
way, and  to  observe  the  other  circumstances 
which,  in  conjunction  with  their  pious  per- 
severance, finally  established  it  there.  This 
mighty  success  we  may  consider  to  have  been 
obtained  before  the  middle  of  the  eleventh 
century :  not,  perhaps,  that  the  faith  of  Christ 
was  universally  embraced  by  the  lowest  clas- 
ses, still  less  was  it  thoroughly  comprehended 
or  practised;  but  it  had  gained  such  deep 
and  general  footing,  as  to  secure  its  final  and 
perfect  triumph. 

Denmark  and  Sweden.  We  shall  concisely 
mention  some  of  the  leading  circumstances 
by  which  this  great  event  was  accomplished. 
Heriold,  King  of  Denmark,  an  exile  and  a 
suppliant  at  the  court  of  Lewis  the  Meek, 
was  there  prevailed  upon  to  adopt  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  But  as  this  conversion  did  not 
seem  calculated  to  facilitate  his  restoration -to 
his  throne,  Lewis  presented  him  with  an  es- 
tate in  Friesland,  for  which  he  departed.  He 
was  accompanied  to  that  retreat  by  a  monk 
of  Corbie,  named  Anscaire  or  Ansgarius,  a 
young  and  fearless  enthusiast,  ardent  for  the 
toils  of  a  missionary  and  the  glory  of  a  mar- 
tyr.    His  first  exertions  were  made  in  Den- 


penitents,  to  inform  us  in  what  manner  each  performs 
his  penance,  that  we  may  judge  when  he  ought  to  be 
reconciled  to  the  Church.  If  the  criminal  does  not 
submit  to  the  penance  within  the  days  specified,  he 
shall  be  excommunicated  until  he  does  submit.' 

*  Amalarius,  a  disciple  of  Alcuin,  clerk  of  the 
church  of  Metz,  was,  among  these,  the  most  celebra- 
ted. His  corrected  '  Treatise  on  the  Ecclesiastical 
Offices'  was  published,  under  the  auspices  of  Lewis, 
in  the  year  831 ;  and  it  is  highly  valued  by  Roman 
Catholic  writers  as  proving  the  very  high  antiquity 
of  the  greater  part  of  the  services  of  their  Church. 
Fleury  gives  a  short  account  of  this  work  in  1.  xlvii., 
s.  36. 


230 


HISTORY   OF  THE    CHURCH. 


*nark;  presently  afterwards  (in  830)  he  ad- 
vanced into  Sweden  ;  and  such  promise  of 
success  attended  him,  that  Lewis  determined 
to  establish  an  Archiepiscopal  See  at  Ham- 
burgh, as  the  centre  of  future  operations. 
Gregory  IV.  gave  his  consent,  and  bestowed 
the  pallium,  together  with  the  dignity  of 
Pontifical  Legate,  upon  Ansgarius.  Thus 
exalted  and  strengthened,  he  persevered  in 
his  enterprise,  encouraging  the  exertions  of 
others,  and  not  sparing  his  own.  And  what- 
soever degree  of  credit  '*  we  may  find  it  pos- 
sible to  attach  to  the  stories  of  supernatural 
assistance,  continually  vouchsafed  both  to  him 
and  his  ministers,  we  may  be  assured  that  the 
character,  with  which  he  was  occasionally 
invested,  of  Ambassador  from  the  Emperor 
of  the  West,  together  with  the  fame  of  his 
private  sanctity,  gave  additional  efficacy  to 
his  religious  labors.  The  account  of  Anscaire's 
successful  expedition  into  Sweden  (in  the  year 
854,)  as  it  is  transmitted  to  us  from  early  days, 
contains  much  that  is  curious,  and  nothing 
that  is  improbable.  When  the  Bishop  arriv- 
ed at  the  capital,  he  communicated  to  the 
King,  Olef  or  Olave,  the  object  of  his  mis- 
sion. The  King  replied—'  I  would  willing- 
ly consent  to  your  desire,  but  I  can  accord 
nothing  until  I  have  consulted  our  gods  by 
the  lot,  and  till  I  know  the  will  of  the  people, 
who  have  more  influence  in  public  affairs 
than  I  have.'  Olef  first  consulted  his  nobles, 
and,  after  the  customary  probation  by  lot,  the 
gods  were  ascertained  to  be  favorable  to  the 
proposal.  The  General  Assembly  of  the 
people  was  then  convoked ;  and  the  King 
caused  a  herald  to  proclaim  the  object  of  the 
imperial  embassy.  The  people  murmured 
loudly ;  and  while  they  were  yet  divided  in 
their  opinions  as  to  the  reception  of  the  reli- 
gion of  Christ,  an  old  man  rose  up  among 
them  and  said — '  King  and  people  !  listen  to 
me.  We  are  already  acquainted  with  the 
service  of  that  God,  and  he  has  been  found 
of  great  assistance  to  those  who  invoke  him. 
There  are  many  among  us  who  have  expe- 
rienced it  in  perils  by  sea  and  on  other  occa- 
sions; why,  then,  should  we  reject  Him? 
Formerly  there  were  some  who  travelled  to 
Dorstadt  for  the  sake  of  embracing  that  re- 
ligion of  which  they  well  knew  the  utility : 
why,  then,  should  we  now  refuse  that  bles- 


*  After  relating  some  extraordinary  prodigies  (I. 
xlix.,  a,  19,)  Fleury  observes — 'These  miracles  de- 
serve belief,  if  ever  there  were  any  which  did  so, 
since  they  are  related  in  the  Life  of  St.  Anscaire  by 
Rembort,  his  disciple  and  successor;  and  if  we  are 
permitted  lo  assert,   that  there  is  any  occasion  on 


sing,  when  it  is  here  proposed  and  presented 
to  us  ? '  The  people  were  convinced  by  this 
discourse,  and  unanimously  consented  to  the 
establishment  of  the  Christian  religion,  and 
the  residence  of  its  ministers  among  them. 
Anscarius  died  ten  years  afterwards  ;  and  the 
footsteps  which  he  had  traced  in  that  rude 
soil  were  greatly  defaced  during  the  follow- 
ing century,  though  it  is  too  much  to  assert 
that  they  were  wholly  obliterated. 

Russia,  Poland  and  Hungary.  Some  ex- 
ertions were  made  for  the  conversion  of  the 
Sclavonians  about  the  middle  of  the  ninth 
age  ;  but  that  event  was  not  finally  accom- 
plished until  the  conquest  of  Bohemia  by 
Otho,  in  the  year  950.  In  the  same  manner 
Basil,  the  Emperor  of  the  East,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  his  patriarch  Ignatius,  endeavored 
to  introduce  into  the  heart  of  Russia  the 
knowledge  of  the  Gospel.  An  Archbishop 
was  purposely  ordained  and  sent  on  that  mis- 
sion ;  and  a  miracle,  which  was  performed 
in  the  presence  of  the  prince  and  his  people, 
obtained  a  partial  reception  for  the  new  reli- 
gion. This  event  occurred  in  871  ;  but  the 
faith  made  little  consequent  progress,  and  its 
ministers  were  subjected  to  insult  and  perse- 
cution ;  nor  are  we  justified  in  assigning  the 
complete  conversion  of  that  nation  to  a  period 
earlier  than  the  end  of  the  tenth  century.  In 
989  Vladimer,  Prince  of  the  Russians,  espous- 
ed the  sister  of  the  Emperors  Basil  and  Con 
stantine,  and  embraced,  in  consequence,  the 
Christian  belief.  He  lived  to  an  extreme  ola" 
age,  and  during  a  long  reign  found  many  im- 
itators ;  his  faith  became  the  rule  of  their 
worship  ;  and  the  knowledge  of  its  principles 
and  the  practice  of  its  precepts  were  pre 
ceded,  as  in  so  many  other  instances,  by  its 
bare  nominal  *  profession.  About  twenty 
years  earlier  the  Duke  of  Poland,  whose  con- 
version is  also  attributed  to  the  influence  of  a 
Christian  Queen,  promoted  the  spiritual  re- 

which  God  might  be  expected  to  perform  miracles  it 
is  doubtless  in  support  of  his  infant  Churches,' — a  re- 
ligious and  pious  observation,  to  which  we  give  our 
full  assent.  But  the  work  of  Rembert  is  lost,  and 
our  only  accounts  of  Ansgarius  are  derived  from  the 
ancient  chronicles. — See  Baronius,  Ann.  858,  s.  14, 
15,  &c. ;  and  Fleury,  1.  xlix.,  s.  21,  and  1.  lv  ,  s.  19. 
*  We  are  not  to  suppose  that  even  the  general  pro- 
fession of  the  faith  was  immediate:  in  fact  we  ob- 
serve that  a  pious  missionary  of  the  Roman  Church, 
named  Bruno  or  Boniface,  was  massacred  in  the  year 
1009,  with  several  associates,  by  certain  Russians 
whom  he  would  have  converted.  His  ardor  for  mar- 
tyrdom was  roused  by  the  sight  of  a  church,  dedica- 
ted at  Rome  to  the  ancient  martyr  Boniface. — See 
Petrus  Damiani  ap.  Baron.  Ann.  996,  s.  33. 


GREGORY  VII. 


231 


generation  of  his  subjects ;  and,  during  the 
first  year  of  the  following  age,  Stephen,  King 
or  Duke  of  Hungary,  undertook,  with  still 
greater  zeal  and  success,  the  same  holy  en- 
terprise. 

The  above  facts,  though  so  briefly  stated, 
are  perhaps  sufficient  to  prove  to  ns  (and 
could  we  pursue  them  more  deeply  into  de- 
tail the  inference  would  be  still  clearer)  that, 
in  those  days,  the  public  preaching  of  pious 
individuals  was  extremely  uncertain  in  its  ef- 
fect upon  the  mass  of  the  community,  unless 
when  supported  by  the  example  or  authority 
of  chiefs  and  princes.  Nor  is  this  surprising; 
for  to  nations  wholly  uncivilized  and  unin- 
structed  it  is  almost  hopeless  to  address  the 
revelations  of  truth  or  the  persuasions  of  rea- 
son. And  accordingly  we  observe,  that  the 
little  perceptible  success  which  attended  those 
missionaries  in  their  direct  intercourse  with 
the  people  is  usually  ascribed  to  their  miracu- 
lous powers,  or  possibly  to  the  sanctity  of 
their  character;  seldom  to  their  arguments 
or  their  eloquence.  But  it  would  have  been 
the  greatest  of  all  miracles  had  this  been 
otherwise  ;  the  barbarians  were  too  deeply 
plunged  in  ignorance  and  superstition  long 
to  listen  to  any  admonitions  which  were  not 
addressed  to  them  by  the  voice  of  power. 
And  thus,  when  it  pleased  God  in  due  season 
to  bring  them  over  to  his  own  service,  it  may 
be  that  He  vouchsafed  to  them  some  faint  and 
occasional  manifestations  of  his  own  omnipo- 
tence ;  but  it  was  certainly  from  amongst  the 
powers  and  principalities  of  this  world,  that 
he  selected  his  most  efficient  earthly  instru- 
ments. 

The  Normans  and  Turks.  In  the  mean- 
time, during  the  accomplishment  of  these 
gradual  and  distant  conquests,  the  Saracens 
had  wasted  the  south  of  Italy,  and  approached 
the  veiy  walls  of  the  pontifical  city.  On  the 
other  side,  for  their  chastisement  and  expul- 
sion, a  new  and  vigorous  race  presented  itself, 
recently  sent  forth  from  the  extremities  of  the 
North.  And  (what,  besides,  is  a  strange  co- 
incidence, and  deserving  of  more  curious  ob- 
servation than  we  can  here  bestow  upon  it) 
while  the  Norman  Pagans  were  overspread- 
ing some  of  the  fairest  provinces  of  the  West 
with  fire  and  relentless  desolation,  the  Turk- 
ish Pagans  of  the  East  were  entering,  even  at 
the  same  moment,  on  their  pestilential  career 
of  conquest.  The  former  adopted  the  religion 
of  the  vanquished,  and  then,  by  the  infusion 
of  their  own  vigorous  character,  they  made 
some  compensation  to  Christendom  for  the 
wrongs  which  they  had  inflicted.     In  like 


manner  did  the  Turks  embrace  the  religion, 
while  they  overthrew  the  dynasty  of  the 
Arabs,  who  preceded  them  —  and  not  their 
dynasty  only,  but  their  arts,  their  industry, 
and  their  genius.  And,  in  the  place  of  these, 
they  substituted  a  savage  and  sullen  despotism, 
alike  destructive  to  the  character  and  the  fac- 
ulties, since  its  firmest  principles  are  founded 
in  superstition,  and  bigotry  is  the  legitimate 
spirit  by  which  it  is  warmed  and  animated. 
It  is,  indeed,  true,  that  the  Arabian  invaders 
had  devastated  many  flourishing  Christian 
countries  without  justice  and  without  mercy  ; 
but  it  was  no  mild  or  insufficient  retribution, 
which  so  soon  subjected  them  to  the  deadly 
scourge  of  Turkish  oppression. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

The  Life  of  Gregory  VII. 

We  shall  divide  this  long  and  important  chap- 
ter into  three  sections.  The  first  will  contain 
the  principal  events  which  were  brought  about 
by  the  Popes  who  immediately  preceded  Gre- 
gory and  acted  under  his  influence.  The  sec- 
ond will  describe  the  great  ecclesiastical  and 
political  occurrences  of  his  pontificate.  In 
the  third  we  shall  consider  separately  the  con- 
troversy concerning  Berenger,and  the  general 
establishment  of  the  Latin  Liturgy. 

Section  I. 

Pope  Leo  IX.— Early  History  of  Hildebrand  —  Succession 
of  Victor  II.  — of  Stephen  IX.  — of  Nicholas  II. —  his 
Measure  respecting  Papal  Election  —  the  College  of 
Cardinals — imperfection  of  that  Measure — Subsequent 
and  final  Regulation  —  Inconveniences  of  popular  Suf- 
frage—  Restriction  of  the  Imperial  Right  of  Confirma- 
tion—  Homage  of  Robert  Guiscard  and  the  Normans  — 
Dissensions  on  the  Death  of  Nicholas  —  Succession  of 
Alexander  II.  —  actual  Supremacy  of  Hildebrand  — 
Measures  taken  during  that  Pontificate  —  Alexander  is 
succeeded  by  Hildebrand,  under  the  title  of  Gregory 
VII. 

Great  hopes  were  entertained  that  the  disor- 
ders of  Italy  and  the  calamities  of  the  Church 
would  find  some  respite,  if  not  a  final  termin- 
ation, on  the  accession  of  Leo  IX.  This  Pope 
(Bruno,  Bishop  of  Toul),  a  native  of  Germany 
and  of  splendid  reputation,  as  well  for  learning 
as  for  piety,  was  appointed  by  the  Emperor 
Henry  III.  at  the  request  of  the  Romans,  and 
ascended  the  chair  in  the  year  1049;  and  the 
dignity  of  his  royal  connexion  confirmed  the 
hopes  which  his  personal  virtues  had  excited. 
We  are  informed*  that  while  he  was  proceed- 


*  Giannoni,  Storia  di  Napoli,  1.  ix.,  s.  3.     Mura- 
tori,  Vit.  Rom.  Pontif.,  t.  iii.,  p.  2.     The  earliest 


232 


HISTORY   OF   THE   CHURCH. 


ing  through  France  into  Italy  in  his  pontifical 
vestments,  he  became  acquainted  at  Cluni 
with  a  monk  named  Hildebrand;  who  pre- 
vailed upon  him  to  lay  aside  those  ornaments 
which  he  had  prematurely  assumed,  to  enter 
Rome  in  the  dress  of  a  pilgrim,  and  there  to 
receive  from  the  Clergy  and  people  that  apos- 
tolical office  which  no  layman  had  the  right 
to  confer.  The  Pope  was  struck  by  the  talents 
and  character  of  this  Monk,  and  earned  him 
along  with  him  to  Rome. 

Hildebrand  was  probably  a  native  of  Saona, 
in  Tuscany,  and  (so  at  least  it  is  generally  as- 
serted) of  low  origin ;  *  yet  he  became  early 
in  life  the  disciple  of  Laurence,  Archbishop 
of  Melpha;  presently  he  gained  the  notice 
and  even  the  confidence  of  Benedict  IX.  and 
Gregory  VI.,  and  it  was  not  till  the  death  of 
the  latter  that  he  retired  to  the  monastery  of 
Cluni.  From  a  retreat  so  little  suited  to  his 
restless  spirit  he  was  finally  called  by  Leo  IX. 
to  that  vast  theatre  of  ecclesiastical  ambition, 
in  which  so  extraordinary  a  part  was  destined 
to  himself. 

Leo  presided  over  the  Church  for  five  years : 
his  reign  was  distinguished  by  some  attempts 
at  salutary  reform,  and  especially  by  the  fam- 
ous Council  which  he  held  at  Rheims  with 
that  purpose  (or  under  that  pretext,)  in  defi- 
ance of  the  royal  authority,  f  On  his  death 
the  election  of  a  successor  was  confided  by 
the  clergy  of  Rome  to  the  judgment  and  ad- 
dress of  Hildebrand.  He  selected  Victor  II., 
and  obtained,  by  a  difficult  negotiation,  J  his 
confirmation  from  the  Emperor.  During  this 
Pontificate  he  was  sent  into  France  as  legate, 
and  vigorously  §  maintained  the  authority  of 


authority  for  this  story  seems  to  be  Otho  Frisingensis, 
who  flourished  in  the  middle  of  the  following  century. 
Wibertus,  who  was  Leo's  archdeacon  and  biographer, 
does  not  mention  it.  However,  the  two  facts  that 
Hildebrand  accompanied  him  to  Rome,  and  that  he 
entered  that  city  in  the  habit  of  a  pilgrim,  are  not 
disputed.     See  Pagi,  Breviar.  Vit.  Leo  IX. 

*  Both  these  facts  are  contested.  In  the  Chronicle 
of  Hugo  Flaviniacensis  it  is  expressly  asserted  that 
he  was  a  Roman,  born  of  Roman  citizens;  and  Pa- 
penbrochius  thinks  it  probable  that  he  was  of  a  noble 
family.  Pagi  (Vit.  Greg.  VII.  s.  8.)  admits  that  the 
truth  cannot  be  clearly  ascertained. 

•f-  He  made  an  unsuccessful  campaign  against  the 
Normans,  and  was  defeated  by  them  in  person  the 
year  before  his  death.  On  this  occasion  Hildebrand 
may  have  learnt  the  policy  of  cultivating  their  friend- 
ship. 

X  Leo  Ostiensis,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  90.  The  Emperor 
professed  extreme  reluctance  to  part  with  his  coun- 
sellor and  favorite. 

§  He  deposed  six  Bishops  on  various  charges  '  by 


the  Holy  See.  Victor  was  succeeded  in  1057 
by  Stephen  IX.,  and  on  his  death,  in  the  year 
following,  a  violent  division  arose  among  the 
electors.  The  nobles  of  Rome  were  for  the 
most  part  united,  and  appear  to  have  made 
a  hasty  and  illegal  choice  ;  but  several  Car- 
dinals, who  had  no  share  in  this  transaction, 
assembled  at  Siena  and  chose  another  *  can- 
didate, who  was  finally  confirmed  and  placed 
in  possession  of  the  See  by  the  Empress,  the 
mother  of  Henry  IV.  This  candidate  was 
Nicholas  II. :  and  the  difficulties  which  had 
attended  his  own  election  probably  led  him, 
under  the  guidance  of  Hildebrand,  his  coun- 
sellor and  patron,  to  that  measure,  which  was 
the  foundation  of  Papal  independence. 

Enactment  on  Papal  election.  In  a  late 
chapter  we  briefly  mentioned  what  that  mea- 
sure was,  and  we  shall  now  add  a  few  remarks 
in  illustration  of  it.  '  We  have  thought  prop- 
er to  enact  (says  the  Pontiff)  that,  upon  the 
decease  of  the  Bishop  of  this  Roman  Univer- 
sal Church,  the  affair  of  the  election  be  treat- 
ed first  and  with  most  diligent  consideration 
by  the  Cardinal  Bishops ;  who  shall  afterwards 
call  into  their  council  the  Cardinal  Clerks  ; 
and  finally  require  the  consent  of  the  rest  of 
the  Clergy  and  people.'  f  The  term  Cardinal 
had  hitherto  been  adopted  with  very  great  and 
indefinite  latitude  in  all  the  Latin  Churches, 
and  even  applied  to  the  regular  orders,  as  well 
as  to  the  secular  Clergy  ;  but  by  this  edict  it 
was  restrained  to  the  seven  Bishops  who  pre- 
sided in  the  city  and  territory  of  Rome,  and 
to  the  twenty-eight  Clerks  or  Presbyters,  who 
were  the  ministers  of  the  twenty-eight  Roman 
parishes  or  principal  Churches.  These  five- 
aud-thirty  persons  constituted  the  College  of 
Cardinals.  The  previous  examination  of  the 
claims  of  the  candidates  rested  with  the  Bish- 
ops, but  they  could  not  proceed  to  election 


the  authority  of  the  Roman  See.'  Respecting  one  of 
these  it  is  recorded  by  several  writers,  that  having 
been  guilty  of  simony  he  became  unable  to  articulate 
the  offended  name  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  though  he  could 
pronounce  those  of  the  Father  and  the  Son  without 
any  difficulty.  Petrus  Damiani,  Epist.  ad  Nicolaum 
Papam.     Desiderius  Abbas  Cassinensis.,  &c.  &c. 

*  '  Pope  Stephen, by  consent  of  the  Bishops,  Clergy, 
and  Roman  people,  had  ordained  that  at  his  death  no 
successor  should  be  chosen,  except  by  the  counsel  of 
Hildebrand,  then  Subdeacon  of  Rome.  Hildebrand 
chose  Gerand,  Bishop  of  Florence,  who  took  the 
name  of  Nicholas  II.'  Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France,  Vie 
Nich.  II.  See  also  Leo  Ostiensis,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  101. 
Pagi,  Breviar.  Vit.  Steph.  IX. 

•f-  Mosh.  Cent,  xi.,  p.  ii.,  c.  ii.  The  Cardinals 
were  to  be  unanimous  in  their  choice.  Hist  Litt 
Franc,  Vie  Nich.  II. 


GREGORY   VII. 


233 


except  in  conjunction  with  the  Presbyters. 
The  rest  of  the  Clergy,  the  nobility,  and  the 
people,  were  excluded  from  any  positive  share 
in  the  election,  but  were  allowed  a  negative 
suffrage  in  giving  or  withholding  their  con- 
sent. It  was  obvious,  that  this  last  provision 
would  produce  frequent  disorder  and  confu- 
sion, and  that  those,  who  had  been  so  sud- 
denly deprived  of  the  most  substantial  part 
of  their  rights,  would  lose  no  opportunity  of 
abusing  that  which  remained  to  them.  And 
it  is  probable  that  Hildebrand,  when  he  coun- 
selled a  measure  of  imperfect  reform,  was 
obliged  to  confine  himself  to  what  was  at  the 
moment  practicable,  reserving  the  completion 
of  his  design  to  some  more  favorable  period. 

And  so,  indeed,  it  proved  ;  the  nobles,  the 
Clergy,  and  the  populace  continued  very  fre- 
quently  to  disturb  the  elections  which  they 
gradually  lost  the  power  to  influence  ;  and  it 
was  not  till  the  century  following  that  Alex- 
ander III.  found  means  to  perfect  the  scheme 
of  Hildebrand,  and  finally  purify  them  from 
all  such  interference.  Thenceforward  the 
right  of  election  was  vested  in  the  College  * 
of  Cardinals  alone,  and  so  it  has  continued  to 
the  present  time. 

No  one  acquainted  with  the  frightful  f  dis- 
orders which  were  the  scandal  of  the  Roman 
Church  during  the  two  preceding  centuries, 
and  which  were  occasionally  felt  even  at  much 
earlier  periods,  will  affect  to  censure  a  mea- 
sure which  removed  the  principal  cause  of 
them  by  subverting  the  system  of  popular 
election.  In  defence  of  a  custom,  which  in 
principle  was  not  calculated  for  a  numerous 
society,  and  which  had  been  condemned  by 
the  experience  of  at  least  five  centuries,  it  was 
in  vain  to  plead  the  venerable  institution  of 
antiquity.  Universal  in  its  origin,  it  had  for 
some  time  been  adopted  in  Episcopal  elections 
throughout  the  whole  of  Christendom  ;  but 
as  its  inconveniences  were  multiplied  by  the 
increase  of  proselytes,  it  fell  into  gradual  dis- 
use, first  in  the  East,  and  afterwards  in  the 
Western  Church  ;  and  at  the  period  which 
we  are  now  describing,  it  was  perhaps  no- 
where in  full  operation  except  at  Rome.  The 
evils,  which  at  Rome  it  had  so  pre-eminently 
produced,  abundantly  justify  the  wisdom  of 
the  Reformer.:): 


*  The  College  received,  on  that  occasion,  some 
additions  for  the  purpose  of  conciliating  the  aristoc- 
racy and  the  civil  authorities;  but  the  people  gained 
little  or  nothing  by  them. 

f  Giannoni  (Hist.  Nap.,  1.  v.,  c.  vi.)  details  them 
with  great  force. 

%  Gibbon  seems  to  have  considered  the  Popes  as 

30 


Imperial  Confirmation.  We  have  also  men- 
tioned another  important  clause  contained  in 
the  Edict  of  Nicholas ;  that  which  reduced 
the  imperial  confirmation  to  a  mere  personal 
privilege,  conferred  indeed  on  Henry  III.,  but 
liable  to  be  withheld  from  his  successors.* 
The  long  minority  of  that  Prince,  and  the 
weakness  of  his  government,  favoured  this 
usurpation,  and  accelerated  the  result  which 
Hildebrand  foresaw  from  it,  namely,  total 
emancipation  from  imperial  interference.  In 
fact,  the  very  following  Pontiff,  Alexander 
II.,  maintained  himself  without  the  sanction, 
and  even  against  the  will,  of  the  Emperor  ; 
and  though  Gregory  himself  vouchsafed  to 
defer  his  own  consecration  till  Henry  had  rat- 
ified his  election,  succeeding  Popes  did  not  on 
any  occasion  acknowledge  such  right  as  any 
longer  vested  in  the  Throne,  but  proceeded 
to  the  exercise  of  their  office,  without  await- 
ing even  the  form  of  confirmation  from  Ger- 
many. Thus  we  perceive  that  the  celebrated 
Council  of  1059  was  the  instrument  of  finally 
accomplishing  (and  that  at  no  very  distant 
period)  both  the  objects  at  which  it  aimed, 
without  the  power  of  immediately  effecting 
either — the  entire  independence  of  papal  elec- 
tion from  the  opposite  restraints  of  popular 
suffrage  and  imperial  confirmation.     It  is  true 


endeared  to  the  people  by  the  practice  of  popular 
election.  The  affection  of  the  Romans  for  their 
Popes  (we  speak  not  now  of  those  earlier  ages  when 
all  episcopal  elections  were  popular)  was  probably 
confined  to  (hat  period  which  intervened  between  their 
neglect  by  the  Eastern  Emperor  and  the  accession  of 
Charlemagne  ;  and  during  that  interval,  while  en- 
dangered by  the  constant  invasions  of  the  Lombards, 
they  were  certainly  and  strongly  attached  to  their 
leader  by  the  sense  of  common  peril.  There  are  also 
other  and  more  respectable  reasons  for  that  attach- 
ment. The,  Popes  of  that  time  were  generally  Ro- 
mans by  birth,  and  known  to  their  subjects,  as  they 
are  known  to  posterity,  by  their  piety  and  their  vir- 
tues. The  ecclesiastical  revenues  were  employed  to 
protect  the  Churches  and  convents  against  a  barbarous 
and  Arian  foe ;  and  the  affection  awakened  by  the 
merits  of  the  Popes  was  multiplied  by  their  services. 
See  Sismondi,  Republ.  Ital.,  c.  iii. 

*  It  is  important  to  cite  the  words  of  this  Edict. 
'  Cardinales  Episcopi  diligentissima  simul  considera- 
tione  tractantes  mox  sibi  Clericos  Cardinales  adlii- 
beant,  sicque  reliquus  Clerus  et  populus  ad  consensum 
nova?  electionis  accedant.  .  .  .  Eligant  autem 
de  ipsius  Ecclesise  gremio,  si  repertus  fuerit  idoneus; 
et  si  de  ipsa  non  invenitur  ex  alia  assumatur;  salvo 
debito  honore  et  reverentia  dilecti  Filii  nostri  Henri- 
ci,  qui  impnesentiarum  Rex  habetur,  et  futiirus  Im- 
perator  Deo  concedente  speratur,  sicut  jam  ipsi  con- 
cessimus,  et  successorum  illius  qui  ab  Apostolica 
Sede  personaliter  hoc  jus  impetraverint.'  Pagi, 
Brev.  Vit.  Nicolai  II.,  s.  7. 


234 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


that  Hildebrand  lived  not  to  behold  with  his 
own  eyes  the  completion  of  the  work  which 
he  had  projected;  but  such  is  commonly  the 
fate  of  those  who  engage  in  comprehensive 
schemes  of  reformation,  and  whose  measures 
are  accommodated  to  their  permanent  fulfil- 
ment. The  work  which  they  build  is  not  for 
the  gratification  of  their  own  vanity,  or  the 
profit  of  their  own  days — it  is  enough  for 
them  that  the  structure  proceeds  with  some 
immediate  advantage  and  great  promise  of 
future  excellence — the  use  and  enjoyment  of 
its  perfection  is  destined  to  other  generations. 

Another  important  event  distinguished  the 
pontificate  of  Nicholas.  The  Norman  con- 
querors of  the  South  of  Italy  being  harassed 
on  the  one  hand  by  the  hostility  of  the  Greek 
Emperor,  and  by  the  violent  incursions  of  the 
Saracens  on  the  other,  imagined  that  they 
should  improve  their  title  to  their  conquests, 
and  increase  their  security,  if  they  held  them 
as  a  fief  from  the  See  of  Rome.  The  Pontiff 
readily  availed  himself  of  a  concession,  which 
implied  the  acknowledgement  of  one  of  the 
broadest  principles  of  papal  ambition.  And 
thus  he  consented  to  receive  the  homage  of 
the  Normans,  and  solemnly  to  create  Robert 
Guiscard  Duke  of  Apulia,  Calabria  and  Sicily, 
on  condition  that  he  should  observe,  as  a  faith- 
ful vassal,  inviolable  allegiance,  and  pay  an  an- 
nual *  tribute,  in  proof  of  his  subjection  to  the 
Apostolic  See.  The  permanence  of  this  feu- 
dal grant  increases  its  claims  on  our  attention  ; 
and  the  kingdom  of  the  two  Sicilies,  even  as 
it  now  subsists,  stands  on  that  foundation. 
The  nature  of  this  transaction  is  so  closely  al- 
lied to  that  of  others  which  we  are  now  ap- 
proaching, that  there  is  no  difficulty  in  tracing 
it  to  the  hand  of  Hildebrand. 

Alexander  11.  On  the  death  of  Nicholas  in 
1061,  the  dissensions  which  had  disturbed  his 
election  were  to  some  extent  renewed.  The 
more  powerful  party,  under  the  guidance  of 
Hildebrand,  placed  Alexander  II.  in  the  chair ; 
the  Nobles  resisted,  and  their  opposition  was 
encouraged  by  the  direct  support  of  the  Em- 
peror ;  whose  confirmation  had  not  been  re- 
quired by  the  new  Pope,  and  who  was  justly 
exasperated  at  the  neglect.  Nevertheless,  the 
genius  of  Hildebrand  triumphed  over  all  dif- 
ficulties ;  and  after  a  contest  of  three  years 
Alexander  was  firmly  established  in  the  chair, 

*  '  Accepla  prius  ab  iis,  cum  sacramento,  Romanes 
ecclesias  fidelitate ;  censuque  quotannis  per  juga  bourn 
singula  denariis  duodecim.' — Leo  Ostiensis,  lib.  iii. 
cap.  15.  The  words  of  the  oath  are  cited  by  Baron- 
ius. 


though  it  was  still  feebly  disputed  with  him. 
He  occupied  it  for  twelve  years,  and  passed 
the  greater  portion  of  that  time  hi  the  retire- 
ment of  Lucca  or  Monte  Cassino — but  the  See 
lost  nothing  by  his  secession,  since  he  intrust- 
ed its  various  interests  and  the  entire  direction 
of  public  affairs  to  the  diligent  zeal  of  Hilde- 
brand, who  had  been  raised  by  Nicholas  to 
the  dignity  of  Archdeacon  of  Rome,  and  who 
exerted  there  an  unbounded  and  undisguised 
authority.* 

Accordingly  we  find,  during  this  pontifi 
cate,  (1)  that  various  attempts  were  made  to 
reform  the  morals  of  the  Clergy  and  the 
abuses  of  the  Church  —  (2)  that  the  famous 
question  concerning  Investitures  was  first 
moved — (3}  that,  by  a  constitution  of  Alexan- 
der, no  Bishop  in  the  Catholic  Church  was 
permitted  to  exercise  his  functions,  until  he 
had  received  the  confirmation  of  the  Holy 
See  f — (4)  that  the  Emperor  himself  was  sum- 
moned to  Rome,  to  answer  to  the  charge  of 
simony,  and  other  complaints  which  had 
reached  the  See  respecting  him.  \  Under 
these  various  heads  we  perceive  the  operation 
of  the  same  master-spirit  aiming  steadily  at 
the  reform  of  the  Church,  at  its  independence, 
at  the  extension  of  papal  authority  over  the 
episcopal  order,  and  over  the  conduct  and 
sceptre  of  Princes. 

Alexander  II.  died  in  1073 ;  and  thus  for 
four-and-twenty  years  Hildebrand  had  exer- 
cised in  the  Vatican  an  unremitting  influence 
whic'n  had  latterly  grown  into  despotic  au- 
thority— and  thus  far  contented  with  the  real- 
ity of  pontificial  power,  he  had  not  cared  to 
invest  himself  with  the  name  and  rank.  Per- 
haps he  had  thought  the  moment  not  yet  ar- 
rived in  which  he  could  occupy  the  office 
with  dignity,  or  fill  it  with  great  advantage ; 
probably  he  was  desirous  to  complete,  under 
other  names,  the  train  which  he  had  been 
long  preparing,  and  to  which  he  designed  to 

*    The  following  contemporary  verses  perhaps  do 
not  much  exaggerate  the  actual  supremacy  of  Hilde- 
brand. 
'  Papam  rite  colo,  sed  te  prostratus  adoro: 

Tu  facis  hunc  dominum — te  facit  ille  Deum. 

Vivere  vis  Romae"?  clara  depromito  voce, 

Plus  Domino  Papae,quam  Domno  pareo  Papas.' 

Petr.  Damiani. 

f  St.  Marc,  p.  460.  Hallam  (Midd.  Ages,  c.  vii.) 
considers  this  provision  to  have  contributed  more  than 
any  other  papal  privilege,  to  the  maintenance  of  the 
temporal  influence,  as  well  as  the  ecclesiastical  su- 
premacy of  Rome. 

X  See  Sender,  cent.  xi.  c.  1,  and  Pagi,  Vit.  Alex- 
and.  II.  sect.  48.  This  part  of  Mosheim's  history  is 
exceedingly  hurried  and  imperfect. 


GREGORY'S  PONTIFICATE. 


235 


apply  the  torch  in  his  own  person  ;  it  is  even 
possible,  that  his  severe  and  imperious  char- 
acter, by  alienating  popular  *  favor,  rendered 
his  election  uncertain.  It  was  not,  assuredly, 
that  he  valued  the  security  of  a  humbler  post ; 
for,  among  the  numerous  vices  with  which  he 
has  been  charged,  the  baseness  of  selfish  tim- 
idity has  never  been  accounted  as  one.  At 
length,  on  the  very  day  of  Alexander's  death, 
Hildebrand  was  elected  his  successor  by  the 
unanimous  suffrage  of  the  Cardinals,  and  the 
universal  acclamation  of  the  Clergy  and  peo- 
ple ;  and  that  he  might  mark,  at  least,  the 
beginning  of  his  pontificate  by  an  act  of 
moderation,  he  waited  for  the  Emperor's  con- 
sent before  his  consecration.  But  it  is  true 
that  he  rather  claimed  than  requested  that 
consent,  and  that  it  was  granted  with  the 
graceless  reluctance  of  impotent  jealousy. 
He  assumed  the  title  of  Gregory  VII. ;  and, 
after  twelve  years  of  restless  exertion,  he  left 
that  name  invested  with  a  portentous  celebri- 
ty which  attaches  to  no  other  in  the  annals  of 
the  Church. 

Section  II. — Tlie  Pontificate  of  Gregory. 

Gregory's  First  Council — its  two  objects — to  prevent  (1.) 
Marriage  or  Concubinage  of  the  Clergy — (2.)  Simon  iacal 
Sale  of  Benefices— On  the  Celibacy  of  the  Clergy— why 
encouraged  by  Popes — Leo  IX. — Severity  and  Conse- 
quence of  Gregory's  Edict — Original  Method  of  ap- 
pointment to  Benefices — Usurpations  of  Princes — how 
abused — the  Question  of  Investiture — Explained — Pre- 
text for  Royal  Encroachments — Original  form  of  Con- 
secration by  the  King  and  Crown  —  Right  usurped  by 
Otho — State  of  the  Question  at  the  Accession  of  Greg- 
ory— Conduct  of  Henry — further  measures  of  the  Pope — 
Indifference  of  Henry — Summoned  before  a  Council  at 
Rome — Council  of  Worms— Excommunication  of  the 
Emperor  and  Absolution  of  his  Subjects  from  their  Al- 
legiance— Consequence  of  this  Edict — Dissensions  in 
Germany — how  suspended — Henry  does  Penance  at 
Canossa — restored  to  the  Communion  of  the  Church — 
again  takes  the  field — Rodolphus  declared  Emperor — 
Gregory's  Neutrality — Remarks  on  the  course  of  Greg- 
ory's Measures — Universality  of  his  temporal  Claims — 
his  probable  project — Considerations  in  excuse  of  his 
Schemes — partial  admission  of  his  Claims — Ground  on 
which  he  founded  them — power  to  bind  and  to  loose — 
Means  by  which  he  supported  them — Excommunication 
— Interdict — Legates  i.  Latere— Alliance  with  Matilda 
— his  Norman  allies — German  Rebels — internal  Ad- 
ministration— Effect  of  his  rigorous  Measures  of  Reform 
— his  grand  scheme  of  Supremacy  within  the  Church — 


*  This  is  Sismondi's  opinion,  chap.  iii. ;  and  we 
can  readily  believe,  that  the  stern  virtues  of  Gregory 
were  not  likely  to  recommend  him  to  a  venal  popu- 
lace. Yet,  when  at  length  he  did  propose  himself, 
we  hear  nothing  of  any  opposition  from  that  quarter, 
while  the  acclamations  which,  attended  his  election 
are  universally  recorded.  But,  after  all,  that  severi- 
ty of  manner,  which  is  known  to  be  connected  with 
an  austere  sanctity  of  life,  is  not  an  unpopular  feature 
in  the  sacerdotal  character. 


False  Decretals — Power  conferred  by  them  on  the  Pope 
— brought  into  action  by  Gregory — Appeals  to  Pope — 
Generally  encouraged  and  practised— their  pernicious 
Effects — Gregory's  double  Scheme  of  Universal  Domin- 
ion—Return to  Narrative— Clement  III.  anti-Pope — 
Death  of  Rodolphus— Henry  twice  repulsed  from  before 
Rome — finally  succeeds — his  Coronation  by  Clement — 
the  Normans  restore  Gregory — he  follows  them  to  Sa- 
lerno and  there  dies — bis  historical  importance — his 
Character— Public— his  grand  principle  in  the  Admin 
istration  of  the  Church— Private— as  to  Morality— as  to 
Religion. 

In  the  year  following  his  advancement,  Greg- 
ory assembled  a  numerous  Council  at  Rome, 
chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  correcting  two 
abuses  in  Church  discipline  and  government, 
which  appeared  most  to  require  reform. 
These  were  (1)  the  marriage  or  concubinage 
of  the  Clergy ;  (2)  the  simoniacal  sale  of  bene- 
fices. 

1.  Marriage  of  the  Clergy.  Most  of  the  early 
Fathers  were  diligent  in  then*  endeavors  to 
establish  the  connexion  between  celibacy  and 
sanctity,  and  to  persuade  men  that  those  who 
were  wedded  to  the  Church  were  contamin- 
ated by  an  earthly  union.  This  notion  was 
readily  embraced  by  the  Laity ;  and  many 
of  the  Clergy  acted  upon  it  without  reluct- 
ance, owing  to  the  greater  commendation  of 
austerity  which  the  practice  was  found  to  con- 
fer upon  them :  still,  in  the  Eastern  Church, 
where  it  originated,  it  was  never  very  rigidly 
enforced;  and  a  Council  of  Constantinople 
held  in  691,  permitted,  with  certain  limita- 
tions, the  ordination  of  married  men.  These 
Canons  were  never  formally  received  in  the 
West,  where  celibacy  and  strict  continence 
were  unrelentingly  enjoined  on  all  orders  of 
the  priesthood.  With  whatsoever  laxity  the 
latter  injunction  may  have  been  observed, 
there  are  not  many  complaints  of  the  open 
violation  of  the  former,  at  least  from  the  end 
of  the  sixth,  until  the  conclusion  of  the  ninth, 
and  the  progress  of  the  tenth  century :  but 
during  this  period  the  irregularity  spread 
widely,  and  even  displayed  itself  with  undis- 
guised confidence  throughout  every  branch 
of  the  Roman  Hierarchy.  The  Popes  were 
naturally  averse  to  this  relaxation  of  discipline 
— partly  from  the  continued  prevalence  of  the 
original  notion,  that  those  were  better  qualifi- 
ed for  spiritual  meditations  and  offices  who 
were  severed  from  secular  interests  and  affec- 
tions ;  partly  from  the  scandal  thus  occasion- 
ed to  the  prejudices  of  the  laity  ;  partly  from 
respect  to  established  ordinances  and  usages  ; 
partly  from  attachment  to  a  principle,  which, 
by  withdrawing  the  Clergy  from  worldly 
connexions,  bound  them  more  closely  to  each 
other  and  to  their  Head.     At  any  rate  the  evil 


236 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


had  now  grown  to  so  great  a  height,  that  it  was 
become  quite  necessaiy  either  to  repeal  the 
laws  so  openly  violated,  or  to  enforce  them. 
They  chose  the  latter  office,  and  the  first  who 
distinguished  himself  in  the  difficult  enter- 
prise was  Leo  IX.  His  immediate  successors 
trod  in  his  steps  ;  but  as  sufficient  measures 
were  not  taken  (perhaps  could  not  have  been 
taken)  to  carry  these  edicts  into  effect,  they 
seem  generally  to  have  fallen  to  the  ground 
without  advantage,  except  in  so  far  as  they 
prepared  the  way  for  the  more  vigorous  exer- 
tions of  Gregory. 

In  the  above-mentioned  Council  it  was  or- 
dained— '  that  the  sacerdotal  orders  should 
abstain  from  marriage  ;  and  that  such  mem- 
bers of  them  as  had  already  wives  or  con- 
cubines should  immediately  dismiss  them  or 
quit  the  priestly  office.'  The  more  difficult 
part  remained  to  enforce  this  decree ;  and 
herein  Gregory  did  not  confine  himself  to  the 
legitimate  weapon  of  spiritual  censure,  but 
also  exerted  his  powerful  influence  to  arm 
the  temporal  authorities  in  his  service.  Nu- 
merous disorders  were  the  consequence  of 
this  measure  ;  at  Milan  *  and  in  Germany  the 
Edict  was  openly  resisted,  and  many  ecclesi- 
astics were  found  in  eveiy  countiy,  who  pre- 
ferred the  sacrifice  of  their  dignities  and  inter- 
ests to  the  abandonment  of  those  connexions 
which  they  held  dearer  than   either.f     The 

*  At  Milan  a  violent  dispute  on  this  subject  had 
arisen  between  the  Clergy  and  the  Laity,  under  Ste- 
phen IX.,  in  the  year  1057.  (Pagi,  Vit.  Steph.  IX.) 
The  schism  continued  under  Nicholas  II.,  who  sent 
legates  to  compose  it;  but  it  still  continued  during 
the  pontificate  of  Alexander.  The  Popes  took  part 
with  the  Laity  against  the  married  Clergy,  who  were 
named  Nicolaites. 

■j-  '  Malle  se  sacerdotium  quam  conjugium  deserere.' 
Lambert.  Schaffn.  in  Chronico.  Gregory  is  much 
censured  by  Mosheim  and  others  for  not  having  dis- 
tinguished, in  his  sweeping  decree,  between  the  wives 
and  the  concubines  of  the  Clergy;  and  with  justice, 
since  he  visited  the  violation  of  canonical  law  with 
the  same  severity  with  which  he  protected  the  eternal 
precepts  of  Christian  morality.  It  must  be  admitted, 
however,  that  as  his  object  was  the  entire  and  imme- 
diate extirpation  of  what  he  considered  a  scandalous 
abuse,  he  took  the  only  means  at  all  likely  to  accom- 
plish it.  It  was  in  vain  that  the  Milanese  Clergy 
pleaded  the  authority  of  St.  Ambrose  and  the  example 
of  the  Greeks — it  was  well  known  that  the  former  pro- 
tected not  those  who  admitted  papal  supremacy  ;  and 
that  the  Council,  which  permitted  the  latter,  was  never 
acknowledged  by  the  Roman  Church.  It  seems  in- 
deed probable  that  St.  Gregory  was  the  first  Pope 
who  rigidly  enforced  the  practice  of  celibacy ;  but  for 
two  centuries  after  his  time,  it  was  both  the  law  and 
the  practice  of  the  Church,  and  in  the  two  ages  which 


confusion  thus  created  was  indeed  gradually 
tranquillized  by  the  progress  of  time,  by  the 
perseverance  of  the  Pontiff,  by  the  aid,  per- 
haps, of  the  laity,  by  the  indifference  of  the 
Sovereigns — but  the  practice  itself  was  not  so 
easily  removed  ;  and  though,  through  severe 
restraint,  it  proceeded  constantly  to  abate,  it 
continued  in  some  degree  to  disturb  the 
Church  during  the  following  century,  and  to 
call  down  the  denunciations  of  her  Popes  and 
her  Councils. 

2.  Edict  against  Simony.  Another  Edict 
of  the  same  Council  forbade  in  the  severest 
terms  the  sale  of  ecclesiastical  benefices  ;  and 
the  following  circumstance  made  that  Edict 
necessary.  The  Bishop  was  originally  elect- 
ed by  the  Clergy  and  people  of  the  diocese ; 
but  in  process  of  time,  the  people,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  were  in  most  places  excluded, 
and  the  election  rested  with  the  Clergy  alone. 
Presently,  in  the  anarchy  which  prevailed 
after  the  dissolution  of  the  Western  Empire, 
the  wealth  which  flowed  into  the  coffers  of 
the  Church,  as  it  brought  with  it  no  propor- 
tionate security,  not  only  tempted  the  rapacity 
of  the  Nobles,  but  invited  the  usurpation  of 
the  Sovereigns.  Thus,  at  an  early  period, 
long  antecedent  to  the  reign  of  Charlemagne, 
the  Western  Princes  commenced  their  in- 
terference in  Episcopal  elections  —  first,  as 
it  would  seem,  by  simple  recommendation  ; 
then  by  the  interposition  of  threats  and  show 
of  authority  ;  lastly,  by  positive  appointment. 
The  partial  restoration  of  the  right  which  took 
place  in  the  ninth  century,  under  Lewis  the 
Meek  and  his  successor,  was  probably  confin- 
ed to  the  Church  of  France  and  to  the  life  of 
Hincmar. 

Their  next  step  was  to  abuse  the  privilege 
which  they  had  usurped,  and  the  manner  of 
abuse  was  alike  indecent  and  scandalous : 
the  spoils  of  their  injustice  were  retailed  to 
their  avarice  ;  and  the  most  important  charg- 
es and  offices  of  the  ministry  were  commonly 
and  publicly  sold  to  the  highest  bidder,  with- 
out regard  to  literary  qualification  or  sanctity 
of  character,  or  the  most  obvious  interests  of 
religion.  This  was,  in  fact,  the  avowed  cor- 
ruption which  Gregory  sought  to  remedy ; 
and  the  specious  object  to  which  his  exertions 
and  those  of  his  successors,  through  so  many 
conflicts,  tended,  was  to  deprive  the  Prince  of 
his  usurped  authority  in  Episcopal  election. 


succeeded,  though  it  had  ceased  to  be  the  practice,  it 
still  continued  the  law. — See  Bayle,  Vie  Greg.  I. 
Fleury,  Discours  sur  1'  H.  E.  depuis  600  jusqu'i 
1100." 


GREGORY'S   PONTIFICATE. 


237 


A  secondary  view  was  closely  attached  to 
this,  but  not  yet  so  boldly  professed — to  trans- 
fer that  authority,  if  not  in  form,  in  *  sub- 
stance, to  the  Pope. 

Investiture.  Thus  much  appears  exceed- 
ingly simple;  but  the  point  on  which  the 
dispute  did  in  reality  turn,  and  which  has 
given  the  name  to  the  contest,  was  one,  as  it 
might  seem,  of  mere  formality  —  the  Investi- 
ture of  the  Bishop  or  Abbot.  We  must  now 
shortly  explain  this  part  of  the  question ;  and 
we  shall  thus  become  acquainted  with  the 
circumstances  which  are  urged  in  justifica- 
tion of  the  royal  claims.  When  the  early 
conquerors  of  the  West  conferred  territorial 
grants  upon  the  Church,  the  individuals  who 
came  to  the  enjoyment  of  them  were  obliged 
to  present  themselves  at  Court,  to  swear  alle- 
giance to  the  King,  and  to  receive  from  his 
hands  some  symbol,  in  proof  that  the  tempo- 
ralities were  placed  in  their  possession.  The 
same  ceremony,  in  fact,  was  imposed  on  the 
ecclesiastical  as  on  the  lay  proprietor  of  royal 
fiefs ;  and  it  was  called  Investiture.  After- 
wards, when  the  Princes  had  usurped  the 
presentation  to  all  valuable  benefices,  even  to 
those  which  had  not  been  derived  from  royal 
bounty,  they  introduced  no  distinction  found- 
ed on  the  different  sources  of  the  revenue, 
but  continued  to  subject  those  whom  they 
nominated,  to  the  same  oath  of  allegiance, 
and  the  same  ceremony  of  investiture,  with 
the  laity. 

In  the  meantime  it  had  been  an  early  cus- 
tom, on  the  consecration  of  a  Bishop,  that  the 
Metropolitan,  who  by  right  performed  the 
ceremony,  should  place  in  the  hands  of  the 
Prelate  elect  a  ring  and  a  crosier  —  symbols 
of  his  spiritual  connexion  with  the  Church, 
and  of  his  pastoral  duties.  This  was  a  form 
of  investiture  purely  ecclesiastical,  and  the 
Princes,  even  after  they  had  usurped  the  pre- 
sentation to  benefices,  did  not  at  first  venture 
to  make  use  of  it;  and,  it  is  said,  that  they 
were  finally  led  to  do  so  by  some  artful  at- 
tempts on  the  part  of  the  Clergy  to  recover 
their  original  right  of  election.  Mosheim  (in 
opposition  to  many  less  celebrated  writers)  is 
of  opinion  that  Otho  the  Great  was  the  first 
Prince  who  ventured  to  present  with  profane 
hand  the  emblems  of  spiritual  authority ;  at 
least  it  is  quite  certain  that  this  custom  had 
been  in  very  general  use  for  some  time  before 
the  accession  of  Gregory.  And  thus  the  tem- 
poral power  had  gradually  succeeded  in  a 
double  usurpation  on  ecclesiastical  privileges 

*  By  conceding  to  him  the  right  of  confirmation. 


— first,  in  despoiling  the  lower  Clergy  of  their 
right  of  election — next,  in  encroaching  upon 
the  province  of  the  Metropolitans,  and  pre- 
suming to  dispense  in  their  place  the  symbols 
of  a  spiritual  office. 

As  a  partial  palliation  of  the  conduct  of  the 
throne  it  is  maintained,  that  the  homage  re- 
quired from  the  Bishop  or  Abbot  at  investi- 
ture was  for  his  temporalities  only  ;  and  in  so 
far  as  these  were  the  feudal  grants  of  former 
princes,  the  claim  was  manifestly  just,  but  no 
farther  than  this.  The  crown  could  not  fairly 
assert  any  suzerainty  over  the  vast  domains 
and  enormous  extent  of  property  which  had 
accrued  to  the  Church  from  other  quarters, 
before  the  establishment  of  the  feudal  system, 
and  which,  therefore,  were  not  held  on  any 
feudal  tenure  ;  nor  can  any  sufficient  plea  be 
found  for  its  general  assumption  of  the  dispo- 
sal of  benefices  (to  say  nothing  of  the  flagi- 
tious manner  in  which  they  were  retailed), 
and  its  adoption  of  a  form  of  investiture 
which  was  purely  ecclesiastical. 

Such,  as  nearly  as  we  can  collect,  was 
the  state  of  this  question,  when  Gregory  pub- 
lished his  edict  against  Simony  in  the  year 
1074.  The  results  of  the  Council  were  com- 
municated to  the  Emperor  *  Henry  IV.,  who 
received  the  Legates  courteously,  and  bestow- 
ed some  unmeaning  praise  on  the  zeal  of  the 
Pope  for  the  reform  of  his  Church.  But 
Gregory  was  not  to  be  satisfied  with  expres- 
sions ;  and,  as  he  intended  to  give  general 
effect  to  his  decrees,  he  desired  permission 
to  summon  councils  in  Germany,  by  which 
those  accused  of  simony  might  be  convicted 
and  deposed.  Henry  refused  that  permission, 
partly  from  the  consciousness  of  his  own 
criminality,  partly  because  he  was  not  really 
anxious  for  any  reform  which  would  curtail 
his  own  patronage.  This  opposition  obliged 
the  Pope  to  proceed  one  step  farther.  After 
pressing  the  execution  of  his  former  ordi- 
nances in  a  variety  of  letters,  addressed,  with 
various  effect  or  inefficacy,  to  different  princes 
and  bishops,  he  convoked,  early  in  the  year 
following,  a  second  council  at  Rome ;  and, 
with  its  assistance,  he  proceeded  to  those 
measures  which  he  had  proposed  to  accom- 
plish by  synods  in  Germany,  and,  probably, 
somewhat  beyond  them.  On  this  occasion 
he  not  only  deposed  the  Archbishop  of  Bre- 
men and  the  Bishops  of  Strasbourg,  Spires, 
and  Bamberg,  besides  some  Lombard  Bish- 


*  According  to  the  church  writers,  King  only. 
He  had  not  yet  gone  through  the  ceremony  of  coro- 
nation at  Rome. 


238 


HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


ops,  but  also  excommunicated  five  of  the  Im- 
perial Court,  whose  ministry  the  prince  had 
used  in  simoniacal  transactions.  At  the  same 
time  he  pronounced  his  formal  anathema 
against  any  one  who  should  receive  the  in- 
vestiture of  a  Bishopric  or  Abbey  from  the 
hands  of  a  layman,  and  also  against  all  by 
whom  such  investiture  should  be  performed.* 
Henry  paid  no  other  attention  to  this  edict, 
than  to  repeat  his  former  general  acknow- 
ledgment of  the  existence  of  simony,  and  his 
intention,  in  future,  to  discourage  it. 

Henry  summoned  to  Rome.  Some  partic- 
ular differences,  respecting  the  appointment 
to  the  See  of  Milan  and  other  matters,  tended 
at  this  moment  to  exasperate  the  growing 
hostility  of  Gregory  and  Henry  ;  it  happened, 
too,  that  the  latter  was  disturbed  and  weak- 
ened by  civil  dissensions,  occasioned,  in  some 
degree,  by  his  own  dissolute  and  profligate 
rule,  which,  by  distracting  his  forces,  invited 
the  aggression  of  his  foreign  enemies.  It  is 
even  asserted  (by  Dupin)  that  the  malcontents 
sent  deputies  to  Rome  to  solicit  the  interfer- 
ence of  the  Pope.  Such  an  application  is 
rendered  probable  by  the  fact  which  we  now 
proceed  to  mention,  and  which  is  a  certain 
and  a  memorable  monument  of  papal  extrava- 
gance. Gregory  sent  Legates  into  Germany, 
bearing  positive  orders  to  the  Emperor  to 
present  himself  forthwith  at  Rome,  since  it 
became  him  to  clear  himself,  before  the  Pope 
and  his  Council,  from  various  charges  which 
his  subjects  had  alleged  against  him.  These 
charges  might  possibly  be  confined  to  ecclesi- 
astical offences,  of  which  the  Emperor  had 
notoriously  been  guilty  ;  but  never,  before 
the  days  of  Hildebrand,  had  it  been  expressly 
asserted  that  he  was  amenable  for  such  of- 
fences to  any  ecclesiastical  tribunal. 

Excomynunicated  and  deposed.     He  treated 
the  summons  as  a  wanton  insult,  and  wan- 


*  The  words  of  the  edict  are:  '  Si  quis  deinceps 
Episcopatum  vel  Abbatiam  de  inarm  alieujus  laica? 
persona?  susceperit,  nullatenus  inter  Episcopos  vel 
Abbates  habeatur,  nee  ulla  ei  lit  Episcopo  vel  Abbati 
audientia  concedatur.  Insuper  etiam  gratiam  B.  Pe- 
tri et  introitum  Ecclesia;  interdicimus,  quoad  usque 
locum,  quern  sub  crimine  tam  ambitionis  quam  ino- 
bedientia?,  quod  est  scelus  idololatria?,  cepit,  deserue- 
rit.  Similiter  etiam  de  inferioribus  Ecclesiasticis 
dignitatibus  constituimus.  Item  si  quis  Imperatorum, 
Ducum,  Marchionum,  Comitum,  vel  quilibet  secula- 
rium  potestatum  ant  personarum  investituram  Epis- 
copate, vel  alieujus  Ecclesiastics  dignitatis  dare 
praesumpserit,  ejusdem  sententise  vinculo  se  adstric- 
tum  sciat.'  Hugo  Flaviuiacensis,  ap.  Pag.  Vit. 
Greg.  VII.,  s.  26. 


tonly  retorted  it.  He  collected  at  Worms  * 
a  council  of  about  twenty  German  Bishops 
(some  of  whom  were  already  personally  em- 
broiled with  Gregory) ;  and  these  prelates, 
after  passing  many  censures  on  the  conduct, 
election,  and  constitutions  of  Hildebrand,  pro- 
nounced him  unworthy  of  his  dignity,  and 
accordingly  deposed  him.  Gregory  was  not 
further  disturbed  by  such  empty  denuncia- 
tions, than  to  take  measures  to  return  them 
much  more  effectually.  In  a  full  assembly 
of  one  hundred  and  ten  Bishops,  he  suspend- 
ed from  their  offices  the  ecclesiastics  who 
had  declared  against  him  ;  he  then  pronoun- 
ced the  excommunication  of  the  Emperor; 
and  accompanied  his  anathema  by  the  un- 
qualified sentence,  'that  he  had  forfeited  the 
kingdoms  of  Germany  and  Italy,  and  that  his 
subjects  were  absolved  from  their  oath  of 
fealty.'  \ 

This  assertion  of  control  over  the  allegi 
ance  of  subjects  was  hitherto  without  prece- 
dent in  the  history  of  the  Papal  Church  ;  and 
it  was  now,  for  the  first  time,  advanced  to  the 
prejudice  of  a  monarch,  whose  character, 
though  stained  both  by  vices  and  weaknesses, 
was  not  wholly  depraved  nor  universally  odi- 
ous.    Nevertheless,  the  edict  of  Gregory  was 


*  ■'  Qua?  legatioRegem  vehementer  permovit;  sta- 
timque  abjectis  cum  gravi  contumelia  Legatis,  omnes 
qui  in  regno  suo  essent  Episcopos  el  Abbates  Wor- 
metise  Dominica  Septuagesimse  convenire  prsecepit, 
tractare  cum  eis  volens  ad  deponendum  Romamtm 
Pontificem,  si  qua  sibi  via,  si  qua  ratio  pateret:  in 
hoc  cardine  tolam  verti  ratus  salutem  suam  et 
regni  stabilitatem,  si  is  non  esset  Episcopus.' 
Lambert  Schaffh.  ad  aim.  1076. 

f  The  words  in  which  this  celebrated  sentence  was 
conveyed  should  be  recorded :  '  Petre  Apostolorurn 
Princeps,  etc.  etc.  Hac  fiducia  fretus  pro  Ecclesias 
lure  honore  et  defensione,  ex  parte  Omnipotentis  Dei, 
Patris  et  Filii  et  Spiritus  Sancti,  per  tuam  potesta- 
tem  et  auctoritatem  Henrico  Regi,  filio  Henrici  Im- 
peratoris,  qui  contra  Ecclesiam  tam  inaudita  superbia 
insurrexit,  totius  regni  Teutonicorum  et  Italia?  gu- 
bemacula  contradico,  et  omnes  Christianos  a  vinculo 
juramenti  quod  sibi  fecere  vel  facient,  absolvo;  et 
ut  nullus  ei  sicut  Regi  serviat,  iuterdico.  Dignuiu 
est  enim,  lit,  qui  studet  honorem  Ecclesise  tua2  imini- 
nuere,  ipse  honorem  amittat  quern  videtur  habere. 
Et  quia  Christianus  contempsit  obedire  nee  ad  Dom- 
inum  rediit,  quern  dimisit  participandoexcommunica- 
tis  et  multas  iniquitates  faciendo,  mcaque  monita, 
qua:  pro  salute  sua  sibi  misi,  te  teste  spernendo, 
seque  ab  Ecclesia  sua,  tentans  earn  scindere  separan- 
do,  vinculo  eum  anathematis  vice  tua  alligo,  ut  sci- 
ant  Gentes  et  comprobent  quia  Tu  es  Petrus,  et 
super  tuam  Petram  Filius  Dei  vivi  redificavit  Eccle- 
siam suam,  et  porta;  Inferi  non  prrcvalebunt  adversus 
earn.'  Paul.  Bernried.,  cap.  75;  Pagi,  Vit.,  Greg. 
VII.,  s.  42. 


GREGORY'S   PONTIFICATE. 


239 


diligently  promulgated  throughout  Germany ; 
nor  was  it  idly  cast  into  a  kingdom  already 
divided,  and  among  a  people  already  discon- 
tented and  accustomed  to  rebellion.  The 
Dukes  of  Swabia,  headed  by  Rodolphus, 
presently  rose  in  arms  ;  they  were  supported 
by  a  fresh  revolt  of  the  Saxons ;  and  there 
were  those  even  amoug  Henry's  best  friends, 
whose  fidelity  was  somewhat  paralyzed  by 
the  anathema  under  which  he  had  fallen. 
After  a  short  but  angry  struggle,  an  arrange- 
ment was  made  greatly  to  his  disadvantage — 
that  the  claims  and  wrongs  of  both  parties 
should  be  subjected  to  the  decision  of  the 
Pope,  who  was  invited  to  preside  at  a  council 
at  Augsbourg  for  that  purpose ;  and  that,  in 
the  meantime,  Henry  should  be  suspended 
from  the  royal  dignity.  It  is  not  easy  to  de- 
cide how  much  of  this  success  should  be  at- 
tributed to  the  previous  animosity  of  the 
parties  opposed  to  Henry,  how  much  to  a 
blind  respect  for  the  edict  and  authority  of 
the  Pope ;  but  the  treaty  to  which  all  con- 
sented certainly  implied  an  acknowledgment 
of  the  power  which  Gregory  had  assumed, 
and  gave  a  sort  of  foundation  and  countenance 
to  his  future  measures. 

Henry  does  penance,  at  Canossa.  Henry, 
who  had  little  to  hope  from  a  public  sentence, 
to  be  delivered  in  the  midst  of  his  rebellious 
subjects  by  his  professed  enemy,  determined 
to  anticipate,  or,  if  possible,  to  prevent  his 
disgrace  by  an  act  of  private  submission  to 
Pontifical  authority.  For  that  purpose  he 
crossed  the  Alps  with  few  attendants  during 
the  severity  of  an  inclement  winter,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  Canossa,  a  fortress  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Parma,  in  which  Gregory  was  then 
residing.  In  penitential  garments,  with  his 
feet  and  head  bare  and  unsheltered  from  the 
season,  the  Emperor  presented  himself  at  the 
gate  of  the  fortress,  as  a  sinner  and  a  suppli- 
ant. His  humble  request  was  to  be  admitted 
to  the  presence  of  the  Pontiff  and  to  receive 
his  absolution.  For  three  dreary  days,  from 
dawn  till  sunset,  the  proudest  sovereign  in 
Europe  was  condemned  to  continue  his  fast 
and  his  penance  before  the  walls,  and  proba- 
bly under  the  eyes  of  Gregory,  in  solitary  * 


*  Henry  is  represented  to  have  traversed  the  Alps 
at  extreme  risk  by  unfrequented  roads,  as  the  ordi- 
nary passes  were  guarded  by  his  enemies;  and  Lam- 
bertus  of  Aschaffenbourg,  a  contemporary  historian, 
describes  the  castle  of  Canossa  as  surrounded  by  a 
triple  wall,  within  the  second  of  which  the  Emperor 
was  admitted  to  his  penance,  while  the  whole  of  his 
suite  remained  without  the  exterior.  See  Sismondi, 
Hist.  Rep.  Ital.  c.  iii.  Paul.  Bernried  speaks  of  the 
insolita  papa  duritia  shown  on  this  occasion. 


and  helpless  humiliation.  At  length,  on  the 
fourth  day,  he  was  pertnitted  to  approach  the 
person  of  the  Pontiff,  and  was  absolved  from 
the  sentence  of  excommunication.  Yet  even 
this  favour  was  not  vouchsafed  him  uncon- 
ditionally :  *  he  was  still  suspended  from  the 
title  and  offices  of  royalty,  and  enjoined  to 
appear  at  the  Congress  of  Augsbourg  and 
abide  by  the  decision  which  should  then  be 
passed  upon  him. 

Henry  soon  discovered  that  he  had  gained 
nothing  by  this  degradation,  except  contempt; 
and  after  descending  to  the  lowest  humiliation 
which  ever  Prince  had  voluntarily  undergone, 
he  found  himself  precisely  in  his  former  situ- 
ation, with  the  Council  of  Augsbourg  still 
hanging  over  his  head.  Of  an  useless  sub- 
mission he  repented  vehemently ;  he  aban- 
doned himself  to  his  feelings  of  shame  and 
indignation,  resumed  his  title  and  his  func- 
tions and  prepared  once  more  to  confront  his 
adversaries.  The  Saxons  and  Swabians  im- 
mediately declared  Rodolphus  Emperor  of 
Germany  (in  1077) ;  Henry  was  supported  by 
the  Lombards  in  Italy  ;  and  a  sanguinary  war 
was  carried  on  in  both  countries  with  various 
success  and  general  devastation.  For  three 
years  Gregory  preserved  the  show,  perhaps 
the  substance,  of  neutrality  ;  he  received  the 
deputies  of  both  parties  with  equal  courtesy, 
and  seemed  to  wish  to  profit  so  far  only  by 
their  dissensions,  as  to  engage  them  to  aid 
him  in  the  execution  of  his  original  edicts. 


*  The  oath  which  he  took  is  given  at  length  by 
Paulus  Bernriedensis,  Vit.  Greg.  VII.  Sismondi  de- 
signates the  conduct  of  Gregory  as  '  une  trahison 
insigne,'  but  not  justly  so;  since  it  cannot  be  shown 
that  the  Pope  had  bound  himself  by  any  engagement 
to  the  Emperor  which  he  did  not  strictly  fulfil ;  the 
latter  did  penance  for  his  contumacy  towards  the 
Church,  and  the  Pope,  in  consequence,  restored  him 
to  the  Communion  of  the  Church.  The  Council  or 
Diet  to  be  held  at  Augsbourg  was  a  measure  previ- 
ously arranged,  to  which  many  other  eminent  persons 
were  parties;  and  it  was  intended  for  the  settlement 
of  political,  at  least  as  much  as  of  ecclesiastical  dif- 
ferences ;  —  whereas  the  penance  at  Canossa  was 
merely  a  particular  atonement  to  the  See  of  Rome, 
not  at  all  connected  with  the  general  maladministra- 
tion of  Henry.  In  fact,  Gregory's  own  words  are 
conclusive  on  the  question.  '  Henri cus,  confusus  et 
humiliatus  ad  me  veniens  absohttionem  ah  excommu- 
nicatione  quaesivit.  Quern  ego  videns  humiliatum, 
multis  ab  eo  promissionibus  acceptis  de  vitre  suae 
emendatione,  solum  ei  communionem  reddidi;  non 
tamen  in  regno  instauravi,  nee  fidelitatem  hominum 
qui  sibi  juraverant  vel  erant  juraturi  ut  sibi  serventur 
pracepi,  &c.'  See  Mabill.,  Vit.  Greg.  VII.,  c.  107. 
Pagi,  Vit.  Greg.  VII.,  s.  xliii.  Denina,  Delle  Rivol 
d'ltalia,  lib.  x.,  c.  vi. 


240 


HISTORY    OF    THE    CHURCH. 


But  m  the  year  1080,  decided,  as  some  say, 
by  the  misfortunes,  as  others  assert,  by  the 
crimes  *  of  Henry,  he  pronounced  a  second 
sentence  of  deposition,  and  conferred  upon 
Rodolphus  the  crown  of  Germany,  f 

Temporal  claims  of  Gregory.  Thus  far  we 
have  traced,  without  much  comment,  the  rapid 
but  regular  progress  of  Gregory.  The  first 
measure,  as  we  have  seen,  in  his  temporal 
usurpation  (for  in  his  earliest  decrees  against 
Church  abuses  he  did  not  exceed  the  just 
limits  of  his  authority,)  was  to  declare  the 
Emperor  amenable  to  a  Papal  court  of  judi- 
cature, and  to  summon  him  before  it;  the 
next  was  to  deprive  him  of  his  throne  and  to 
absolve  his  subjects  from  their  oath  of  allegi- 
ance ;  the  last  was  to  dispose  of  the  empire, 
with  absolute  authority,  as  a  fief  of  St.  Peter. 
Without  further  examination  we  might  at 
once  have  concluded,  that  claims  so  extrava- 
gant and  irrational  were  merely  the  passionate 
ebullitions  of  a  feeble  spirit,  irritated  by  per- 
sonal pique  or  effeminate  vanity.  But  tins 
was  not  so ;  the  claims  in  question  were  ad- 
vanced by  the  most  vigorous  and  consistent 
character  of  his  age,  and  they  were  pressed 
with  a  deliberate  and  earnest  zeal  which 
evinced  a  conviction  of  their  justice.  They 
were  not  confined  to  the  dominions  of  Henry  ; 
they  displayed  themselves  in  every  state  and 
province  of  Europe.  The  kingdom  of  France 
was  declared  tribuatry  to  the  See  of  Rome, 
and  Papal  legates  were  commissioned  to  de- 
mand the  annual  payment  of  the  tribute,  J  by 
virtue  of  the  true  obedience  due  to  that  See 
by  every  Frenchman.  And  the  King  himself 
(Philip  I.)  was  reminded  'that  both  his  king- 
dom and  his  soul  were  under  the  dominion 
of  St.  Peter,  who  had  the  power  to  bind  and 
to  loose  both  in  Heaven  and  on  earth.'  Saxony 
was  pronounced  to  be  held  on  feudal  tenure 
from  the  Apostolic  chair  and  in  subjection 


*  Sismondi,  whose  partialities  are  against  Gregory 
and  the  Church,  says  respecting  Henry,  that  '  his 
character  was  generous  and  noble;  but  he  abandoned 
himself  with  too  little  restraint  to  the  passions  of  his 
age  ;'  and  those  passions  undoubtedly  led  him  to 
the  commission  of  great  political  offences.  Private 
excesses  may  sometimes  find  their  excuse  in  youth ; 
but  the  vices  of  Kings  deserve  less  indulgence,  since 
they  usually  influence  the  morals  and  happiness  of 
their  subjects.  A  less  favorable,  but  probably  a  more 
correct  view  of  the  character  of  Henry  is  taken  by 
Denina.     Delle  Rivoluz.  d'ltalia,  lib.  x.,  c.  v. 

t  The  act  and  the  authority  for  it  were  expressed 
in  a  hexameter  verse,  inscribed  on  the  crown  which 
Gregory  sent  to  Rodolph  — 

Petra  dedit  Petro,  Petrus  diadema  Rodolpho. 

%  Per  veram  obediential!!. 


to  it.  It  was  pretended  that  the  kingdom  of 
Spain  had  been  the  property  of  the  Holy  See 
from  the  earliest  ages  of  Christianity.  Wil- 
liam the  Norman,  after  the  conquest  of  JEng- 
land,  was  astonished  to  learn  that  he  held  that 
country  as  a  fief  of  Rome  and  tributary  to  it. 
The  entire  feudal  submission  of  the  kingdom 
of  Naples  has  been  already  mentioned.  No- 
thing was  so  lofty  as  to  daunt  the  ambition 
of  Gregory,  or  so  low  as  to  escape  it.  The 
numerous  Dukes  or  Princes  of  Germany, 
those  of  Hungary,  of  Denmark,  of  Russia,  of 
Poland,  of  Croatia  and  Dalmatia,  were  either 
solicited  to  subject  their  states  to  the  suzerainty 
of  St.  Peter,  or  reminded  of  their  actual  sub- 
jection. And  the  grand  object  of  Gregory 
is  probably  not  exaggerated  by  those  who 
believe  that  he  designed  to  re-establish  the 
Western  *  empire  on  the  basis  of  opinion,  and 
to  bind  by  one  spiritual  chain  to  the  chair  of 
St.  Peter  the  political  governments  and  ever- 
conflicting  interests  of  the  universal  kingdom 
of  Christ,  f 

Are  we  astonished  at  the  magnificence,  or 
do  we  laugh  at  the  wildness  of  this  project  ? 
Let  us  first  inquire  by  what  means  the  mighty 
architect  proposed  to  combine  and  consolidate 
his  structure.  Gregory  seriously  designed  to 
regulate  his  truly  Catholic  empire  by  a  coun- 
cil of  bishops,  who  were  to  be  assembled  at 
Rome  annually,  with  full  power  to  decide  the 
differences  of  princes  both  with  each  other 
and  with  their  subjects ;  to  examine  the  rights 
and  pretensions  of  all  parties,  and  to  arbitrate 
in  all  the  perplexed  concerns  of  international 
policy.  If  we  can,  indeed,  imagine  that  Gre- 
gory was  animated  by  that  general  spirit  of 


*  Thus,  in  effect,  the  Western  empire  of  which 
the  foundations  were  really  laid  at  the  coronation 
of  Charlemagne,  was  not  the  temporal  dominion  at 
which  the  Prince  aspired,  and  which  so  soon  passed 
away  from  his  sceptre,  but  that  spiritual  despotism, 
affected  by  the  Priest,  and  which  was  much  more 
extensive,  as  it  was  much  more  durable. 

f  Amid  this  multiplicity  of  objects,  which  divided 
without  distracting  the  mind  of  Gregory,  he  did  not 
allow  himself  to  forget  either  the  schism  or  calamities 
of  the  East;  he  even  projected  to  remedy  both  by 
personally  conducting  an  army  against  the  Jlahome- 
tans.  This  is  mentioned  in  a  letter  to  Henry,  written 
in  1074,  in  which,  after  some  mention  of  his  project, 
he  adds — '  Illud  enim  me  ad  hoc  opus  permaxime  in- 
sti<rat,  quod  Constantinopolitana  ecclesia  de  Spiritu 
Sancto  a.  nobis  dissidens  concordiam  Apostolicse  Sedis 
expetat,  &c.'  Pagi,  Vit.  Greg.  VII.,  s.  xx.  We 
may  observe  that,  among  the  numerous  points  of  dif- 
ference which  had  in  latter  times  grown  up  between 
the  two  Churches,  and  had  been  exaggerated  with 
such  intemperate  zeal  by  both,  the  eye  of  Gregory 
notices  one  only. 


GREGORY'S   PONTIFICATE. 


241 


philanthropy  which  is  ever  found  to  burn 
most  brightly  in  the  noblest  minds ;  if  he 
really  dared  to  hope  that  his  project  would 
reconcile  the  quarrels  of  the  licentious  princes 
of  his  day,  or  remedy  the  vices  of  their  gov- 
ernments, or  alleviate  the  misery  of  the  people 
who  were  suffering  equally  from  both  those 
causes  —  we  may  smile  at  the  vanity  of  the 
vision,  but  we  are  bound  to  respect  the  mo- 
tive which  created  it.  Nor  is  it  only  the  po- 
litical degradation  of  Europe  which  we  are 
called  upon  to  consider,  before  we  may  pro- 
nounce sentence  upon  that  Pontiff;  we  must 
also  make  great  allowance  for  the  principles 
of  ecclesiastical  supremacy  which  had  already 
taken  root  before  his  time,  which  had  been 
partially  acted  upon,  and  which,  to  a  certain 
extent,  were  acknowledged — for  the  necessary 
confusion  of  temporal  with  spiritual  authority, 
which  the  feudal  system  had  still  worse  con- 
founded, so  that  their  limits  were  indiscerni- 
ble, inviting  both  parties  to  mutual  aggression 
— and  for  the  usurpations  which  the  crown 
had  already  made  on  the  privileges  of  the 
Church,  and  the  evil  purposes  to  which  it 
had  turned  them.  These  circumstances,  when 
duly  and  impartially  weighed  by  us,  will  miti- 
gate the  astonishment  which  the  bare  recital 
of  Gregory's  proceedings  is  calculated  to 
awaken,  and  moderate  the  indignant  censure 
with  which  the  example  of  other  writers 
might  dispose  us  to  visit  them. 

We  are  not,  however,  to  imagine,  that  the 
Pope's  extraordinary  claims  were  universally 
admitted.  The  King  of  France  refused  the 
tribute  demanded  of  him ;  the  conqueror  of 
England  consented  to  the  tribute  (called  Pe- 
ter's pence,)  but  disclaimed  allegiance.  Vari- 
ous success  attended  his  attempts  on  the  other 
states,  according  to  the  variety  of  their  strength 
or  weakness,  or  the  circumstances  of  their  ac- 
tual politics.  But  at  the  same  time,  the  mere 
fact  that  such  claims  were  confidently  asserted 
and  repeated  obstinately,  that  in  many  instan- 
ces they  were  practically  assented  to,  and  very 
rarely  repelled  with  vigour  and  intrepidity, 
persuaded  ignorant  people  (and  almost  all 
were  ignorant)  that  there  was  indeed  some 
real  foundation  for  them,  and  that  the  Holy 
See  was,  in  truth,  invested  with  some  vague 
prescriptive  right  of  universal  control,  and 
surrounded  by  mysterious,  but  inviolable 
sanctity. 

We  must  add  a  few  words,  both  respecting 
the  grounds  on  which  Gregory  founded  those 
claims,  and  the  means  which  he  employed  to 
enforce  them.  As  to  the  former,  it  does  not 
appear  that  he  openlv  availed  himself  of  the 
31 


grand  forgery  of  his  predecessors,  or  at  least 
that  he  justified  any  of  his  pretensions  by  di- 
rect appeal  to  the  '  donation  of  Constantine  ; 
unless,  indeed,  it  were  assumed  that  the  uni- 
versal rights  of  St.  Peter  over  the  AVestern 
Empire  originated  in  that  donation.  Re- 
specting Spain,  for .  instance,  he  particularly 
admitted  that,  though  that  country  was  among 
the  earliest  of  the  pontifical  possessions,  the 
grant  which  made  it  so  had  perished  among 
other  ancient  records.  *  In  treating  with 
those  provinces  which  had  formed  no  part 
of  the  Western  Empire,  he  seems  to  have  as- 
sailed  them  severally  as  the  circumstances  of 
their  history  happened  to  favor  his  demands. 
Saxony,  for  example,  he  asserts  to  have  been 
bestowed  on  the  Roman  See  by  the  piety  of 
Charlemagne.  Some  among  the  smaller  states 
were  merely  exhorted  to  make  a  cession  of 
their  territories  to  St.  Peter ;  by  which  it  was 
admitted  that  the  apostle  had  yet  obtained  no 
rights  over  them.  Some  of  them  made  such 
cession,  and  thus  encouraged  the  arrogance 
of  Gregory  and  the  aggressions  of  future  pon- 
tiffs. 

The  power  possessed  by  the  successors  of 
St.  Peter  '  to  bind  and  to  loose '  was  not  con- 
fined by  them  to  spiritual  affairs,  however 
wide  the  extremities  to  which  they  pushed  it 
in  these  matters.  It  was  extended  also  to 
temporal  transactions,  and  so  far  extended  as 
to  be  made  the  plea  of  justification  with  a 
Pope,  whenever  he  presumed  to  loose  the 
sacred  bonds  of  allegiance  which  connect  the 
subject  with  the  sovereign.  It  would  be  diffi- 
cult, perhaps,  to  produce  a  more  certain  index 
of  the  character  of  religious  knowledge,  and 
the  degradation  of  the  reasoning  faculty,  which 
prevailed  in  those  days,  than  by  exhibiting  that 
much  perverted  text  as  the  single  basis  on 
which  so  monstrous  a  pretension  rested  and 
was  upheld. 

Power  of  Gregory.  Secondly — The  appall- 
ing influence  of  anathema  and  excommunica- 
tion f  over  a  blind  and  superstitious  people 
had  long  been  known  and  frequently  put  to 
trial  by  preceding  Popes ;  and  the  still  more 
formidable  weapon  of  Interdict  began  to  be 

*  Lib.  x.,  epist.  28. 

t  The  frequent  use  and  abuse  of  excommunication 
by  all  orders  of  the  priesthood  had  greatly  diminished 
the  terror  and  efficacy  of  the  sentence  even  in  much 
earlier  ages.  We  find  the  councils  of  the  ninth  cen- 
tury continually  legislating  for  the  purpose  of  restoring 
their  weight  to  both  ecclesiastical  weapons.  By  the 
Council  of  Meaux  (held  in  8-45)  it  was  especially 
enacted,  that  the  anathema  could  not  be  pronounced 
even  by  a  bishop,  unless  by  the  consent  of  the  arch- 
bishop and  the  other  bishops  of  the  province. 


242 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


valued  and  adopted  about  the  time  of  Gregory. 
Extraordinary  legates,*  whose  office  suspend- 
ed the  resident  vicars  of  the  pontiff,  had  been 
sparingly  commissioned  before  the  end  of  the 
tenth  century ;  they  now  became  much  more 
common,  and  fearlessly  exercised  their  un- 
bounded authority  in  holding  councils,  in 
promulgating  canons,  in  deposing  bishops, 
and  issuing  at  discretion  the  severest  censures 
of  the  Church.  But  it  was  not  concealed  from 
the  wisdom  of  Gregory  that  temporal  author- 
ity could  not  surely  be  advanced  or  perma- 
nently supported  without  temporal  power. 
Accordingly  he  cemented  his  previous  alli- 
ance with  the  Normans  of  Naples  ;  and  also 
(which  was  still  more  important,  and  proved, 
perhaps,  the  most  substantial  among  his  tem- 
poral conquests)  he  prevailed  upon  Matilda, 
the  daughter  and  heiress  of  Boniface,  Duke 
of  Tuscany,  to  make  over  her  extensive  terri- 
tories to  the  apostle,  and  hold  it  on  feudal 
tenure  from  his  successors.  By  these  means 
the  ecclesiastical  states  were  fortified,  both  on 
the  north  and  south,  by  powerful  and  obedient 
allies,  while  the  disaffection  of  Henry's  sub- 
jects created  a  great  military  diversion  in  the 
Pope's  favor  in  Saxony  and  Swabia. 

Objects  of  Gregory  in  the  internal  adminis- 
tration of  the  Church.  Let  us  return  for  a 
moment  to  the  internal  administration  of  the 
Church.  We  are  disposed  to  think  that  the 
very  vigorous  measures  which  Gregory  em- 
ployed for  what  he  considered  its  reform  were 
favorable,  upon  the  whole,  to  the  success  of 
his  other  projects.  We  may  observe  that 
these  were  of  two  descriptions,  one  of  which 
tended  to  restore  the  discipline  of  the  clergy ; 
the  other  to  reduce  the  ecclesiastical  orders 
into  more  direct  subjection  to  the  Papal  See. 
It  is  true  that,  by  the  former  of  these,  great 
disaffection  was  excited  among  such  as  suf- 
fered by  them  ;  that  is,  among  those  who  had 
been  already  living  in  open  disobedience  to 
the  canons  of  the  Church  ;  but  such,  it  is  pro- 
bable, were  not  the  most  numerous,  as  cer- 
tainly they  were  the  least  respectable  portion 
of  the  body.  The  same  severity  which  of- 
fended them  would  naturally  gratify  and  attach 
all  those,  whose  religious  zeal  and  austere 
morality  secured  them  greater  influence  in 
the  Church  and  deeper  veneration  from  the 
people.  So  that,  notwithstanding  the  clamors 
of  the  moment,  we  doubt  not  that  the  Pope 
was  substantially  a  gainer  by  his  exertions ; 
and  that  (like  every  judicious  reformer)  he 
extended  his  actual   power  and  credit  with 


*  Called  Legates  a.  latere — sent  from  the  side  of 
the  Pope, 


only  the  partial  loss  of  a  worthless  popu- 
larity. 

The  second  object  of  Gregory  in  his  eccle- 
siastical government  has  not  yet  been  men- 
tioned by  us.  It  seems  to  have  been  no  less 
than  to  destroy  the  independence  of  national 
Churches ;  and  to  merge  all  such  local  dis- 
tinctions in  the  body  and  substance  of  the 
Church  universal,  whose  head  was  at  Rome. 
For  the  effecting  of  this  mighty  scheme  he 
used  every  exertion  to  loosen  the  connexion 
of  bishops  and  abbots  with  their  several  sove- 
reigns, and  to  persuade  them  that  their  alle- 
giance was  due  to  one  master  only,  the  suc- 
cessor of  St.  Peter.  And  to  that  eud  he  very 
readily  availed  himself  of  the  materials  which 
he  found  prepared  for  his  purpose,  and  which 
had  been  transmitted  to  him  undisputed  by  so 
many  predecessors,  that  it  probably  never 
occurred  to  him  to  doubt  their  legitimacy. 
The  false  decretals  contained  the  canons 
which  he  sought ;  and  Gregory  had  the  bold- 
ness at  length  to  bring  them  forth  from  the 
comparative  obscurity  in  which  they  had  re- 
posed for  above  two  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
and  openly  to  force  them  into  action.  We 
have  mentioned  the  nature  of  those  decretals 
— they  were  a  series  of  epistles  professing  to 
be  written  by  the  oldest  bishops  of  Rome,  the 
Anacletes,  Sixtus  the  First  and  Second,  Fa- 
bian, Victor,  Zephyrinus,  Marcellus,  and  oth- 
ers.* They  recorded  the  primitive  practice  in 
the  nomination  to  the  highest  ecclesiastical 
offices,  and  in  that  and  many  other  matters 
ascribed  authority  almost  unlimited  to  the 
Holy  See.  It  is  worth  while  here  to  particu- 
larize, even  at  the  risk  of  repetition,  some  of 
the  points  on  which  they  most  insisted.  (1.) 
That  it  was  not  permitted  to  hold  any  council, 
without  the  command  or  consent  of  the  pope ; 
a  regulation  which  destroyed  the  independ- 
ence of  those  local  synods,  by  which  the 
Church  was  for  many  centuries  governed. 
(2.)  That  bishops  could  not  be  definitely  judg- 


*The  first  collection  of  canons  made  in  the  west 
was  the  work  of  a  Roman  monk  named  Dionysius, 
who  lived  in  the  sixth  century.  This  was  followed 
by  many  others ;  but  that  which  gained  the  greatest 
celebrity  was  the  one  ascribed  to  St.  Isidore,  Bishop 
of  Seville;  and  it  had  great  prevalence  in  Gaul  as 
well  as  in  Spain.  Guizot  remarks  that  it  was  in  the 
North  and  East  of  France  that  the  '  false  decretals  ' 
first  made  their  appearance,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
ninth  century.  (Hist,  de  la  Civ.  en  France,  Lecon, 
27.)  The  collection  of  decrees,  known  by  the  name 
of  Dictatus  Hildebrandini,  and  falsely  ascribed  to 
Gregory  VII.,  is  generally  held  to  be  the  next  forgery 
which  disgraced  the  principles  and  swelled  the  au- 
thority of  the  Roman  Church. 


GREGORY'S  PONTIFICATE, 


243 


ed,  except  by  the  Pope.  (3.)  That  the  right  of 
episcopal  translation  rested  with  the  Pope 
alone.  (4.)  That  not  only  every  bishop,  hut 
every  priest,  and  not  the  clergy  only,  but  every 
individual,*  had  the  right  of  direct  appeal 
from  all  other  judgments  to  that  of  the  Pope. 
— These  rights,  and  such  as  these,  had  been 
neglected  or  vainly  asserted  by  the  Roman 
See  during  the  long  period  of  imbecility  f 
which  followed  their  forgery ;  but  the  spu- 
riousness  of  their  origin  had  never  been  ex- 
posed or  suspected ;  and  the  simplicity  of 
every  succeeding  generation  added  to  their 
security,  their  antiquity,  and  their  respecta- 
bility. Gregory  at  length  undertook  to  give 
them  full  efficacy ;  and  though  none  were 
ceded  or  overlooked  by  him,  that  which  he 
appears  most  earnestly  to  have  pressed  was 
the  Pope's  exclusive  jurisdiction  over  the 
whole  episcopal  order :  to  this  end  he  en- 
forced universal  appeal  to  Rome.  Orders  to 
attend  before  the  pontifical  court  were  issued 
to  every  quarter  of  Europe  ;  and  they  gene- 
rally met  with  obedient  attention,  not  only 
from  those  whose  principles  sincerely  ac- 
knowledged such  spiritual  supremacy,  or 
who  expected  from  their  submission  a  more 
favorable  sentence,  but  also  from  the  great 
mass  of  offenders,  who  naturally  preferred  a 
distant  and  ecclesiastical  tribunal  to  the  close 
judicial  inspection  of  a  temporal  magistrate. 
The  good  which  Gregory  proposed  from  this 
system  could  be  one  only,  and  that  a  very 
ambiguous  advantage — to  secure  the  independ- 
ence of  the  Church,  or,  in  fact,  to  withdraw  it 
from  the  control  of  all  secular  power,  and 
subject  it  to  one  single  spiritual  despot.  The 
evils  which  he  occasioned  were  numerous 
and  of  most  serious  magnitude — to  create  and 
nourish  inextinguishable  dissensions  between 
print  es  and  their  clergy,  to  retard  and  perplex 
the  operations  of  justice,  and  to  multiply  the 
chances  of  a  partial  or  erroneous  decision.!. 


*  Fleury,  4me  Disc,  sur  H.  E.  sect.  v. 

t  Pope  Nicholas  I.,  who  ruled  from  858  to  867,  is 
the  principal  exception  to  this  remark:  he  is  described 
by  contemporary  chronicles  as  the  greatest  pontiff  since 
the  days  of  St.  Gregory  —  kind  and  lenient  in  his 
treatment  of  the  clergy,  but  bold  and  imperious  in  his 
intercourse  with  kings.  His  conduct  to  Hincmar  in 
the  aft'air  of  Rothadus  is  at  seeming  variance  with 
part  of  this  eulogy;  but  though  Nicholas  was  trium- 
phant both  in  that  dispute  and  in  the  more  important 
difference  with  Lothaire,  neither  he  nor  any  other 
Pope  under  the  Carlovingian  dynasty  could  establish, 
m  France  at  least,  the  claim  first  mentioned  in  the 
text.  The  emperors  continued  to  convoke  all  councils 
and  to  confirm  their  canons. 

\  Gregory  also  obliged  the  Metropolitans  to  attend 


His  double  scheme  of  universal  dominion. 
In  the  prosecution  of  this  history  we  have 
frequently  lamented  the  necessity  of  dismiss- 
ing some  important  event  or  useful  specula- 
tion with  a  few  hasty  and  unsatisfactory  sen- 
tences, and  especially  do  we  lament  it  at  this 
moment.  But  enough  may  possibly  have 
been  said  to  give  the  reader  some  insight  into 
the  double  scheme  of  universal  dominion  to 
which  the  vast  ambition  of  Gregory  was  di- 
rected-—enough  to  make  it  evident  how  he 
projected,  in  the  first  place,  to  unite  under  the 
suzerain  authority  of  St.  Peter  and  his  suc- 
cessors the  entire  territory  of  Christian  Eu- 
rope, so  as  to  exert  a  sort  of  feudal  jurisdiction 
over  its  princes,  and  nobles,  and  civil  govern- 
ors ;  and,  in  the  next  place,  to  establish  through- 
out the  same  wide  extent  of  various  and  di- 
versely constituted  states  one  single  spiritual 
monarchy,  of  which  Rome  should  be  the  centre 
and  sole  metropolis  ;  a  monarchy  90  pure  and 
undivided,  that  every  individual  minister  of 
that  church  should  look  up  to  no  other  earthly 
sovereign  than  the  Pope.  Such  does  indeed 
appear  to  have  been  the  stupendous  scheme 
of  Gregory  VII.  We  have  already  seen  by 
what  measures  he  proceeded  to  its  execution, 
and  we  shall  now  trace  his  extraordinary 
career  to  its  conclusion. 

Henry  advances  to  Rome.  The  election  of 
a  new  Emperor  by  the  Pope  was  very  rea- 
sonably retorted  by  the  election  of  a  new 
Pope  by  the  Emperor ;  and  Clement  III.  was 
exalted  to  the  honor  of  being  the  rival  of 
Gregory.  But  a  much  more  sensible  injury 
was  inflicted  on  the  fortunes  of  that  pontiff 
immediately  afterwards  by  the  defeat  and 
death  of  Rodolphus.  That  prince  received  a 
mortal  wound  in  battle  in  the  year  1080  ;  and 
with  him  was  extinguished  the  spirit  of  rebel- 
lion, or  at  least  the  hope  of  its  success.  Hen- 
ry immediately  turned  his  victorious  arms 
against  Italy  ;  the  opposition  presented  to  him 
by  Matilda  and  the  Tuscans  he  overcame  or 
evaded,  and  advanced  with  speed  and  in- 
dignation to  the  gates  of  Rome,  From  his 
dreams  of  universal  empire — from  the  lofty 
anticipations  of  princes  suppliant  and  nations 
prostrate   in   allegiance  before   the  apostolic 


at  Rome  from  all  countries,  in  order  to  receive  the 
pallium  at  his  hands.  This,  together  with  the  appeal 
system,  kept  that  capital  continually  crowded  with 
foreign  prelates,  with  great  vexation  to  themselves, 
with  great  detriment  to  their  dioceses,  and  with  no 
real  profit  to  the  Catholic  Church.  In  the  meantime, 
it  is  certain  that  mere  papal  irifluence  gained  by  this 
system ;  for  all  authority,  to  be  always  respected,  must 
sometimes  be  felt;  but  unfounded  and  irrational  au- 
thority roost  chiefly  so 


244 


HISTORY   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


throne,  Gregory  was  rudely  awakened  by  the 
shouts  of  a  hostile  army,  pressing  round  the 
Imperial  City.  But  he  woke  to  the  tasks  of 
constancy  and  courage ;  and  so  formidable  a 
show  of  resistance  was  presented,  that  Henry, 
after  desolating  the  neighboring  country,  with- 
drew, without  honor  or  advantage,  to  the  cities 
of  his  Lombard  allies. 

Not  deterred  by  this  repulse,  he  renewed 
his  attempt  early  in  the  spring  following,  and 
encountered  the  same  opposition  with  the 
same  result.  The  soldiers  of  Germany  re- 
tired for  the  second  time  before  the  arms  of 
the  un warlike  Romans  and  the  name  of  Gre- 
gory. But  in  the  succeeding  year  (1084,)  the 
efforts  of  the  Emperor  were  followed  by 
greater  success.  The  citizens,  wearied  by 
repeated  invasions,  and  suffering  from  the 
ravages  attending  them,  abandoned  that  which 
now  appeared  the  weaker  cause — on  this  third 
occasion  they  threw  open  their  gates  to  Hen- 
ry, and  to  Clement,  the  Antipope,  who  follow- 
ed in  his  train.  Henry  placed  his  creature  on 
the  throne  of  Gregory,  and  the  exultation  of 
that  moment  may  have  rewarded  him  for  the 
bitterness  of  many  reverses.  The  measure 
which  he  next  adopted  should  be  carefully 
noticed,  since  it  proves  the  veneration  which 
was  exacted  even  from  him  by  the  See  itself, 
without  consideration  of  its  occupant.  By  an 
immediate  act  of  submission  to  the  chair 
which  his  own  power  had  so  recently  be- 
stowed, he  solicited  the  Imperial  Crown  from 
the  hand  of  Clement,  and  he  received  it  amid 
the  faithless  salutations  of  the  Roman  people. 
In  the  meantime,  his  victory  was  neither 
complete  nor  secure :  from  the  Castle  of  St. 
Angelo,  Gregory  surveyed  in  safety  the  partial 
overthrow  of  his  fortunes,  and  awaited  the 
succors  from  the  south  with  which  he  pur- 
posed to  repair  them.  Robert  Guiscard — 
whether  mindful  of  his  feudal  allegiance,  or 
jealous  of  the  Emperor's  progress — was  al- 
ready approaching  at  the  head  of  his  Norman 
warriors;  Henry  and  his  Pope  retired  with 
precipitate  haste,  and  Gregory  was  tumultu- 
ously  restored  to  his  rightful  dignity. 

Death  of  Gregory.  The  success  of  the  Nor- 
mans was  disgraced  by  the  pillage  of  a  large 
portion  of  the  city  :  this  circumstance  depress- 
ed still  further  the  declining  popularity  of  the 
Pope,  and  he  had  learnt  by  his  late  experience 
how  little  he  could  confide  in  the  capricious 
allegiance  of  the  Romans.*  Accordingly,  on 
the  return  of  Robert  to  his  own  dominions, 
Gregory  followed  him,  and  retired,  first  to  the 

*  '  Gli  umori  sempre  diversi  del  popolo  Romano.' — 
Denina,  Riv.  d'  Hal.,  lib.  x.,  c.  8. 


monastery  of  Monte  Cassino,  afterwards  to 
Salerno.  It  is  recorded  that,  on  this  occasion, 
Robert  would  have  profited  by  the  weakness 
or  the  gratitude  of  Gregory,  to  obtain  from 
him  the  concession,  on  the  part  of  the  Church, 
of  some  disputed  feudal  right  of  no  great  im- 
portance, but  that  the  Pope  resisted  the  soli- 
citations of  his  protector  in  the  very  centre  of 
his  camp.  And,  no  doubt,  his  persevering 
and  fearless  spirit  was  still  meditating  the  re- 
occupation  of  his  chair,  and  the  prosecution  of 
his  mighty  projects.  But  such  anticipations 
were  speedily  cut  short,  and  in  the  year  1085, 
very  soon  after  his  arrival  at  Salerno,  he  died.* 
He  concluded  a  turbulent  pontificate  of  twelve 
years  in  misfortune,  in  exile,  with  little  honor, 
with  few  lamentations  ;  f  without  having  wit- 
nessed the  perfect  accomplishment  of  any 
portion  of  the  project  which  had  animated  his 
existence,  and  even  at  the  very  moment  when 
it  appeared  most  hopeless.  He  died — but  he 
left  behind  him  a  name,  which  has  arrested 
with  singular  force  the  attention  of  history, 
which  has  been  strangely  disfigured  indeed 
by  her  capricious  partiality,  but  which  has 
never  been  overlooked,  and  will  never  be  for- 
gotten. He  did  more  than  that ; — he  left  be- 
hind him  his  spirit,  his  example,  and  his  prin- 
ciples ;  and  they  continued,  through  many  suc- 
cessive generations,  to  agitate  the  policy  and 
influence  the  destinies  of  the  whole  Christian 
world. 

His  Character.  The  latest  words  of  Greg- 
ory are  recorded  J  to  have  been  these  : — '  I 
have  loved  justice  and  hated  iniquity  ;  there- 


*  These  are  Semler's  words: — Gregorius. . -tantis 
ausibus  ipse  imraortuiis  est;  milli  jam  parti  carus  aut 
amatus;  diu  omnibus,  execrationibus,  scommatibus, 
satiris,  mendaciis-que  post  mortem  oneratus — Sec. 
xi.  c.  1. 

■J-  Guillielmus  Apuliensis,  a  poetical  eulogist  of 
Gregory,  sings,  that  Robert  Guiscavd,  who  would  have 
beheld  with  tearless  eyes  the  death  of  his  father,  his 
son,  and  his  wife,  was  moved  to  weakness  by  that  of 
Gregory : — 

Dux  non  se  lacrymis  audita  forte  coercet 
Morte  viri  tanti:  non  mors  patris  amplius  ilium 
Cogeret  ad  lacrymas,  non  filius  ipse  nee  uxor, 
Extremos  etsi  casus  utriusque  videret. 

Pagi,  Vit.  Greg.  VII.  sect.  cxv. 
%  Millot,  Hist,  de  la  France.  They  are  given 
somewhat  differently  by  Paulus  Bemriedensis  :  — 
'  Ego,  fratres  mei  dilectissimi,  nullos  labores  meos 
alicujus  momenti  facio,  in  hoc  solummodo  confidens, 
quod  semper  dilexi  justitiam  et  odio  habui  iniquita- 
tem.'  And  when  his  friends  who  were  present  ex- 
pressed some  anxiety  respecting  his  future  condition, 
he  stretched  forth  his  hands  to  Heaven,  and  said, 
'  Illuc  ascendam;  et  obnixis  precibus  Deo  propitio 
vos  committam.' 


GREGORY— HIS  DEATH  AND  CHARACTER. 


245 


fore  I  die  in  exile  ; '  words  which  seem  to  in- 
dicate a  discontented  spirit,  reluctantly  bend- 
ing before  the  decrees  of  Providence.  But 
the  same  complaint  may  also  have  proceeded 
from  a  sense  of  pious  intention,  and  the  re- 
collection of  duties  conscientiously  performed. 
It  becomes  us  then  to  inquire,  in  what  really 
consisted  that  justice  which  he  loved,  and 
that  iniquity  which  he  hated  ?  what  were  the 
principles  which  guided  his  public  life  ?  what 
were  the  habits  which  regulated  his  private 
conversation  ?  The  leading,  perhaps  the  ouly, 
principle  of  his  public  life  was  to  reform,  unite, 
and  aggrandize  the  Church  over  which  he  pre- 
sided, and  especially  to  exalt  the  office  which 
he  filled.  He  may  have  been  very  serious 
and  sincere  in  that  principle — he  may  even 
have  considered,  that  the  whole  of  his  duties 
were  contained  in  it,  and  that  he  was  bound 
to  pursue  it  through  every  danger  and  diffi- 
culty, as  a  churchman  and  a  pope.  This  was 
his  grand  and  original  delusion,  and  here  alone 
can  we  discover  any  trace  of  narrowness  and 
littleness.  And  yet  there  have  existed  so  many 
good  men  in  all  ages,  even  in  the  most  en- 
lightened, who  have  mistaken  their  own  form 
of  faith  for  the  only  true  faith,  and  held  their 
own  particular  church  to  be  synonymous  with 
the  Church  of  Christ,  that  the  error  of  Greg- 
ory will  meet  with  much  sympathy,  though 
it  can  deserve  no  pardon.  But  when  we  ob- 
serve the  measures  into  which  it  betrayed 
him,  and  through  which  he  followed  it  with 
deliberate  hardihood  ;  when  we  recollect  the 
profusion  of  blood  which  flowed  through  his 
encouragement  or  instigation,  for  the  support 
of  an  ambitious  and  visionary  project ;  and, 
more  than  that,  when  we  compare  the  nature 
of  that  project .  with  the  humble,  and  holy, 
and  peaceful  system  of  Christ,  whose  gospel 
was  in  the  pontiff's  hands,  and  whose  blessed 
name  was  incessantly  profaned  for  the  support 
of  his  purposes — it  is  then  that  we  are  obliged 
to  regard  him  with  unmitigated  disgust.  His 
endeavors  to  reform  the  morals  of  his  clergy 
and  the  svstem  of  his  church  *  will  only  be 


*  Some  writers  have  represented  Gregory  as  an 
enemy  to  innovation,  as  one  of  those  characters  who 
have  placed  their  pride  in  keeping  the  age  stationary, 
and  perpetuating  all  that  was  transmitted  to  them. 
Had  Gregory  been  such  a  man,  he  had  been  long  ago 
forgotten.  Far  otherwise:  he  was  the  greatest  of  all 
innovators  ;  but,  like  Charlemagne  and  Peter  of  Rus- 
sia, he  marched  to  his  object  by  the  road  of  despo- 
tism. The  reforms  which  he  projected,  in  affairs 
civil,  political,  and  ecclesiastical,  embraced  every  in- 
terest and  reached  every  department  of  society ;  but 
it  was  by  the  establishment  of  a  spiritual  monarchy — 
a  sort  of  papal  theocracy — that  he  proposed  to  com- 


censured  by  those  who  prefer  diseases  to  their 
remedies,  or  who  think  it  dangerous  to  apply 
any  remedy  to  ecclesiastical  corruption — and 
over  such  persons  the  sceptre  of  reason  has 
no  control.  But  his  claims  of  temporal  sove- 
reignty, his  usurpation  of  spiritual  supremacy, 
his  lofty  bearing,  and  pontifical  arrogance, 
were  so  widely  at  variance  with  the  spirit  of 
that  book  *  on  which  his  church  was  origin- 
ally founded,  that  we  must  either  suppose  him 
wholly  to  have  disdained  its  precepts,  or  to 
have  strangely  f  misinterpreted  them. 

In  descending  to  the  personal  character  of 
Gregory,  we  may  first  observe,  that  he  was 
superior  to  the  spirit  of  intolerance,  which 


pass  them.  Guizot  has  somewhere  made  this  obser- 
vation :  he  has  further  attributed  to  Gregory  two  er- 
rors in  the  conduct  of  his  plan,  but  not  (as  it  seems 
to  us)  with  equal  justice.  He  blames  that  pope  for 
having  proclaimed  his  plan  too  pompously,  menacing 
when  he  had  not  the  means  of  conquering;  and  also 
for  not  having  confined  his  attempts  to  what  might 
fairly  seem  practicable.  Guizot  appears  for  the  mo- 
ment to  have  forgotten  on  what  uncertain  ground  the 
papal  power  really  rested;  how  much  of  it  was  built 
on  mere  claims,  disputed  perhaps  at  first,  but  finally 
established  and  enforced  by  mere  impudent  importu- 
nity— the  very  advance  of  such  claims  by  one  pope 
was  always  a  stepping-stone  for  his  successors.  Again, 
in  treating  of  what  was  practicable  by  Gregory,  if 
we  well  consider  the  peculiar  nature  of  his  weapons, 
hitherto  untried  in  any  great  contest,  and  the  charac- 
ter of  the  age  to  be  moved  by  them,  it  will  seem  quite 
impossible  that  he  could  exactly  have  calculated  what 
he  could,  or  what  he  could  not,  accomplish.  Under 
all  circumstances  it  was  probable,  that  the  bolder  his 
claims,  and  the  more  loudly  he  asserted  them,  the 
greater  was  his  chance  of  some  immediate  success, 
and  the  broader  the  path  that  was  opened  for  future 
pontiffs.  And  Gregory  had  too  extensive  a  geniu- 
not  to  think  and  act  also  for  posterity. 

*  The  first  evil  consequence  of  associating  tradition 
with  the  o-ospel  as  the  foundation  of  the  Church  was, 
that  the  former  was  soon  considered  as  substantial  a 
part  of  the  building  as  the  latter.  United  in  words, 
they  were  presently  confounded  in  idea,  and  that  not 
by  the  very  ignorant  only,  but  even  by  men,-  especial- 
ly churchmen,  who  had  deeply  studied  the  subject, 
and  most  so  by  monks.  Gregory  had  received  a  mo- 
nastic education;  and  though  his  mind  was  naturally 
vast  and  penetrating,  it  is  not  absurd  to  suppose  that 
he  might  sincerely  consider  the  false  decretals  (be- 
lieving them  to  be  genuine)  as  possessing  authority 
almost  equivalent  to  the  Bible;  at  least,  he  might 
think  it  a  fair  compromise  to  govern  his  church  by 
the  former,  and  his  private  conduct  by  the  latter  rule. 

f  In  his  epistles  he  frequently  repeats  the  prophet's 
words :  «  Cursed  is  he  that  doeth  the  work  of  the  Lord 
deceitfully,'  —  'that  keepeth  back  his  sword  from 
blood;'  that  is,  who  does  not  execute  God's  com- 
mands in  punishing  God's  enemies:  hence  his  severity 
with  simoniacal  bishops,  and  other  ecclesiastical  of- 
fenders. 


246 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


was  then  becoming  manifest  in  his  church. 
The  only  doctrinal  controversy  in  which  he 
was  engaged  was  that  with  Berenger,  on  tran- 
substantiation.  The  pope  maintained  the  doc- 
trine, which  appears  then  to  have  been  gen- 
erally received  in  Italy  and  France,  and  he 
may  have  menaced  the  contumacy  of  the 
heretic.  But  no  impartial  reader  can  rise 
from  the  perusal  of  that  controversy  with  the 
impression  that  Gregory  was  personally  the 
advocate  of  persecution.  On  the  contrary, 
his  moderation  has  been  noticed  by  writers  * 
little  favorable  to  his  character,  and  has  even 
led  some  to  the  very  unnecessary  inference  j 
that  he  was  friendly  to  the  opinion,  because 
he  spared  and  endured  its  author,  f 

Among  the  calumniators  of  Gregory,  none 
are  found  so  unjust  as  to  deny  his  extraordi- 
nary talents  and  address,  his  intrepid  constan- 
cy, his  inflexible  perseverance.  And  there 
are  none  among  his  blindest  admirers  who 
would  excuse  the  unchristian  arrogance  of  his 
ambition.  His  other  qualities  are  for  the  most 
part  disputed  : — his  moral  excellence,^  and  the 

*  Jortin  (among  others)  thinks  that  the  pope  was 
much  inclined  to  defend  Berenger — a  merit  which 
might  have  led  that  candid  writer  to  pause  before  he 
entered  into  the  absurd  and  fanatical  notion  that  Greg- 
ory was  Antichrist.  Milner  also  holds  this  last  opin- 
ion more  confidently — a  very  remote  point  of  contact 
between  two  men  of  very  different  and  even  opposite 
views,  but  of  equal  sincerity  and  excellence!  But  (to 
speak  without  reference  to  either  of  those  authors)  it 
has  been  the  misfortune  of  Gregory  to  excite  the 
spleen  of  two  descriptions  of  writers  who  agree  in 
very  few  of  their  principles — those  who  abhor  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  and  all  its  supporters  with 
vehement  and  unqualified  hatred,  and  those  who  dis- 
like every  church  and  every  assertor  of  ecclesiastical 
rights.  The  former  are  our  religious,  the  latter  our 
philosophical,  historians — both  are  equally  unjust. 

t  After  all,  it  is  a  question  whether  Gregory's 
moderation  on  questions  purely  theological  does  not 
furnish  a  fair  argument  against  his  general  conduct. 
It  proves,  at  least,  that  his  violence  and  arrogance 
were  not  merely  faults  of  temper,  showing  themselves 
whenever  there  was  a  dispute;  but  feelings  which,  to 
excite  them,  required  the  stimulus  of  temporal  ambi- 
tion. Again,  in  an  age  when  reason  and  philosophy 
had  little  influence,  moderation  on  theological  ques- 
tions naturally  excites  the  suspicion  of  indifference. 
But  if  Gregory  was  indifferent  on  theological  ques- 
tions, and  violent  on  matters  touching  the  temporal 
aggrandizement  of  himself  and  his  Church,  his  char- 
acter had  even  less  merit  than  we  have  assigned  to  it. 

%  His  intrigue  with  Matilda,  which  is  insinuated 
in  a  very  childish  manner  by  Mosheim,  is  expressly 
denied  by  Lambertus,  a  contemporary  historian  of 
good  repute.  Ambition  was  motive  quite  sufficient 
for  his  intimacy  with  that  princess,  and  his  advanced 
age  (seventy-two)  might  reasonably  have  saved  him 


depth  of  his  private  piety,  have  been  strongly 
asserted  by  some,  and  contested  hy  others : 
for  our  own  part,  after  carefully  comparing 
the  conclusions  of  his  more  moderate  histo- 
rians With  the  particular  acts  and  general 
spirit  of  his  life,  we  are  disposed  to  assent  to 
the  more  favorable  judgment — to  this  extent 
at  least,  that  we  believe  him  to  have  possessed 
those  austere  monastic  virtues,  common,  per- 
haps, in  the  cloister,  but  rare  in  those  days 
either  among  princes  *  or  popes.  And  if,  in- 
deed, in  addition  to  those  merits,  he  was  com- 
passionate to  the  poor,  the  defender  of  the 
oppressed,  the  protector  of  the  innocent  (as  a 
very  impartial,  as  well  as  accurate,  writer  f 
affirms)  Ave  shall  find  the  greater  reason  to 
lament  that  his  private  sanctity  was  overshad- 
owed and  darkened  hy  his  public  administra- 
tion. 

Respecting  his  religious  disposition,  though 
passages  may  be  found  in  his  Epistles  not  un- 
inspired with  Christian  piety,  it  is  more  pro- 
bable that  he  sought  his  motives  of  godliness  % 


from  the  imputation  of  any  other.  Besides  which, 
there  is  no  single  fact  or  circumstance  to  authorize 
the  suspicion;  and  his  deep  enthusiasm  and  intrepid 
zeal,  and  the  very  austerity  which  made  him  danger- 
ous, are  qualities  wholly  inconsistent  with  vulgar  hy- 
pocritical profligacy.  '  That  a  widow  of  thirty  (says 
Denina,)  also  motherless,  should  be  the  declared  pro- 
tectress and  body-guard  of  an  old  and  austere  pontiff, 
furnished  a  famous  pretext  for  calumny  to  the  con- 
cubinary  clergy  who  were  persecuted  by  the  Pope,' 
(Rivoluz.  d'ltal.  1.  x.  c.  6.)  and  to  thein  we  may 
probably  ascribe  this  charge. 

*  Gregory  reproved  the  abbot,  who  admitted  Hugo, 
Duke  of  Burgundy,  into  his  monastery,  on  this  ground 
— '  We  have  abundance  of  good  monks,  but  there  is 
a  great  scarcity  of  good  princes.'  Those  are  the  vir- 
tues which  Gibbon  calls  dangerous;  and  it  is  in 
speaking  of  Gregory  that  he  advances  that  remarka- 
ble assertion — that  the  vices  of  the  clergy  are  less 
dangerous  than  their  virtues, — a  position  which  is 
seldom  understood  with  the  qualification  which  the 
author  obviously  intended  to  attach  to  it.  The  pas- 
sage is  illustrated  by  another  in  the  sixty-ninth  chap- 
ter— '  The  scandals  of  the  tenth  century  were  oblit- 
erated by  the  austere  and  more  dangerous  virtues  of 
Gregory  VII.' 

f  Giannone,  Storia  di  Napoli,  lib.  x.  c.  6.  Greg- 
ory has  been  reproached  with  placing  faith  in  the  pre- 
dictions of  astrologers ;  with  dealing  in  divinations, 
interpreting  dreams,  and  exercising  the  magical  art. 
Few  of  those  who  have  shone  with  great  splendor  in 
an  ignorant  age  have  escaped  the  same  suspicion. 

%  When  Muratori  (Vit.  Rom.  Pontif.  in  Leo  IX.) 
speaks  of  him  as  '  Adolesceus  ....  clari  ingenii, 
sanetseque  Religionis,'  and  when  Giannone  calls 
him  '  uomo  pieno  di  Religione,'  nothing  more  is  at 
all  necessarily  implied  than  Gregory's  monastic  sanc- 
tity would  justify. 


THE   AGE  OF  GREGORY. 


247 


and  the  aliment  of  his  fervor  in  the  interests 
of  his  church,  than  in  the  lessons  of  his  Bible. 
A  profound  canonist,  a  skilful  theologian,  a 
zealous  churchman,  he  may  still  have  been 
unacquainted  with  the  feelings  of  a  Christian, 
and  uninformed  by  the  spirit  of  the  faith. 
And  it  is  not  impossible  that  even  his  reforms 
in  discipline  and  morals,  which  were  the  best 
among  his  acts,  proceeded  from  a  narrow  ec- 
clesiastical zeal,  not  from  the  purer  and  holier 
influence  of  evangelical  devotion. 

Section  III. 

1 1.)  Controversy  respecting  Transubstantiation — suspen- 
ded in  the  Ninth,  renewed  in  the  Eleventh  Century — 
Character  of  Berenger — Council  of  Leo  IX. — of  Victor 
II.  at  Tours  in  1054— Condemnation  and  conduct  of 
Berenger — Council  of  Nicholas  II. — repeated  Retracta- 
tion and  Relapse  of  Berenger — Alexander  II. — Council 
at  Rome  under  Gregory  VII. — Extent  of  the  Concession 
then  required  from  Berenger— further  Requisition  of 
the  Bishops — a  Second  Council  assembled — Conduct  of 
Gregory — Berenger  again  sloemnly  assents  to  the  Cath- 
olic Doctrine,  and  again  returns  to  his  own — his  old 
Age,  Remorse  and  Death — Remarks  on  his  Conduct — 
on  the  Moderation  of  Gregory.  (II.)  Latin  Liturgy- 
Gradual  Disuse  of  the  Latin  Language  throughout  Eu- 
rope— Adoption  of  the  Gothic  Missal  in  Spain — Alfonso 
proposes  to  substitute  the  Roman — Decision  by  the  Judg- 
ment of  God — by  Combat — by  Fire — doubtful  Result — 
final  Adoption  of  the  Latin  Liturgy — Its  introduction 
among  the  Bohemians  by  Gregory — Motives  of  the 
Popes — other  instances  of  services  not  performed  in  the 
Vulgar  Tongue — Usage  of  the  early  Christian  Church. 

Opinions  and  conduct  of  Berenger.  The 
age  of  Gregory  was  distinguished  by  a  very 
important  doctrinal  controversy  :  but  though 
that  pontiff  was  abundantly  pugnacious  in 
asserting  the  most  inadmissible  rights  of  the 
church,  he  showed  no  disposition  to  encour- 
age the  dispute  in  question,  nor  any  furious 
zeal  to  extirpate  the  supposed  error  ;  and  yet 
the  error  was  no  less  than  a  disbelief  hi  the 
mystery  afterwards  called  Transubstantiation. 
We  have  already  mentioned  the  promulgation 
of  that  dogma  by  Paschasius  Radbertus  :  we 
have  observed  with  what  ardor  and  liberty  it 
was  both  supported  and  combated  during  the 
ninth  century,  until  the  flames  of  the  contro- 
versy, unsustained  by  any  public  edicts,  grad- 
ually and  innocently  expired.  The  arguments 
which  had  been  urged  on  both  sides  were 
thus  left  to  produce  their  respective  fruits  of 
good  or  evil,  according  to  the  soil  on  which 
they  fell,  and  the  season  in  which  they  were 
sown.  Both  these  circumstances  were  fear- 
fully unfavorable  to  the  growth  of  any  whole- 
some knowledge  :  for  in  those  days  reason 
was  less  persuasive  than  its  abuse,  and  truth 
was  less  attractive  than  specious  show ;  so 
that  religion  was  buried  in  superstitious  ob- 
servances.    Thus  it  happened  that,  during 


the  tenth  century,  the  opinion  in  question 
made  a  general,  though  silent  progress  ;  and, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh,  it  was  tacit- 
ly understood  to  be  the  doctrine  of  the  Roman 
church.  In  the  year  1045,  Berenger,  princi- 
pal of  the  public  school  (scholastic)  at  Tours, 
and  afterwards  Archdeacon  *  of  Angers,  pub- 
licly professed  his  opposition  to  it. 

Roman  Catholic  writers  do  not  dispute  the 
brilliancy  of  his  talents,  the  power  of  his  elo- 
quence, his  skill  in  dialectics,  and  his  general 
erudition  ;  they  admit,  too,  that  habits  of  ex- 
emplary virtue  and  piety  gave  life  and  efficacy 
to  his  genius  and  his  learning.f  By  these  mer- 
its he  acquired  the  veneration  of  the  people, 
and  the  friendship  of  the  most  distinguished 
ecclesiastics  of  his  day.  But  when  some  of  his 
historians  assert  that  his  virtues  suddenly  de- 
serted him,  and  were  even  changed  into  then- 
opposite  vices,  at  the  moment  when  he  pro- 
pounded his  opinion,  we  can  only  consider 
them  as  illustrating  their  own  definition  of 
'  heresy.'  It  is  also  said,  that  Berenger  was  stim- 
ulated to  publish,  even  to  invent,  his  doctrine 
by  private  jealousy  of  the  learned  Lanfranc  ; 
and  in  truth  the  most  splendid  actions  do  so 
commonly  originate  hi  sordid  motives,  that  this 
charge  may  possibly  be  true :  but  it  is  not 
probable,  because  it  is  at  variance  with  the 
tenor  of  his  character  ;  nor  is  it  at  all  impor- 
tant, since  it  affects  neither  the  truth  nor  the 
prevalence  of  his  doctrine. 

Berenger's  opposition  to  transubstantiation 
became  known  to  Leo  IX.,  who  condemned 
it  at  a  council  held  at  Rome  hi  1050  ;  and  in 
the  same  year  two  other  councils  were  sum- 
moned in  France,  at  Verceil  and  Paris,  both 
of  which  strongly  anathematized  the  heresy  ; 
and,  in  consequence  of  the  decree  of  the  lat- 
ter, Henry  I.  deprived  the  offender  of  the 
temporalities  proceeding  from  his  benefice. 
He  did  not  attend  these  councils,  but  continu- 
ed to  profess  and  promulgate  his  doctrine. 
During  the  pontificate  of  Victor  II.  a  council 
was  assembled  at  Tours  hi  1055,  f  at  which 


*  Mosheim  is  guilty  of  a  strange  blunder  in  mak- 
ing him  Archbishop  of  Angers,  and  of  designating 
him  throughout  as  a  prelate.  In  fact,  Angers  is 
only  an  episcopal  see,  and  Eusebius  Bruno,  one  of 
Berenger's  own  pupils,  was  raised  to  it  in  1047. 
Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France,  Vie  de  Berenger. 

f  His  learning  is  perhaps  sufficiently  proved,  by 
the  fact,  thai  he  too  attained  the  honorable  reputation 
(common  to  him  with  so  many  learned  persons)  of 
being  a  magician. 

t  See  Pagi,  Vit.  Victor  II.,  sect,  v.,  where  vari- 
ous authorities  are  collected,  and  among  them  the 
following  expressions  from  Lanfranc  addressed  to 
Berenger:  '  Denique  in  Concilio  Turonensi,  cui  ipst- 


243 


HISTORY   OF   THE   CHURCH. 


Hildebrand  presided  as  legate  of  the  pope. 
Berenger  was  summoned  before  it,  and  on 
this  occasion  he  obeyed  the  summons — with 
the  less  apprehension,  because  he  possessed 
the  personal  regard  of  Hildebrand.  He  ap- 
pears to  have  urged  little  in  defence  of  his 
opinion,  and  to  have  made  no  difficulty  in 
subscribing  an  oath  to  the  received  faith  of 
the  Church  concerning  the  real  presence  of 
the  body  and  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the 
Eucharist.  And  having  subscribed  to  this 
faith,  he  immediately  returned  to  the  propa- 
gation of  his  actual  opinions. 

He  then  remained  undisturbed  for  four  or 
five  years,  until  Nicholas  II.  called  upon  him 
to  justify  himself  before  a  Roman  Council. 
He  appeared  there,  and  professed  his  readi- 
ness to  follow  the  doctrine  which  should 
seem  good  to  that  assembly.  Accordingly,  a 
profession  of  faith  was  drawn  up,  which  went 
to  the  furthest  extent  to  which  the  dogma  has 
ever  been  carried,*  and  with  the  same  hand 
which  signed  it  Berenger  committed  to  the 
flames  the  books  containing  his  opposition  to 
it.  He  then  returned  to  France,  resumed  his 
sincere  profession,  and  abjured  his  abjuration. 
Alexander  II.  (acting  probably  under  his 
archdeacon's  counsels)  contented  himself  with 


us  Victoris  interfuere  legati,  data  est  tibi  optio  de- 
fendendi  partem  tuam.  Quam  cum  defendendam 
suscipere  non  auderes,  confessus  coram  omnibus  com- 
munem  ecclesia?  fidem,  jurasti  te  ab  ilia  hora  ita  cre- 
diturum,  sicut  in  Romano  Concilio  te  jurasse  est 
superius  comprehensum.'  From  this  it  would  appear 
that  Berenger  had  been  present  at  the  council  of  Leo, 
though  he  disregarded  those  assembled  in  France; 
unless  indeed  the  Roman  Council  mentioned  by  Lan- 
franc  be  that  afterwards  held  by  Nicholas,  which  is 
more  probable. 

*  In  the  presence  of  the  pope,  and  one  hundred 
and  thirteen  bishops,  Berenger  subscribed  the  follow- 
ing profession:  f  Ego  Berengarius,  indignus  diaconus, 
&c.  .  .  consentio  S,  R.  Ecclesife  et  Ap.  Sedi,  et  ore 
et  corde  profiteor  de  sacramento  Dominica?  mensse 
earn  fidem  me  tenere  quam  dominus  et  venerabilis 
Papa  Nicolaus  et  hsec  sancta  synodus  tenendam  tra- 
didit  .  .  scilicet  panem  et  vinum,  qua?  in  altari  po- 
nuntur,  post  consecrationem  non  solum  sacramentum 
sed  etiam  verum  corpus  et  sanguinem  Domini  nostri 
Jesu  Christi  esse;  et  sensualiter,  non  solum  sacra- 
mento sed  in  veritate,  manibus  sacerdotum  tractari 
et  frangi  et  fidelium  dentibus  atteri ;  jurans  per  sanc- 
tam  et  homoousiam  Trinitatem.  Eos  vero  qui  contra 
hanc  fidem  venerint  asterno  anathemate  dignos  esse 
pronuntio.  Quod  si  ego  aliquando  aliquid  contra 
h<ec  sentire  et  prsedicare  prsesumpsero  subjaceam  ca- 
nonum  severitati.  Lecto  et  perlecto  sponte  subscrip- 
si.'  It  is  cited  by  Pagi  in  the  Life  of  Nicholas  II., 
as  are  the  second  and  third  professions  of  Berenger 
(in  1078  and  1079)  in  the  Life  of  Gregory,  sect.  lxx. 
lxxii. 


addressing  to  the  heretic  a  letter  of  peaceful 
and  friendly  exhortation  ;  but  as  his  opinion 
and  his  contumacy  now  created  some  confu- 
sion in  the  Church,  Hildebrand,  not  long  after 
his  elevation  to  the  chair,  summoned  Beren- 
ger to  Rome  a  second  time.  For  the  space 
of  nearly  a  year  Gregory  retained  him  near 
his  person,  and  honored  him  with  his  famil- 
iarity ;  and  then,  in  a  council  in  1078,  he  was 
contented  to  require  his  subscription  to  a 
profession  which  admitted  the  real  presence 
without  any  change  of  substance  ;  and  Ber- 
enger did  not  hesitate  to  sign  it. 

But  this  moderation  did  not  satisfy  the  zeal 
of  certain  ardent  prelates,  who  required  not 
only  a  more  specific  declaration  of  orthodoxy, 
but  also  that  the  sincerity  of  the  retractation 
should  be  approved  by  the  fiery  trial.  Ber- 
enger is  stated  to  have  prepared  himself  by 
prayer  and  fasting  for  submission  to  that  cer- 
emony ;  but  Gregory,  though  he  accorded  the 
first  of  their  requisitions,  refused  to  counte- 
nance the  senseless  mockery  of  the  second. 
The  year  following,  another  council  assem- 
bled, and  once  more  Berenger  in  their  pres- 
ence solemnly  renounced  his  opinions,  and 
confirmed  by  oath  his  adherence  to  the  broad- 
est interpretation  of  the  Catholic  faith.  He 
was  then  dismissed  by  the  pontiff,  with  new 
proofs  of  his  satisfaction  ;  and  no  sooner  was 
he  restored  to  the  security  of  his  native  coun- 
try, than  he  renewed  the  profession  of  the 
doctrine  which  he  had  never  in  truth  abandon- 
ed. But  he  received  little  further  molestation  * 
from  the  ecclesiastical  powers,  and  died  in 
1088,  at  a  very  advanced  age,  with  no  other 
disquietude  than  those  severe  internal  suffer- 
ings which  were  the  consequence  of  his  re- 
peated and  deliberate  perjuries,  f 

Berenger  was  anxious  for  the  reputation  of 
a  great  Reformer,  and  perhaps  sincerely  zeal- 
ous for  the  extirpation  of  what  he  considered 
a  revolting  corruption — but  he  did  not  aspire 
to  the  glory  of  martyrdom.  And  when  he 
presented  himself  at  four  successive  councils, 
under  the  obligation  either  to  defend  or  re- 
tract his  opinions,  we  cannot  doubt  that,  as  he 
saw  the  former  course  to  be  useless  as  well  as 


*  Dupin  mentions  that  he  was  summoned  before  a. 
council  at  Bourdeaux,  in  10S0,  '  where  he  gave  an 
account  of  his  faith.' 

•f  A  loud  and  very  unimportant  dispute  has  been 
raised  between  Papists  and  Protestants  as  to  the 
opinions  in  which  Berenger  actually  died.  The  truth 
appears  to  be  that  he  died  a  penitent,  —  and  the 
former  attribute  to  the  consciousness  of  his  heresy 
that  remorse  which  the  latter  much  more  probably 
ascribe  to  his  perjury. 


THE  AGE  OF  GREGORY. 


249 


dangerous,  he  went  there  calmly  prepared  to 
debase  himself  by  an  insincere  and  perjured 
humiliation.  Perhaps  he  preserved  his  prop- 
erty, or  prolonged  his  life  for  a  few  years,  by 
such  reiterated  sin  and  degradation  ;  but  if  his 
latest  days  were  passed  in  remorse  and  bitter 
penitence,  his  gain  was  not  great,  and  the 
moments  which  he  added  to  his  existence 
were  taken  away  from  his  happiness.  His 
followers  were  not,  probably,  very  numer- 
ous;* and  they  were  chilled  by  his  weak- 
ness aud  confounded  by  his  frequent  recan- 
tations. His  fortitude  and  constancy  would 
have  confirmed  and  multiplied  and  perpetu- 
ated them.  We  admire  his  talents,  we  re- 
spect his  virtues,  and  venerate  the  cause  in 
which  he  displayed  them  ;  but  in  that  age  the 
defence  of  that  cause  demanded  (as  it  deserv- 
ed) a  character  of  sterner  materials  and  more 
rigid  consistency  than  was  that  of  Berenger. 
From  the  moderation  which  Gregory  used 
towards  the  person  of  that  Reformer,  it 'has 
been  inferred  that  he  secretly  favored  his 
opinions ;  and  this  may  be  so  far  true,  that 
he  generally  inculcated  an  adherence  to  the 
words  of  scripture ;  f  and  discouraged  any 
curious  researches  and  positive  decisions  re- 
specting the  manner  of  Christ's  presence  at 
the  Eucharist.  And  as  a  real  spiritual  (or  in- 
tellectual):): presence  was  probably  admitted 
by  Berenger  himself,  who  professed  only  to 
follow  the  opinions  of  John  Scotus,  §  there 
could  remain  no  ground  for  any  violent  dif- 
ference between  the  pope  and  the  heretic. 

II.  Establishment  of  the  Latin  Liturgy. 
But  if  we  are  to  consider  the  doctrine  of  tran- 
substantiation  to  have  been  effectually  estab- 
lished, rather  through  the  obstinate  zeal  of  his 
ecclesiastics,  than  by  the  favor  of  Gregory, 
we  shall  have  no  hesitation  in  attributing  to 
his  personal  exertions  a  contemporary  cor- 
ruption in  the  ceremonies  of  the  church.  It 
was  the  will  of  Hildebrand  that  the  liturgy 
of  the  Universal  Church  should  be  delivered 
in  Latin  only  ;  and  having  once  adopted  that 
scheme,  as  in  every  other  object  which  he 


*  We  mean  that  they  formed  a  very  trifling  pro- 
portion to  the  whole  body  of  the  church.  They  con- 
tained no  individual  of  any  great  eminence,  nor  do 
they  appear  to  have  existed  as  a  sect  after  the  death 
of  Berenger. 

f  Mosheim,  cent.  xi. 

$  Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France,  Vie  de  Berenger. 

§  Ambrose,  Jerome,  and  A  ugustin  are  the  Fathers 
on  whose  authority  Berenger  chiefly  rests  his  defence. 
Lanfranc,  before  he  became  Archbishop  of  Canterbu- 
ry, was  his  most  distinguished  opponent. 

32 


thought  proper  to  pursue,  he  neglected  no 
imaginable  means  to  carry  it  into  effect.  The 
use  of  Latin  as  the  vulgar  tongue,  which  had 
prevailed  throughout  the  southern  provinces 
of  Europe,  gradually  ceased  during  the  course 
of  the  ninth  century  ;  aud  the  language  of  the 
first  conquerors  insensibly  gave  place  to  the 
barbarous  jargon  of  the  second.  Latin  thus 
became  a  subject  of  study,  and  all  knowledge 
of  it  was  presently  confined  to  the  priesthood, 
still  it  seems  clear  that,  in  France  as  well  as 
in  Italy,  the  services  of  the  church  continued 
to  be  performed  entirely  in  Latin,  and  even 
that  sermons  were  for  some  time  delivered  in 
that  tongue  to  an  audience  most  imperfectly 
acquainted  with  it.  But  in  Spain,  the  Gothic 
missal  had  gradually  supplanted  the  Roman, 
and  at  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century  was 
universally  prevalent  in  that  church.  Soon 
after  that  time,  by  the  united  influence  (as  is 
said)  of  Richard,  the  papal  legate,  and  Con- 
stance, Queen  of  Leon  (who  had  brought 
with  her  from  France  an  attachment  to  the 
forms  of  her  native  church,)  Alfonso,  the 
sixth  of  Leon  and  first  of  Castile,  was  per- 
suaded to  propose  the  introduction  of  the 
Roman  liturgy.  The  nobility  and  the  peo- 
ple, and  even  the  majority  of  the  clergy, 
warmly  supported  the  established  form,  and 
after  some  heats  had  been  excited  on  both 
sides,  a  day  was  finally  appointed  to  decide 
on  the  perfections  of  the  rival  missals.  To 
this  effect,  recourse  was  had,  according  to  the 
customs  of  those  days,  to  the  'judgments  of 
God,'  and  the  trial  to  which  they  were  first 
submitted  was  that  by  combat.  Two  knights 
contended  in  the  presence  of  a  vast  assembly, 
and  the  Gothic  champion  prevailed.  The 
king,  dissatisfied  with  tiiis  result,  subjected 
the  missals  to  a  second  proof,  which  they 
were  qualified  to  sustain  in  their  own  per- 
sons— the  trial  by  fire.  The  Gothic  liturgy 
resisted  the  flames,  and  was  taken  out  unhurt, 
while  the  Roman  yielded,  and  was  consumed. 
The  triumph  of  the  former  appeared  now  to 
be  complete,  when  it  was  discovered  that  the 
ashes  of  the  latter  had  curled  to  the  top  of 
the  flames,  and  leaped  out  of  them.  By  this 
strange  phenomenon  the  scales  were  again 
turned,  or  at  least  the  victory  was  held  to  be 
so  doubtful,  that  the  king,  to  preserve  a  show 
of  impartiality,  established  the  use  of  both 
liturgies.  It  then  became  very  easy,  by  an 
exclusive  encouragement  of  the  Roman,  ef- 
fectually, though  gradually,  to  banish  its  com- 
petitor. * 


*  See  Dr.  Macrie's  History  of  the  Progress  and 
Suppression  of  the  Reformation  in  Spain.     The  con- 


250 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


It  was  one  of  the  latest  acts  of  Alexander 
II.  especially  to  prohibit  the  Bohemians  from 
performing  service  in  their  native  Sclavonian, 
and  to  impose  on  them  the  Roman  missal ; 
and  about  seven  years  afterwards  Gregory 
prosecuted,  as  pope,  the  enterprise  which, 
as  archdeacon,  he  had  doubtless  originated. 
Little  serious  resistance  appears  to  have  been 
opposed  to  this  and  similar  attempts  ;  and  it 
may  be  asserted  without  dispute,  that  before 
the  conclusion  of  the  eleventh  century,  the 
Latin  liturgy  was  very  generally  received  in 
the  western  churches. 

The  motive  *  of  the  popes  for  this  vexa- 
tious exertion  of  ecclesiastical  tyranny  was 
nudoubtedly  their  ardor  for  the  Unity  of  the 
church,  as  one  body  under  one  head  ;  and  to 
this  end  it  certainly  conduced,  that  she  should 
speak  to  all  her  children,  of  all  nations  and 
races,  in  one  language  only.  It  was  also  ne- 
cessary that  that  language  should  be  Latin, 
because  it  thus  became  a  chain  which  not 
only  united  to  each  other  the  extremities  of 
the  North  and  the  West,  but  also  bound  them 
in  universal  allegiance  to  a  common  Sovereign. 
But  this  policy,  like  some  other  of  the  pro- 
foundest  schemes  of  the  Vatican,  was  calcu- 
lated on  the  continuation  of  general  ignorance, 


test  between  the  liturgies  began  during  the  pontificate 
of  Alexander  II.,  between  the  years  1060  and  1068; 
but  one  of  the  first  acts  of  Gregory  was  to  give  his 
strenuous  and  effectual  support  to  the  Roman.  See 
Pagi,  Vit.  Alex.  II.  et  Greg.  VII. 

*  The  reason,  which  Gregory  fairly  avowed  in  his 
answer  to  Vratislaus,  Duke  of  Bohemia,  was  the  im- 
policy of  making  the  scriptures  too  public;  and,  in 
this  document,  it  is  curious  to  observe  with  what 
ease,  when  it  suited  his  purpose,  he  could  dispense 
(like  Gregory  the  Great)  with  the  authority  of  the 
primitive  church,  so  conclusive  and  venerable  when  it 
was  expedient  to  follow  it.  The  expressions  of  so 
great  a  pontiff  deserve  to  be  recorded: — '  Quia  Nebi- 
litas  tua  postulavit,  quod  secundum  Sclavonicam  lin- 
guam  apud  vos  divinura  celebrari  annueremus  officium, 
scias  nos  huic  petitioni  ture  nequaquam  posse  favere. 
Ex  hoc  nempe  ssepe  volventibus  liquet  non  immerito 
Sacram  Scripturam  omnipotenti  Deo  placuisse 
quibusdam  locis  esse  occultam,  ne,  si  ad  liquidum 
cunctis  pateret,  forte  vilesceret  et  subjaceret  despectui, 
aut  prave  intellecta  a  mediocribus  in  errorem  induce- 
ret.  Neque  enim  ad  excusationem  juvel,  quod  qui- 
dam  religiosi  viri  hoc  quod  simpliciter  populus  qure- 
sivit,  patienter  tulerunt,  seu  incorrectum  dimiserunt; 
cum  Primitiva  Ecclesia  multa  dissimulaverit,  qua? 
a  Sanctis  Pairibus,  postmodum  firmata  Christianitate 
et  religione  crescente,  subtili  cxaminatione  correcta 
sunt.  Unde  ne  id  fiat,  quod  a  vestris  imprudenter 
exposcitur,  auctoritate  B.  Petri  inhibemus,  atque  ad 
honorem  omnipotentis  Dei  huic  vanse  temeritati  viri- 
bus  totis  resistere  praecipimus.' 


and  the  stability  of  principles  which  the 
slightest  efforts  of  reason  were  sufficient  to 
overturn. 

We  should  add,  however,  that  a  similar 
custom  prevails  among  certain  other  nations 
and  creeds,  which  cannot  have  originated  in 
similar  motives,  but  is  rather  to  be  attributed 
to  the  superstitious  veneration  for  antiquity, 
so  common  where  the  understanding  has  been 
little  cultivated.  The  ^Egyptians  or  Jacobites 
performed  their  service  in  Coptic  ;  the  Nesto- 
rians  in  Syriac ;  the  Abyssinians  in  the  old 
^Ethiopic ;  and  the  prayers  which  are  offered 
to  the  god  of  the  Mahometans  are  universally 
addressed  in  Arabic.  But  the  usage  was  en- 
tirely contrary  to  the  practice  *  of  the  early 
Christian  church,  which  permitted  every  va- 
riety of  language  in  its  ceremonies ;  a  practice 
which  received  the  positive  confirmation  of 
the  Council  of  Francfort  at  the  end  of  the 
eighth  century,  and  which  was  not  entirely 
subverted  till  the  pontificate  of  Gregory  and 
of  his  immediate  successors. 


(1.)  In  an  early  part  of  this  work  (Chap.  V. 
p.  63,)  Justin  Martyr  is  accused  of  error  in 
having  given  to  Simon  Magus  a  statue  which, 
in  fact,  was  dedicated  to  Semo  Sangus,  a  Sa- 
bine deity.  The  question,  however,  is  in- 
volved in  some  uncertainty  ;  for  it  appears 
that  the  inscription  found  in  1574  was  not 
engraved  on  a  statue  (as  above  asserted,)  but 
on  a  stone,  bearing  resemblance,  indeed,  to 
the  basis  of  a  statue,  yet  so  small,  that  it  could 
scarcely  have  supported  any  representation 
of  the  human  body.  Such  is  the  account  of 
Baromus,  (Ann.  44.)  which  at  the  time  had 
escaped  the  author.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, whatever  may  be  the  leaning  of  our 
own  private  judgment,  we  are  historically 
bound  to  admit  the  direct  affirmation  of 
Justin,  who  expressly  asserts  that  the  statue 
existed  in  his  time.     If  we  believe  Baronius, 


*  '  You  may  have  observed  (says  Fleury)  that  the 
offices  of  the  church  were  then  in  the  language  most 
used  in  each  country,  that  is  to  say,  in  Latin  through 
all  the  West,  and  in  Greek  through  all  the  East,  ex- 
cept in  the  remoter  provinces,  as  in  Thebais  where 
the  ^Egyptian    was    spoken,   and    in    Upper   Syria 

where   Syriac    was    used The  Armenians 

have,  from  the  very  beginning,  performed  divine  ser- 
vice in  their  own  tongue.  If  the  nations  were  of  a 
mixed  kind,  there  were  in  the  church  interpreters  to 

explain  what  was  read In  Palestine,  St.  Sabas 

and  St.  Theodosius  had  in  their  monasteries  many 
churches,  wherein  the  monks  of  different  nations  had 
their  liturgy,  each  in  his  own  language.' 


COLLATERAL   REMARKS. 


251 


that  this  stone  cannot  reasonably  be  consider- 
ed as  a  pedestal,  we  must  also  believe  Justin  ; 
otherwise  we  are  compelled  to  suppose  that 
the  Father  deliberately  called  that  a  statue 
which  has  no  part,  or  even  support,  of  a 
statue,  but  a  mere  stone  consecrated  to  rude 
Pagan  divinity.  At  any  rate,  the  direct  evi- 
dence is  all  on  one  side,  with  only  a  bare,  and 
as  many  will  think,  unreasonable  supposition 
on  the  other. 

(2.)  In  Chapter  X,  p.  141,  a  passage  is  cited 
from  St.  Eligius,  a  bishop  of  Noyon,  contem- 
porary of  Gregory  the  Great.  The  sense,  and 
even  the  words  in  question,  had  been  previ- 
ously retailed  both  by  Robertson  and  Jortin  ; 
and  the  original  Latin  is  quoted  by  Moshcim, 
whom  the  latter  of  those  writers  has  followed. 
The  author  of  this  work,  who  had  also  con- 
tided  in  the  same  guide,  has  been  lately  led 
to  look  more  particularly  into  the  '  Life  of 
Eligius,'  as  it  is  published  in  the  Spicilegium 
Dacherii  (vol.  v.,  p.  147 — 304;)  and  he  was 
pleased  to  discover  many  excellent  precepts 
and  pious  exhortations  scattered  among  the 
strange  matter  with  which  it  abounds.  But 
at  the  same  time,  it  was  with  great  sorrow 
and  some  shame,  that  he  ascertained  the 
treachery  of  his  historical  conductor.  The 
expressions  cited  by  Mosheim,  and  cited  too 
with  a  direct  reference  to  the  Spicilegium, 
are  forcibly  brought  together  by  a  very  un- 
pardonable mutilation  of  his  authority.  They 
are  to  be  found,  indeed,  in  a  sermon  preached 
by  the  bishop ;  but  found  in  the  society  of  so 
many  good  and  Christian  maxims,  that  it  had 
been  charitable  entirely  to  overlook  them,  as 
it  was  certainly  unfair  to  weed  them  out  and 
heap  them  together,  without  notice  of  the  rich 
harvest  that  surrounds  them.  In  j  ustice,  then, 
to  the  character  both  of  St.  Eligius  and  his 
church,  and  that  the  exact  extent  of  the  his- 
torian's delinquency  may  be  known,  we  shall 
here  subjoin  the  entire  passage  which  Mos- 
heim has  disfigured ;  and  we  are  glad  of  the 
occasion  to  present  even  this  short  specimen 
of  the  discourses,  which  were  delivered  to  a 
Christian  people  in  the  age  of  its  darkest  ig- 
norance. 

'  Wherefore,  my  brethren,  love  your  friends 
in  God,  and  love  your  enemies  on  account  of 
God,  for  he  who  loveth  his  neighbor  (saith 
the  apostle)  hath  fulfilled  the  law;  for  the 
man  Avho  would  be  a  true  Christian  must 
observe  the  precepts,  since  he  who  observes 
not  circumvents  himself.  He,  then,  is  a  good 
Christian,  who  believes  not  in  charms  or  in- 
ventions of  the  devil,  but  places  the  whole  of 


his  hope  in  Christ  alone;  who  receives  the 
stranger  with  joy,  as  though  he  were  receiv- 
ing Christ  himself;  since  it  was  He  who  said, 
"  I  was  a  stranger,  and  ye  took  me  in,"  and 
"inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  the  least  of 
these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me  " 
He,  1  say,  is  a  good  Christian,  who  washes  the 
feet  of  the  strangers,  and  cherishes  them  as  his 
beloved  parents ;  who  gives  alms  to  the  poor 
in  proportion  to  his  possessions ;  icho  goes 
frequently  to  church  and  makes  his  oblations  at 
God's  altar ;  ivho  never  tastes  of  his  own  fruit 
until  he  hath  presented  some  to  God;  who  has 
no  deceitful  balances,  nor  deceitful  measures ; 
who  has  never  lent  his  money  on  usury  ;  who 
both  lives  chastely  himself,  and  teaches  his 
children  and  his  neighbors  to  live  chastely 
and  in  the  fear  of  God ;  and  who  for  many 
days  before  the  festivals  observes  strict  chastity, 
though  he  be  married,  that  he  may  approach  the 
altar  with  a  safe  conscience ;  lastly,  who  can 
repeat  the  Creed  and  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and 
teaches  the  same  to  his  children  and  his 
family.  He  who  is  such  as  this,  without  any 
doubt  is  a  true  Christian,  and  Christ  dwells 
in  him.' 

'  Behold !  ye  have  heard,  my  brethren,  what 
sort  of  people  good  Christians  are ;  wherefore 
strive  as  much  as  you  are  able,  with  the  help 
of  God,  that  the  name  of  Christ  may  not  be 
false  in  you ;  but  to  the  end  that  ye  be  true 
Christians,  always  ponder  the  precepts  of 
Christ  in  your  mind,  and  also  fulfil  them  in 
your  practice.  Redeem  your  soids  from  pun- 
ishment whilst  you  have  it  in  your  power ;  give 
alms  according  to  your  means ;  keep  peace 
and  charity;  recall  the  contentious  to  concord ; 
avoid  lies  ;  tremble  at  perjury  ;  bear  not  false 
witness ;  commit  no  theft ;  offer  your  free  gifts 
and  tithes  to  the  churches;  contribute  towards 
the  luminaries  in  the  holy  places ;  repeat  the 
Creed  and  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  teach  it  to 
your  children  ;  instruct  and  correct  even  your 
god-children,  and  recollect  that  you  are  their 
sponsors  with  God.  Repair  frequently  to 
church,  and  humbly  implore  the  protection  of 
the  saints ;  observe  the  Lord's  day,  through 
reverence  for  Christ's  resurrection,  withouc 
any  bodily  work ;  piously  celebrate  the  so- 
lemnities of  the  saints ;  love  your  neighbors 
as  yourselves,  and  do  as  you  would  be  done 
by ;  and  what  you  wish  not  to  be  done  to 
yourselves,  that  do  to  no  man.  Observe 
charity  before  all  things,  because  charity  cov- 
ers a  multitude  of  sins  ;  be  hospitable,  hum- 
ble, placing  all  your  solicitude  in  God,  since 
he  hath  care  of  you.     Visit  the  infirm,  seek 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


out  those  who  are  in  prison,  take  charge  of 
strangers,  feed  the  hungry,  clothe  the  naked. 
Despise  jugglers  and  magicians;  be  just  in 
four  measures;  require  of  no  man  more  than 
your  due ;  and  on  no  account  exact  usury. 
If  you  observe  these  things,  you  may  appear 
boldly  at  God's  tribunal  in  the  day  of  judgment, 
and  say,  Give,  Lord,  as  we  have  given ;  show 
compassion  even  as  we  have  shown  it ;  we 
have  fulfilled  what  thou  hast  commanded,  do 
thou  now  reward  us  as  thou  hast  promised.' 
The  sentences  p  rinted  in  italics  are  those 


which  Mosheim  has  selected  and  strung  to- 
gether, without  any  notice  of  the  context. 
The  impression  which,  by  this  method,  he 
conveys  to  his  readers,  is  wholly  false ;  and 
the  calumny  thus  indirectly  cast  upon  his 
author  is  not  the  less  reprehensible,  because 
it  falls  on  one  of  the  obscurest  saints  in  the 
Roman  calendar.  If  the  very  essence  of  his- 
tory be  truth,  and  if  any  deliberate  violation 
of  that  be  sinful  in  the  profane  annalist,  still 
less  can  it  deserve  pardon  or  mercy  in  the 
historian  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 


PART   IV. 


FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  GREGORY  VII.  TO  THAT  OF  BONIFACE  VIII. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

From  Gregory  VII.  to  Innocent  III. 

(1  )  Papal  history  —  Urban  II.  —  Council  of  Placentia  — 
that  of  Clermont  —  their  principal  acts  —  The  Crusades 
— their  origin  and  possible  advantage — Pascal  II. — Re- 
newed disputes  with  Henry  —  his  misfortunes,  private 
and  public  —  his  death  and  exhumation  — Henry,  his 
son,  marches  to  Rome  —  Convention  with  Pascal  re- 
specting the  regalia— its  violation  —  Imprisonment  of 
the  Pope  —  his  concessions  —  annulled  by  subsequent 
Council  —  Henry  again  at  Rome — Death  and  character 
of  Pascal  —  Final  arrangement  of  the  investiture  ques- 
tion by  Calixtus  II.  —  Observations  —  The  first  Lateran 
(ninth  general)  Council  —  Death  of  Calixtus  —  Subse- 
quent confusion  and  its  causes  —  Arnold  of  Brescia  — 
his  opinions,  fate,  and  character — Adrian  IV. — Frederic 
Barbarossa— Disputes  between  them,  and  final  success 
of  the  Pope —  Alexander  III.  —  his  quarrel  with  Fred- 
eric, and  advantages — his  talents  and  merits — Celestine 
III. — The  dilferences  between  Rome  and  the  Empire — 
The  internal  dissensions  at  Rome  on  papal  election  — 
National  contentions  between  Church  and  State.  (II.) 
Education  and  theological  learning — Review  of  pre- 
ceding ages — in  Italy  and  France — Parochial  schools — 
Deficiency  in  the  material  —  Papyrus — Parchment  — 
Consequent  scarcity  of  MSS.  —  Invention  of  paper  — 
Three  periods  of  theological  literature  —  the  character- 
istics of  each  —  Gradual  improvement  in  the  eleventh 
century. 

The  death  of  Gregory  did  not  restore  either 
concord  to  the  Church  or  repose  to  the  Em- 
pire. The  successor,  whom  at  the  solicitation 
of  his  cardinals,  he  nominated  on  his  death- 
bed, testified  a  singular,  but  sincere,  repug- 
nance for  a  dignity,  which  being  probably  too 
feeble  to  sustain,  he  was  too  wise  to  de- 
sire.   Desiderius,  *  Abbot  of  Mount  Cassino, 


*  His  disinclination  for  the  dangerous  honor  is 
6aid  to  have  been  so  great,  that  he  was  actually  drag- 
ged to  the  Church,  and  forcibly  invested  with  the 
pontifical  garments.  Fleury,  H.  E.,  liv.  Ixiii.,  sect, 
25  and  27.     But  this  circumstance  is  not  mentioned 


held  for  a  short  period,  under  the  name  of 
Victor  III.,  a  disputed  rule  ;  and  on  his  early 
death  in  the  year  1087,  Urban  II.,  a  native  of 
France,  was  proclaimed  in  his  place.  But 
Clement  the  Antipope  was  still  in  possession 
of  the  Capital,  where  the  imperial  party  was 
triumphant,  and  five  years  of  dissension  *  in- 
tervened before  the  authority  of  Urban  was 
generally  acknowledged.  That  Pope  had 
been  a  monk  of  Clugni,  and  owed  his  pre- 
ferment to  the  See  of  Ostia  to  the  favor  of 
Gregory  ;  and  he  continued  to  the  end  of  his 
life  to  exhibit  his  fidelity  by  following,  as  far 
as  his  talents  permitted  him,  the  schemes 
which  had  been  traced  by  his  patron. 

Urban  II.  Of  the  numerous  councils  held 
during  his  pontificate  two  are  entitled  to  par- 
ticular attention — those  of  Placentia  and  Cler- 
mont :  f  in   both  of  these  he  confirmed  the 


by  Pagi ;   though,  on  the  authority  of  Leo  OstieDsis, 
he  bears  ample  testimony  to  Victor's  reluctance. 

*  The  only  remarkable  acts  of  personal  hostility 
which  these  two  rivals  appear  to  have  exchanged, 
was  a  satiric  taunt  couched  on  either  side  in  a  pair 
of  very  innocent  hexameters.  Clement,  insolent  in 
the  possession  of  the  city,  wrote  to  his  rusticating 
adversary  as  follows: — 

Diceris  Urbanus,  cum  sis  projectus  ab  Urbe; 

Vel  muta  nomen,  vel  regrediaris  ad  Urbem. 
To  this  Urban  replied, 

Clemens  nomen  habes,  sed  Clemens  non  potes  esse, 

Tradita  solvendi  cum  sit  tibi  nulla  potestas. 

Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France. 

f  Both  were  held  in  1095 — the  former  on  March  1, 
the  latter  on  November  18.  At  the  former  were 
present  two  hundred  bishops,  nearly  four  thousand  of 
the  inferior  clergy,  and  more  than  thirty  thousand 
of  the  laity;  so  that  the  assemblies  were  held  in  the 
open  air.     The  latter  appears  to  have  been  still  more 


PAPAL  HISTORY. 


253 


laws  and  asserted  the  principles  of  Greg- 
ory, and  carried  his  favorite  claims  to  their 
full  extent ;  for  by  the  fifteenth  canon  of  the 
latter  he  enacted,  'that  no  ecclesiastic  shall 
receive  any  church  dignity  from  the  hand  of 
a  layman,  or  pay  him  liege  homage  for  it ; 
and  that  no  prince  shall  give  the  investiture.'  * 
But  that  council  is  recommended  to  general 
history  by  other  and  more  important  recollec- 
tions. And  while  at  Placentia  the  final  sanc- 
tion was  given  to  the  two  strongest  character- 
istics in  the  doctrine  and  in  the  discipline  of 
the  Roman  Church — namely,  f  transubstanti- 
ation  and  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  it  was 
the  Council  of  Clermont  which  first  sounded 
that  blast  of  fanaticism  which  shook  the  whole 
fabric  of  society,  from  the  extremities  of  the 
west  even  to  the  heart  of  Asia,  for  above  two 
,  centuries. 

Origin  of  the  Crusades.  It  may  seem  strange 
that  the  sanguinary  project  of  launching  the 
power  of  Christendom  in  one  vast  armament 
against  the  Mahometan  conquerors  of  the 
Holy  Land  should  first  have  been  proposed 
by  a  Pope,  who  was  celebrated  for  his  studi- 
ous cultivation  of  the  noblest  arts  of  peace. 
It  was  Sylvester  II.  J  with  whom  the  scheme 
of  a  general  crusade  originated  ;  but  to  him  it 
may  have  been  suggested  by  personal  obser- 


numerously  attended.  See  Fleury,  H.  E.,  liv.  lxiv., 
sect.  22.     Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France. 

*  '  Ne  episcopus  vel  sacerdos  regl  vel  alicui  laico 
in  manibus  ligiam  fidelitatem  facial.'  See  Mosheim, 
Cent.  xi.  p.  ii.  c.  ii.     Fleury,  liv.  lxiv.,  sect.  29. 

t  Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France.  Vie  de  Berenger. 
Fleury,  loc.  cit.  The  question  regarding  the  ordina- 
tion of  the  sons  of  presbyters,  which  was  warmly  de- 
bated about  this  time,  was  set  at  rest  by  the  Council 
of  Clermont.  It  was  conceded,  that  with  dispensa- 
tion from  the  Pope  they  might  be  admitted  to  Holy 
Orders.  Pagi  (Vit.  Urban.  II.,  sect.  43.)  ascribes 
to  this  period  the  practice  of  administering  the  Eu- 
charist to  the  laity  under  one  species  only,  which, 
he  adds,  became  more  confirmed,  after  the  establish- 
ment of  the  kingdom  of  Jerusalem  by  the  crusaders; 
for  in  that  Church  (he  maintains)  it  has  existed  from 
primitive  times.  We  may  also  mention  in  this  place, 
that  the  '  Office  of  the  Holy  Virgin,'  though  perhaps 
not  composed  by  Urban,  was  brought  into  more  gen- 
eral use  during  his  pontificate. 

%  It  will  be  recollected  that  Sylvester,  as  well  as 
Urban  and  his  agent  Peter  the  Hermit,  was  a  French- 
man. So  that  the  entire  credit  of  the  scheme,  both 
of  its  invention  and  the  bringing  it  into  practice, 
belongs,  such  as  it  is,  to  that  enthusiastic  and  incon- 
siderate people.  It  is  a  remark  of  Gibbon,  that  at 
the  Council  of  Placentia,  in  Italy,  the  people  wept 
over  the  calamities  of  the  Christians  of  the  East — 
while  at  Clermont,  in  France,  they  took  up  arms  to 
avenge  them. 


vation  of  the  sufferings  of  Spain  and  the  hu- 
miliation of  the  Christian  name.  And  to  any 
one  beholding  and  deploring  the  various  dis- 
orders of  Europe — the  fierce  contentions  of 
kings  with  each  other,  their  more  fatal  dis- 
sensions with  their  subjects,  the  military 
license  which  every  where  prevailed  and 
forbade  all  security  of  person  or  property — it 
might  have  seemed  an  act  of  comparative 
mercy  to  unite  those  discordant  spirits  even 
by  the  rudest  tie,  and  to  divert  against  a  com- 
mon foe  the  turbulence  which  engaged  them 
in  mutual  destruction.  The  same  measure 
was  not  without  some  justification  in  pru- 
dence ;  since  the  slightest  caprice  of  a  Sara- 
cen conqueror  might  have  directed  his  rage 
against  Christendom,  and  especially  against 
Italy,  the  most  attractive,  the  most  exposed, 
the  least  defensible  province — the  centre  of 
the  Christian  Church,  and,  as  it  were,  the  Pa- 
lestine of  the  West.  These  and  similar  con- 
siderations may  have  recommended  the  same 
project  to  a  much  greater  mind  than  that  of 
Sylvester ;  for  it  was  also  (as  has  been  men- 
tioned) a  favorite  design  of  Gregory  VII., 
who  proposed  personally  to  conduct  against 
the  infidel  the  universal  army  of  Christ.  It 
was  realized  by  Urban  II. ;  and  his  exhorta- 
tions *  to  the  Council  of  Clermont,  being  at 
the  same  time  addressed  to  the  superstitious 
and  the  military  spirit,  the  two  predominant 
motives  of  action  hi  that  age,  were  received 
with  an  enthusiastic  acclamation  of  frenzy, 
which  was  mistaken  for  the  approbation  of 
God. 


*  The  Pope  closed  the  session  of  the  council  by  a 
sermon,  which  has  been  variously  reported  by  differ- 
ent writers.  Fleury  gives  the  following  sentences  as 
a  part  of  it,  on  the  authority  of  William  of  Tyre,  •  a 
grave  and  judicious  author:' — '  Do  you  then,  my  dear 
children,  arm  yourselves  with  the  zeal  of  God;  march 
to  the  succor  of  our  brethren,  and  the  Lord  be  with 
you.  Turn  against  the  enemy  of  the  Christian  name 
the  arms  which  you  employ  in  injuring  each  other. 
Redeem,  by  a  service  so  agreeable  to  God  your  pil- 
lages, conflagrations,  homicides,  and  other  mortal 
crimes,  so  as  to  obtain  his  ready  pardon.  We  ex- 
hort you  and  enjoin  you,  for  the  remission  of  your 
sins,  to  have  pity  on  die  affliction  of  our  brethren  in 
Jerusalem,  and  to  repress  the  insolence  of  the  infidels, 
who  propose  to  subjugate  kingdoms  and  empires,  and 
to  extinguish  the  name  of  Christ.'  Hist.  Eccl.,  Liv. 
lxiv.,  sect.  32.  As  the  populace  devoutly  believed 
the  Pope's  assurance,  that  the  pilgrimage  would  alone 
for  the  most  abominable  crimes,  the  immediate  effect 
of  the  crusade  might  be  to  rid  Europe  of  the  refuse  of 
its  population;  just  as  the  certain  consequence  would 
be  the  encouragement  of  crime,  when  the  method  of 
atonement  was  always  at  hand. 


254 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


We  do  not  propose  to  enter  into  any  de- 
scription of  the  military  adventures  of  the 
crusaders,  which  have  employed  the  eloquence 
of  so  many  writers ;  but  shall  confine  our- 
selves to  the  less  attractive,  but  perhaps  more 
useful,  task  of  occasionally  recurring  to  the 
domestic  changes  connected  with  them,  and 
investigating  the  traces  which  they  have  left 
in  the  History  of  the  Church. 

Pascal  II.  Urban  died  in  1099,  and  was 
succeeded  by  Pascal  II.  Nearly  contempora- 
neous with  the  decease  of  Urban  was  that  of 
Clement  III.,  the  Antipope,  who  had  main- 
tained with  some  interruptions  the  possession 
of  the  capital,  though  unacknowledged  by 
the  great  body  of  the  Church.  The  imperial 
party  was  at  that  moment  too  weak  to  appoint 
a  successor,  and  therefore  Pascal  entered  into 
undisputed  occupation  of  the  chair.  Pascal, 
as  well  as  Gregory  and  Urban,  had  been  edu- 
cated in  the  monastery  of  Clugni ;  like  the 
former,  he  was  a  Tuscan  ;  like  the  latter,  he 
was  indebted  for  his  early  advancement  to 
Gregory  ;  and  thus  the  spirit  of  that  extraor- 
dinary man,  by  animating  the  congenial  bo- 
soms of  his  two  disciples,  continued  to  haunt 
the  pontifical  chair,  and  to  regulate  the  coun- 
cils of  the  Vatican,  for  above  thirty  years  after 
his  departure.*  And  if  Urban  prosecuted  the 
reforms  undertaken  by  his  master,  and  real- 
ized one  of  his  fondest  speculations,  to  Pascal 
remained  the  more  difficult  and  odious  office 
of  resuming  with  fresh  violence  the  interrupt- 
ed contest  with  the  empire.  He  engaged  in 
it  earnestly,  if  not  eagerly  ;  and  as  the  empe- 
ror was  still  unprepared  for  submission,  he 
prevented  an  attempt  (perhaps  an  insidious 
attempt)  at  compromise,  by  renewing  (in  1102) 
all  former  decrees  against  investitures,  and 
then  commenced  the  conflict  by  the  usual 
sentence  of  excommunication. 

Misfortunes  and  Death  of  Henry  IV.  Hen- 
ry IV.,  after  surviving  so  many  Popes,  was 
still  in  possession  of  the  throne  ;  but  his  latter 
years  had  been  afflicted  by  the  rebellion,  and, 
what  might  be  less  bitter  to  him,  by  the  death 
of  his  eldest  son.  The  affections  of  his  sub- 
jects he  never  possessed  nor  deserved  ;  but 
we  do  not  learn  that  by  any  domestic  delin- 
quency he  had  forfeited  the  less  dissoluble 
allegiance  of  his  children.  And  yet,  scarcely 
had  Conrad  terminated  his  unnatural  impiety 
by  death,  when — as  if  the  anathemas  of  Greg- 
ory were  still  suspended  over  him — as  if  to 

*  Pascal  died  on  January  18th,  1118,  after  an  un- 
usually long  pontificate  of  eighteen  years,  five  months, 
and  five  days. 


accomplish  the  temporal  retribution  which 
that  pontiff  had  denounced  against  the  foes 
of  St.  Peter  * — Henry,  his  other  son,  on  learn- 
ing the  excommunication  of  his  father,  rose 
in  arms  against  him.  A  scene  revolting  to 
nature  and  humanity  was  the  consequence ; 
and  even  the  death  of  the  Emperor,  which 
speedily  followed,  does  not  close  the  story  of 
his  persecutions.  His  body,  which  was  still 
lying  under  the  anathema,  having  been  incon- 
siderately consigned  to  consecrated  ground, 
was  immediately  dug  up,  ejected  from  the 
holy  precincts,  and  condemned  to  an  unhal- 
lowed sepulchre  ;  f  and  there  it  rested  for  the 
space  of  five  years,  a  revolting  monument  of 
papal  power  and  papal  malignity  :  at  length 
the  sentence  was  withdrawn,:}:  and  Henry  V. 
was  permitted  to  make  a  tardy  atonement  to 
offended  nature  and  piety. 

There  is  no  proof  that  Pascal  positively 
excited  this  monstrous  rebellion,  but  it  is  well 
known  that  he  countenanced  and  promoted 
it,  and  that  too,  not  as  a  reluctant  concession 
of  virtue  to  interest,  but  with  ardent  and  un- 
compromising zeal.  Indeed,  his  interest  was 
not  engaged  in  this  matter,  but  his  passions 
merely,  and  the  vindictive  hatred  for  Henry 
IV.  which  he  had  contracted  in  the  school  of 
Gregory.  The  Holy  See  had  nothing  to  gain 
by  the  death  or  deposition  of  an  unpopular 
monarch,  but  everything  to  fear  from  the  union 
which  would  probably  ensue  among  his  sub- 
jects. For,  as  to  any  prospect  of  gratitude 
from  his  successor — any  hope  that  the  Em- 
peror would  be  mindful  of  services  conferred 
upon  the  rebel, — a  Tuscan  and  a  Pope  could 
scarcely  indulge  so  simple  an  expectation. 
If  Pascal  did  so,  he  very  speedily  discovered 
his  error ;  for  scarcely  was  Henry  IV.  dead, 
when  his  son  asserted  with  equal  vehemence 
the  disputed  rights.  The  Pope  resisted,  and 
both  parties  prepared  for  a  second  struggle. 


*  It  will  be  recollected  that,  in  his  second  excom- 
munication of  Henry,  Gregory  supplicated  St.  Peter 
to  take  away  from  that  prince  prosperity  in  war  and 
victory  over  his  enemies,  '  that  all  the  world  may 
know'  (says  he)  '  that  thou  hast  power  both  in  heaven 
and  on  earth.' 

f  '  Comprobantibus  his  qui  aderant  Archiepiscopia 
et  Episcopis;  quia  quibus  vivis  ecclesia  non  coinmu- 
nicat,  ill i s  etiam  nee  mortuis  communicare  possit.'— 
Urspergensis  Abbas,  ap.  Pagi,  Vit.  Pascalis  II. 
Some  ascribe  this  act  of  barbarity  to  the  German 
Bishops,  and  exculpate  the  Pope,  except  in  as  far  as 
he  had  set  them  the  example,  by  exhumating  the 
bones  of  Guibert  the  Antipope,  who  bad  been  buried 
at  Ravenna,  and  casting  them  into  the  neighboring 
river. 

%  Fleury,  H.  E.,  lib.  lxv.  s.  44,  and  lib.  Ixvi.  s.  5- 


PAPAL   HISTORY. 


255 


Henry  V.  nothing  deterred  by  the  porten- 
tous appearance  of  a  comet,  which  inspired 
general  dismay,  descended  into  Italy  during 
the  summer  of  1110,  carefully  prepared  for  a 
twofold  contest  with  the  Holy  See ;  for  he 
was  not  only  attended  by  a  powerful  army, 
but  also  by  a  suite  of  literary  protectors,*  so 
that  the  pen  might  be  at  hand  to  justify  the 
deeds  of  the  sword.  His  advance  was  pre- 
ceded by  a  declaration  of  his  intention,  which 
was  '  to  maintain  a  right  acquired  by  privilege 
and  the  custom  of  his  predecessors  from  the 
time  of  Charlemagne,  and  preserved  during 
three  hundred  years  under  sixty-three  popes 
— that  of  presenting  to  bishoprics  and  abbeys 
by  the  ring  and  crosier.'  In  reality,  his  ob- 
ject, when  more  fully  explained,  was  to  pre- 
vent the  election  of  bishops  without  his  con- 
sent, to  invest  the  bishop-elect  with  the  regalia, 
to  receive  from  him  homage  and  the  oath  of 
allegiance.  At  the  same  time,  he  proposed  to 
undergo  the  solemn  ceremony  of  coronation 
at  the  hands  of  the  Pope. 

Dispute  between  Henry  V.  and  Pascal.  By 
the  regalia  above-mentioned  were  understood 
various  grants  conferred  on  the  bishops  by 
Charlemagne,  which  partook  of  the  privileges 
of  royalty,  such  as  the  power  of  raising  trib- 
ute, coining  money,  and  also  the  possession 
of  certain  independent  lands,  directly  derived 
from  the  crown,  with  some  other  immunities. 
And  it  seemed  natural  that  the  successors  of 
Charlemagne  should  retain  the  right  of  con- 
firming the  privileges  which  he  had  bestowed. 
This  circumstance  involved  the  Pope  in  great 
perplexity  ;  and  though  it  was  easy  to  publish 
edicts,  and  advance  vague  and  exorbitant  pre- 
tensions, when  the  Emperor  was  distant  or 
embarrassed,  he  could  scarcely  hope  by  such 
expedients  to  withstand  his  near  and  armed 
approach.  In  this  difficulty,  Pascal  proved 
at  least  the  sincerity  of  his  professions,  and 
his  attachment  to  the  best  and  purest  interests 
of  the  Church.  He  had  the  virtue  to  prefer 
its  spiritual  independence  to  its  worldly  splen- 
dor, and  the  courage  to  proclaim  his  prefer- 
ence. This  better  part  being  chosen,  he  con- 
cluded a  treaty  with  Henry,  by  which  it  was 
agreed  that  the  bishops,  on  the  one  hand, 
should  make  to  Henry  a  positive  cession  of 
all  that  belonged  to  the  crown  in  the  time  of 


Louis,  Henry,  and  his  other  predecessors,  on 
pain  of  excommunication  if  they  attempted  to 
usurp  such  regalia ;  and  that  the  Emperor, 
on  the  other,  should  resign  the  right  of  inves- 
titure. On  this  arrangement,  the  Pope  con- 
sented to  perform  the  ceremony  of  corona- 
tion,* and  Henry  proceeded  to  Rome  for  that 
purpose.     . 

The  circumstances  which  followed  are  told 
with  some  trifling  variations,  but  were  proba- 
bly thus.  The  bishops  interested  in  the  trea- 
ty, and  especially  those  of  Germany,  who 
would  have  been  the  greatest  sufferers,  felt 
the  deepest  repugnance  to  resign  so  large  a 
portion  of  their  splendid  temporalities  for  a 
remote  and  invisible  object,  which,  however 
it  might  be  accessory  to  the  honor  of  the 
Church,  did  not  benefit  their  own  immediate 
interests.  Consequently  they  protested  with 
so  much  violence  against  the  compromise, 
which  seemed  to  them  to  exchange  a  sub- 
stance for  a  shadow,  that  the  Pope  despaired 
of  his  power  to  execute  that  condition  of  the 
treaty.  In  the  meantime,  Henry  arrived  at 
Rome :  he  was  conducted  with  acclamations 
to  the  Basilica  of  St.  Peter,  where  the  Pope, 
with  his  Bishops  and  Cardinals,  was  waiting 
to  receive  him.  The  King,  according  to  the 
accustomed  ceremony,  prostrated  himself  be- 
fore the  Pope,  and  kissed  his  feet ;  he  then 
read  the  usual  oath,  and  they  advanced  to- 
gether into  the  church.f  But  here,  before 
they  proceeded  to  the  office  of  consecration, 
a  dispute  broke  out  respecting  the  fulfilment 
of  the  treaty,  and  it  was  presently  inflamed 
into  an  angry  quarrel.  Henry  availed  him- 
self of  the  presence  of  his  soldiers  to  arrest 
the  Pope  and  several  Cardinals ;  the  Roman 
populace  look  arms  and  endeavored  to  rescue 
him ;  a  fierce  and  tumultuous  conflict  ensu- 
ed, and  the  courts  of  the  Vatican,  and  even 


*  '  One  of  them  was  a  Scotsman  named  David, 
who  had  presided  over  the  schools  at  Wurtemberg, 
and  whom  the  King  had  appointed  his  chaplain,  d 
cause  de  sa  vcrtu.  He  wrote  a  relation  of  this  ex- 
pedition, but  rather  as  a  panegyrist  than  a  historian.' 
—  Fleury,  lib.  lxvi.  s.  1,  on  authority  of  Will.  Mal- 
mes.,  lib.  v.  p.  166. 


*  For  this  compact  we  have  the  authority  of  Petrus 
Diaconus  (who  cites  a  contemporary  account  of  the 
transaction)  confirmed  by  that  of  Urspergens.  Abbas, 
as  follows.  '  Ibi  Legati  Apostolici  cum  missis  Regis 
advenientes,  promptum  esse  Papain  ad  consecrationem 
...  si  tamen  ipse  sibimet  annueret  libertatem  Eccle- 
siarum,  laicam  ab  illis  prohibens  investituram  —  re- 
cipiendo  nihilominus  ab  Ecclesiis  Ducatus,  Marchias, 
Comitatus,  Advocatias,  Moneta,  Telonia,  cseteror- 
umque  Regalium  qua?  possident  summam.' — See  Pagi, 
Vit.  Pasch.  II. — Fleury,  lib.  lxvi.  s.  ii. 

f  This  took  place  on  Feb.  11,  1111.  'Ter  se  m- 
vicem  complexi,  ter  se  invicem  osculati  sunt;  et, 
sicut  mos,RexdexteramPontificis  tenens  cum  magno 
populi  gaudio  et  clamore  adPortam  venit  Argenteam. 
Ibi  ex  libro  professionem  imperatoriam  faciens  a 
Pontifice  designatus  est  Imperator,  &c.' — Acta  Vati 
cana  ap.  Baronium. 


256 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


the  hallowed  pavement  of  St.  Peter,  were 
polluted  with  blood  ;  but  the  Germans  suc- 
ceeded in  preserving  their  prisoners,  and  car- 
ried them  away  to  their  neighboring  encamp- 
ment at  Viterbo.  After  a  rigorous  confinement 
of  two  months,  Pascal  yielded  to  such  persua- 
sion as  a  king  may  exercise  over  his  captive  ; 
and  then  he  not  only  performed  the  required 
ceremony,  but,  by  a  new  convention,  ceded 
unconditionally  the  right  of  investiture. 

The  presence  of  the  Emperor  was  demand- 
ed hi  Germany  ;  Pascal  returned  to  Rome ; 
but  he  was  saluted  there  by  such  a  tempest 
of  indignation,  as  to  find  it  necessary,  hi  the 
year  following,  to  submit  the  whole  affair, 
even  as  it  involved  his  own  personal  conduct, 
to  a  very  numerous  Council  at  the  Lateran. 
Here  the  Pope  confessed  the  error  into  which 
his  weakness  had  betrayed  •  him ;  and  the 
Council,  with  his  consent,  solemnly  revoked 
and  cancelled  the  treaty,  and  justified  their 
perfidy  by  pleading  the  violence  which  had 
extorted  it.  The  immediate  resentment  of 
Henry  was  diverted  by  civil  disorders ;  but  in 
1117,  he  inarched  to  Rome  as  an  avowed  en- 
emy ;  Pascal  retired  to  Benevento,  and  sought 
the  protection  of  his  Norman  vassals,  still 
faithful  to  the  chair  of  Gregory.  The  Empe- 
ror presently  withdrew,  and  Pascal  returned 
to  his  see,  and  died ;  and  his  fortunes,  in 
many  respects  similar  to  those  of  his  patron, 
were  blessed  with  a  happier  termination, 
since  he  was  permitted  to  close  his  eyes  at 
Rome.  His  fortunes  were,  in  some  respects, 
similar  to  those  of  Gregory,  and  similar  was 
the  audacity  of  his  pretensions ;  but  he  want- 
ed the  firmness  necessary  to  dignify  the  form- 
er, and  to  give  weight  and  stability  to  the 
latter ;  his  adversity  was  inglorious,  and  his 
arrogance  feeble  and  without  consequence. 
The  levity  of  his  character  disqualified  him 
for  the  task  he  had  undertaken,  and  its  plian- 
cy did  not  compensate  for  its  want  of  cohe- 
rence and  consistency. 

Conclusion  of  the  quarrels  about  Investitures. 
The  question  respecting  investitures,  after 
having  variously  agitated  the  kingdoms  of 
the  west  for  half  a  century,  was  now  draw- 
ing near  to  its  final  decision.  After  a  short 
interval  of  disputed  succession,*  then  usual 
on  the  death  of  eveiy  Pope,  Calixtus  II., 
Archbishop  of  Vienna,  a  Count  of  Burgundy, 
and  a  near  relative  of  the  Emperor,  was  rais- 
ed to  the  pontifical  chair.  It  does  not  ap- 
pear, however,  that  he  sacrificed  to  the  claims 


of  consanguinity  any  portion  of  the  rights  or 
pretensions  of  his  see  ;  but  he  consented  that 
the  differences  should  be  submitted  for  their 
final  arrangement  to  a  Council,  or  Diet,  to  be 
assembled  at  Worms  for  that  purpose.  A 
Convention  Avas  there  concluded,  which  was 
reasonable  and  permanent ;  its  substance  was 
this:  * — (1.)  That  the  election  of  bishops  and 
abbots,  in  his  Teutonic  kingdom,  take  place  in 
its  rightful  form,  without  violence  or  simony, 
in  the  presence  of  the  Emperor  or  his  legate, 
so  that  in  case  of  a  difference,  his  protection 
be  given  with  the  advice  of  the  metropolitan 
to  the  juster  claim,  f  (2.)  That  the  ecclesias- 
tic elected  receive  his  regalia  at  the  hand  of 
the  Emperor,  and  do  homage  for  them.  But 
(3.)  that  in  the  ceremony  of  investiture  the 
Emperor  no  longer  use  the  insignia  of  spirit- 
ual authority,  but  the  sceptre  only.  A  similar 
arrangement  had  previously  J  taken  place  in 
England  between  Henry  I.  and  Pascal  II. ; 
and  hi  France,  §  if  the  custom  of  investiture 
by  the  ring  and  crosier  ever  prevailed,  which 
seems  uncertain,  it  had  been  abolished  about 
the  same  time. 

The  terms  of  this  treaty,  in  which  each 
party  yielded  what  was  extravagant  in  his 
claims,  ||  were  undoubtedly  favorable  to  the 


*  Gelasius  II.  stands  in  the  list  of  Popes  as  having 
filled  that  interval. 


*  See  Fleury,  liv.  lxvii.  sect.  30.  Pagi,  Vit.  Cal- 
listi  II.  sect.  xxiv.  xxv.  This  convention  took  place 
in  September,  1122. 

f  '  Si  qua  inter  partes  discordia  emerserit,  metro- 
politani  provincialium  consilio  vel  judicio,  saniori 
parti  assensum  et  auxilium  pnebeas.'  So  this  clause 
is  expressed  in  the  acts  of  the  Lateran  Council  held 
in  the  following  year. 

X  Probably  in  1106,  after  a  severe  dispute  between 
the  Pope  and  King  during  the  primacy  of  Anselm. 
Hist.  Litt.  France,  Vie  Pascal.    Pagi,  Vit.  Pascal.  II. 

§  Guillaume  de  Champeau,  Bishop  of  Chalons,  is 
related  to  have  addressed  (in  1119)  the  following  dis- 
course to  the  Emperor:  —  '  Sire,  if  you  desire  a  sub- 
stantial peace  you  must  absolutely  renounce  the  in- 
vestiture to  bishoprics  and  abbeys.  And  to  assure 
you  that  you  will  thus  suffer  no  diminution  of  your 
royal  authority,  let  me  inform  you,  that  when  I  was 
elected  in  the  kingdom  of  France,  Ireceived  nothing 
from  the  hand  of  the  king,  neither  before  nor  after 
consecration.  Nevertheless  I  serve  him  as  faithfully 
in  virtue  of  the  tributes  and  various  other  rights  of 
the  state  which  Christian  kings  have  in  ancient  days 
given  to  the  Church,  as  faithfully,  I  say,  as  your 
bishops  in  your  kingdom  serve  you,  in  virtue  of  that 
investiture  which  has  drawn  such  discords  and  anath- 
emas on  you.'  Fleury,  H.  E.  liv.  lxvii.,  sec.  3. 
The  Emperor  yielded  to  that  argument. 

||  The  peace  of  the  Church  is  thus  celebrated  by 
Gotfridus  of  Viterbo,  in  his  Chronicle: 

Reddit  Apostolico  C;esar  queecunque  rogavit; 

Pax  bona  conficitur;   sublata  Deo  reparavit; 

Jura  sua?  partis  ketus  uterque  tialiit. 


PAPAL  HISTORY. 


257 


Church.  Her  restitution  of  the  '  rightful 
form '  of  election  deprived  the  Emperor  of 
an  usurped  privilege  which  had  been  ex- 
tremely valuable  and  profitable  to  him,  both 
in  its  use  and  its  abuse.  And  since  the 
Popes,  ever  after  the  edict  of  Alexander  II., 
had  claimed  as  indisputable  the  right  of  con- 
firmation in  episcopal  election— a  claim  which, 
as  it  was  purely  ecclesiastical,  the  Emperor 
had  not  greatly  cared  to  contest — a  large  por- 
tion of  the  influence  which  was  ceded  by  the 
crown  did  in  fact  devolve  on  the  holy  see. 
Again,  the  original  form  of  election  was  in 
no  case  positively  restored,  since  the  advan- 
tage of  excluding  the  people,  and  even  the 
body  of  the  diocesan  clergy,  had  been  long 
and  generally  acknowledged ;  so  that  the 
right  seems  to  have  been  invested  almost  im- 
mediately in  the  chapters  of  the  cathedral 
Churches ;  at  least  it  was  confirmed  to  them 
about  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century. 

The  second  condition  of  the  Convention 
secured  to  the  sovereign  the  civil  allegiance 
of  his  ecclesiastical  subjects,  and  repressed 
their  dangerous  struggles  for  entire  immunity 
from  feudal  obligations.  At  the  same  time  it 
restored  to  them  the  integrity  of  their  ghostly 
independence,  and  cut  off  the  last  pretence 
for  secular  interference  in  matters  strictly 
spiritual. 

So  easy  and  reasonable  was  the  conclusion 
of  that  debate,  which,  in  addition  to  the  usual 
calamities  of  international  warfare,  had  excit- 
ed subjects  against  their  sovereign,  and  chil- 
dren against  their  fathers,  which  had  con- 
vulsed the  holy  Church,  and  overthrown  its 
sanctuaries,  and  stained  its  altars  with  blood. 
However,  on  a  calm  historical  survey  of  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  conflict,  and  of  the  crimes 
and  errors  which  led  to  them,  we  are  little 
disposed  to  load  with  unmixed  reprehension 
any  individual  of  either  party.  The  crimes, 
indeed,  and  the  passions  which  produced 
them,  were  equally  numerous  and  flagrant  on 
either  side;  on  the  one,  were  tyranny  and 
profligacy  and  brutal  violence :  arrogance 
and  obstinacy  and  imposture,  on  the  other ; 
pride  and  ambition  and  injustice,  on  both. 
Yet  our  prejudices  naturally  incline  to  the 
imperial  party;  because  the  same  or  equal 
vices  become  infinitely  more  detestable  when 
they  are  found  under  the  banners  of  religion.* 


*  Moslieim  is  disposed  to  throw  all  the  reproach  of 
this  dispute  on  the  monastic  education  and  character 
of  Gregory  and  his  two  disciples;  and  these  he  con- 
trasts with  the  more  secular  virtues  which  high  birth 
and  society  had  nourished  in  Calixtus.  But  in  the 
first  place,  the  whole  blame  is  not  by  any  means  on 

33 


But  the  errors  were  those  of  the  times  rather 
than  of  the  men,  and  even  served,  in  some 
degree,  to  palliate  the  crimes.  The  barbarism 
of  preceding  ages  and  the  ignorance  actually 
existing,  had  engendered  and  nourished  a 
swarm  of  obscure  notions  and  active  preju- 
dices, which  infatuated  the  vulgar,  and  par- 
tially blinded  even  the  best  and  the  wisest. 
The  records  of  past  events  were  little  studied; 
indeed  they  were  seen  only  by  those  discon- 
tinuous glimpses,  which  perplex  and  deceive 
far  more  than  they  enlighten ;  and  reason 
had  lost  her  native  force,  and  health,  and 
penetration,  through  neglect  and  abuse — so 
that  claims  the  most  absurd  were  established 
by  arguments  the  most  senseless ;  and  men 
could  not  rightly  discern  the  real  nature  of 
their  adversaries'  pretensions,  nor  even  the 
strength  of  their  own,  so  as  effectually  to 
controvert  the  one,  or  rationally  to  maintain 
the  other.  Thus  were  their  contests  carried 
on  in  a  sort  of  moral  obscurity,  which  took 
off  nothing  from  their  positiveness  and  ob- 
stinacy, and  permitted  even  additional  license 
to  their  malignity. 

The  First  Lateran  Council.  In  the  year 
1123  a  very  numerous  *  assembly  was  held  at 
Rome,  which  is  commonly  acknowledged  in 
that  Church  as  the  ninth  General,  and  the 
First  Lateran  council.  Of  the  two-and-twen- 
ty  canons  which  resulted  from  its  labors,  the 
greater  part  were  in  confirmation  of  the  acta 
of  preceding  Popes;  and  we  observe  that  the 
object  of  several  of  the  original  enactments 
was  to  protect  the  property  of  the  Church 
from  alienation,  and  lay  usurpations.  There 
was  one  which  promoted  the  Crusading  zeal, 
both  by  spiritual  promises  and  menaces.  And 
among  the  most  importaut  we  may  consider 
that  (the  17th)  which  prohibited  abbots  and 
monks  from  the  performance  of  public  mass- 
es, the  administration  of  the  holy  chrism,  and 
other  religious  services,  and  confided  those 
solemn  offices  entirely  to  the  secular  clergy. 
This  was  an  early  and  very  public  manifesta- 

that  side,  but  is  very  equally  divided  with  the  empire ; 
and  in  the  next,  Pascal  at  least  did  actually  prove, 
by  his  arrangemeut  with  die  English  king,  his  dispo- 
sition to  end  the  controversy,  on  the  very  terms  final- 
ly accepted  by  Calixtus.  Mosheim  moderates  with 
great  impartiality  between  contending  sects,  and  a 
very  great  merit  that  is;  but  when  the  contest  is  be- 
tween a  Pope  and  a  German  sovereign,  his  feelings 
sometimes  overpower  his  perfect  judgment. 

*  About  a  thousand  prelates  were  present,  of  whom 
above  three  hundred  were  bishops,  and  above  six 
hundred  abbots.  Many  pontifical  Councils  had  been 
previously  held  at  the  Lateran,  but  this  was  the  first 
which  obtained  a  place  among  the  General  Councils. 


258 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


tiou  of  that  jealousy  between  the  two  orders 
of  the  Romish  hierarchy,  which  in  a  later 
age  displayed  itself  so  generally  as  to  become 
an  efficient  instrument  in  working  its  over- 
throw. 

Popular  tumults  at  Rome.  Calixtus  died  in 
1124,  and  during  the  thirty  years  which  fol- 
lowed, the  pontifical  city  enjoyed  scarcely 
any  intermission  from  discord  and  convul- 
sion. The  names  of  Honorius  and  Inno- 
cent,* and  Anaclete  and  Eugenius,  with  some 
others,  pass  by  in  rapid  and  tumultuous  pro- 
cession. The  chair,  which  was  generally 
contested,  was  never  maintained  to  any  good 
purpose ;  and  one  of  its  possessors,  Lucius 
II.,  was  actually  murdered  by  the  populace 
in  an  attempt  to  restore  tranquillity. 

Arnold  of  Brescia.  But  we  must  here  ob- 
serve, that  the  popular  commotions  of  this 
period  were  not  of  the  same  description  with 
those  which  we  have  already  found  occasion 
to  notice ;  the  question  of  papal  election  had 
ceased  to  be  their  sole,  or  even  their  princi- 
pal, cause;  the  turbulence  which  had  been 
occasioned  by  the  abuse  of  that  right,  and 
prolonged  by  the  endeavor  to  reclaim  it,  was 
now  founded  in  a  deeper  and  much  more 
powerful  motive.  A  party  had  lately  grown 
up  in  the  Roman  city  of  patriots  ambitious  to 
restore  the  name,  and,  as  some  might  fondly 
deem,  the  glory  of  the  ancient  republic.  And 
the  first  and  necessary  step  towards  the  accom- 
plishment of  this  scheme  was  the  subversion, 
or,  at  least,  the  entire  reconstruction  of  the 
ecclesiastical  system.  To  dimmish  the  privi- 
leges, to  reduce  the  revenues  of  the  church, 
to  deprive  the  Pontiff  of  temporal  power  and 
all  civil  jurisdiction,  and  to  degrade  (should 
we  not  rather  say,  to  exalt  ?)  his  stately,  splen- 
dor to  the  homeliness  of  his  primitive  pre- 
decessors— these  were  the  projects  prepara- 
tory to  the  political  regeneration  of  Rome. 
About  the  year  1135,  Arnold,  a  native  of  Bres- 
cia, a  disciple  of  the  celebrated  Abelard,  re- 
turned to  Italy  from  the  schools  of  Paris,  and 
having  assumed  the  monastic  habit,  began 
publicly  to  preach  and  declaim  against  the 
vices  of  the  clergy.  It  is  admitted  by  a 
Catholic  writer,  \  that  the  pomp  of  the  pre- 


*  The  Pontificate  of  Innocent  II.,  though  inter- 
rupted by  frequent  dissension,  was  the  longest  and 
the  most  important;  and  during  it,  in  the  year  1139, 
the  tenth  General  Council,  or  second  Lateran,  was 
assembled. 

+  Fleury,  H.  E.,  lib.  Ixviii.,  sect.  55.  Arnold 
maintained  that  there  was  no  hope  of  salvation  for 
prelates  who  held  baronies,  or  for  any  clerks  or  monks 
vho  possessed  any  fixed  property ;   that  those  posses- 


lates,  and  the  soft  licentious  life  both  of  clerks 
and  monks,  furnished  abundant  materials  for 
his  denunciations;  but  it  is  complained  that 
he  exceeded  the  limits  of  truth  and  modera- 
tion ;  and  it  is  besides  asserted,  that  his  or- 
thodoxy was  liable  to  suspicion,  and  that  he 
held  some  unsound  opinions  respecting  the 
Eucharist  and  infant  baptism.  In  conse- 
quence of  these  various  charges,  he  was  con- 
demned by  a  Lateran  Council,  in  1139 :  he 
immediately  retired  from  Italy,  and  transfer- 
red his  popular  declamation  to  Zurich,  in 
Switzerland. 

Adrian  IV.  Not  many  years  afterwards, 
encouraged  by  the  independent  spirit  which 
was  rising  at  Rome,  he  boldly  selected  that 
metropolis  for  the  scene  of  his  two-fold  exer- 
tions against  papacy  and  despotism.  In  the 
meantime  (in  the  year  1154)  a  man  of  decided 
firmness  and  energy  had  obtained  possession 
of  the  Chair.  Adrian  IV.,  the  only  English- 
man who  ever  attained  that  dignity,  had  raised 
himself  from  the  very  lowest  office  in  society  * 
to  the  throne  of  St.  Peter ;  and  though  the  ar- 
rogance which  he  then  exhibited  might  en- 
tirely belong  to  his  latest  fortunes,  an  intrepid 
resolution,  tempered  by  the  most  refined  ad- 
dress, must  have  characterized  every  stage  of 
his  progress ;  since  these  are  qualities  which 
offices  and  dignities  may  exercise,  but  can 
never  bestow.  In  the  year  following  his  ele- 
vation, one  of  his  cardinals  was  dangerously 
wounded  in  some  tumult  excited  by  the  asso- 
ciates of  Arnold.  Adrian  instantly  placed  the 
city  of  Rome  under  an  interdict ;  the  churches 
were  closed,  and  the  divine  offices  for  some 
time  suspended,  in  the  very  heart  of  the 
Catholic  church.  The  priests  and  the  people 
wearied  the  pontifical  chair  with  supplications 
for  a  recall  of  the  edict,  but  Adrian  did  not  re- 
lent until  Arnold  and  his  associates  were  ex-, 
pelled  from  the  city.  'All  the  people  (says 
Fleury)  blessed  God  for  this  mercy:  on  the 

sions  belonged  to  the  prince,  and  that  he  alone  could 
bestow  them,  and  on  laymen  only;  that  the  clergy 
ought  to  live  on  the  tithes  and  the  voluntary  oblations 
of  the  people,  content  with  a  moderate  and  frugal 
sufficiency.  Pagi,  Vit.  Innocent  II.,  sect,  lxix.,  re- 
fers to  Otho  Frisingensis.  The  ravings  (deliramenta) 
of  Peter  de  Bruis  were  condemned  on  the  same  occa- 
sion. That  Heresiarch  objected  to  the  reverence  paid 
to  the  cross,  denied  the  daily  sacrifice  of  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ,  and  the  efficacy  of  prayers  or  alms 
for  the  dead,  besides  other  unpardonable  errors. 

*  His  name  was  Nicholas  Breakspeare  :  going  to 
Aries,  in  Provence,  he  was  admitted  in  the  quality  of 
servant  to  the  Canons  of  St.  Rufus,  where  he  became 
monk,  and  in  the  sequel  Abbot  and  General  of  the 
Order. 


PAPAL  HISTORY. 


259 


fblloAving  day  (Holy  Thursday,)  they  rushed 
from  every  quarter  to  receive  the  customary 
absolution,  and  a  vast  multitude  of  pilgrims 
was  also  present.  Then  the  Pope,  attended 
by  bishops  and  cardinals,  and  a  numerous 
troop  of  nobles,  came  forth  from  his  residence, 
and  crossing  the  extent  of  Rome,  amidst  the 
acclamations  of  the  people,  arrived  at  the  La- 
teran  Palace,  where  he  celebrated  the  festival 
of  Easter.' 

Frederic  Barbarossa.  Soon  afterwards,  Ar- 
nold unhappily  fell  into  the  power  of  Frederic 
Barbarossa,  who  was  then  in  Italy  on  his  ad- 
vance to  Rome ;  and  the  Emperor,  probably 
actuated  by  a  common  dislike  to  independence 
and  innovation  under  every  form,  yielded  up 
his  prisoner  to  the  solicitations  of  the  Pope. 
He  was  conducted  to  Rome,  and  subjected  to 
the  partial  judgment  of  an  ecclesiastical  tribu- 
nal. His  guilt  was  eagerly  pronounced,  the 
prefect  of  the  city  delivered  his  sentence,  and 
he  was  burnt  alive,  'in  the  presence  of  a 
careless  and  ungrateful  people.'  But  lest  this 
same  multitude,  with  the  same  capriciousness, 
should  presently  turn  to  adore  the  martyr  and 
offer  worship  at  his  tomb,  his  ashes  were  con- 
temptuously scattered  over  the  bosom  of  the 
Tiber.  His  name  has  been  the  subject  of 
splendid  panegyric  and  scandalous  calumny : 
with  its  claims  to  political  celebrity,  we  have 
no  concern  in  this  history ;  but  in  respect  to 
his  disputes  with  the  church,  we  may  venture 
to  rank  Arnold  of  Brescia  among  those  earnest 
but  inconsiderate  reformers,  whose  premature 
opposition  to  established  abuses  produced  little 
immediate  result  except  their  own  discomfi- 
ture and  destruction ;  but  whose  memory  has 
become  dear,  as  their  example  has  been  useful, 
to  a  happier  and  a  wiser  posterity ;  whom  we 
celebrate  as  martyrs  to  the  best  of  human 
principles,  and  whose  very  indiscretions  we 
account  to  them  for  zeal  and  virtue. 

Frederic  Barbarossa,  whose  elevation  was 
nearly  contemporaneous  with  that  of  Adrian, 
had  also  announced  his  intention  to  restrain 
the  increasing  wealth  and  moderate  the  inso- 
lence of  the  Pope  and  his  clergy ;  and  in  1155, 
he  proceeded  to  Rome  for  the  purposes  of 
celebrating  his  coronation,  and  commencing 
his  reform :  but  he  found  the  Pontiff  as  firm 
and  as  powerful  to  resist  imperial  interference 
as  to  quell  domestic  disorder.  And  so  far  was 
Adrian,  on  this  occasion,  from  betraying  the 
interests  of  his  order,  or  the  prerogatives  of 
his  office,  that  he  even  asserted  a  recent  and 
ambiguous  and  singularly  offensive  claim  — 
he  demanded  the  personal  service  of  the  Em- 


peror to  hold  his  stirrup  when  he  mounted 
his  horse.*  A  precedent  for  this  indignity 
having  been  pointed  out  to  him,  Barbarossa, 
the  haughtiest  prince  in  Europe,  at  the  head 
of  a  powerful  and  obedient  army,  submitted 
to  an  office  of  servitude,  which  he  may  possi- 
bly have  mistaken  for  Christian  humiliation. 
But,  however  that  may  be,  the  triumph  of  the 
See  over  so  great  a  monarch  proved  the  sub- 
stantial reality  of  its  power,  and  the  awe 
which  it  deeply  inspired  into  the  most  intre- 
pid minds. 

Some  vexatious  pretensions  of  Adrian  re- 
specting the  regalia,  and  a  gratuitous  insinu- 
ation that  Frederic  held  the  empire  as  a  fief 
(beneficium)  from  Rome,  served  to  keep  alive 
a  jealous  irritation  between  the  Church  and 
the  empire,  though  peace  was  not  actually 
interrupted.  Frederic,  on  the  other  hand, 
published,  in  1158,  an  edict,  of  which  the  ob- 
ject was  to  prevent  the  transfer  of  fiefs  with- 
out the  knowledge  and  consent  of  the  superior 
or  lord  in  whose  name  they  were  held.  It 
was  by  such  unauthorized  transfers  of  feudal 
property  that  the  territories  of  the  Church  had 
for  a  long  period  been  gradually  swollen,  so 
as  to  spread  themselves  in  every  direction 
over  the  surface  of  Europe.  The  law  in 
question  was  well  calculated  to  check  their 
further  increase,  and  it  seems  to  have  been 
the  first  that  was  enacted  for  that  purpose. 
Its  obvious  tendency  did  not  escape  the  di- 
rectors of  the  Church  ;  but  the  opposition 
which  it  had  peculiarly  to  expect  from  the 
Holy  See  was  suspended  by  the  death  of 
Adrian  and  the  confusion  which  followed  it. 

Alexander  III.  Alexander  III.  was  imme- 
diately elected  by  a  very  large  majority  of 
the  cardinals ;  but  as  some  of  the  other  party 
still  persisted  in  supporting  a  rival  named 
Octavian,f  Frederic,  on  his  own  authority, 
summoned  a  General  Council  at  Pavia  to 
decide  on  their  claims.  Alexander  disputed 
the  Emperor's  right  to  arbitrate  or  at  all  to 
interfere  in  the  schisms  of  the  Church  ;  £  and, 

*  '  This  homage '  (says  Gibbon)  '  was  paid  by 
kings  to  archbishops,  and  by  vassals  to  their  lords; 
and  it  was  the  nicest  policy  of  Rome  to  confound  the 
marks  of  filial  and  feudal  subjection.'     Chap.  69. 

t  After  the  death  of  Octavian,  Alexander  had  still 
to  struggle  successively  with  three  other  Antipopes. 
The  second,  called  by  his  adherents  Calixtus  III., 
was  appointed  in  1168,  and  abdicated  in  about  ten 
years;  but  his  party  replaced  him  by  another  puppet, 
whom  they  called  Innocent  III. 

%  Frederic  had  two  precedents  for  his  claim,  though 
he  might  not  perhaps  much  regard,  or  even  know, 
that  circumstance.    In  408  Honorius  held  a  Council 


2G0 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


as  he  refused  to  present  himself  at  the  Coun- 
cil, his  rival  was  declared  to  be  duly  elected, 
and  the  decision  received  the  approbation  of 
the  Emperor.  But  Alexander  was  still  sus- 
tained by  the  more  faithful  and  powerful  party 
within  the  Church,  and  acknowledged  by 
most  of  the  sovereigns  of  Europe  ;  and  from 
these  supports  he  derived  confidence  suffi- 
cient to  excommunicate  his  adversary,  and  to 
absolve  his  subjects  from  their  oath  of  fidelity. 
But  Frederic  did  not  feel  the  blow ;  he  pro- 
ceeded to  place  his  creature  in  possession  of 
the  pontifical  city,  while  Alexander  adopted 
the  resolution,  so  commonly  followed  by  his 
successors  in  after  ages,  to  seek  security  in  the 
territories  of  France.  He  withdrew  to  Mont- 
pelier  with  his  whole  court,  and  resided  in 
that  neighborhood  for  the  space  of  three  years, 
till  circumstances  enabled  him  to  return  to 
Rome  in  1165.  Here  he  was  soon  afterwards 
assailed  by  Frederic  in  person,  and  though 
defended  for  some  little  time  by  the  ambigu- 
ous and  venal  fidelity  *  of  the  Romans,  he  was 
finally  obliged  to  escape  in  the  disguise  of  a 
pilgrim.  He  retired  to  Benevento,  but  not  till 
he  had  thundered  another  anathema  against 
Frederic ,  and  on  this  occasion  he  not  only 
deprived  him  of  the  throne,  but  also  forbade, 
'  by  the  authority  of  God,  that  he  should 
thereafter  have  any  force  in  battle,  or  triumph 
over  any  Christian;  or  that  he  should  enjoy 
anywhere  peace  or  repose,  until  he  had  given 
sufficient  proofs  of  his  penitence.' f  The  de- 
nunciations contained  in  this  frightful  sen- 
tence were  not,  indeed,  wholly  accomplished  ; 
yet  did  it  so  come  to  pass,  that  Frederic  was 
obliged  to  retire  almost  immediately  from 
Rome  by  the  sickness  of  his  army  ;  and  that, 
hi  the  long  and  destructive  war  which  follow- 
ed, he  suffered  such  reverses  as  to  find  it  ex- 
pedient (in  the  year  1177)  to  sign  a  disad- 
vantageous treaty  with  the  Pope.  \    The  war 

at  Ravenna  to  decide  the  disputed  election  between 
Boniface  and  Eulalius,  and  his  decision  was  followed 
by  the  Church.  Afterwards  the  schism  between  Sym- 
machus  and  Laurentius  was  terminated  by  Theodoric, 
though  an  Arian.  The  imperial  power  does  not  ap- 
pear to  have  been  disputed  in  either  instance. 

*  It  appears  that  he  could  secure  little  influence 
over  the  Roman  people,  '  who,  pretending  to  wish 
well  to  both  parties,  were  faithful  to  neither,'  until 
he  received  a  large  sum  of  money  from  William,  his 
Sicilian  vassal.  Fleury,  H.  E.,  liv.  Ixxi.,  sec.  34, 
&c.  &c. 

t  See  Pagi,  Vit.  Alexandra  III.,  6ect.  66,  who 
reasonably  assigns  this  event  to  the  year  1167. 

%  Alexander  is  accused,  and  with  some  justice,  of 
having  too  exclusively  consulted  his  own  interests  in 
this  affair,  and  of  having  negotiated  a  truce  only  for 


was  for  the  most  part  carried  on  in  the  North 
of  Italy  ;  and  as  it  was  fomented  by  the  ad- 
dress and  policy,  rather  than  by  the  sword,  of 
Alexander,  the  calm  expression  of  his  exulta- 
tion was  in  some  manner  justified — '  it  hath 
pleased  God  (he  said)  to  permit  an  old  man 
and  a  priest  to  triumph  without  the  use  of 
arms  over  a  powerful  and  formidable  em- 
peror.' * 

From  that  time  Alexander  possessed  in 
security  the  chair  which  he  had  merited  by 
his  persevering  exertions,  as  well  as  by  his 
various  virtues.  He  immediately  turned  his 
attention  to  the  internal  condition  of  the 
Church,  and  his  first  object  was  to  remove 
from  his  successors  an  evil  which  had  so  long 
and  so  dangerously  afflicted  himself.  Accord- 
ingly he  summoned  (in  1179)  a  Council,  com- 
monly called  the  third  of  Lateran,  and  there 
enacted  those  final  regulations  f  respecting 
papal  election  which  have  already  been  men- 
tioned. 

Among  the  very  few  characters  which 
throw  an  honorable  lustre  upon  the  dark 
procession  of  pontifical  names,  we  may  con- 
fidently record  that  of  Alexander  III.,  not 
only  from  the  splendor  of  his  talents,  his  con- 
stancy, and  his  success,  but  frozn  a  still  nobler 
claim  which  he  possesses  on  our  admiration. 
He  was  the  zealous  champion  of  intellectual 
advancement,  and  the  determined  foe  of  igno- 
rance. The  system  of  his  internal  adminis- 
tration was  regulated  by  this  principle,  and  he 
carried  it  to  the  most  generous  extent.  He 
made  inquiries  in  foreign  countries,  and  espe- 
cially in  France,  for  persons  eminent  for  learn- 
ing, that  he  might  promote  them,  without  re- 
gard to  birth  »r  influence,  to  the  highest  eccle- 
siastical dignities.'  He  caused  large  numbers  of 
the  Italian  Clergy,  to  whom  their  own  country 
did  not  supply  sufficient  means  of  instruction, 
to  proceed  to  Paris  for  their  more  liberal  edu- 
cation ;  and  having  learnt  that  in  some  places 
the  chapters  of  cathedrals  exacted  fees  from 
young  proficients  before  they  licensed  them 
to  lecture  publicly,  Alexander  removed  the 
abuse,  and  abolished  every  restriction  which 

his  faithful  allies,  while  he  secured  an  honorable  and 
profitable  peace  for  himself.  Denina  (Rivol.  d'  Ital. 
L.  xi.  C.  iv.)  calls  it  a  '  Pace  particolare  fra  Ales- 
sandro  HI.  e  Federico.' 

*  3Iuratori,  in  his  forty-eighth  dissertation,  de- 
scribes.  Frederic  as  '  Vir  alti  animi,  acris  ingenii, 
multarumque  virtutum  consensu  ornatus.' 

f  These  regulations  were  so  effectual,  that  during 
the  600  following  years,  a  double  choice  (as  Gibbon 
observes)  only  once  disturbed  the  unity  of  the  College 
Chap.  69. 


PAPAL   HISTORY. 


2G1 


had  been  arbitrarily  imposed  on  the  free  ad- 
vance of  learning.  At  the  same  time  he  was 
not  so  blinded  by  this  zeal  as  to  consider  the 
mere  exercise  of  the  understanding  as  a  suffi- 
cient guarantee  for  moral  improvement.  But 
observing,  on  the  contrary,  with  great  appre- 
hension the  progress  of  the  scholastic  system 
of  theology,  and  the  numberless  vaiu  disputa- 
tions to  which  it  gave  rise,  he  assembled  a 
very  large  Council  of  Men  of  Letters*  for  the 
purpose  of  condemning  that  system,  and  dis- 
couraging its  prevalence  at  Paris. 

He  died  in  1181 :  in  the  course  of  the  ten 
following  years  four  pontiffs  ruled  and  passed 
away,  and  in  1191  the  chair  was  occupied  by 
Celestine  III.,  the  fifth  from  Alexander.  This 
prelate  has  deserved  a  place  in  the  history  of 
mankind  by  the  protection  which  he  afforded 
to  Richard  I.  of  England,  when  imprisoned  on 
his  return  from  the  Holy  Land.  He  died  in 
1198,  and  was  succeeded  by  Lotharius,  Count 
of  Segni,  a  Cardinal  Deacon,  who  assumed 
the  name  of  Innocent  III. 

We  shall  conclude  this  account  with  a  few 
of  the  observations  which  most  naturally  offer 
themselves.  From  the  moment  that  the  Ro- 
man See  put  forward  its  claims  to  temporal 
authority,  its  history  presents  a  spectacle  of 
contentions,  varying  indeed  in  character  and 
in  bitterness,  but  in  their  succession  almost  un- 
interrupted. The  retrospect  of  the  period  of 
one  hundred  and  fifteen  years,  of  which  the 
most  memorable  circumstances  have  now  been 
related,  presents  to  us  a  mass  of  angry  dissen- 
sions, which  may  generally  be  distinguished 
into  three  classes:  (1.)  The  first  and  most 
nrominent  of  these  contains  such  quarrels  as 
arose  in  continuation  of  the  grand  debate  "be- 
tween the  popedom  and  the  empire.  It  was 
not  sufficient  that  the  original  matter  of  dis- 
pute was  removed  by  the  concordat  of  Calix- 
tus ;  the  roots  of  animosity  lay  deeper  than  the 
form  of  an  investiture,  and  they  had  branched 
out  more  widely  and  more  vigorously  during 
the  contest  which  succeeded  that  concordat. 
The  coronation  of  every  new  emperor  was 
now  attended  by  a  new  dispute,  which  usually 
caused  immediate  bloodshed,  and  was  some- 
times prolonged  into  obstinate  warfare.  Rome 
nad  never  a  more  formidable  German  adver- 
sary than  Frederic  Barbarossa  ;  yet  so  far  was 
he  from  obtaining  any  lasting  advantage  over 
ner,  that  the  papal  pretensions  appear  to  have 
gained  considerably  both  in  consistency  and 
general  credit  during  his  reign,  or,  to  speak 


*  Three  thousand  gens  de  lettres  are  said  to  have 
been  assembled  on  that  occasion.  Hist.  Litt  de  la 
France,  xii.  siecle. 


more  properly,  during  the  pontificate  of  Alex- 
ander III.  Frederic  was  not  justified  in  con- 
testing the  legitimacy  of  that  pontiff.  What- 
sover  general  rights  he  might  possess  over  the 
Roman  church  (and  they  were  very  vague  and 
could  only  be  temporal ;)  whatsoever  prece- 
dents he  might  plead  for  interference  (and 
those  were  veiy  remote,  and  not  wholly  ap- 
plicable to  the  present  case  ;)  the  election  of 
Alexander  was  unquestionably  valid,  accord- 
ing to  the  canons  which  had  been  enacted  a 
century  before  and  never  repealed  or  contest- 
ed, and  according  to  the  practice  of  the  See 
since  the  days  of  Gregory  VII.  Assuredly, 
the  desire  to  recover  an  obsolete  privilege, 
virtually  ceded  by  the  silence  of  intervening 
treaties,  was  excuse  insufficient  for  that  vio- 
lent opposition,  which  did  properly  terminate 
in  defeat  and  humiliation,  as  it  was  com- 
menced and  continued  in  injustice.  (2.)  The 
contentions  among  the  rival  candidates  for 
the  pontifical  chair,  so  scandalous  and  so  usual 
in  former  periods,  had  abated  nothing  of  their 
rage  in  the  present ;  for  though  they  changed 
their  character,  they  lost  not  any  part  of  their 
virulence,  from  the  intermixture  of  political 
animosity.  The  short  reigns  of  the  greater 
number  of  the  pontiffs,  and  the  most  trifling 
divisions  in  the  college,  gave  frequent  occa- 
sion, and  some  pretext,  for  popular  interfer- 
ence ;  and  this  could  never  be  exercised  with- 
out excess.  The  regulation  of  Nicholas  II. 
was  not  in  fact  of  much  real  advantage,  except 
as  a  preparatory  measure  to  that  of  Alexander 
III., — for  it  was  vain  to  exclude  from  positive 
election  an  unprincipled  and  venal  mob,  as 
long  as  they  retained  a  negative  influence, — it 
was  of  no  avail,  as  a  final  arrangement,  to 
forbid  their  suffrage,  and  to  require  their  con- 
sent,— for  the  turbulent  expression  of  their 
disapprobation  was  instantly  seized  by  the 
defeated  candidate,  as  furnishing  some  hope 
for  success,  or,  at  least,  some  plea  for  perse- 
verance. And  perhaps  it  was  not  the  least 
evil  of  those  tumults,  that  they  encouraged 
and  almost  invited  the  interference  of  the 
emperor,  so  seldom  offered  with  any  friendly 
intention.  There  was  no  other  possible  me- 
thod of  securing  at  once  the  justice  and  decen- 
cy of  papal  election,  than  by  the  entire  exclu- 
sion of  the  people — this  measure  was  at  length 
effected  by  Alexander.  (3.)  Of  another  des- 
cription again  were  those  dissensions  which 
distracted  the  several  kingdoms  of  Europe  by 
the  internal  division  of  the  church  and  the 
state, — that  is,  by  the  opposition  of  the  eccle- 
siastical to  the  civil  authorities.  But  since  in 
these  matters  the  affairs  of  every  nation  con 


262 


HISTORY   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


stitute  histories  essentially  distinct  from  each 
other,  and  mainly  influenced,  in  every  in- 
stance, by  civil  concerns ;  and  since  the  de- 
tached incidents  which  we  might  produce 
would  form  independent  narratives,  standing 
for  the  most  part  on  separate  foundations,  it 
would  be  difficult,  in  these  limited  pages,  to 
give  them  consistency,  or  even  coherence. 
We  must,  therefore,  content  ourselves  with 
referring  to  the  annals  of  the  different  nations 
for  the  details  of  such  disputes  ;  to  those  of 
France,  for  instance,  for  the  quarrel  between 
Louis  le  Gros  and  the  Bishop  of  Paris,  who 
had  the  boldness  to  excommunicate  his  sove- 
reign ;  and  to  those  of  our  own  country  for  the 
particulars  of  the  aggression  of  William  Rufus 
on  the  property  of  the  church,  made  during  the 
pontificate  of  Urban  II.,  and  of  the  protection 
perseveringly  vouchsafed  to  Thomas  a  Becket 
by  the  piety  or  policy  of  Alexander  III. 

To  those  abovementioned  we  might  rea- 
sonably add  another  form  of  discord  which 
was  beginning  obscurely  to  present  itself,  with 
omens  and  menaces  of  tribulation.  The  voice 
of  heresy  had  been  already  raised  in  the  val- 
leys of  France,  and  the  ministers  of  spiritual 
despotism  had  already  bestirred  themselves  for 
its  suppression.  But  this  subject  is  so  pecu- 
liarly connected  with  the  celebrity  of  Inno- 
cent III.,  that  we  shall  not  disconnect  it  from 
his  name. 


II.  Education  and  theological  learning.  The 
gradual  establishment  of  the  peculiar  doctrines 
and  practices  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  though 
occasionally  influenced  by  the  vicissitudes  of 
literature,  is  not  inseparably  connected  with  its 
history,  but  was  promoted  in  different  ages  by 
very  different  causes.     It  is  indeed  remarked, 
that  in  the  tenth  century  the  disputes  respecting 
predestination  and  other  subtile  questions  be- 
came less  common,  and  gave  place  to  the  final 
establishment  of  the  doctrine  of  Purgatory,— 
a  change  well  suited  to  the  transition  from  an 
age  (the  ninth,)  distinguished  by  some  efforts  of 
intellectual  inquisitiveness,  into  one  remarkable 
for  the  general  prostration  of  the  human  un- 
derstanding.    But,  on  the  other  hand,  we  find 
that,  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  ages,  the  ne- 
cessity of  secret  confession  was  more  strictly  and 
assiduously  inculcated;  yet  the  firmer  riveting 
of  that  spiritual  chain  cannot  certainly  be  attri- 
buted to  any  further  access  of  darkness.     In 
fact,  the  contrary  was  the  case,  since  the  par- 
tial revival  of  letters  is  very  justly  ascribed  to 
that  period.     But  the  innovation  which  we 
have  last  mentioned,  and  to  which   others 
might  be  added,  was    probably   occasioned 


by  the  disputes  then  prevailing  between  the 
church  and  the  empire,  which  made  it  neces- 
sary to  extend  by  every  exertion  the  influence 
of  the  clergy  over  their  lay  fellow-subjects. 
Again,  the  use  of  indulgences  in  the  place 
of  canonical  penance,  which  grew  up  in  the 
twelfth  age,  was  one  of  the  earliest  and  most 
pernicious  creations    of   the  crusades,    and 
wholly  independent  of  the  growth  and  move- 
ments of  literature.  But  notwithstanding  these 
and  many  other  points  of  disconnexion,  there 
has  ever  existed  a  sort  of  general  correspon- 
dence between  religion  and  learning,  most 
especially  remarkable  in  those  ages  when  the 
ministers  of  the  one  could  alone  give  access 
to  the  mysteries  of  the  other,  and  when  the 
only  incentive  to  studious  application  was 
religious  zeal  or  ecclesiastical  ambition  ;  so 
that  it  would  be  as  improper  entirely  to  sepa- 
rate those  subjects  as  it  would  be  impossible, 
in  these  pages,  to  enter  very  deeply  into  dis- 
cussion concerning  the  ecclesiastical  literature 
of  so  many  ages.     We  shall  therefore  content 
ourselves  by  striving  from  time  to  time  to  il- 
lustrate this  work  by  such  subsidiary  lights  as 
shall  most  obviously  present  themselves,  so 
far  at  least  as  regards  the  different  forms  of 
theological  learning,  and  the  methods  of  the- 
ological education.    At  present,  after  a  very 
brief  review  of  earlier  times,  we  shall  conclude 
our  imperfect  inquiries  at  the  end  of  the 
eleventh  century. 

Early  Schools.  The  earliest  schools  estab- 
lished in  the  provinces  of  the  Western  Em- 
pire were  of  civil  foundation,  and  intended 
entirely  for  the  purposes  of  civil  education ; 
and  so  they  continued  until  the  social  system 
was  subverted  by  the  barbarian  conquest. 
This  revolution  affected  the  literary  in  com- 
mon with  all  other  institutions :  in  the  course 
of  the  sixth  century  profane  learning  entire- 
ly disappeared,  together  with  the  means  of 
acquiring  it ;  and  before  its  conclusion,  the 
office  of  instruction  had  passed  entirely  into 
the  hands  of  the  clergy.  The  municipal 
schools  of  the  empire  gave  place  to  cathedral 
or  episcopal  establishments,  which  were  at- 
tached, in  eveiy  diocese,  to  the  residence  of 
the  bishop  ;  and  throughout  the  country  ele- 
mentary schools  were  formed  in  many  of  the 
monasteries,  and  even  in  the  manses  of  the 
parochial  priesthood. 

The  system  of  education  which  prevailed 
in  those  of  Italy,  and  which  was  probably 
very  general,  is  described  by  the  canon*  which 


*  Concilium  Vasense  Secundum  (529  A.  D.)    The 
materials  for  the  following  pages  are  principally  taken 


EDUCATION. 


263 


enjoins  it: — 'Let  all  presbyters  who  are  ap- 
pointed to  parishes,  according  to  the  custom 
bo  wholesomely  established  throughout  all 
Italy,  receive  the  younger  readers  into  their 
houses  with  them,  and  feeding  them,  like  good 
fathers,  with  spiritual  nourishment,  labor  to 
instruct  them  in  preparing  the  Psalms,  in  in- 
dustry of  holy  reading,  and  in  the  law  of  the 
Lord.'  Such  regulations  prove,  no  doubt  (if 
they  were  really  enforced,)  that  the  education 
of  the  clergy  was  not  entirely  neglected  :  but 
they  prove  also,  that  such  education,  even  in 
that  early  age,  was  confined  to  the  clergy, 
and  that  it  embraced  no  subjects  of  secular 
erudition.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  the  names 
of  rhetoric,  dialectics,  and  the  former  subjects 
of  civil  instruction,  were  perpetuated  in  the 
ecclesiastical  seminaries ;  but  those  sciences 
were  only  taught,  as  they  were  connected,  or 
might  be  brought  into  connexion,  with  theolo- 
gy, and  made  instrumental  in  the  service  of 
the  church.* 

But  even  this  partial  glimmering  of  know- 
ledge was  extinguished  by  the  invasion  of  the 
Lombards,  and  the  very  genius  of  Italy  seems 
to  have  been  chilled  and  contracted  by  the 
iron  grasp  of  the  seventh  century.  Rome 
alone  retained  any  warmth  or  pulsation  of 
learning ;  if  learning  that  can  be  called,  which 
scarcely  extended  beyond  a  superficial  ac- 
quaintance with  the  canons  of  the  church. 
And  though  there  exist  some  monuments, 
which  appear  to  prove  the  existence  of  pres- 
byteral  or  archi-presbyteral  schools  in  the 
eighth  century,  we  need  scarcely  hesitate  to 
prolong  to  the  middle  of  that  age  the  stupe- 
faction of  the  preceding,  and  to  attribute  the 
first  movement  of  reanimation  to  the  touch 
of  Charlemagne,  or  his  immediate  prede- 
cessor. 

While  Italy  was  thus  lifeless,  some  seeds 
from  the  plant  of  knowledge,  which  had  been 
blown  to  the  western  extremity  of  Europe, 
took  root  there,  and  reached  a  ceitain  matu- 
rity. Accordingly,  we  find  it  recorded,  that 
*  two  Irishmen,  persons  incomparably  skilled 
in  secular  and  sacred  learning,'  had  reached 


from  the  Dissertations  (43  and  44)  of  Muratori,  the 
Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France,  two  Discourses  of  Fleury, 
and  the  16th  Lecon  of  Guizot. 

*  The  reproach  addressed  by  Gregory  the  Great  to 
St.  Dizier,  Bishop  of  Vienne,  is  commonly  known. 
That  prelate  had  ventured  to  deliver  lessons  on 
*  Grammar '  in  his  cathedral  schools :  '  It  is  not  meet 
(said  the  pope)  that  lips  consecrated  to  the  praises 
of  God  should  open  to  those  of  Jupiter.'  The  exten- 
sive meaning  then  attached  to  the  word  grammar  will 
be  mentioned  presently. 


the  shores  of  France,  and  were  giving  public 
lectures  to  the  people.*  Their  fame  reached 
the  ears  of  Charlemagne,  who  immediately 
employed  them  in  the  education  of  the  youth 
of  Gaul  and  Italy. 

Alcuin,  as  we  have  mentioned,  enjoyed  the 
honor  of  affording  personal  instruction  to  the 
emperor  and  presiding  over  his  Palatine 
school ;  and  Dungal,  another  native  of  Ire- 
laud,f  has  acquired  some  importance  hi  the 
history  of  Italy  by  the  lessons  which  he  de- 
livered in  her  schools.  This  eagerness  of 
Charlemagne  to  avail  himself  of  foreign  talent 
and  acquirements  evinces  his  earnestness  in 
the  prosecution  of  his  great  project,  to  civilize 
by  the  path  of  knowledge — a  project  which 
failed  indeed  through  the  perversity  of  polit- 
ical circumstances  and  the  incapacity  of  most 
of  his  successors  ;  but  which,  if  persevering- 
ly  pursued,  must  generally  be  successful,  be- 
cause it  is  in  unison  with  the  natural  inclina- 
tions, and  energies,  and  prospects  of  the  mind 
of  man. 

France  profited  by  this  conjuncture  more 
rapidly  than  Italy,  as  she  had  not  previously 
fallen  quite  so  low  in  ignorance  :  and  it  would 
even  seem  that  the  schools,  which  were  now 
instituted  in  that  country,  were  open  to  the 
laity  as  well  as  to  those  intended  for  the  sacred 
profession,  though  the  office  of  instruction 
remained  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  clergy. 
But  it  is  certain,  that  very  few  were  found  to 
avail  themselves  of  a  privilege  of  which  they 
knew  not  the  value.  Among  the  numerous 
names,  which  adorn  the  literary  annals  of 
France  during  the  ninth  century,  there  are 
scarcely  one  or  two  which  are  not  ecclesiasti- 
cal. Even  Germany  outstripped  in  the  race 
of  improvement  the  languid  progress  of  Italy  ; 
and  under  a  sky  so  splendidly  prolific  of  taste 
and  genius  there  arose  not  any  one  character 
conspicuous,  even  in  his  own  day,  for  intel- 
lectual advancement,  through  a  space  of  more 
than  four  centuries4  And  this  extraordinary 
dearth  of  merit  is  not  entirely  to  be  charged 


*  Not  gratuitously,  it  would  seem,  as  literary  mis- 
sionaries, but  for  money  contributed  by  their  hearers. 

t  Scotus:  a  term  which  was  long  confined  to  the 
sister  island.  Muratori  condescends  to  employ  some 
pains  to  ascertain  whether  or  not  Dungal  was  a  monk, 
as  were  his  two  compatriots  mentioned  in  the  text  — 
a  question  deemed  of  some  importance  to  the  honor 
of  the  monastic  order. 

%  Some  may  consider  Pope  Nicholas  as  an  excep- 
tion ;  and  he  certainly  possessed  great  talents,  and 
was  not  devoid  of  canonical  learning,  though  in  both 
respects  probably  much  inferior  to  Hincmar.  But 
hia  character  was  essentially  ecclesiastical  ;  it  wag 
not  adorned  by  any  recollection  purely  literary. 


264 


HISTORY    OF   THE   CHURCH. 


on  the  neglect  of  rulers,  whether  temporal  or 
spiritual.  Italy  shared  with  his  other  provin- 
ces the  admirable  institutions  of  Charlemagne 
and  of  some  of  his  successors ;  and  there  are 
canons  of  Roman  councils  still  extant,  pub- 
lished in  the  ninth  century,*  which  directed 
the  suspension  of  any  among  the  priesthood 
who  should  be  convicted  of  ignorance,  and 
provided  means  for  the  instruction  of  the  ru- 
ral clergy,  f  But  these  measures,  though  they 
might  possibly  secure  a  mediocrity  of  theo- 
logical acquirement,  were  insufficient  to  call 
forth  any  commanding  spirit  into  the  field  of 
literature. 

The  tenth  century  did  not  increase  the  store 
of  knowledge,  nor  multiply  the  candidates  for 
fame  either  in  Italy  or  France.  J  In  France, 
the  depredations  of  the  Normans  during  the 
conclusion  of  the  preceding  age,  destroyed 
not  only  the  leisure  and  security,  but  even  the 
means  and  food  of  study.  For  in  their  sav- 
age incursions,  those  unlettered  pagans  direct- 
ed their  rage  against  the  monasteries,  as  being 
the  principal  seats  of  letters  and  religion  ;  the 
buildings  were  reparable,  but  the  manuscripts 
which  they  contained  perished  irretrievably. 
Nor  was  this  the  only  calamity,  nor  even  the 
most  fatal  of  the  injuries,  which  obstructed 
the  progress  of  learning:  for  it  was  during 
the  same  period  that  the  kingdom  of  France 
was  broken  up  into  small  principalities  under 
independent  hereditary  vassals,  who  despoiled 
the  people  of  the  few  rights  and  blessings 
which  they  had  possessed  under  a  single 
scepn-e,  and  whose  rule  permitted  the  license 
which  their  example  encouraged.  In  the 
prostration  of  human  laws  the  law  divine  was 
easily  forgotten,  and  the  hand  which  was  ac- 
customed to  robbery  did  not  long  refrain  from 
sacrilege.  In  such  wild  periods  the  wealth 
and  the  weakness  of  the  Clergy  have  always 
pointed  the  mout  as  the  earliest  victims  ;  §  and 
this  domestic  anarchy  was  probably  more 
effectual  in  arresting  the  steps  of  learning 


*  In  the  years  826  and  853. 

t  The  decree  of  Pope  Leo  IV.  is  cited  by  Muratori. 

t  The  two  leading  literary  heroes  of  France  during 
this  age  were  (1.)  St.  Odo,  Abbot  of  Cluni,  who 
wrote  some  theological  works  and  a  Life  of  St.  Gre- 
gory of  Tours— he  died  in  942— and  (2.)  Frodoard, 
Canon  of  Rheims,  who  composed  the  History  of  the 
Church  of  Rheims,  and  a  Chronicle,  extending  from 
919  to  966,  the  year  of  his  death. 

§  Most  of  the  monasteries  which  escaped  destruc- 
tion fell  into  the  hands  of  lay  Abbots,  who  used  them 
as  residences  or  castles,  or  usually  as  hunting-seats. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  foundation  of  Cluni,  in  the 
same  age,  compensated  the  loss  of  many  old,  and  pro- 
bably corrupt,  establishments. 


and  civilization  than  the  more  transient  tem- 
pests of  foreign  invasion.  We  shall  here  only 
pause  to  remark,  that  during  the  struggles  of 
this  frightful  period,  the  defence  of  the  tower 
of  knowledge,  as  heretofore  its  construction, 
was  intrusted  by  Providence  to  ecclesiastical 
hands  ;  while  its  walls  were  incessantly  men- 
aced or  violated  by  a  lawless  military  aristoc- 
racy, which  had  closely  wrapped  itself  in  ig- 
norance, and  was  partly  jealous  and  partly 
contemptuous  of  every  exertion  to  improve 
and  enlighten  mankind. 

We  are  not  surprised  to  observe  that  a  con- 
dition of  civil  demoralization,  such  as  then 
existed,  should  have  been  attended  by  cor- 
ruption in  every  rank  of  the  clergy.  The 
Bishops  were  negligent  and  immoral,  and  the 
inferior  orders  indulged  in  still  grosser  vices 
and  more  offensive  indecencies ;  *  and  we 
may  be  well  assured  that  the  laity  were  still 
further  debased  by  the  example  of  deformi- 
ties, which  their  own  turbulence  had  so  great- 
ly tended  to  create. 

Comets,  and  eclipses,  and  earthquakes  were 
fearful  prodigies  and  sure  prognostics  of  dis- 
aster, and  the  most  penetrating  astronomers  f 
of  the  day  shared  (or  pretended  to  share)  the 
common  solicitude.  Enchantments,  augu- 
ries, and  divinations  were  ardently  sought 
after,  and  commanded  implicit  belief.  The 
forms  of  trial  called  '  the  Judgments  of  God,' 
were  of  the  same  description,  and  scarcely 
less  remote  from  the  precincts  of  reason  ; 
and  yet  these  degrading  superstitions,  though 
never  canonically  received  as  a  part  of 
Church  discipline,  and  even  continually  com- 
bated by  the  more  enlightened  ecclesiastics, 
were  both  respected  and  practised  among  the 
lower  Clergy  during  this  and  the  three  fol- 
lowing ages. 

Howbeit,  even  in  the  dreary  records  of  this 
century  we  find  traces  of  parochial  schools 
for  the  instruction  of  children  of  both  sexes ;  + 
and  we  read  a  long  list  of  literary  worthies 


*  In  the  enumeration  of  these  by  the  truly  Catholic 
compilers  of  the  Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France,  it  is  men- 
tioned, as  not  the  lightest  scandal,  that  '  there  were 
priests  who  dared  to  marry  publicly.' 

t  Astrologers,  we  should  rather  say.  Muratori 
(Dissert.  44)  attributes  the  introduction  of  these  van- 
ities to  the  study  of  Arabic  literature.  But  was  that 
study  generally  in  fashion  before  the  time  of  Pope 
Sylvester  1 

%  According  to  the  regulations  of  that  at  Toul  tha 
children  were  admissible  at  seven  years  of  age,  and 
received  their  first  lessons  in  the  Psalms;  and  it  was 
provided  that  the  boys  and  girls  should  be  taught  sep- 
arately. The  parochial  cures  appear  (as  in  Italy)  to 
i  have  had  the  charge  of  such  establishments. 


EDUCATION. 


265 


whose  names  have  in  many  cases  survived 
their  works,  and  whose  works  were  chiefly 
remarkable  for  the  meanness  of  their  sub- 
jects, and  the  perplexed  or  puerile  manner  in 
which  they  are  treated.  And  yet  even  these 
are  sufficient  to  exhibit  to  us  the  spirit  of 
improvement  striving  against  the  casual  tor- 
rents which  threatened  to  wash  it  away ;  and 
though  it  unquestionably  receded  during  the 
calamitous  interval  between  the  death  of 
Hincmar  and  the  end  of  the  tenth  century,* 
still,  if  we  look  somewhat  farther  back,  and 
confine  our  attention  to  the  country  about 
which  we  are  best  informed,  we  need  not 
hesitate  to  pronounce  that  the  literary  condi- 
tion of  France  was,  upon  the  whole,  more 
prosperous  when  Sylvester  II.  ascended  the 
chair,  than  when  Charlemagne  mounted  the 
throne  of  Rome. 

As  to  Italy,  the  spell  which  had  bound  her 
genius  during  the  preceding  centuries  seemed 
to  be  confirmed  and  riveted  in  the  tenth.  It  is 
true,  that  some  schools  were  yet  found  scatter- 
ed through  the  towns  and  villages,  which  may 
have  raised  the  character  of  the  clergy  some- 
what above  the  degradation  of  the  seventh 
and  eighth  centuries,  to  which  the  Lombard 
conquest  had  reduced  it ;  but  the  industry  of 
those  schools  appears  still  to  have  been  con- 
fined to  the  study  of  grammar  and  some 
necessary  knowledge  of  canonical  law  ;  and 
it  is  complained  that  the  nobles,  who  sent 
their  sons  to  them,  had  rather  in  view  the 
episcopal  dignities  for  which  they  thus  be- 
came qualified,  than  the  spiritual  fruits  of 
religious  education.  It  is  very  probable  that 
they  were  attended  by  none  of  any  class  ex- 
cepting those  intended  for  some  branch  of  the 
ministry. 

These  remarks  sufficiently  explain,  to  what 
extremely  narrow  limits  was  confined,  both 
in  respect  to  its  character  and  diffusion,  the 
learning  of  those  ages  which  immediately 
followed  the  subversion  of  the  Western  Em- 
pire. From  civil,  it  had  passed  under  ec- 
clesiastical superintendence ;  but  the  Church 
which  undertook  the  charge  was  itself  cor- 
rupted and  barbarized  by  contact  with  the 


*  About  this  time  the  establishment  of  some  Greek 
commonalties  took  place  in  Lorraine,  introducing  a 
partial  knowledge  of  that  language.  And  these  Ori- 
entals were  there  encountered  by  certain  emigrants 
from  Ireland,  a  country  which  appears  never  to  have 
forfeited  the  affections,  nor  to  have  secured  the  resi- 
dence, of  its  sons.  '  Nationem  Scotorum  quibus  con- 
suetudo  peregrinandi  jam  paene  in  naturam  conversa 
est.'  Walafridus  Strabus  (liv.  ii.,  c.  27,  de  vita 
Sancti  Galli),  apud  Murat.  Diss.  37. 
34 


profound  ignorance  and  rude  character  and 
institutions  of  the  conquerors:  so  that  the  im- 
mortal models  were  neglected,  the  precepts 
of  the  ancient  masters  forgotten,  and  the 
whole  light  of  literature,  properly  so  called, 
extinguished.  Nevertheless,  we  are  not  to 
suppose  that  the  ecclesiastics  of  those  days 
offered  to  their  contemporaries  no  substitute 
for  those  treasures  which  they  had  not  the 
means  or  the  inclination  to  dispense.  On 
the  contrary,  their  productions  were  at  some 
periods  extremely  abundant  in  number,  and 
in  character  far  from  unprofitable  :  and  on 
this  last  point  there  is  one  important  observa- 
tion, which  it  is  here  proper  to  make,  and 
which  we  press  the  more  seriously,  because 
it  is  not  very  commonly  urged.  These  writ- 
ings were  almost  wholly  confined  to  theolog- 
ical matters,  and  their  object  (however  faultily 
it  may  sometimes  have  been  pursued)  was 
practical.  Instructions,  sermons,  homilies,  in- 
terpretations and  illustrations  of  scripture, 
were  published  in  great  profusion,  and  fur- 
nished to  the  people  the  only  means  of  intel- 
lectual instruction.  It  is  true  that  they  were 
rude  and  unskilfully  composed ;  but  they 
were  addressed  to  rude  assemblies,  and  were 
for  the  most*  part  directed  to  the  moral  im- 
provement of  those  who  read  and  heard 
them  ;  and  moreover,  their  effect  to  that  end, 
whatsoever  it  may  have  been,  was  at  least  not 
counteracted  by  any  other  description  of  lit- 
erature :  the  whole  mass  had  one  object  only, 
and  that,  upon  the  whole,  beneficial.  Even 
the  l  Lives  of  the  Saints,'  and  other  legends 
of  those  days,  may  have  conduced,  though 
by  a  different  and  more  doubtful  path,  to  the 
same  purpose ;  '  for  among  the  swarms  of 
those  compositions  which  were  then  produc- 
ed, and  of  which  so  many  had  a  tendency  to 
mere  superstition,  some  may  be  found  un- 
questionably calculated  to  move  the  real  de- 
votion and  amend  the  moral  principles  of  a 
barbarous  people.  Thus  was  there  much 
even  in  the  effusions  of  the  most  illiterate 
times  which  must  have  persuaded,  influenc- 
ed, and  profited  the  generation  to  which  they 
were  addressed;  but  their  action  was  con- 
fined to  their  own  day,  to  the  moment  of 

*  It  is  unquestionable  that  these  writings  contained 
a  vast  deal  calculated  to  mislead,  many  errors  of  an 
absurd  and  superstitious  tendency;  but  these  evils 
were  probably  more  than  counterbalanced,  in  their 
immediate  effect  upon  the  people,  by  the  expositions 
of  sound  doctrine  and  lessons  of  practical  piety, 
which  are  even  more  abundant.  We  refer  as  a  fair 
example,  to  the  passage  of  St.  Eligius,  cited  at  tha 
conclusion  of  the  last  chapter. 


266 


HISTORY   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


their  delivery  ;  they  were  not  associated  with 
any  of  the  stable  wisdom  of  former  ages  ;  nor 
were  they  qualified,  nor  were  they  indeed  in- 
tended, to  fix  the  attention  of  posterity. 

Scarcity  of  Manuscripts.  Italy  had  suffered 
to  a  certain  extent  from  calamities  similar  to 
those  which  suspended  the  progress  of  France, 
and  which  were  there  followed  by  the  same 
moral  degeneracy;  but  these  causes  would 
scarcely  have  been  adequate  to  so  general  an 
extinction,  not  of  learning  only,but  almost  of 
the  curiosity  and  wish  to  learn,  had  they  not 
been  powerfully  aided  by  another  circum- 
stance, which  is  less  regarded  by  historians : 
this  was  no  other  than  the  extreme  scarcity 
and  dearness  of  manuscripts.  This  misfor- 
tune was  not  entirely,  nor  even  mainly,  at- 
tributable either  to  the  destruction  of  monas- 
teries or  the  indolence  of  monks :  a  more 
general  and  substantial  cause  existed  in  the 
absolute  deficiency  of  the  material.  The 
ancients  had  obtained  from  the  shores  of  the 
Nile,  through  easy  and  continual  intercourse 
with  Alexandria,  sufficient  supplies  of  papyrus 
to  satisfy  at  a  slight  expense  their  literary 
wants ;  but  after  the  conquest  of  Egypt  by 
the  Saracens,  the  communication  became  less 
frequent  and  secure,  and  the  fabric  of  an  im- 
plement of  peace  was  probably  discouraged 
by  the  warlike  habits  of  the  conquerors.  At 
least  it  is  certain,  that  about  that  period  the 
papyrus  began  to  be  disused  throughout  Eu- 
rope, and  that  the  monuments  which  remain 
of  the  seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  centuries, 
are  invariably  composed  of  parchment.  It 
was  not  possible,  when  the  material  was  so 
expensive,  that  manuscripts  could  multiply 
very  rapidly,  or  even  that  the  losses  occasion- 
ed by  decay  or  devastation  could  be  repaired 
with  any  facility;  and  thus  the  libraries  of 
the  cathedrals  and  monasteries,  to  which  all 
the  treasures  of  former  ages  were  at  this  period 
confided,  were  gradually  impoverished  or  de- 
stroyed. The  records  of  the  time  abound 
with  complaints  of  this  general  penury  of 
books,  as  well  as  with  facts  in  proof  of  it,  one 
of  which  is  the  following: — In  the  year  855, 
Lupus,  of  Ferrara,  wrote  from  his  abbey,  in 
France,  to  Pope  Benedict  III.,  praying  for  the 
loan  of  the  concluding  part  of  St.  Jerome's 
Commentary  on  Jeremiah,  with  the  promise 
that  it  should  be  rapidly  copied  and  returned 
— '  for  in  our  regions  nothing  is  to  be  found 
later  than  the  Sixth  Book,  and  we  pray  to  re- 
cover through  you,  that  which  is  wanting  to 
our  own  insignificance.'  In  addition  to  this, 
he  ventured  to  solicit  the  use  of  three  books 


of  profane  writers  —  the  Treatise  of  Cicero 
de  Oratore,  the  Institutions  of  Quintilian,  and 
Donatus's  Commentary  on  Terence. 

Muratori  considers  the  zealous  Abbot's  re- 
quest as  unreasonable  and  immoderate,  and 
we  do  not  learn  whether  the  Pope  consented 
to  grant  it;  but  if  the  resources  of  France 
were  really  unable  to  supply  him  with  the 
books  in  question,  we  need  not  distrust  him 
when  he  laments  the  general  scarcity  of  an- 
cient and  valuable  compositions.  This  con- 
sideration will  prevent  the  disdainful  feeling 
which  is  almost  necessarily  roused,  when  we 
observe  a  succession  of  generations  plunged 
in  torpid  ignorance,  without  an  effort  to  ex- 
tricate themselves  from  shame,  or  to  let  loose 
the  human  mind  on  its  natural  career  of  ad- 
vancement :  it  disposes  us  much  more  nearly 
to  compassion  —  especially  if  we  reflect  how 
frequently  the  energy  of  a  vigorous  and  en- 
terprising soul,  secluded  in  the  hermitage  or 
the  cloister,  must  have  exhausted  itself  on  the 
most  contemptible  subjects,  or  pined  away 
from  the  mere  dearth  of  literary  sustenance. 
We  shall  find  little  reason  to  be  astonished 
that  genius  itself  was  so  seldom  able  to  emerge 
out  of  the  noisome  mist  and  rise  into  light  and 
vigor,  since  its  infancy  was  chilled  by  pre- 
judices, unexcited  by  any  wholesome  exer- 
cise, and  famished  by  the  positive  destitution 
of  intellectual  nourishment. 

The  cause  of  literary  stagnation  which  we 
have  last  mentioned  was  removed  hi  the 
eleventh  century  by  the  invention  of  paper,  * 
and  accordingly  we  find  that  the  number  of 
MSS.  was  greatly  multiplied  after  that  time,  f 
But  the  fury  of  civil  dissension  was  not  miti- 
gated ;  and  under  governments  at  the  same 
time  feeble  and  arbitrary,  there  was  little  en- 
couragement for  studious  application,  as  in- 
deed there  was  little  honor,  or  even  security, 
except  in  the  profession  of  arms.  And  in  sad 
truth,  during  the  earlier  years  of  this  age,  the 
wildest  disorders  were  of  such  ordinary  per- 
petration, misery  had  such  universal  preva- 
lence, and  injustice  walked  abroad  so  boldly 
and  triumphantly,  that  there  were  those  who 
held  the  persuasion  that  the  millenarian  pro- 


*  A  very  interesting  account  of  the  progress  of 
paper-making,  writing,  printing,  &c.  may  be  found 
in  the  Life  of  Caxton,  published  by  the  Society  for 
the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge. 

f  Still  it  was  in  the  eleventh  age  that  a  Countess 
of  Anjou  is  recorded  to  have  purchased  the  Homilies 
of  Haimon,  at  the  price  of  200  sheep,  besides  a  very 
large  payment  in  wheat,  barley,  skins,  and  other  val- 
uable articles.     Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France,  xi.  siecle. 


EDUCATION. 


267 


phecy  had  been  already  accomplished  ;  that 
Satan  had  shaken  off  his  fetters  at  the  one 
thousandth  year,  and  was  actually  directing 
the  evil  destinies  of  the  human  race. 

Exeitions  of  Ecclesiastics.  At  the  same 
time,  let  us  recollect  that  great  exertions  were 
made  by  the  higher  ecclesiastical  orders  to 
apply  an  indirect  but  very  powerful  remedy 
to  these  excesses,  by  re-establishing  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  Church.  For  this  purpose, 
about  eighty  councils  were  held  in  France 
alone  during  the  eleventh  century.  *  AVe 
have  already  related  how  zealously  the  au- 
thority of  Rome  had  engaged  itself  in  the 
same  cause  ;  and  by  a  necessary  reaction,  the 
success  of  every  effort  for  the  improvement 
of  morality  was  favorable  to  the  advancement 
of  literature.  The  example  of  Sylvester  II. 
might  be  sufficient  to  rouse  the  jealous  emu- 
lation of  Italy ;  and  Sylvester  left  to  that 
country  not  his  example  only,  but  the  fruits 
of  his  active  zeal  in  encouraging  the  learned 
of  his  own  time,  and  in  establishing  schools 
and  collecting  libraries  for  the  use  of  other 
generations.  Some  of  the  Popes,  his  succes- 
sors, followed  his  traces  with  more  or  less 
earnestness ;  and  among  the  rest,  Gregory 
VII.  added  to  his  extraordinary  qualities  the 
undisputed  merit  of  promoting  the  progress 
of  education,  -f 

The  voice  of  controversy,  which  was  once 
more  heard  in  this  century,  not  only  created 
another  motive  for  literary  activity,  but  proved 
the  revival  of  a  spirit  of  inquiry,  inconsistent 
at  least  with  universal  ignorance.  The  talents 
of  Lanfranc,  J  the  earliest  boast  of  reviving 
Italy,  were  animated  by  the  'Heresy'  of  Ber- 


*  The  zeal  which  was  applied  in  the  beginning  of 
this  age  to  the  building  and  restoration  of  churches, 
basilica?,  monasteries,  and  other  holy  edifices,  is 
warmly  praised  by  ecclesiastical  writers.  '  Erat 
enim  instar  ac  si  mundus  ipse  excutiendo  semet,  re- 
jecta  vetustate,  passim  candidarum  ecclesiarum  ves- 
tem  indueret  —  Glabrus  Rodolph.  apud  Du  Chesne, 
Script.  Franc,  lib.  xiv.,  cap.  4,  cited  by  Muratori. 

t  In  a  council  held  in  1078,  he  strongly  pressed  on 
all  bishops  the  necessity  of  superintending  education 
in  their  respective  dioceses. 

%  '  Lanfrancus  teneriorem  retatem  in  srecularibus 
detrivit,  sed  in  Scripturis  divinis  animo  et  aevo  ma- 
turavit.'  France  was  for  some  time  the  principal 
field  of  his  exertions,  and  Muratori  supposes  that 
Hildebrand,  attracted  by  his  celebrity,  may  have  vis- 
ited that  country  for  the  purpose  of  hearing  him. 
The  name  of  Anselm  succeeds  to  that  of  Lanfranc : 
that  learned  prelate  was  born  at  Aosta,  which  then 
belonged  to  the  Duke  of  Burgundy — so  that  France 
disputes  with  Italy  the  honor  of  having  produced  him. 
He  too  is  considered  by  Muratori  as  having  prepared 
the  way  for  the  scholastic  system  of  theology. 


enger ;  and  to  the  ingenious  disputations  thus 
occasioned  it  is  usual  to  attribute  the  growth 
of  the  new  system  of  theological  science,  after- 
wards called  Scholastic. 

Three  Characters  of  theological  Literature. 
That  is  a  very  broad,  but  in  many  respects  a 
correct  view  of  early  theological  literature, 
which  distributes  it  into  three  seras.  The  first 
of  these  comprehends  the  whole  list  of  the 
ecclesiastical  fathers — men  who,  though  they 
varied  exceedingly  in  character,  style,  and 
even  opinion,  were  nevertheless  united  by 
one  great  principle ;  for  they  acknowledged 
no  other  sources  of  faith,  and  reverenced  no 
other  authority,  than  Scripture  and  apostolical 
tradition.  On  this  foundation,  they  boldly 
applied  to  the  elucidation  of  religious  subjects 
such  reasoning  and  eloquence  as  Nature  had 
bestowed  on  them  :  perverted,  it  might  be, 
by  the  peculiar  prejudices  of  the  times  and 
countries  wherein  they  lived,  but  little  re- 
strained either  by  the  use  or  abuse  of  edu- 
cational discipline,  and  wholly  exempt  from 
servile  subjection  to  the  opinions  of  any  pre- 
decessor. The  characteristics  of  this  age  are 
such  as  we  should  expect  from  such  principles 
— an  overflow  of  piety  stained  by  superstition, 
exuberance  of  learning  without  a  proportion- 
ate fruit  of  knowledge,  and  sallies  of  oratoiy, 
which  sometimes  ascended  into  eloquence, 
and  sometimes  dwindled  away  into  puerile 
declamation,  or  cold  and  empty  allegory. 
This  sera  is  by  many  extended  down  to  the 
eighth  century,  and  considered  as  properly 
terminating  with  John  Damascenus  ;  but  the 
concluding  half  of  the  fourth  age  and  the  be- 
ginning of  the  fifth  was  the  true  period  of  its 
glory  ;  and  thence  we  may  trace  the  gradual 
dissolution  of  its  distinguishing  qualities  into 
that  system  which  was  afterwards  established 
in  its  place  and  on  its  ruins.. 

The  second  was  the  sera  of  intellectual  blind- 
ness and  dependence  ;  its  most  laborious  works 
were  mere  collections,  quotations,  and  compil- 
ations ;  as  if  the  minds  of  that  generation  were 
stupified  by  gazing  on  the  brilliant  creations 
of  their  predecessors,  till  they  mistook  them 
for  pure  and  inimitable  perfection.  St.  Au- 
gustin  and  St.  Gregory  were  the  idols  of  those 
abject  worshippers;  and  if  their  piety  was 
sometimes  kindled  by  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
former,  their  Catholic  zeal  and  Papal  preju- 
dices were  more  commonly  (or  at  least  more 
manifestly)  nourished  by  the  principles  of  Gre- 
gory. The  termination  of  this  period  is  fixed 
at  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century;  but  its 
character  had  been  partially  interrupted  by 
the  writers  of  the  ninth,  and  most  especially 


268 


HISTORY   OF   THE   CHURCH 


by  John  Scotus ;  and  his  style  and  manner, 
as  well  as  his  opinions,  were  followed  and  re- 
vived by  Berenger. 

The  grand  principle  of  the  third  sera  was 
the  exaltation  of  reason  to  its  proper  pre- 
eminence over  the  influence  of  human  au- 
thority ;  a  true  and  noble  principle  as  long  as 
reason  itself  can  be  restrained  to  its  just  pro- 
vince, so  as  neither  to  deviate  into  minute  and 
barren  sophistry,  nor  to  break  loose  into  those 
dark  and  interminable  inquiries  which  God 
has  closed  against  it.  Unhappily  it  was  not 
long  before  it  fell  into  both  these  errors,  which 
are,  indeed,  very  closely  connected.  In  the 
establishment  and  support  of  the  Scholastic 
theology,  it  so  frequently  descended  to  de- 
grading artiiice,  and  perplexed  itself  so  blind- 
ly in  the  mazes  of  chicanery,  as  to  make  it 
doubtful  whether  religious  truth  was  not  more 
disfigured  by  the  minute  disceptations  which 
thenceforward  prevailed,  than  by  the  super- 
stitious extravagance  of  the  first  period,  or  the 
obsequious  ignorance  of  the  second. 

We  shall  possibly  recur  to  this  subject  here- 
after. At  present  we  need  only  remark,  that 
duriug  the  latter  half  of  the  eleventh  century 
considerable  addition  was  made  both  to  the 
copiousness  of  libraries  and  the  number  of 
schools  and  of  students,  as  well  in  Italy  as  in 
France ;  *  but  the  course  of  study  was  still 
generally  confined  to  the  two  paths  denomin- 
ated the  Trivium  and  Quadrivium.  The  first 
of  these  embraced  grammar,  rhetoric,  and  dia- 
lectics ;  and  grammar  was  defined  to  be  '  the 
art  of  writing  and  speaking  well,'  f  and  pro- 
fessed to  comprehend  the  study  of  several 
classical  as  well  as  sacred  writers.  The 
knowledge  of  arithmetic,  music,  geometry 
and  astronomy  swelled  the  pretensions  of  the 
Quadrivium. 


*  Schools  of  civil  Jaw  were  founded  in  both  those 
countries  in  the  eleventh  century,  and  acquired  some 
eminence  before  its  conclusion.  Physic,  of  course, 
had  never  been  entirely  neglected;  and  as  we  find 
that  by  a  council  held  at  Rheinis,  in  1131,  monks 
were  forbidden  the  practice  either  of  law  or  medicine, 
we  would  willingly  have  hoped  that  some  attention 
now  began  to  be  paid  to  the  education  of  the  laity. 
But  the  prohibition  only  extended  to  the  walls  of  the 
monasteries ;  the  practice  of  those  professions  is  de- 
scribed to  have  been  very  lucrative,  and  for  that  rea- 
son, and  through  the  continued  ignorance  of  the  laity, 
even  in  the  century  following  (if  we  are  to  believe 
the  compilers  of  the  Hist.  Litteraire),  there  were 
scarcely  any  who  professed  medicine  except  clerks 
and  monks  ;  with  the  addition  indeed  of  certain 
Jews,  who  were  held  the  most  skilful  practitioners. 

t  Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France,  xii.   siecle. 


But,  in  real  truth,  the  productions  and  Ian 
guage  of  the  Greeks  were  wholly  neglected 
and  unknown.  The  science  of  criticism — the 
art  of  distinguishing  what  is  graceful  in  style, 
and  what  is  true  in  fact  —  was  not  cultivated  ; 
and  both  the  study  and  composition  of  history 
were  still  confined  to  legendary  chronicles,  * 
or  to  the  ill-digested  details  of  contemporary 
narrative.  Besides  which,  the  sciences  pro- 
fessed were  for  the  most  part  imperfectly  un- 
derstood even  by  those  who  pretended  to 
them ;  and  it  is  moreover  admitted  that,  as 
the  students  of  those  days  usually  affected  to 
become  acquainted  with  all  the  subjects  plac- 
ed before  them,  they  generally  departed  with- 
out any  profitable  knowledge  of  any  of  them. 
The  great  mass  of  the  people  had  no  educa- 
tion whatsoever.  The  result  was  such  as 
must  necessarily  follow,  whenever  the  pos- 
session of  any  valuable  portion  of  literary  ac- 
quirement is  confined  to  very  few  individuals: 
the  possessors  employed  it  to  delude  as  well 
as  to  enlighten  the  people.  So  that  those 
ages,  deeply  as  they  suffered  from  the  scanty 
provision  of  useful  and  liberal  knowledge, 
were  scarcely  less  vitiated  through  the  ine- 
quality with  which  that  little  was  distributed. 
The  small  number  who  had  penetrated  the 
mysteries  felt  too  strongly  the  advantage  and 
the  power  conferred  by  exclusive  initiation,  to 
desire  their  more  general  promulgation.  The 
more  numerous  class,  who  from  a  distant  and 
hasty  glimpse  had  caught  some  imperfect  in- 
sight, by  communicating  then  own  obscure 
views  and  misconceptions,  disseminated  many 
fanciful,  if  not  pernicious,  errors  and  absurd 
notions.  So  it  proved  that  the  lights  which 
were  thus  faintly  transmitted  to  the  body  of 
the  people,  were  not  faint  only,  but  sometimes 
false  and  deceitful  also.  And  it  is  a  question 
for  the  decision  of  Philosophy,  whether  plain 
and  downright  ignorance,  with  all  its  demoral- 
izing consequences,  be  not  a  condition  of  less 
danger  and  better  hope  than  one  of  mistake 
and  delusion. 


*  The  first  Christian  chronicler  was  Gregory  of 
Tours.  He  was  born  at  Auvergne  in  539,  and  be- 
sides many  copious  narratives  of  martyrdoms  and 
miracles,  he  produced  an  '  Ecclesiastical  History  of 
the  Franks.'  This  work,  which  contains  some  faint 
indications  of  an  educated  mind,  was  not  surpassed 
during  that  century,  or  the  two  which  followed. 
The  history  begins  at  the  death  of  St.  Martin,  in 
377,  and  ends  at  the  year  591.  It  was  continued 
for  the  fiftv  following  years,  in  a  much  inferior  style, 
by  one  Fredegarius,  a  Burgundian,  and  probably  a 
monk. 


ST.  BERNARD. 


269 


NOTE  ON  ST.  BERNARD. 

The  life  of  St.  Bernard  connected,  within 
a  few  years,  the  pontificate  of  Gregory  VII. 
with  that  of  Alexander  III.  Born  in  1091, 
he  flourished  during  one  of  the  rudest  pe- 
riods of  papal  history;  and  he  died  (in  1153,) 
just  before  the  era  commenced  of  its  proudest 
triumphs,  and,  perhaps,  of  its  deepest  crimes. 
His  actions  and  his  writings  throw  the  best 
light  which  now  remains  upon  that  period, 
and  even  the  following  short  account  of  them 
will  not  be  without  its  use.  St.  Bernard  was 
a  native  of  Fontaines,  in  Burgundy,  and  de- 
scended from  a  noble  family.  He  entered,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-two,  into  the  monastery  of 
Citeaux,  near  Dijon  ;  and  so  early  was  the 
display  of  his  zeal  and  his  talents,  that  only 
two  years  afterwards  he  was  appointed  to  es- 
tablish a  religious  colony  at  Clairvaux,*  in 
the  diocese  of  Langres.  It  grew  with  rapid- 
ity, and  spread  its  scions  with  great  luxuri- 
ance under  his  superintendence — so  that  at 
his  decease,  at  no  very  advanced  age,  he  was 
enabled  to  bequeath  to  the  Church  the  inesti- 
mable treasure  of  about  one  hundred  and 
sixty  monasteries,  founded  by  his  own  exer- 
tions. As  for  himself,  though  it  seems  clear 
that  the  highest  ecclesiastical  dignities  were 
open,  and  even  offered  to  him,  his  humbler 
ambition  was  contented  to  preside  over  the 
society  which  he  had  first  created,  and  to 
influence  the  character  of  those  wrhich  had 
proceeded  from  it,  by  counsel,  example,  and 
authority. 

But  the  influence  of  St.  Bernard  was  not 
confined  to  his  monastic  progeny — it  display- 
ed itself  hi  all  grand  ecclesiastical  transac- 
tions, in  France,  in  Germany,  in  Italy ;  from 
the  altars  of  the  church  it  spread  to  courts 
and  parliaments.  And,  as  it  was  founded  on 
reputation,  not  on  dignity  ;  as  it  stood  on  no 
other  ground  than  his  wisdom  and  sanctity  ; 
so  was  it  generally  exerted  for  good  purposes ; 
and  always  for  purposes  which,  according 
to  the  principles  of  that  age,  were  accounted 
good. 

On  the  schism  which  took  place  after  the 
death  of  Honorius  II.,  f  St.  Bernard  advocat- 
ed the  cause  of  the  legitimate  claimant,  Inno- 
cent II.,  with  great  zeal  and  effect.  During 
eight  years  of  contestation  and  turbulence  he 
persevered  in  the  struggle.  His  authority  I  un- 

*  Or  Clairval— Clara  Vallis. 

t  In  1130,  Innocent  II.  succeeded,  and  ruled 
thirteen  years  and  a  half.  Eugenius  III.  was  elected 
1145,  and  reigned  for  eight  years. 

{.   The    means   by  which   ecclesiastical   authority 


questionably  decided  the  King  and  the  Clergy 
of  France.  The  King  of  England  *  at  Char- 
tres,  the  Emperor  at  Liege,  are  stated  to  have 
listened  and  yielded  to  his  persuasions.  He 
reconciled  Genoa  and  Pisa  to  the  cause  of 
Innocent.  In  the  latter  city  a  council  was 
held  in  1134,  in  which  St.  Bernard  was  the 
moving  and  animating  spirit.  Nevertheless 
it  is  obvious,  from  the  genuine  piety  which 
pervades  so  many  of  his  works,  that  his  mind 
was  then  most  at  home  when  engaged  in  holy 
offices  and  pious  meditation.  How  well  so- 
ever he  might  be  qualified  to  preside  in  the 
assemblies,  and  rule  the  passions,  and  recon- 
cile the  interests  of  men,  it  was  in  the  peace- 
ful solitude  of  Clairvaux  that  his  earthly 
affections  were  placed,  and  it  was  to  the 
mercy-seat  of  heaven  that  his  warmest  vows 
and  aspirations  were  addressed.  Through 
these  various  qualities — through  his  charita- 
ble devotion  to  the  poor  ;  through  that  earn- 
est piety  which  tinctured  his  writings  with  a 
character  sometimes  approaching  to  mysti- 
cism ;  through  his  imitation  of  the  ancient 
writers,  Augustin  and  Ambrose  ;  through  his 
zeal  for  the  unity  and  doctrinal  purity  of  the 
Church,  St.  Bernard  has  acquired  and  de- 


sometimes  (and  not,  perhaps,  very  uncommonly)  at- 
tained its  ends  in  those  days,  are  well  displayed  in 
the  following  anecdote  of  St.  Bernard.  The  Duke 
of  Guienne  had  expelled  the  Bishops  of  Poitiers  and 
Limoges,  and  refused  to  restore  them,  even  on  the 
solemn  and  repeated  injunctions  of  the  Pope  and  his 
Legate.  St.  Bernard  had  exerted  his  influence  for 
the  same  purpose,  equally  in  vain.  At  length,  when 
celebrating,  on  some  particular  occasion,  the  holy 
sacrifice,  after  the  consecration  was  finished  and  the 
blessing  of  peace  bestowed  upon  the  people,  St.  Ber- 
nard placed  the  body  of  the  Lord  on  the  plate,  and 
carrying  it  in  his  hand,  with  an  inflamed  countenance, 
and  eyes  sparkling  fire,  advanced  towards  the  Duke, 
and  uttered  these  thrilling  words:  —  'Thus  far  we 
have  used  supplication  only,  and  you  have  despised 
us;  many  servants  of  God,  who  were  present  in  this 
assembly,  joined  their  prayers  with  ours,  and  you 
have  disregarded  them:  behold,  this  is  the  Son  of 
God,  who  is  the  King  and  Lord  of  the  Church  which 
you  persecute,  who  now  advances  towards  you ;  — 
behold  your  Judge! — at  whose  name  every  knee  bends 
in  heaven,  in  earth,  and  beneath  the  earth.  Behold 
the  just  avenger  of  crimes,  into  whose  hands  that  very 
soul  which  animates  you  will  some  day  fall.  Will 
you  disdain  him  alsol  Will  you  dare  to  scorn  the 
Master,  as  you  have  scorned  his  servants'?'  This  tre- 
mendous appeal  was  successful.  The  Duke  is  related 
to  have  fallen  with  his  face  to  the  earth  when  he 
heard  it;  the  prelates  were  restored  to  their  sees, 
and  the  schism  extinguished.  See  Dupin,  Nouvelle 
Bilioth.  torn.  ix.  ch.  iv. 

*  Ernardus,  Vita  Sancti  Bernardi.     Pagi,  Gest 
Pontif.  Roman.  Vit.  Innocent  II. 


270 


HISTORY   OF  THE  CHURCH. 


served  the  respectable  appellation  of  the  Last 
of  the  Fathers. 

The  remaining  works  of  St.  Bernard  con- 
sist of  about  four  hundred  and  fifty  Letters, 
a  great  number  of  Sermons,  and  some  very 
important  Tracts  and  Treatises.  It  would 
not  here  be  possible,  nor  any  where  very 
profitable,  to  present  a  mere  analysis  of  so 
many  and  such  various  compositions.  A 
great  proportion  of  the  matter  is  devoted  to 
the  ends  of  piety  and  charity, — to  the  exalta- 
tion of  the  soul  of  man, — and  the  inculcation 
of  his  highest  duties.  On  points  of  doctrine, 
the  Abbot  of  Clairvaux  was  too  ardently  at- 
tached to  his  Church  to  venture  upon  any 
deviation  from  the  established,  or,  at  least, 
the  tolerated  faith.  On  the  important  subject 
of  grace,  he  appears  to  have  followed  the 
opinion  of  St.  Augustin.  He  considered  the 
freedom  of  will  to  be  preserved  by  the  volun- 
tary consent  which  it  gives  to  the  operations 
of  grace ; — that  that  consent  is  indeed  brought 
about  by  grace,  but  that  being  voluntary,  and 
without  constraint,  it  is  still  free.  The  neces- 
sity of  this  freedom  he  argues  at  great  length, 
as  indispensable  to  any  system  of  retribu- 
tion.* '  Where  there  is  necessity  there  is  not 
liberty  ;  where  there  is  not  liberty,  neither  is 
there  merit,  nor,  consequently,  judgment. ' 
(Ubi  necessitas,  ibi  libertas  non  est ;  ubi  liber- 
tas  non  est,  nee  mcritum,  nee  per  hoc  judici- 
um.) On  the  other  hand,  he  maintained  the 
indisputable  efficacy  of  grace  ;  and  hi  defin- 
ing the  limits  of  its  operation,  and  reconciling 
its  overruling  influence  with  the  necessary 
liberty  of  a  responsible  agent,  he  fathomed 
the  depths,  and,  perhaps,  exhausted  the  re- 
sources of  human  reason. 

Peter  Abelard.  As  Lanfranc  had  been  the 
champion  of  the  Church  against  the  heresy 
of  Berenger ;  as  the  admirable  Ansehn  f  had 


*  Excepto  sane  per  omnia  originali  peccato,  quod 
aliam  constat  habere  rationem  —  S.  Bernard!  '  Trac- 
tatus  de  Gratia  et  Libero  Arbitrio.' 

f  Anselin  was  probably  born  at  Aosta  in  1034,  and 
died  in  1105;  and  though  he  is  claimed  by  the  Galil- 
ean church  as  its  noblest  ornament  since  the  fifth 
century,  his  history  belongs  more  properly  to  our 
own.  He  wrote  several  works:  against  the  'Greek 
Doctrine  of  the  Holy  Procession,'  — '  On  the  Trinity 
and  Incarnation,'  against  Roscellinus, — '  On  the  Im- 
maculate Conception,' — '  On  the  Fall  of  the  Devil,' — 
*  On  Freewill,'  — '  On  Original  Sin,'  —  ■  Necessity,' 
— '  Predestination,' — on  which  latter  subjects  he  had 
drawn  at  the  well  of  St.  Augustin.  '  His  obsequies 
(says  the  writer  in  the  Histoire  Litteraire  de  la 
France)  were  preceded,  attended,  and  followed  by 
some  miracles ;  but  the  holy  prelate  had  performed  a 
vast  number  more  during  his  lifetime.'     His  Life,  as 


maintained  the  better  reason  and  sounder 
doctrine  against  the  dangerous  subtilties  of 
Roscellinus  ;  *  so  St.  Bernard,  in  his  turn  of 
controversy,  was  confronted  with  the  most 
ingenious  Scholastic  of  the  age,  Peter  Abe- 
lard. This  celebrated  doctor  was  born  in 
Brittany,  in  1079 ;  and  while  St.  Bernard  waa 
shaping  his  character  and  his  intellect  after 
the  rigid  model  of  Augustin,  Abelard  was 
learning  a  dangerous  lesson  of  laxity  in  the 
school  of  Origen.  We  shall  not  trace  the 
various  and  almost  opposite  heresies  f  into 
which  he  was  betrayed  by  the  obtuse  subtilty 
of  his  principles ;  still  less  shall  we  investi- 
gate the  oblique  paths  by  which  he  reached 
those  conclusions.  It  may  suffice  to  say,  that 
he  was  charged  with  being,  at  the  same  time, 
an  Arian,  a  Nestorian,  and  a  Pelagian,  and 
with  as  much  justice,  perhaps,  as  such  char- 
ges were  usually  advanced  by  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  against  its  refractory  chil- 
dren. 

The  history  of  the  crimes  and  the  misfor- 
tunes of  Abelard  is  known  to  every  one. 
When  the  Abbot  of  Clairvaux,  in  the  course 
of  his  official  visitation,  inspected  the  nunne- 
ry of  the  Paraclete,  he  found  the  establish- 
ment well  conducted,  and  he  approved  of 
every  regulation.  Only,  in  the  version  of 
the  Lord's  prayer  there  in  use,  he  observed 
these  words, — '  Give  us  this  day  our  super- 
substantial  (intoi'oior)  bread' — and  he  thought 
it  insufferable  that  the  very  prayer  which  the 
Deity  had  deigned  to  communicate  to  man 


given  in  the  Histoire  Litteraire,  is  an  abridgment  of 
that  by  the  Monk  Edmen,  his  pupil  and  panegyrist. 

*  During  the  infancy  of  St.  Bernard. 

■f  The  opinions  generally  attributed  to  him  are,  that 
he  considered  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  to  have 
been  known  to  certain  ancient  philosophers,  and  re 
vealed  to  them  in  recompense  for  their  virtues, — that 
the  Son  bore  the  same  relation  to  the  Father,  as  the 
species  does  to  the  genus  ;  as  a  certain  power  to 
power;  as  materiatum  to  materia;  as  man  to  ani- 
mal ;  as  a  brazen  seal  to  brass  ;  —  that  he  denied  the 
Atonement,  and  reasoned  against  the  murder  of  an 
innocent  being  as  the  means  of  appeasing  God's  an- 
ger;—  that  he  consequently  denied  the  Redemption, 
though  he  received  the  Incarnation  as  the  properest 
method  for  illuminating  the  world  with  divine  light 
and  love;  — that  the  Holy  Ghost  proceeded  from  the 
Father  and  the  Son,  but  not  from  their  substance; 
and  that  it  was  the  soul  of  the  world;  — that  it  is  not 
the  fault,  but  the  penalty,  of  original  sin  which  we 
derive  from  Adam;  — that  free  will,  without  the  help 
of  grace,  was  sufficient  for  salvation.  In  addition 
to  these,  and  many  other  imputations,  he  was  also' 
charged  before  the  Council  of  Soissons  (1121)  with 
Tritheism,  and,  at  the  same  time,  with  having  assert- 
ed, that  the  Father  alone  was  almighty. 


ST.  BERNARD. 


271 


for  His  own  service,  should  be  thus  sense- 
lessly corrupted  by  the  infection  of  Aristotle. 
Abelard  defended  his  version ;  and  hence 
arose  the  first  recorded  altercation  between 
those  celebrated  theologians.  The  strictures 
of  St  Bernard  irritated  that  vain  Scholastic  ; 
and  as  it  happened  that  a  large  assembly  of 
the  Clergy  of  France  was  appointed  to  meet 
in  the  city  of  Sens,  on  some  occasion  deemed 
important,*  Abelard  challenged  his  rival  to 
make  good,  in  the  presence  of  that  august 
body,  his  repeated  charges  of  heresy.  St. 
Bernard  would  willingly  have  declined  that 
conflict :  he  feared  the  superiority  of  an  ex- 
perienced polemic  ; — '  I  was  but  a  youth,f 
and  he  a  man  of  war  from  his  youth.  Be- 
sides, I  judged  it  improper  to  commit  the 
measures  of  divine  faith,  which  rested  on  the 
foundations  of  eternal  truth,  to  the  petty  reas- 
onings of  the  schools.'  Howbeit,  the  counsel 
of  his  friends  prevailed ;  after  some  hesitation 
he  accepted  the  challenge,  and  appeared  on 
the  appointed  day. 

Louis  VII.  honored  the  assembly  with  his 
presence  ;  the  nobles  of  his  court,  the  leading 
prelates  and  abbots,  and  the  most  learned  doc- 
tors of  the  kingdom  were  there ;  and  the 
highest  expectations  were  raised,  from  one 
end  of  the  realm  to  the  other,  by  the  rumor 
of  this  theological  monomachy.  The  two 
champions  were  confronted.  Bernard  arose  : 
'  I  accuse  not  this  man ;  let  his  own  works 
speak  against  him.  Here  they  are,  and  these 
are  the  propositions  extracted  from  them. 
Let  him  say — I  wrote  them  not ;  or  let  him 
condemn  them,  or  let  him  defend  them  against 
my  objections.'  The  charges  were  not  en- 
tirely read  through,  when  Abelard  interrupted 
the  recital,  and  simply  interposed  his  appeal 
to  the  Pope.  The  assembly  was  astonished 
at  his  hasty  desertion  of  the  field,  which  he 
had  so  lately  sought.  'Do  you  fear,'  said  St. 
Bernard,  '  for  your  person  ?  You  are  per- 
fectly secure  ;  you  know  that  nothing  is  in- 
tended against  you  ;  you  may  answer  freely, 
and  with  the  assurance  of  a  patient  hearing. 
Abelard  only  replied,  '  I  have  appealed  to  the 
Court  of  Rome;'  and  retired  from  the  as- 
sembly.    '  I  know  nothing,'  says  Milner,  \  '  in 


*  For  the  translation  of  the  body  of  some  saint  into 
the  cathedral  church.  The  assembly  took  place  in 
1140. 

f  The  Abbot  probably  meant  a  youth  in  contro- 
versy,— for  as  to  age,  he  was  then  forty-nine,  and  his 
adversary  only  two  years  older.  Milner,  whose  ac- 
count of  this  transaction  has  great  merit,  seems  to 
have  understood  him  literally. 

%  Church  Hist.  Cent.  xii.  ch.  2.      This  author  is 


Bernard's  history  more  decisively  descriptive 
of  his  character,  than  his  conduct  in  this 
whole  transaction.  By  nature  sanguine  and 
vehement,  by  grace  and  self  knowledge  mod- 
est and  diffident,  he  seems  on  this  occasion  to 
have  united  boldness  with  timidity,  and  cau- 
tion with  fortitude.  It  was  evidently  in  the 
spirit  of  the  purest  faith  in  God,  as  well  as  in 
the  most  charitable  zeal  for  divine  truth,  that 
he  came  to  the  contest.' 

We  shall  now  proceed  to  consider  St.  Ber- 
nard in  another  (if,  indeed,  it  is  another)  cha- 
racter,—  that  of  a  zealous  defender  of  the 
power  and  prerogatives  of  the  church ;  and 
we  shall  observe  how  far  the  same  principle 
engaged  him,  on  the  one  hand,  in  the  support 
of  papal  authority,  and  in  the  extirpation  of 
heresy  on  the  other.  We  willingly  omit  all 
mention  of  the  miracles  which  are  so  abund- 
antly ascribed  to  him,  and  which,  if  they  are 
not  merely  the  fabrications  of  his  panegyrists, 
are  equally  discreditable  to  his  honesty  and 
his  piety.  We  defer  to  a  future  chapter  any 
notice  of  the  very  equivocal  zeal  which  urged 
him  to  preach  a  holy  war,  to  proclaim  its  pre- 
destined success  with  a  prophet's  authority, 
and  then  to  excuse  the  falsification  of  his  pro- 
mises by  a  vulgar  and  contemptible  subter- 
fuge. Yet  were  all  these  transactions  very 
certain  proofs  of  his  attachment  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Roman  Catholic  church.  Of 
the  same  nature  were  the  eulogies  which  he 
so  warmly  lavished,  in  one  of  his  treatises, 


probably  nearer  to  truth  in  his  praise  of  Bernard, 
than  in  his  censure  of  the  '  heretic'  The  reason  of 
Abelard's  sudden  appeal  to  a  higher  court  was,  un- 
questionably, his  distrust  of  that  before  which  he 
stood:  he  might  doubt  its  impartiality,  or  he  might 
certainly  have  discovered  its  determined  prejudice 
against  him;  and  that  it  was,  in  fact,  very  provident 
in  him  to  appeal  betimes  from  its  decision  is  clearly 
proved  by  a  passage  in  the  Account,  which  certain 
Bishops  of  France  addressed  to  the  Pope,  of  the  pro- 
ceedings at  Sens.  ■  As  the  arguments  of  the  Abbot 
of  Clairvaux  .  .  .  convinced  the  assembled  bishops 
that  the  tenets  which  he  opposed  were  not  only  false, 
but  heretical,  they,  sparing  his  (the  heretic's)  per- 
son out  of  deference  to  the  apostolic  see,  condemn- 
ed the  opinions.'  A  loco  et  judice  quern  sibi  ipse 
elegerat,  sine  lsesione,  sine  gravamine,  ut  suam  pro- 
longaret  iniquitatem,  Sedem  Apostolicam  appellavit. 
Episcopi  autem,  qui  propter  hoc  in  unum  convenerant, 
vestrse  Reverential  deferentes  nihil  in  personam  ejus 
egerunt,  sed  tantummodo  capitula  librorum  ejus,'  &c. 
&c.  It  is  therefore  manifest  that  this  appeal  saved 
him  from  some  personal  infliction. — This  Letter  is 
published  among  the  works  of  St.  Bernard,  p.  1560. 
edit.  Lutet.  Paris.  1640.  After  all,  it  is  some  satis- 
faction to  record,  that  Abelard  died  (in  1142)  in  quiet 
obscurity,  in  the  Monastery  of  Cluni. 


272 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


upon  the  newly  instituted  order  of  the  Temp- 
lars. But  we  pass  these  matters  over,  aud 
proceed  directly  to  observe  the  expressions 
by  which  he  characterised  the  Bishop  of 
Rome.  'Let  us  inquire,'  says  he, in  his  letter 
to  Pope  Eugenius  III.,*  'yet  more  diligently 
who  you  are,  aud  what  character  you  support 
for  a  season  in  the  Church  of  God.  Who 
are  you?  —  a  mighty  priest,  the  highest  pon- 
tiff. You  are  the  first  among  bishops,  the 
heir  of  the  apostles ;  in  primacy  Abel,  in  go- 
vernment Noah,  hi  patriarchate  Abraham,  in 
order  Melchisedech,  hi  dignity  Aaron,  in  au- 
thority Moses,  in  judgment  Samuel,  in  power 
Peter,  in  unction  Christ.  You  are  he  to  whom 
the  keys  have  been  delivered,  to  whom  the 
flock  has  been  intrusted.  Others,  indeed, 
there  are  who  are  doorkeepers  of  heaven,  and 
pastors  of  sheep ;  but  you  are  pre-eminently 
so,  as  you  are  more  singularly  distinguished 
by  the  inheritance  of  both  characters.  They 
have  their  flocks  assigned  to  them,  each  one 
his  own ;  to  you  the  whole  are  intrusted,  as 
one  flock  to  one  shepherd ;  neither  of  the 
sheep  only,  but  of  their  pastors  also ;  you 
alone  are  the  pastor  of  all.  Where  is  my 
proof  of  this  ?  —  in  the  Word  of  God.  For 
to  which,  I  say, — not  of  bishops,  but  of  apos- 
tles,—  was  the  universal  flock  so  positively 
intrusted  ?  "  If  thou  lovest  me,  Peter,  feed 
my  sheep."  ....  Therefore,  according  to  your 
canons,  others  are  called  to  a  share  of  the 
duty,  you  to  a  plenitude  of  power.  The 
power  of  others  is  restrained  by  fixed  limits ; 
yours  is  extended  even  over  those  who  have 
received  power  over  others.  Are  you  not 
able,  if  cause  arise,  to  exclude  a  bishop  from 
heaven,  to  depose  him  from  his  dignity,  and 
even  to  consign  him  over  to  Satan  ?  These 
your  privileges  stand  unassailable,  both 
through  the  keys  which  have  been  delivered, 
and  the  flock  which  has  been  confided  to 
you,'  &c.  Thus  the  authority  of  St.  Bernard, 
which  was  extremely  great,  both  in  his  own 
age  and  those  which  immediately  followed, 
was  exerted  to  subject  the  minds  of  religious 
men  to  that  spiritual  despotism,  which  was 
already  swollen  far  beyond  its  just  limits,  and 
was  threatening  a  still  wider  and  more  fatal 
inundation. 

Among  the  numerous  discourses  of  St. 
Bernard,  two  \  were  more  especially  directed 
against  the  heretics  of  the  day ;  and  the 
preacher  declares,  that  he  was  moved  to  this 
design  by  '  the  multitude  \  of  those  who  were 

*  "  De  Consideratione,'  lib.  ii.,  c.  viii. 

t  Sermons  '  Super  Cantica,'  Ixv.  et  lxvi. 

X  In  other  places  he  acknowledges  the  same  fact. 


destroying  the  vine  of  Christ,  by  the  paucity 
of  its  defenders,  by  the  difficulty  of  its  de- 
fence.' In  the  discharge  of  this  office  he  in- 
veighs against  the  innovators  in  the  usual 
terms  of  theological  bitterness;  and  at  the 
same  time  charges  them  with  those  flagrant 
violations  of  morality  and  decency,  which 
were  so  commonly  imputed  to  seceders  from 
the  church,  though  they  were,  in  truth,  in- 
consistent with  the  first  principles  of  civil 
society.  We  shall  not  repeat  those  charges, 
nor  copy  his  ardent  vituperations  ,  but  there 
is  one  passage  (in  the  sixty-sixth  sermon), 
which  possesses  some  historical  importance, 
and  which  exposes  besides  the  principles  of 
the  orator.  '  In  respect  to  these  heretics,  they 
are  neither  convinced  by  reasons,  for  they 
understand  them  not ;  nor  corrected  by  au- 
thority, for  they  do  not  acknowledge  it ;  nor 
bent  by  persuasion,  for  they  are  wholly  lost. 
It  is  indisputable  that  they  prefer  death  to 
conversion.  Their  end  is  destruction ;  the 
last  thing  which  awaits  them  is  the  flames. 
More  than  once  the  Catholics  have  seized 
some  of  them,  and  brought  them  to  trial. 
Being  asked  their  faith,  and  having  wholly  de- 
nied, as  is  their  usage,  all  that  was  laid  against 
them,  they  were  examined  by  the  Trial  of 
water,  *  and  found  false.  And  then,  since 
further  denial  was  impossible,  as  they  had 
been  convicted  through  the  water  not  receiv- 
ing them,  they  seized  (as  the  expression  is) 
the  bit  in  their  teeth,  and  began  with  pitiable 
boldness,  not  so  much  to  make  confession  as 
profession  of  their  impiety.  They  proclaimed 
it  for  piety ;  they  were  ready  to  suffer  death  for 
it ;  and  the  spectators  were  not  less  ready  to 
inflict  the  punishment.  Thus  it  came  to  pass 
that  the  populace  rushed  upon  them,  and  gave 
the  heretics  some  fresh  martyrs  to  their  own 
perfidy.  I  approve  the  zeal,  but  I  do  not  ap- 
plaud the  deed ;  because  faith  is  to  be  the  fruit 
of  persuasion,  not  of  force.  Nevertheless,  it 
were  unquestionably  better  that  they  should 
be  restrained  by  the  sword,  —  the  sword  of 
him,  I  mean,  who  wears  it  not  without  rea- 
son,—  than  be  permitted  to  seduce  many 
others  into  their  error  ;  '  for  he  is  the  minister 
of  God,  a  revenger  to  execute  wrath  upon  him 
that  doeth  evil.  .  . .  Some  wondered  that  the 
offenders  went  to  execution  not  only  with 
fortitude,  but,  as  it  seemed,  with    joy ;    but 


'  Et  item  de  haeresi,  quoe  clam  psene  unique  serpit, 
apud  aliquos  soevit  palam.  Nam  parvulos  Ecclesise 
passim  et  publice  deglutiie  festinat.'  &c.  &c.  De 
Consid.,  lib.  iii.,  c.  i. 

*  This  was  one  of  the  most  popular  among  '  The 
Judgments  of  God.' 


ST.  BERNARD. 


273 


those  persons  had  not  observed  how  great  is 
the  power  of  the  devil  not  only  over  the 
bodies,  but  even  over  the  hearts  of  men, 
which  have  once  delivered  themselves  into 
his  possession.  . .  .  The  constancy  of  martyrs 
and  the  pertinacity  of  heretics  has  nothing  in 
common ;  because  that  which  operates  the 
contempt  of  death  in  the  one  is  piety, — in  the 
other,  mere  hardheartedness.'  .  .  .  Marcus 
Antoninus,  in  the  insolence  of  empire  and 
philosophy,  insulted  by  a  similar  distinction 
the  firmness  of  those  sainted  sufferers,  to 
whom  the  Abbot  of  Clairvaux  addressed,  as 
to  heavenly  Mediators,  his  daily  and  super- 
stitious supplications.  And  now  again,  after 
another  long  revolution  of  centuries  and  of 
principles,  those  despised  outcasts,  whom  St. 
Bernard,  in  the  loftier  pride  of  ecclesiastical 
infallibility,  consigned,  with  no  better  spirit, 
to  eternal  condemnation,  are  revered  by  us  as 
victims  in  a  holy  cause,  the  earliest  martyrs 
of  the  Reformation  ! 

In  the  same  work  in  which  the  office  and 
prerogatives  of  the  Pope  were  so  highly  ex- 
alted, the  writer  boldly  exposed  some  of  the 
favorite  abuses  of  the  system ;  and  dictated, 
from  his  cell  at  Clairvaux,  rules  for  its  better 
administration,  and  for  the  guidance  of  the 
autocrat  of  the  church.  His  instructions  were 
wise,  because  they  were  virtuous,  and  pro- 
ceeded from  a  true  sense  of  spiritual  duties 
and  dignity.  His  general  exhortations  to  Eu- 
genius  to  cast  aside  the  unworthy  solicitude 
respecting  secular  matters,  which  at  once  em- 
barrassed and  degraded  the  Roman  see,  and 
to  emulate  the  venerable  patriarchs  of  the 
ancient  church ;  to  leave  to  kings  and  their 
ministers  the  jarring  courts  of  earthly  justice,* 
and  to  content  himself  with  distributing  the 
judgments  of  heaven  —  these  lessons  were 
conceived  in  the  loftiest  mood  of  ecclesiastical 
exaltation,  and  with  the  justest  sense  of  eccle- 
siastical policy ;  but  the  venom  had  already 
sunk  too  deep,  and  the  healing  admonitions 
of  the  reformer  failed  to  arrest  for  a  moment 
the  progress  of  corruption. 

St.  Bernard  next  addressed  his  censures 
more  particularly  to  the  practice  of  appeal  to 
Rome,  which  was  then  growing  into  a  noto- 
rious abuse.     After  enumerating  some  of  the 

*  Qurenam  tibi  major  videtur  et  potestas  et  digni- 
tas;  dimittendi  peccata,  an  prasdia  dividendi  1  Sed 
non  est  comparatio.  Habent  Iwec  infirma  et  terrena 
judices  suos  et  reges  et  principes  terrse.  Quid  fines 
alios  invaditis  1  Quid  falcem  vestram  in  alienam 
messem  extcnditisl  Non  quia  indigni  vos;  sed  quia 
indignum  vobis  talibus  insisteie,  quippe  potioribus 
occupatis.     De  Consid.,  ]ibv  i.,  c.  vi. 

35 


evils  thus  occasioned,  the  delay,  the  vexation, 
the  positive  perversion  of  all  the  purposes 
of  justice,  'How  much  longer,' he  exclaims, 
'will  you  shut  your  ears,  whether  through 
patience  or  inadvertency-,  against  the  murmur 
of  the  whole  earth  ?  How  much  longer  will 
you  slumber  ?  How  much  longer  will  your 
attention  be  closed  against  this  monstrous  con- 
fusion and  abuse  ?  Appeals  are  made  in  defi- 
ance of  law  and  equity,  of  rule  and  order.  No 
distinction  is  made  in  place,  or  mode,  or  time, 
or  cause,  or  person.  They  are  commonly 
taken  up  with  levity,  frequently  too  with  ma- 
lice ;  that  terror  which  ought  to  fall  upon  the 
wicked,  is  turned  against  the  good  ;  the  honest 
are  summoned  by  the  bad,  that  they  may  turn 
to  that  which  is  dishonest ;  and  they  tremble 
at  the  sound  of  your  thunder.  Bishops  are 
summoned,  to  prevent  them  from  dissolving 
unlawful  marriages,  or  from  restraining  or 
punishing  rapine  and  theft  and  sacrilege,  and 
such  like  crimes.  They  are  summoned,  that 
they  may  no  longer  exclude  from  orders  and 

benefices  unworthy  and  infamous  persons 

And  yet  you,  who  are  the  minister  of  God, 
pretend  ignorance,  that  that,  which  was  in- 
tended as  a  refuge  for  the  oppressed,  has  be- 
come an  armory  for  the  oppressor;  and  that 
the  parties  who  rush  to  the  appeal  are  not 
those  who  have  suffered,  but  those  who  med- 
itate injustice.' 

Another  papal  corruption,  against  which  St. 
Bernard  inveighed  with  equal  zeal  was  the 
abuse  of  exemptions.  'I  express  the  concern 
and  lamentations  of  the  churches.  They  ex- 
claim that  they  are  maimed  and  dismembered. 
There  are  none,  or  very  few,  among  them 
which  do  not  either  feel  or  fear  this  wound : 
Abbots  are  removed  from  the  authority  of 
their  Bishops,  Bishops  from  that  of  their  Arch- 
bishops, Archbishops  from  that  of  their  Patri- 
archs and  Primates.  Is  the  appearance  of  this 
good  ?  Is  the  reality  justifiable  ?  If  you  prove 
the  plenitude  of  your  power  by  the  frequency 
of  its  exercise,  haply  you  have  no  such  plen- 
itude of  justice.  You  hold  your  office,  that 
you  may  preserve  to  all  their  respective  gra- 
dations and  orders  in  honor  and  dignity,  not 
to  grudge  and  curtail  them.'  .  .  If  the  vir- 
tuous Abbot  was  moved  to  such  boldness  of 
rebuke  by  the  delinquencies  of  the  eleventh 
century— the  earliest  and  perhaps  the  most 
venial  excesses  of  pontifical  usurpation — with 
what  eyes  had  he  beheld  the  court  of  Innocent 
IV.,  or  the  chancery  of  John  XXII. !  with 
what  a  tempest  of  indignation  had  he  visited 
the  enormities  of  later  and  still  more  degener- 
ate days  — jubilees  and  reservations,  annates 


274 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


and  tenths  and  expectative  graces — the  long 
and  sordid  list  of  Mammon's  machinations  ! 
The  halls  of  Constance  and  Basle  would  have 
rung  with  his  lamentation  and  his  wrath,  and 
both  Gerson  *  and  Julian  would  have  shrunk 
before  the  manifestation  of  a  spirit  greater  far  , 
than  themselves. 

But  the  inquisition  of  St.  Bernard  was  not ; 
confined  to  the  courts  of  the  Vatican.  It  pen-  i 
etrated  into  the  dwelling-places  and  into  the 
bosoms  of  prelates  and  of  monks.  '  Oh,  am- 
bition, thou  cross  of  those  who  court  thee ! 
How  is  it  that  thou  tormentest  all,  and  yet  art 
loved  by  all  ?  There  is  no  strife  more  bitter, 
no  inquietude  more  painful  than  thine,  and 
yet  is  there  nothing  more  splendid  than  thy 
doings  among  wretched  mortals !  I  ask,  is  it 
devotion  which  now  wears  out  the  apostolical 
threshold,  or  is  it  ambition  ?  Does  not  the 
pontifical  palace,  throughout  the  long  day, 
resound  with  that  voice  ?  f  Does  not  the 
whole  machine  of  laws  and  canons  work  for 
its  profit  ?  Does  nut  the  whole  rapacity  of 
Italy  gape  with  insatiable  greediness  for  its 
spoils  ?  Which  is  there  among  your  own 
spiritual  \  studies  that  has  not  been  inter- 
rupted, or  rather  broken  off,  by  it  ?  How 
often  has  that  restless  and  disturbing  evil 
blighted  your  holy  and  fruitful  leisure  !  It  is 
in  vain  that  the  oppressed  make  their  appeal 
to  you,  while  it  is  through  you  that  ambition 
strives  to  hold  dominion  in  the  church.'  .  .  . 
In  another  place  § — '  The  unsavory  contagion 
creeps  through  the  whole  church,  and  the 
wider  it  spreads  the  more  hopeless  is  the 
remedy ;  the  more  deeply  it  penetrates,  the 

more  fatal   is  the  disease They  are 

ministers  of  Christ,  and  they  are  servants  of 
Anti-Christ.  They  walk  abroad  honored  by 
the  blessings  of  the  Lord,  and  they  return  the 
Lord  no  honor  :  thence  is  that  meretricious 
splendor  every  where  visible — the  vestments 
of  actors — the  parade  of  kings :  thence  the 
gold  on  their  reins,  their  saddles,  and  their 

*  John  Gerson  was  a  great  admirer  of  St.  Bernard. 
He  frequently  cited  his  authority,  and  composed  one 
discourse  expressly  in  his  honor.  We  always  watch 
with  anxiety,  and  record  with  respect,  the  expres- 
eions  in  which  one  great  man  has  celebrated  the  ex- 
cellence of  another.  But  in  Gerson's  '  Sermo  de 
Sancto  Bernardo  '  we  can  discover  little  but  fanciful 
and  mystical  rhapsody. 

t  Annon  qusestibus  ejus  tota  legum  Canonumcuie 
disciplina  insudat  1 

$  This  passage  is  from  the  'Third  Book  of  the 
Consideratio.'  It  is  addressed,  we  should  recollect, 
to  Pope  Eugenius,  who  had  been  edwated  in  the 
monastery  of  Clairvaux. 

§  *  Super  Cantica  Ser.  xxxiii. 


spurs,  for  their  spurs  (calcaria)  shine  brighter 
than  their  altars  (altaria :)  thence  then-  tables 
splendid  with  dishes  and  cups  ;  thence  their 
gluttony  and  drunkenness  —  the  harp,  the 
lyre,  and  the  pipe,  larders  stored  with  provis- 
ion, and  cellars  overflowing  with  wine  .  . 
For  such  rewards  as  these  men  wish  to  be- 
come, and  do  become,  rectors  of  churches, 
deans,  archdeacons,  bishops,  archbishops — 
for  these  dignities  are  not  bestowed  on  merit, 
but  on  the  thing  which  walks  in  darkness.'  . 
A  considerable  portion  of  another  composi- 
tion *  is  devoted  to  the  exposure  of  monastic 
degeneracy.  '  It  is  truly  asserted  and  believ- 
ed that  the  holy  fathers  instituted  that  life, 
and  that  they  softened  the  rigor  of  the  rule  in 
respect  to  weaker  brethren,  to  the  end  that 
more  might  be  saved  therein.  But  I  cannot 
bring  myself  to  believe  that  they  either  pre- 
scribed or  permitted  such  a  crowd  of  vanities 
and  superfluities,  as  I  now  see  in  very  many 
monasteries.  It  is  a  wonder  to  me  whence 
this  intemperance,  which  I  observe  among 
monks  in  their  feasting  and  revels,  in  their 
vestures  and  couches,  in  their  cavalcades  and 
the  construction  of  their  edifices,  can  have 
grown  into  a  practice  so  inveterate,  that 
where  these  luxuries  are  attended  with  the 
most  exquisite  and  voluptuous  prodigality, 
there  the  order  is  said  to  be  best  preserved, 
there  religion  is  held  to  be  most  studiously 
cultivated. .  .  For  behold !  frugality  is  deemed 
avarice ;  sobriety  is  called  austerity ;  silence 
is  considered  as  moroseness.  On  the  other 
hand,  laxity  is  termed  discretion  ;  profusion, 
liberality ;  loquacity,  affability  ;  loud  laughter, 
pleasantness ;  delicacy  and  sumptuousness 
in  raiment  and  horses,  taste ;  a  superfluous 
change  of  linen,  cleanliness;  and  then,  when 
we  assist  each  other  in  these  practices,  it  is 
called  charity.  This  is  a  charity  indeed  which 
destroys  all  charity ;  it  is  a  discretion  which 
confounds  all  discretion  ;  it  is  a  compassion 
full  of  cruelty,  since  it  so  serves  the  body,  as 
mortally  to  stab  the  soul.'  .  .  Again — <  What 
proof  or  indication  of  humility  is  this,  to 
march  forth  with  such  a  pomp  and  cavalcade, 
to  be  thronged  by  such  an  obsequious  tram  of 
long-haired  attendants,  so  that  the  escort  of 
one  abbot  would  suffice  for  two  bishops  ?  I 
vow  that  I  have  seen  an  abbot  with  a  suite 


*  Ad  Guillelmum  Abbat.  Apologia  —  An  Apology 
to  William,  Abbot  of  St.  Thierry.  The  pretext  for 
this  Apology  was,  to  defend  himself  and  his  own  re- 
formed order  of  Cistercians  from  the  charge  of  calum- 
niating the  rival  order,  their  more  opulent  brethren, 
of  Cluni.  St.  Bernard  did  not  lose  that  opportunity 
of  generally  inveighing  against  monastic  abuses. 


ST.    BERNARD. 


275 


of  sixty  horsemen  and  more.*  To  see  them 
pass  by,  you  would  not  take  them  for  fathers 
of  monasteries,  but  for  lords  of  castles ;  not 
for  directors  of  souls,  but  for  princes  of  prov- 
inces.' .  .  St.  Bernard  then  proceeds  to  cen- 
sure the  show  of  wealth  which  is  exhibited 
within  the  monasteries,  f  and  subsequently 
exposes  the  secret  motive  of  such  display. 
'  Treasures  are  drawn  towards  treasures  ; 
money  attracts  money,  and  it  happens  that 
where  most  wealth  is  seen,  there  most  is  offer- 
ed. When  the  relics  are  covered  with  gold, 
the  eyes  are  struck,  and  the  pockets  opened. 
The  beautiful  form  of  some  Saint  is  pointed 
out,  and  the  richer  its  colors  the  greater  is 
deemed  its  sanctity.  Men  run  to  salute  it 
— they  are  invited  to  give,  and  they  admire 
what  is  splendid  more  than  they  reverence 
what  is  holy.  To  this  end  circular  orna- 
ments are  placed  in  the  churches,  more  like 
wheels  than  crowns,  and  set  with  gems  which 
rival  the  surrounding  lights.  We  behold  in- 
ventions like  trees  erected  in  place  of  can- 
dlesticks, with  great  expense  of  metal  and 
ingenuity,  also  shining  with  brilliants  as  gaily 
as  with  the  lights  they  hold.  Say,  whether 
of  the  two  is  the  object  in  these  fabrications 
■ — to  awake  the  penitent  to  compunction,  or 
the  gazer  to  admiration  ?  Oh  vanity  of  vani- 
ties, and  as  insane  as  it  is  vain  !  The  church 
is  resplendent  in  its  walls,  it  is  destitute  in  its 
poor.  It  clothes  its  stones  with  gold  —  it 
leaves  its  children  naked.     The  eyes  of  the 


*  '  Mentior,'  says  the  holy  abbot,  '  si  non  vidi  ab- 
batem  sexaginta  equos  et  eo  amplius  in  suo  ducere 
comitatu.  Dicas,  si  videas  eos  transeuntes,  non  pa- 
tres  esse  monasteriorurn,  sed  dominos  castellorum ; 
non  rectores  animarum,  sed  principes  provinciarnm.' 

•f'Omitto  Oratorium  immensas  altitudines,  immo- 
deratas  longiludines,  supervacuas  latitudines,  surap- 
tuosas  depolitiones,  curiosas  depictiones,  qme  duni 
orancium  in  se  detorquent  aspectum  impediunt  et  af- 
fectum, et  mihi  quodammodo  reprasentant  antiquum 
rilum  Juda?oruin.  Sed  esto  —  fiant  huec  ad  honorem 
Dei.  lllud  autem  interrogo  monachus  monachos, 
quod  in  gentilibus  gentiiis  arguebat  — 

Dicite,  Pontifices,  in  sancto  quid  facit  auruml 
Ego  autem  dico,  Dicite  Pauperes !  Non  enim  at- 
tendo  versum  sed  sensum — Dicite,  inquam,  pauperes, 
si  tamen  pauperes,  in  Sancto  quid  facit  aurum  V — 
Loc.  Citat.  It  seems  probable  that  St.  Bernard,  in 
the  interval  of  his  theological  labors,  had  studied  the 
Roman  Satirists  with  pleasure,  and  not  without  ad- 
vantage. 


rich  are  ministered  to,  at  the  expense  of  the 
indigent.  The  curious  find  wherewithal  to 
be  delighted — the  starving  do  not  find  where- 
with to  allay  their  starvation.'  *     .     .     . 

Such  was  the  Abbot  of  Clairvaux ;  in  pro- 
fession and  habits  a  monk — in  ecclesiastical 
polity  at  once  a  reformer  and  a  bigot — in 
piety  a  Christian.  His  single  example  (if 
every  page  in  history  did  not  furnish  others) 
would  suffice  to  show  that  a  very  great  pre- 
ponderance of  excellence  is  consistent  with 
many  pernicious  errors ;  and  that  innumer- 
able ensainples  of  purity  and  holiness  have 
flourished  in  every  age,  as  they  doubtless  still 
flourish,  in  the  bosom  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.  Because  many  Popes  were  ambi- 
tious and  many  prelates  profligate,  it  would 
be  monstrous  to  suspect  that  righteousness 
was  nowhere  to  be  found  in  that  communion  , 
it  would  be  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  the 
great  moral  qualities,  which  distinguished 
St.  Bernard,  were  not  very  common  among 
the  obscurer  members  and  ministers  of  his 
church.  His  genius,  indeed,  was  peculiarly 
his  own.  The  principles  which  least  became 
him  were  derived  from  his  church  and  his 
age ;  but  his  charity  and  his  godliness  flowed 
from  his  religion,  and  thus  they  found  sym- 
pathy among  many,  respect  and  admiration 
among  all.  These  were  the  crown  of  his 
reputation  ;  and  while  they  fortified  and  ex- 
alted his  genius,  they  also  gave  it  that  com-t 
manding  authority  which,  without  them,  it 
could  never  have  acquired.  From  this  alli- 
ance of  noble  qualities  St.  Bernard  possessed 
a  much  more  extensive  influence  than  any 
ecclesiastic  of  his  time — more,  perhaps,  than 
any  individual  through  the  mere  force  of  per- 
sonal character  has  at  any  time  possessed  ; 
nor  is  it  hard  to  understand,  if  we  duly  con- 
sider the  imperfect  civilization  of  that  super- 
stitious age,  that  monarchs,  and  nobles,  and 
nations  should  have  respectfully  listened  to 
the  decisions  of  a  monk,  who  gave  laws  from 
his  cloister  in  Burgundy  to  the  Universal 
Church. 

*  '  O  vanitas  vanitatum,  sed  non  vanior  quam  in- 
sanior.  Fulget  ecclesia  in  parietibus,  et  in  pauperi- 
bus  eget.  Suos  lapides  induit  auro  et  suos  filios  nu- 
dos  deserit.  De  sumptibus  egenorum  servitur  oculia 
divitum.  Inveniunt  curiosi  quo  delectentur,  et  non 
i nven inn t  miseri  quo  susteutentur.' 


276 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

The  Pontificate  of  Innocent  III. 

[From  1198  to  1216.] 

Prefatory  facts  and  observations  —  Circumstances  under 
which  Innocent  ascended  the  chair  —  Collection  of 
Canons — Condition  of  the  clergy — Ecclesiastical  juris- 
diction—  by  what  means  extended  —  Innocent's  four 
leading  objects — (1.)  To  establish  and  enlarge  his  tem- 
poral power  in  the  city  and  ecclesiastical  states.  Office 
of  the  Prefect  —  Favorable  circumstance,  of  which  In- 
nocent avails  himself — his  work  completed  by  Nicholas 
IV.  —  (2.)  To  establish  the  universal  pre-eminence  of 
papal  over  royal  authority.     His  claims  to  the  Empire 

—  His  dispute  with  Philippe  Auguste  of  France  —  he 
places  the  kingdom  under  interdict  —  submission  of 
Philippe  —  His  general  assertions  —  supremacy  —  par- 
ticular applications  of  them — to  England  and  France, 
Navarre,  Wallachia  and  Bulgaria,  Arragon  and  Arme- 
nia —  His  contest  with  John  of  England  —  Interdict  — 
the  Legate  Pandulph —  Humiliation  of  the  King — (3.) 
To  extend  his  authority  within  the  church.  Italian 
clergy  in  England  —  his  general  success  in  influencing 
the  priesthood  —  Power  of  the  Episcopal  Order  —  The 
fourth  Lateran  Council.     Canons  on  transubstantiation 

—  on  private  confession  —  against  all  heretics  —  (4.)  To 
extinguish  heresy.  The  Petrobrussians  —  their  author 
and  tenets.  Various  other  sects,  how  resisted.  The 
Cathari  —  supposition  of  Mosheim  and  Gibbon  —  the 
more  probable  opinion — The  Waldenses — their  history 
and  character — error  of  Mosheim — Peter  VValdus — his 

I  persecution.  The  Albigeois  or  Albigenses  —  their  resi- 
dence and  opinions — attacked  by  Innocent — St.  Domi- 
nic—  title  of  Inquisitor  —  Raymond  of  Toulouse — holy 
war  preached  against  them  —  Simon  de  Montfort  —  re- 
sistance and  massacre  of  the  heretics  —  Continued  per- 
secution of  the  Albigeois — Death  of  Innocent — Remarks 
on  his  policy. 

During  the  period  of  one  hundred  and  thir- 
teen years,  which  intervened  between  Grego- 
ry VII.  and  Innocent  III.,  the  progress  of 
ecclesiastical  power  and  influence  was  very 
considerable ;  and  the  latter  ascended  the 
pontifical  chair  unembarrassed  by  many  of 
the  difiiculties  which  impeded  the  enterprises 
of  the  former.  The  principal  causes  of  that 
progress  may  be  traced,  perhaps,  in  a  few 
sentences.  In  the  first  place,  new  facilities  to 
learning  had  been  opened  during  the  twelfth 
century,  of  which  the  clergy  had  availed 
themselves  very  generally,  and  which  the 
laity  had  as  generally  neglected.  It  is  true 
that  the  kind  of  learning  then  in  fashion  pos- 
sessed, for  the  most  part,  no  substantial  or 
permanent  value ;  still  it  was  a  weapon  as 
powerful,  perhaps,  for  the  government  of  the 
ignorant,  as  if  its  polish  had  been  brighter,  or 
its  edge  more  keen ;  and,  as  its  real  ineffi- 
ciency was  unknown,  it  equally  answered 
the  end  of  exciting  a  blind  respect  for  those 
who  had  the  exclusive  use  of  it.  In  the  next 
place,  the  discipline  of  the  church  had  under- 
gone an  important  reformation,  the  honor  of 
which  we  are  bound  to  ascribe  to  the  vigor- 
ous exertions  of  Gregory,  imitated,  with  more 


advantage  perhaps,  by  feebler  successors. 
Three  Lateran  Councils  (the  first  General 
Councils  of  the  Western  Church)  were  held 
during  the  twelfth  century ;  and  the  second 
and  third  of  these,  assembled  respectively  in 
1139  and  1179,  by  Innocent  II.  and  Alexan- 
der III.,  more  particularly  directed  their  at- 
tention to  the  extirpation  of  ecclesiastical 
abuses,  to  the  confirmation  of  ancient  canons, 
and  the  introduction  of  such  others  as  might 
amend  the  discipline  and  consolidate  the  in- 
terests of  the  church.  This  object  was  ma- 
terially advanced  by  the  labor  of  a  monk 
of  Bologna,  named  Gratian,  who  published, 
in  1151,  his  celebrated  Collection  of  Canon 
Laws.*  And  this  branch  of  study,  thus  facil- 
itated, received  further  encouragement  from 
Eugenius  III.,  who  instituted  the  degrees 
of  Bachelor,  Licentiate,  and  Doctor  in  that 
science.  By  the  advance  of  learning  among 
the  sacred  profession,  by  the  greater  precision 
and  more  general  knowledge  of  the  canons 
of  the  church,  and  by  the  rigor  with  which 
they  were  frequently  enforced,  the  morals  of 
every  rank  of  the  clergy  were  essentially  im- 
proved. The  two  notorious  scandals  of  the 
former  age,  concubinage  and  simony,  if  not 
effectually  removed,  were  at  least  restrained 
within  more  decent  limits  ;  and  the  extreme 
license,  in  some  other  respects,  which  had 
prevailed  for  about  two  centuries  before  Greg- 
ory VII.,  was  checked  and  repressed.  So 
that  Innocent  was  called  to  the  command  of 
a  more  enlightened,  a  more  orderly,  a  more 
moral,  and  therefore  a  more  influential  priest- 
hood. 

Ecclesiastical  property.  It  may  be  true,  as 
Mosheim  asserts,  that  the  revenues  of  the 
Pope  had  received  no  considerable  augmen- 
tation between  the  ninth  century  and  the 
time  of  Innocent ;  but  those  of  the  clergy, 
and  especially  of  the  monastic  orders,  had 
been  swelled  during  the  same  period  by  the 
most  abundant  contributions.  Indeed,  in  most 
countries  the  territorial  domains  of  the  church 
were  at  that  time  spread  so  widely,  as  almost 
to  justify  the  complaint  that  they  compre- 
hended half  the  surface  of  Europe ;  nor 
should  we  omit  to  mention  that  the  clergy, 
though  in  some  kingdoms  liable  to  annual 
donatives,  and  to  arbitrary  plunder  in  all, 
were  still  legally  exempt  from  taxation,  and 
from  every  regular  contribution  to  the  service 
of  the  state.    From  such  immunity,  though 


*  The  accidental  discovery  of  the  Pandects  of 
Justinian,  in  1137,  may  have  furnished  to  Gratian 
the  notion,  as  it  certainly  supplied  the  model,  of  his 
work. 


PONTIFICATE  OF  INNOCENT  III. 


277 


it  was  occasionally  violated,  and  the  violation 
usually  attended  with  outrage,  they  must, 
nevertheless,  have  reaped  great  advantage, 
and  especially  in  peaceful  periods.  But  such 
partial  profits  have  always  a  drawback  in  the 
jealousy  which  the  distinction  occasions,  and 
which  exposes  those  who  enjoy  it  to  the  dis- 
trust and  dislike  of  their  fellow  subjects. 

Ecclesiastical  jurisdiction.  We  have  already 
observed  how  extensive,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
how  indefinite,  wTere  the  rights  of  jurisdiction, 
which  were  partly  conferred  on  the  church 
and  partly  confirmed  to  it  by  Charlemagne, — 
rights,  which  were  scarcely  less  important  to 
the  general  influence  of  the  clergy,  than  their 
learning  or  their  revenues.  During  the  tu- 
mults of  the  three  following  centuries,  they 
were  transgressed  or  exceeded  as  the  civil  or 
ecclesiastical  portion  of  the  state  happened  in 
any  country  to  preponderate  ;  but  they  appear 
to  have  sustained  no  permanent  alteration, 
either  in  abridgment  or  increase,  until  the  be- 
ginning of  the  twelfth  century.  About  that 
time  the  ecclesiastical  tribunals  commenced  a 
system  of  encroachment,  which  made  great 
progress  even  before  the  pontificate  of  Inno- 
cent, and  was  carried  by  that  Pope  and  his 
successors  to  still  greater  excess,  and  seemed 
to  threaten  the  entire  subversion  of  the  secu- 
lar courts.*  It  was  the  first  step  in  this  usur- 
pation to  multiply  the  number  of  persons 
subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  church  ; 
the  next,  to  extend  almost  without  limit  the 
offences  of  which  it  took  cognizance.  The 
first  of  these  objects  was  accomplished  by  the 
indiscriminate  Tonsure,  which  we  have  be- 
fore mentioned  to  have  been  so  generally  given 
by  the  bishops.  This  sign  of  the  clerical  state 
did  not  indicate  ordination  or  any  spiritual 
office  ;  but  it  conferred  the  use  of  the  eccle- 
siastical habit,  and  with  it  the  various  privi- 
leges and  immunities  enjoyed  by  that  order, 
without  the  restraint  of  celibacy,f  to  which 
it  was  liable.  This  very  numerous  class, 
though  for  the  most  part  engaged  in  secular 
professions  and  occupations,  was  subject  to 
no  other  than  the  episcopal  tribunals  ;  f  and 


*  Tivate  tutte  le  cause  d'  appellazione  in  Roma,  si 
proccurd  d'  ampliare  la  giurisdizione  del  Foro  Epis- 
opale,  e  stendere  la  conoscenza  de'  Giudici  Ecclesi- 
astici  sopra  p i u  persone  ed  in  piu  cause,  sicche  poco 
rimanesse  a'  magistrati  secolari  d'  impicciarsene. 
Giannone,  1st.  di  Napoli,  lib.  xix.,  c.  v.,  sect.  iii. 

f  In  this  respect,  those  persons  were  placed  in  the 
condition  of  the  priests  of  the  Greek  Church:  they 
were  allowed  to  marry  once  only,  and  a  virgin. 

$  In  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  under  the  dynasty  of 
Anjou,  this  matter  afterwards  went  so  far  (says  Gi- 


we  may  remark,  that  all  the  movable  prop- 
erty of  this  body  fell  under  the  same  juris- 
diction.* 

Another  very  large  class,  under  the  denom- 
ination of  '  miserabiles  persona? '  (persons  in 
distress,)  was  also  exclusively  subjected  to  the 
episcopal  courts.  It  comprehended,  even  in 
the  first  instance,  a  multitude  of  the  lowest 
orders;  and  it  was  presently  so  enlarged  as 
to  include  orphans  and  widows,  the  stranger 
and  the  poor,  the  pilgrim  and  the  leper.  \ 
Again  ;  the  opportunity  offered  by  the  Cru- 
sades was  not  neglected  in  the  progress  of 
usurpation  ;  and  in  this  case  the  arm  of  ec- 
clesiastical justice  extended  itself  not  only 
over  all  who  engaged  in  the  expedition,  but 
over  those  too  who  had  bound  themselves  by 
the  vow. 

A  great  facility  was  also  afforded  for  enlarg- 
ing the  boundaries  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdic- 
tion, by  the  want  of  definiteness  in  the  nature 
of  the  offences  subject  to  it.  These  were  de- 
signated by  one  name,  spiritual ;  but  it  is  clear 
that,  in  an  ignorant  age,  that  term  might  be 
so  extended  by  an  artful  priesthood  as  to  em- 
brace every  sin  and  almost  every  crime  ;  since 
there  are  no  sins  X  and  few  crimes  which  do 
not  indicate  some  disease  of  the  soul,  and 
touch  its  eternal  safety. 

The  general  term,  under  which  ecclesiastics 
contrived  to  comprise  the  greatest  number  of 
causes,  was  Bad  Faith ;  as  being  unquestion- 
ably a  sin,  yet  such,  that  an  action  could  sel- 
dom occur,  in  which  both  parties  were  clear 
from  the  suspicion  of  it.  Thus  they  claimed 
for  their  tribunals  all  trials  on  executions  of 
contracts,  because  the  contract  was  founded 
on  oath.  They  also  claimed  to  be  natural  in- 
terpreters and  executors  of  all  wills  and  testa 
ments,  as  being  matters  peculiarly  connected 
with  the  conscience  ;  and  thus  they  gradually 
extended  the  spiritual  net  over  the  entire  field 
of  civil  litigation.§     But  they  forgot  that  that 

annone),  that  even  the  concubines  of  the  clergy  en- 
joyed immunity  from  secular  jurisdiction. 

*  In  conseguenza  di  quella  massima  mal  intesa, 
mobilia  sequuntur  personam. — Giann.  loc.  cit. 

•f  We  refer  to  the  seventh  chapter  of  Mr.  Hallam's 
Middle  Ages.  It  is  a  bold  and,  in  most  respects,  an 
accurate  disquisition  on  papal  history. 

%  '  Si  peccaverit  frater  tuus,  die  Ecclesioe.'  This 
seems  to  have  been  the  text  on  which  ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction  was  mainly  founded.  It  had  a  much 
better  foundation  in  the  superior  intelligence  and 
moral  principles  of  ecclesiastics. 

§  Having  once  interfered  in  the  matter  of  wills,  the 
bishops  proceeded  in  some  countries  to  arrogate  the 
power  of  making  wills  for  the  laity,  ad  pias  causas; 
and  the  interests  of  the  church  were  advanced  by  that 


278 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


which  properly  belonged  to  them  was  censure, 
not  jurisdiction  ;  or  they  affected  artfully  to 
confound  the  office  of  penal  chastisement 
with  that  of  penitential  correction.  The  en- 
croachments of  the  church  were  aided  by  the 
negligence,  as  they  were  almost  justified  by 
the  incompetence,  of  the  lay  tribunals ;  and 
they  had  already  made  considerable  advances, 
with  little  apparent  opposition,  and  acquired 
extensive  conquests  in  the  domains  of  secular 
jurisdiction,  at  the  time  when  Innocent  III. 
took  possession  of  the  pontifical  chair. 

From  the  above  circumstances,  we  have 
reason  to  presume  that  in  actual  authority,  not 
less  than  in  moral  influence,  the  church  had 
acquired  growth  and  strength  since  the  era 
of  Gregory  VII. ;  and  that  the  sacred  militia, 
whom  Innocent  was  appointed  to  command, 
and  by  whose  aid  he  meditated  and  almost 
accomplished  the  destruction  of  the  temporal 
authorities,  then  exerted  a  much  more  power- 
ful control  over  every  department  of  society, 
than  it  had  ever  possessed  at  any  former  pe- 
riod. 

We  shall  obtain  a  more  distinct  knowledge 
of  the  designs  and  success  of  that  celebrated 
pope,  if  we  examine  separately  the  principal 
points  to  which  his  exertions  were  directed, 
than  we  could  gain  by  a  chronological  narra- 
tive of  his  pontificate.     According  to  such  a 


piety.     Some  were  found  who  even  claimed  the  pro- 
perty of  all   intestate  persons.     Again,  when  the  in- 
terests of  a  clerk  were  involved  in  connexion  with 
those  of  laymen,   the   decision  was  claimed  by  the 
Ecclesiastical  Court,     So  also,  when  the  cause  was 
very  difficult  in  point  of  reason,  in  case  of  the  in- 
competence, negligence,  or  suspiciousness  of  the  lay 
judge,  the   matter  was   referred    to    the   Episcopal 
Tribunal.     So  likewise,  under  the  name  of  forum 
mixtum,  it  claimed  its  share  in  all  cases  of  bigamy, 
usury,  sacrilege,  adultery,  incest,  concubinage,  blas- 
phemy, sortilege,  perjury,  as  in   those  of  tithes  and 
pious  legacies.     So   in  all  causes  arising  from  mar- 
riage, as  being  a  Sacrament  of  the   church.     And 
lastly,  there  were  some  Roman  doctors  who  maintain- 
ed that  every  condemned   person   in  every  country 
should  be  sent  to  Rome  for  punishment;   seeing  that 
Rome  was  the  common  country  and  metropolis  of  all 
men,  that  the  world  was  Roman,  and  all  its  inhabit- 
ants citizens  and  subjects  of  Rome.  —  Giannone,  loc. 
cit.     The  following  lines  were  intended  to  compre- 
hend the  jurisdiction  of  the  spiritual  court:  — 
Haereticus,  Simon,  fcenus,  perjurus,  adulter, 
Pax,  privilegium,  violentus,  sacrilegusque; 
Si  vacat  Imperium;  si  negligit,  ambigit,  aut  sit 
Suspectus  judex;   sit  subdita  terra,  vel  usus, 
Rusticus  et  servus,  peregrinus,  feuda,  viator. 
Si  quis  paenite.at,  miser!  omnis  cansaque  mista  — 
Si  denunciat  Ecclesiae  quis,  judicat  ipsa. 
We  shall  take  a  future  opportunity  of  recurring  to 
the  subject  of  Ecclesiastical  Jurisdiction 


distribution,  we  may  properly  consider  these 
objects  to  have  been  four ;  not,  indeed,  that 
they  were  thus  minutely  analysed  in  the  mind 
of  Innocent,  or  that  his  daring  schemes  sub- 
ject to  any  such  classification  :  but  the  histo- 
rian who  contemplates  great  transactions  after 
an  interval  of  many  centuries,  and  a  change 
in  many  principles,  is  bound  to  consider  par- 
ticular actions  as  parts  of  the  whole  mighty 
drama,  in  the  respect  they  bear  to  the  circum- 
stances of  the  actors,  and  the  character  of  the 
age.  Thus  it  is,  that  in  studying  the  actions 
of  Innocent  III.,  our  observation  is  necessa- 
rily most  directed  to  the  following  points :  — 
I.  To  establish  the  temporal  power  of  the 
Holy  See  in  the  city  of  Rome,  and  in  the  ec- 
clesiastical states  ;  and  to  enlarge  their  bound- 
aries. II.  To  fix  the  preeminence  of  the 
papal  over  the  royal  authority,  throughout  all 
the  kingdoms  of  the  west,  and  to  reduce  all 
princes  to  the  condition  of  vassalage  to  the 
Pope  ;  which  was,  indeed,  merely  a  continu- 
ation of  the  scheme  of  Gregory.  III.  To  en- 
large the  pontifical  authority  and  influence 
within  the  church.  IV.  and  lastly,  To  secure 
the  unity  of  the  faith  by  the  extirpation  of 
heresy.  All  these  were  at  that  time  becoming 
essential  parts  of  the  papal  polity  ;  and  almost 
all  the  important  acts  of  Innocent  may  be 
traced  to  some  oue  of  them. 

I.  The  temporal  power  of  the  Pope.  As  the 
policy  of  the  Holy  See  becomes  more  and 
more  entangled  in  temporal  transactions,  as 
we  observe  the  spiritual  majesty  of  the  apos- 
tolical chair  gradually  degenerating  into  the 
Court  of  Rome,  it  is  fit  that  we  employ  a  few 
sentences  on  the  character  of  the  people 
which  was  subject  to  its  immediate  sway ; 
partly  because  we  shall  thus  discover  what 
sort  of  instruments  for  their  secular  designs 
the  Popes  possessed  at  home,  and  partly  that 
we  may  learn,  whether  the  great  moral  bless- 
ings were  more  abundantly  diffused  among 
the  subjects  of  an  ecclesiastical  monarchy. 
For  this  purpose  we  shall  select  two  very 
well  known  authorities,  the  one  from  the  tenth, 
the  other  from  the  thirteenth  century,  only 
premising  that,  though  the  particular  facts 
which  they  convey  may  be  highly  colored, 
the  general  consent  of  history  confirms  the 
substance. 

Character  of  the  Romans.  Luitprand,*  who 
was  sent  as  legate  from  Otho  the  First  to  the 
Eastern  Emperor,  expressed  in  this  language 


*  See  Luitpr.  Legatio,  apud  Muratori  Script.  Ital. 
vol,  ii. ;  also  Dissertat.  40  ejusd.  auct. 


PONTIFICATE  OF  INNOCENT  III. 


279 


the  sort  of  reputation  then  possessed  by  the 
Roman  people  :  — '  We  Lombards  despise 
them  so  deeply,  that  for  our  very  enemies, 
when  most  moved  against  them,  we  can  find 
no  designation  more  contumelious,  than  .Ro- 
man. In  this  single  term,  I  mean  Roman,  we 
intend  to  comprehend  all  that  is  base,  all  that 
is  cowardly,  all  that  is  avaricious,  all  that  is 
luxurious,  all  that  is  false  and  lying  —  ay, 
every  vice  that  has  a  name.'  The  evidence 
of  St.  Bernard  on  the  same  subject  is  more 
particular,  and  scarcely  more  honourable  to 
the  descendants  of  the  Gracchi:  —  'Why 
should  I  mention  the  people  ?  the  people  is 
Roman.  I  have  no  shorter,  nor  have  I  any 
clearer  term  to  express  my  opinion  of  your 
parishioners  (paroecianis.)  For  what  is  so 
notorious  to  all  men  and  ages  as  the  wanton- 
ness and  haughtiness  of  the  Romans?  A 
race  unaccustomed  to  peace,  habituated  to 
tumult — a  race  merciless  and  intractable,  and 
to  this  instant  scorning  all  subjection,  when 
it  has  any  means  of  resistance.  .  .  Whom 
will  you  find,  even  in  the  vast  extent  of  your 
city,  who  would  have  you  for  Pope,  unless 
for  profit,  or  the  hope  of  profit  ?  *  And  it  is 
then  most  that  they  seek  to  rule,  when  they 
profess  to  serve.  They  promise  fidelity,  to 
have  the  better  means  of  injuring  those  who 
trust  them.  .  .  .  They  are  men  too  proud 
to  obey,  too  ignorant  to  rule,  faithless  to  supe- 
riors, insupportable  to  inferiors  ;  shameless  in 
asking,  insolent  in  refusing ;  importunate  to 


*  Eugenius  III.  The  passage  in  the  De  Conside- 
ratione,  lib.  iv.  Cap.  ii.  We  have  purposely  omitted 
some  parts  of  it  in  the  text,  the  following  for  instance : 
— '  Et  nunc  experire  paucis  noverimne  et  ego  aliqua- 
tenus  mores  gentis.  Ante  omnia  sapienles  sunt,  ut 
faciant  mala,  bonum  autem  facere  nesciunt.  Hi  in- 
visi  terra?  et  ccelo  unique  injecere  manus,  impii  in 
Deum,  temerarii  in  sancta,  seditiosi  in  invicem  (qu. 
judicem  *?)  ajmuli  in  vicinos,  inhumani  in  extraneos; 
quos  neminem  amantes  amat  nemo.  Et  cum  timeri 
affectant  ab  omnibus,  omnes  timeant  necesse  est.    Hi 

sunt  qui  subesse  non  sustinent,'  &c Ita  omne 

humile  probro  ducitur  inter  Palatinos,  ut  facilius, 
qui  esse  quam  qui  apparere  humilis  velit,  invenias. 
Timor  Domini  simplicitas  vocatur,  ne  dicam  fatuitas,' 
&c.  ...  These  Palatines  seem  to  have  been  the  emi- 
nent Ecclesiastics  resident  at  the  Holy  See.  The 
cardinals,  who  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  future  court 
of  Rome,  though  now  gradually  rising  in  dignity, 
were  not  yet,  probably,  in  possession  of  any  corporate 
prerogatives.  We  shall  only  add  one  more  testimony, 
that  of  John  of  Salisbury,  the  contemporary  and 
countryman  of  Adrian  IV.,  against  the  Roman  clergy: 
— '  Provinciarum  diri.  punt  spolia,  ac  si  thesauros 
Crcesi  studeant  reparare.  Sed  recte  cum  iis  egit 
Altissimus,  quoniam  et  ipsi  aliis  et  sa?pe  vilissimis 
bominibus  dati  sint  in  direptionem.'  .  .  . 


obtain  favors,  restless  while  obtaining  them, 
ungrateful  when  they  have  obtained  them  ; 
grandiloquous  and  inefficient ;  most  profuse 
in  promise,  most  niggardly  in  performance  ; 
the  smoothest  flatterers,  the  most  venomous 
detractors,'  &c.  '  Among  such  a3  these  you 
are  proceeding  as  their  pastor,  covered  with 
gold  and  every  variety  of  splendor.  What 
are  your  sheep  looking  for  ?  .  .  If  I  dared 
to  use  the  expression,  I  should  say,  that  it  is 
a  pasture  of  demons  rather  than  of  sheep.'  .  . 
Many  of  the  features  in  this  revolting  picture 
are  common  to  the  courts  of  every  climate  and 
religion — to  the  sycophants  of  every  race  and 
age.  The  exclusive  appropriation  of  mean- 
ness and  treachery — the  monopoly  of  human 
baseness — could  not  truly  be  ascribed  even  to 
the  people  of  Rome.  But  there  is  one  among 
the  vices  imputed  to  them  which  was  indeed 
their  characteristic — restless  and  turbulent  in- 
subordination. Shall  we  consider  this  defect 
as  the  corruption  of  an  ancient  virtue  ?  Cer- 
tainly even  a  cursory  review  of  the  govern- 
ment (if  government  it  can  be  called)  under 
which  the  imperial  city  had  struggled  for 
above  four  centuries,  will  show  that  the  vice, 
whether  indigenous  or  not,  received  much 
encouragement  and  excuse  from  extraneous 
circumstances.  We  have  already  mentioned 
the  doubtful  limits  of  the  authority  respective- 
ly exercised  by  the  Patrician  and  the  Bishop 
under  the  Greek  emperors.  When  that  rule 
finally  passed  away,  Charlemagne  (and  before 
him  Pepin)  assumed  the  temporal  administra- 
tion of  Rome  under  the  same  name,  Patrician  ; 
and  during  his  reign  the  imperial  supremacy 
was  in  practice  felt,  as  it  was  undisputed  in 
right.  Weaker  princes,  and  ages  almost  of  an- 
archy succeeded.  Nevertheless,  the  supreme 
dominion  of  the  emperors,  which  may  have 
been  partially  suspended,  was  re-established 
by  Otho  ;  '  their  title  and  image  were  engrav- 
en on  the  Papal  coins,  and  their  jurisdiction 
was  marked  by  the  sword  of  justice  which 
they  delivered  to  the  Prefect  of  the  city.'  * 

On  the  other  hand,  the  residence  of  the 
Emperor  was  remote,  and  the  communication 
slow  and  precarious.  Once  only,  in  the  course 
perhaps  of  a  long  reign,  he  presented  himself 
to  his  Roman  subjects.  The  purpose  of  that 
visit  was  to  receive  his  crown  from  the  pon- 
tifical hand,  and  the  ceremony  was  usually 
attended  with  tumult  and  bloodshed.  Again 
—  at  that  coronation  he  thrice  repeated  the 
royal  oath,  to  maintain  the  liberties  of  Rome. 
The  ancient  fable,  too,  was  continually  incul- 


*  See  Gibbon's  69th  chapter 


280 


HISTORY   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


cated,  and  perhaps  universally  believed,  that 
Constantine  had  consigned  the  temporal  scep- 
tre to  the  hand  of  the  Bishop.  And  in  those 
ages  of  superstitious  darkness,  the  prejudices 
of  mankind  saw  nothing  incongruous  in  the 
double  character  of  a  sacerdotal  monarch. 
These  circumstances  were  on  both  sides  un- 
favorable to  the  welfare  of  Rome,  for  while 
they  neutralized,  and  almost  destroyed  the 
power  of  the  Prefect,  they  gave  no  substantial 
foundation  to  that  of  the  Pope.  So  that  in 
the  uncertainty  thus  created,  as  to  where  the 
civil  executive  authority  really  was  placed,  the 
people  were  left  without  any  efficient  control. 
Their  inclination  would  naturally  lead  them 
to  respect  most  the  power,  which  was  more 
nearly  and  immediately  exercised.  But  the 
short  reigns  of  most  of  the  Popes ;  the  tumul- 
tuous scenes  which  commonly  disgraced  their 
election,  and  which  were  prolonged  so  ob- 
stinately whenever  there  was  a  rival  for  the 
chair  ;  the  very  circumstance,  that  the  choice 
of  a  ruler  was  influenced  by  the  rabble  —  all 
conspired  to  lower  his  dignity,  and  to  lessen 
the  efficacy  of  his  temporal  authority.  It  is 
true,  that  during  the  latter  half  of  the  twelfth 
century,  after  the  constitution  of  Alexander 
III.  (in  1179,)  these  evils  were  in  some  degree 
abated.  Still  there  were  no  principles  of 
stability  in  the  civil  administration  ;  and  it  is 
scarcely  too  much  to  assert  that,  from  the  time 
of  Charlemagne  to  that  of  Innocent,  the  pon- 
tifical city  had  never  once  felt  either  the  re- 
straint or  the  blessing  of  a  strong  government 

The  regulation  of  Alexander  III.  was  an 
omen  of  greater  improvements.  But  a  change 
of  more  importance  in  the  civil  history  of 
Rome  was  the  establishment  of  the  Senate ; 
and  this  is  referred,  as  a  permanent  act,  to  the 
year  1144.  In  the  meantime,  the  dignity  of 
'  Prefect  of  the  City '  had  gradually  declined 
to  a  municipal  office,  filled  from  the  families 
of  the  native  nobility.  Even  the  name  was, 
for  a  short  time,  abolished,  and  succeeded  by 
that  of  Patrician,  though  it  was  speedily  re- 
stored, together  with  the  original  ensigns  of 
power.  But  at  length  Innocent  III.  broke  off 
the  last  link  of  the  imperial  power.  He  re- 
jected at  the  same  time  its  ancient  emblem  ; 
and  while  he  absolved  the  Prefect  from  all  de- 
pendence of  oaths  or  service  on  the  German 
Emperors,  he  removed  the  sword  from  his 
hand,  and  substituted  a  peaceful  banner  in  its 
place. 

But  the  tranquillity  of  Rome  was  not  se- 
cured by  its  independence ;  and  other  changes 
succeeded,  in  the  difficult  attempt  at  self-gov- 
ernment by  a  people  educated  almost  in  an- 


archy. In  the  first  instance,  the  name  and 
authority  of  the  Senate  was  condensed  in  the 
office  of  a  single  magistrate  —  the  Senator; 
and  soon  afterwards  in  that  of  two  colleagues. 
The  most  jealous  precautions  *  were  taken  to 
secure  their  integrity,  or,  at  least,  their  harm- 
lessness.  But  they  were  still  Romans;  and 
the  turbulence  of  the  subjects  seem  to  have 
been  rivalled  by  the  rapacity  of  the  rulers. 
Another  scheme,  which  had  been  elsewhere 
successful,  was  then  applied  to  the  disorders 
of  Rome.  In  the  dearth  of  native  virtue,  or 
at  least  in  the  despair  of  domestic  disinterest- 
edness and  impartiality,  she  called  to  the  helm 
of  state  a  foreign  governor.  It  was  about  the 
year  1250,  that  Brancaleone  of  Bologna  was 
chosen  Senator ;  and,  in  the  progress  of  sev- 
enty-eight years,  the  same  office  was  filled  and 
dignified  by  Charles  of  Anjou  (about  1265,) 
by  Pope  Martin  IV.  (in  1281,)  and  lastly,  by 
Lewis  of  Bavaria ;  '  and  thus  (says  Gibbon) 
both  the  sovereigns  of  Rome  acknowledged 
her  liberty  by  accepting  a  municipal  office  in 
the  government  of  their  own  metropolis.'  A 
government  susceptible  of  such  strange  ano- 
malies could  not  hope  for  peace  or  perma- 
nence. Even  the  secession  of  the  Popes  to 
Avignon  did  not  emancipate  Rome  from  their 
occasional  sway,  and  their  ceaseless  persecu- 
tion. And  thus  the  people  were  doubly  suf- 
ferers— they  suffered,  when  subject,  from  the 
weakness  of  an  absent  sceptre — they  suffered, 
when  independent,  from  the  perpetual  strug- 
gles which  were  made  to  reduce  them.  After 
seventy  years  of  foreign  residence,  the  Pontiffs 
returned  to  their  legitimate  abode.  But  the 
schism,  which  immediately  followed  the  res- 
toration, still  further  enfeebled  a  grasp  already 
trembling  with  the  weight  of  the  temporal 
sword.  That  inveterate  turbulence,  transmit- 
ted through  so  many  ages,  continued  for  some 
generations  longer ;  and  it  was  not  until  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  that  the  pon- 
tifical city  became  permanently  subject  to 
pontifical  government. 

Temporal  policy  of  Innocent.  From  this 
short  anticipation  of  some  future  events,  we 
return  to  observe  the  working  of  that  pow- 
erful hand,  which  influenced  so  deeply  the 


*  According  to  the  laws  of  Rome  (in  the  fifteenth 
century),  the  Senator  was  required  to  be  a  Doctor 
of  Laws,  an  alien,  of  some  place  at  least  forty  miles 
distant,  and  unconnected,  to  the  third  canonical  de- 
gree, with  any  Roman  inhabitant.  The  election  was 
annual ;  the  departure  from  oflice  was  attended  with 
a  severe  scrutiny ;  nor  could  the  same  person  be  re- 
elected until  after  two  years.  The  salary  was  3000 
florins.     Gibbon,  c.  70. 


PONTIFICATE  OF  INNOCENT  III. 


281 


destinies  of  the  Church,  and  which  influenc- 
ed them  almost  wholly  for  evil — and  in  no 
one  respect  more  so,  than  when  it  construct- 
ed the  temporal  fabric  for  the  support  of  a 
power  essentially  spiritual,  and  waved  before 
those  brilliant  portals  the  dark  bloodstained 
edge  of  the  material  sword.  Possibly  the 
powerful  mind  of  Innocent  was  seduced  into 
those  projects  by  the  inviting  circumstances 
of  the  moment.  During  his  entire  pontificate 
the  situation  of  the  empire  was  extremely  fa- 
vorable to  any  hostile  schemes.  The  legiti- 
mate sovereign  (afterwards  Frederic  II.)  was 
a  minor,  and  the  sceptre  was  for  some  time 
disputed  by  two  princes  (Philip  and  Otbo 
IV.,)  to  each  of  whom  the  patronage  of  the 
Pontiff"  was  equally  important.  At  a  later 
period,  after  the  death  of  Philip,  the  dissen- 
sion was  renewed,  in  another  form,  but  with 
the  same  character,  between  Otho  and  Fred- 
eric ;  and  the  latter  of  these  rivals  now  be- 
came as  anxious  to  cultivate  the  friendship  of 
the  Pope,  as  heretofore  the  former.  Inno- 
cent availed  himself  of  these  advantages  to 
enrich  aud  fortify  the  Church  at  the  expense 
of  all  those  disputants,  or  at  least  of  the  em- 
pire which  they  disputed.  Accordingly,  one 
of  the  earliest  acts  of  his  reign  was  to  dis- 
arm the  Prefect  of  all  authority  derived  from 
abroad,  and  thus  to  erase  the  last  remaining 
vestige  of  German  domination.  Again,  the 
exteusive  donation  of  territory  which  the 
Princess  Matilda  had  made  to  the  Roman 
see,  during  the  administration  of  Gregory 
VII.,  had  been  unceasingly  contested  by  the 
empire ;  and  the  greater  force  had  generally 
constituted  the  better  right  Innocent,  to- 
wards the  end  of  his  pontificate,  was  enabled 
so  far  to  profit  by  the  weakness  of  Frederic, 
as  to  obtain  from  that  prince  a  formal  confir- 
mation of  the  grant;  at  the  same  time,  a  con- 
siderable territorial  cession,  made  to  the  see 
by  the  Count  of  Fundi,  received  the  same 
ratification.  It  is  proper,  indeed,  to  ascribe 
the  completion  of  this  work  to  Nicholas  IV., 
who  ruled  about  seventy  years  afterwards. 
That  Pope  reduced  under  his  dominion  some 
cities,  which  had  hitherto  owned  a  nominal 
allegiance  to  the  Emperor  ;  and  extended  the 
states  of  the  Church  to  those  nearly  which 
are  their  present  boundaries.  But  to  Nicho- 
las no  higher  celebrity  is  due,  than  that  he 
pursued  with  success  the  policy  which  had 
descended  to  him  from  his  predecessors,  and 
which  had  received  its  first  impulse  from 
Innocent ;  for,  until  his  pontificate,  the  tem- 
poralities of  the  see,  notwithstanding  the  suc- 
36 


cessive  donations  (pretended  *  or  real)  of 
Constantiue,  and  Pepin,  and  Charlemagne, 
and  Lewis  the  Meek,  and  even  Matilda,  form- 
ed, in  fact,  if  not  a  mere  field  for  incessant 
contention,  at  best  a  very  precarious  and  un- 
profitable possession. 

II.  On  the  Usurpations  of  Papal  over  Royal 
Authority. — In  respect  to  this  part  of  the  pon- 
tifical system,  we  have  already  seen  that  the 
equivocal  glory  of  creating  it  is  not  due  to 
Innocent ;  he  received  it  from  former  (per- 
haps from  better)  ages,  among  the  established 
duties  of  the  apostolical  office.  It  was  sealed 
by  the  consent  of  many  venerable  Pontiff's;  by 
the  authority  of  Gregory  VII.  It  was  con- 
genial to  the  unconverted  pride  of  the  human 
heart — diat  passion,  which  burnt  most  fierce- 
ly in  the  breast  of  Innocent,  and  which  the 
waters  of  the  gospel  were  seldom  invited  to 
allay.  His  was  indeed  the  character  formed, 
under  whatsoever  ordination  of  Providence, 
to  fill  up  the  outlines  so  daringly  traced,  and 
to  pursue  the  scheme  which  his  great  prede- 
cessor had  bequeathed  to  him.  The  same 
circumstances  which  forwarded  his  other 
temporal  projects  were,  as  far  as  they  exten- 
ded, favorable  to  this.  Once  more  he  drew 
his  strength  from  the  divisions  of  the  empire. 
He  deposed  Philip — Philip  denied  his  right — 
but  it  was  willingly  acknowledged  by  the  rival 
Otho,  who  did  not  scruple  to  accept  (in  1209) 
the  diadem  from  the  pontifical  hand.  Only 
three  years  afterwards  the  Pope  pronounced, 
in  the  same  plenitude  of  power,  the  same 
sentence  of  anathema  and  deposition  against 
Otho.  With  what  justice  could  Otho  dispute 
the  power  by  which  he  had  deigned  to  rise  ? 
The  vacant  throne  was  then  conferred  upon 
Frederic. 

A  purely  spiritual  despotism  can  rest  on  no 
other  ground  than  popular  prejudice — com- 
mands which  have  no  visible  power  to  enforce 
them  will  only  be  obeyed  through  a  general 
predisposition  to  believe,  that  they  proceed 
from  some  still  superior  authority.  The  mo- 
narch would  have  derided  the  sentence  of  de- 
position, had  it  not  found  attention  and  respect 
among  his  subjects.  That  it  should  ever  have 
acquired  such  general  respect  may  indeed 
seem  strange,  and  the  causes  which  were  then 

*  Sismondi  (Repub.  Ital.  c.  iii.)  remarks  that  '  as 
the  act  of  Pepin's  donation  is  lost,  we  know  not  on 
what  conditions  it  may  have  been  made.'  He  also 
expresses  a  reasonable  doubt,  whether  this  donation, 
though  nominally  confirmed  by  Charlemagne  and 
Lewis,  was  ever  effectuated. 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


sufficient  for.  that  end  could  only  have  operat- 
ed in  a  very  blind  and  ignorant  age.  For  in- 
stance, the  mere  ceremony  of  coronation  by 
the  Pope,  to  which  the  Emperors,  in  imitation 
of  Charlemagne,  had  almost  invariably  sub- 
mitted, would  seem  to  afford  no  trifling  pre- 
text for  the  claims  of  the  former ;  since  it  was 
in  those  days  an  easy  inference  that  the  crown, 
which  for  many  generations  had  been  habit- 
ually received  from  the  hand  of  the  Pope, 
could  not  legally  be  worn  except  through  such 
presentation  ;  and  then  it  followed,  since  there 
were  many  who  zealously  inculcated  the  con- 
sequence, that  the  gift  conferred  was  in  fact 
the  properly  of  the  donor,*  who  again  had 
power  to  recall  his  gift,  and  present  it  to  some 
worthier  candidate.  At  the  same  time  we 
should  never  lose  sight  of  that  general  vener- 
ation for  the  throne  of  St.  Peter,  which  at 
that  period  especially  overspread  the  prostrate 
nations,  and  overawed  the  reason  of  man  ; 
for  it  was,  in  truth,  not  an  uncommon  belief 
that  the  blessed  Apostle  invisibly  presided 
over  the  altar  of  his  martyrdom,  and  guarded 
and  sanctified  with  mysterious  majesty  the 
chair  of  his  successors. 

The  eagerness  with  which  the  emperors 
generally  courted  the  ceremony  of  coronation, 
though  it  was  attended  by  circumstances  very 
humiliating  to  their  pride,  certainly  proves 
that  there  existed  among  their  subjects  a  strong 
feeling  as  to  its  propriety,  perhaps  its  necessi- 
ty. But  that  which  gave  the  greatest  color  to 
the  extreme  pretensions  of  the  See,  was  the 
readiness  with  which  princes  acknowledged 
them,  when  they  found  their  profit  in  the  ac- 
knowledgment. The  very  edicts  which  they 
rejected  with  scorn  when  addressed  to  them- 
selves, they  embraced  and  effectuated  when 
levelled  against  a  rival.  The  right,  as  a  gen- 
eral right,  was  never  contested.  The  partial 
interests  of  the  moment  overpowered  every 
consideration  of  a  broader  policy ;  and  thus 
amid  the  ever-reviving  jealousies  and  dissen- 
sions of  monarchs  and  pretenders,  the  con- 
sistent perseverance  of  the  Vatican  established 
the  most  groundless  claims,  and  accomplished 
the  most  extravagant  purposes.  Of  course 
the  agents  for  the  dissemination  of  its  princi- 
ples and  the  instruments  of  its  success  were 

*  This  inference  required,  of  course,  a  large  share 
of  zeal  in  the  teacher  and  docility  in  the  disciple. 
The  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  had  possessed  from 
the  earliest  ages  the  office  of  crowning  the  Greek 
emperor,  without  ever  dreaming  that  he  acquired  any 
sort  of  interest  in  the  crown  itself  by  the  performance 
of  an  ordinary  ceremony.  But  ecclesiastical  matters 
were  very  differently  conducted  in  the  west. 


the  ecclesiastical  orders,  and  especially  the 
monks ;  and  the  very  general  union  and  co- 
operation which  at  this  time  prevailed  (more 
perhaps  than  at  any  other  period,  more  cer- 
tainly than  at  any  later  period)  between  the 
Pope,  the  clergy,  and  the  monasteries,  facilitat- 
ed the  execution  of  Innocent's  boldest  designs. 
Contest  nrith  Philippe  Auguste.  The  first 
interference  of  that  pontiff  in  the  affairs  of 
the  French  court  was  defended  by  precedents, 
and  occasioned  by  an  offence  at  all  times  pe- 
culiarly liable  to  spiritual  jurisdiction.  Phil- 
ippe Auguste  having  espoused  a  Danish  prin- 
cess, named  Ingelburg,  or  Isemburg,  hastened 
on  the  very  day  following  the  nuptials  to  di- 
vorce her.  He  pretended  to  have  discovered 
that  they  were  connected  by  too  near  a  de- 
gree of  affinity  ;  and  after  some  investigation, 
at  which  two  legates  of  Pope  Celestiue  as- 
sisted, the  marriage  was  declared  null.  In- 
nocent, probably  considering  that  concession 
as  extorted  from  the  timidity  of  his  predeces- 
sor, lost  no  time  in  setting  aside  the  divorce, 
and  commanding  the  king  to  take  back  his 
bride.  He  refused,  and  an  interdict  was  im- 
mediately thrown  on  the  whole  kingdom. 
The  public  offices  of  worship  were  suspend- 
ed ;  even  the  doors  of  the  churches  were 
closed  ;  the  Sacrament  of  Christ  was  no  long- 
er administered,*  and  the  rites  of  marriage 
and  sepulture  remained  unperformed.  We 
shoidd  here  recollect,  that  with  the  mass  of 
an  ignorant  people  professing  a  corrupt  form 
of  faith,  the  public  exercise  of  religion  con- 
stituted, in  fact,  its  entire  substance.  Depriv- 
ed of  that,  they  had  no  refuge  in  private  prayer, 
or  the  consolations  of  internal  devotion.  To 
such  persons  the  sentence  of  an  interdict 
must  have  fallen  like  an  immediate  edict  of 
rejection  and  separation  from  heaven  ;  and 
such  in  the  twelfth  century  was  the  multitude 


*  We  should  mention,  that  even  under  the  oppres- 
sion of  the  severest  interdict,  the  sacraments  of  Bap- 
tism, Confession,  and  Extreme  Unction  still  continued 
to  be  administered.  But  it  was  attended  by  other  pro- 
hibitions, not  strictly  of  a  religious  nature,  calculated 
to  inspire  gloom  and  fanaticism.  The  hair,  for  in- 
stance, and  the  beard  were  to  be  left  unshaven ;  the 
use  of  meat  was  forbidden;  and  even  the  ordinary 
salutation  was  prohibited.  But  the  suspension  of 
sepulture,  the  exposure  of  the  corpses  to  dogs  or  birds, 
or  even  their  promiscuous  interment  in  unhallowed 
ground,  was  probably  in  practice  the  most  appalling 
part  of  the  sentence.  From  the  learned  treatise,  '  De 
l'Origine  et  du  Progres  des  Interdits  Ecclesiastiques,' 
by  Pierre  Pithou,  it  appears  that  there  were  indica- 
tions of  such  an  exercise  of  ecclesiastical  power  in 
very  early  ages;  though  it  was  not  applied  to  any 
grand  purpose,  as  a  pontifical  implement,  until  the 
time  of  Hildebrand. 


PONTIFICATE  OF  INNOCENT  III. 


283 


of  every  class.  Philippe  Auguste  was  a  prince 
of  uncommon  resolution  and  address.  Nev- 
ertheless he  found  it  expedient  to  bend  before 
the  tempest,  and  obey  the  pontifical  mandate. 

This  was  the  earliest  triumph  of  Innocent, 
and  h  encouraged  his  ambition  to  attempt 
more  daring  achievements.  At  least  he  did 
not  long  confine  it  to  objects  which  offered 
any  particular  justification,  but  advanced  on 
the  broadest  ground  of  universal  interference. 
In  a  bull  published  in  1197,  he  declared,  '  that 
it  was  not  fit  that  any  mau  should  be  invested 
with  authority,  who  did  not  serve  and  obey 
the  Holy  See.'  At  another  time  he  proclaim- 
ed, '  that  he  would  not  endure  the  least  con- 
tempt of  himself,  or  of  God,  whose  place  he 
held  on  earth,  but  would  punish  every  diso- 
bedience without  delay,  and  convince  the 
whole  world  that  he  was  determined  to  act 
like  a  sovereign.'  '  As  the  sun  and  the  moon 
are  placed  in  the  firmament,  the  greater  as 
the  light  of  the  day  and  the  lesser  of  the  night, 
so  are  there  two  powers  in  the  church,  the 
pontifical,  which,  as  having  the  charge  of 
souls,  is  the  greater  ;  and  the  royal,  which  is 
the  lesser,  and  to  which  only  the  bodies  of 
men  are  trusted.'*  '  Though  I  cannot  judge 
of  a  fiefi'f  said  Innocent  to  the  kings  of  France 
and  England,  'yet  it  is  my  province  to  judge 
when  sin  is  committed,  and  my  duty  to  pre- 
vent all  public  scandals.'  This  was  indeed 
the  loftiest  and  the  most  respectable  ground 
on  which  the  Papal  pretensions  could  be 
placed ;  and  if  the  Bishops  of  Rome  had 
really  been  contented  with  the  exercise  of  a 
beneficial  authority — if  they  had  employed 
the  mighty  power  with  which  they  found 
themselves  invested,  only  for  the  reconciliation 
of  enmities,  for  the  concord,  the  morality,  the 
most  obvious  interests  of  the  human  race,  then, 
indeed,  we  might  have  forgotten  the  origin 
of  that  power  in  its  blessed  uses,  and  pardon- 
ed to  the  Vicar  of  Christ  his  presumptuous 
appellation,  when  we  saw  him  engaged  in 
doing  the  works  of  Christ,  and  consoling  his 
children  upon  earth. 

However,  the  interference,  even  of  Innocent 

*  Innocent's  famous  Rescript  to  the  emperor  of 
Constantinople  (in  which  the  above  allegory  is  pro- 
duced) respected  chiefly  the  immunity  of  clerks;  and 
as  it  was  founded  on  the  maxims  published  by  Gra- 
tian,  which  were  themselves  founded  on  the  False 
Decretals,  so  itself  became  in  process  of  time  a  new 
Decretal,  the  groundwork,  if  necessary,  of  other  still 
more  inordinate  pretensions.  It  was  thus  that  the 
system  grew. 

t  The  general  cognizance  of  causes  relating  to  fiefs 
had  escaped,  as  it  would  seem,  ecclesiastical  usurpa- 
tion. 


III.,  was  not  always  for  evil.  On  the  strength 
of  his  delegated  authority  he  dictated  a  truce 
to  Philippe  and  Richard,  and  after  some  diffi- 
culties obliged  both  parties  to  submit  to  it. 
It  was  about  the  same  time  that  he  directed 
one  of  his  legates  to  compel  the  observance 
of  peace  between  the  Kings  of  Castille  and 
Portugal,  if  necessary,  by  excommunication 
and  interdict.  He  moreover  enjoined  the 
King  of  Arragon  to  restore  to  its  intrinsic 
value  the  coin  which  he  had  lately  debased, 
thereby  oppressing  and  defrauding  his  sub- 
jects. The  mere  wanton  display  of  power 
may  not  have  been  his  motive — some  gener- 
ous considerations  may  sometimes  have  in- 
fluenced him.  '  A  great  mind  (says  Hallam,) 
such  as  Innocent  III.  undoubtedly  possessed, 
though  prone  to  sacrifice  every  other  object 
to  ambition,  can  never  be  indifferent  to  the 
beauty  of  social  order  and  the  happiness  of 
mankind.' 

Not  contented  to  influence  the  most  vigor- 
ous monarchs  of  the  most  powerful  king- 
doms of  the  age,  he  descended  to  issue  his 
edicts  to  inferior  princes.  He  sent  forth  in- 
structions to  the  King  of  Navarre  respecting 
the  restoration  of  certain  castles  to  Richard. 
He  distributed  the  insignia  of  royalty  to  Bris- 
cislaus,  Duke  of  Bohemia,  and  to  the  Dukes 
of  Wallachia  and  Bulgaria.  He  conferred 
the  crown  of  Arragon  on  Peter  II.  as  his  sub- 
ject and  tributary.  And  finally  (that  no  race 
or  cliine  might  seem  inaccessible  to  his  arm), 
he  gave  a  king  to  the  Armenian  nation,  dwell- 
ing on  the  border  of  the  Caspian  Sea. 

With  John  of  England.  Yet,  with  all  this 
extent  of  despotic  sway,  it  was  in  England 
that  his  boldest  pretensions  were  advanced, 
and  advanced  with  the  most  surprising  suc- 
cess. The  circumstances  are  known  to  all 
readers.  In  the  year  1199,  Richard  I.  was 
succeeded  on  the  throne  by  John,  the  feeblest 
of  the  human  race  ;  and  that  prince  was  pre- 
sently assailed  by  an  outrage  from  the  Holy 
See,  which  disturbed  for  some  years  the  re- 
pose and  allegiance  of  his  subjects,  and  the 
stability  of  his  throne.  On  the  vacancy  of 
the  see  of  Canterbury,  the  monks  in  chapter 
publicly  elected  to  that  dignity  John,  Bishop 
of  Norwich,  who  was  recommended  and  con- 
firmed by  the  King.  At  the  same  time  they 
chose,  at  a  private  meeting,  Reginald,  their 
own  sub-prior,*  and  sent  him  to  Rome  for  in- 
stitution. When  this  matter  was  referred  to 
Innocent,  he  immediately  reversed  both  elec- 
tions,  and    nominated   Stephen   Langton,  a 


*  Pagi  Brev.  Pont.  Rom.  Vit.  Iiinoc.  III.  Sect.  49. 


284 


HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


Roman  cardinal,  of  English  descent.  The 
chapter  listened  to  the  spiritual,  in  preference 
to  the  temporal,  tyrant ;  and  the  monks  were 
in  consequence  expelled  from  their  residence, 
and  their  property  was  confiscated.  The 
Pope  proceeded  with  no  less  energy  to  en- 
force his  asserted  rights,  and  commanded  the 
Bishops  of  London,  Worcester,  and  Ely,  to 
lay  the  whole  kingdom  under  an  interdict. 
There  were  some  prelates,  however,  and 
several  inferior  ecclesiastics,  who  hesitated 
to  enforce  this  edict;  and  since  John  made 
no  concession,  Innocent  issued,  in  the  follow- 
ing year  (1201),  a  hull  of  excommunication 
against  the  name  and  person  of  the  sovereign. 
This  sentence,  still  ineffectual,  was  followed, 
in  1211,  by  another  yet  more  appalling.  The 
subjects  of  John  were  absolved  from  their 
allegiance,  and  commanded  to  avoid  his  pre- 
sence. Yet  as  even  this  measure  was  insuffi- 
cient for  his  entire  success,  he  had  then  re- 
course to  the  last  and  most  dangerous  among 
the  bolts  of  the  Vatican.  He  pronounced  the 
final  sentence  of  deposition  ;  and  having  de- 
clared the  vacancy  of  the  throne,  gave  force 
to  his  words  by  conferring  it  upon  Philippe 
Auguste  of  France.  At  the  same  time  he 
ordered  that  monarch  to  execute  the  sentence. 
Philippe's  obedience  was  secured  by  his 
ambition  ;  he  was  joined  by  the  exiles  of  his 
rival's  tyranny  ;  and  to  ensure  his  success, 
or,  more  probably,  to  complete  the  consterna- 
tion of  John,  Innocent  proclaimed  a  crusade 
against  the  English  king  as  against  an  infidel 
or  a  heretic.  The  armies  were  assembled  on 
both  sides,  and  hostilities  were  on  the  point 
cf  commencing,  when  Pandulph,  the  legate 
of  the  Pope,  presented  himself  at  the  camp 
at  Dover.  He  there  displayed  the  final  de- 
mands of  the  Pope,  and  the  King  had  cour- 
age to  resist  no  longer.  The  demands  to 
which  he  submitted  were  these,  —  that  he 
should  resign  his  crown  to  the  legate,  and  re- 
ceive it  again  as  a  present  from  the  Holy  See ; 
that  he  should  declare  his  dominions  tributary 
to  the  same  See ;  and  that  he  should  do  hom- 
age and  swear  fealty  to  Innocent,  as  a  vassal 
and  a  feudatory.  The  shame  of  this  humilia- 
tion was  increased  by  the  ceremony  attending 
it ;  by  the  multitude  of  sorrowful  or  indignant 
witnesses ;  by  the  very  manner  *  in  which  the 
haughty  legate  bore  himself  on  his  triumph. 
Yet,  to  the  eye  of  an  earnest  and  fervent 
Papist,  is  the  degradation  of  England's  mon- 


*  Among  other  circumstances  it  is  related,  that 
Pandulph  did  actually  keep  the  crown  in  his  posses- 
sion for  some  minutes.  The  annual  tribute  stipulated 
was  1000  marks. 


arch,  while  he  stood  waiting,  amid  his  nobles 
and  his  soldiers,  to  accept  his  crown  from  the 
suspended  hand  of  Pandulph — is  it,  after  all, 
a  spectacle  of  such  lofty  exultation  —  is  it  a 
picture  so  flattering  to  his  spiritual,  even  to 
his  ecclesiastical,  pride  —  as  the  half-naked 
form  of  the  imperial  penitent  of  older  days, 
shivering,  with  his  scanty  train  of  attendants, 
before  the  castle  gates  of  Gregory  ? 

III.  The  Increase  of  Pontifical  Authority 
within  the  Church. — The  description  of  John's 
humiliation,  and  of  the  steps  which  led  to  it, 
connects  the  second  with  the  third  part  of 
this  inquiry  —  for,  in  the  first  place,  it  shows 
the  extent  to  which  Innocent  carried  his 
claims  to  patronage  within  the  Church  ;  and 
in  the  next,  it  exhibits  one  motive  of  the 
general  anxiety  evinced  by  the  see  to  extend 
that  internal  iufluence.  The  Interdict,  which 
was  now  become  the  favorite  instrument 
of  papal  usurpation,  however  formidable  in 
name  and  deed,  was  an  empty  denunciation, 
unless  enforced  by  the  personal  exertions  of 
the  Bishops,  and  even  of  the  inferior  clergy 
of  the  kingdom  subjected  to  it — as  we,  indeed, 
observed,  that  in  England  the  sentence  of 
Innocent  failed  of  its  full  effect,  through  the 
opposition  of  a  part  of  the  clergy.  And  thus, 
in  any  project  of  temporal  aggrandizement 
which  a  Pope  might  undertake,  success  could 
never  be  secured  unless  he  could  command 
the  co-operation  of  the  very  great  proportion 
of  the  ecclesiastical  body.  It  was  partly  for 
this  reason  that  so  many  foreign,  and  espe- 
cially Italian,  prelates  were  placed,  for  many 
ages,  in  English  sees.  In  Germany,  too,  In- 
nocent showed  the  same  anxiety  to  extend 
his  right  of  appointment ;  by  a  formal  capit- 
ulation with  Otho  IV.  he  obtained  that  of 
decision  in  disputed  cases  ;  and  it  is  obvious 
to  what  easy  abuse  it  was  liable.  In  other 
countries  he  advanced  the  same  claim,  which 
had  been  so  fatally  disputed  in  England,  with 
less  resistance  and  equal  success.  His  exam- 
ple was  imitated  by  following  Pontiffs :  and 
the  facility  thus  acquired,  of  exciting  rebellion 
amongst  a  restless  nobility  and  a  superstitious 
people,  against  a  weak  and  arbitrary  govern- 
ment, terrified  the  boldest  monarchs,  and  fre- 
quently led  them  to  sacrifice  the  future  secu- 
rity of  the  crown  to  the  hopes  or  apprehen- 
sions of  the  moment. 

The  Saladin  Tax.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
very  great  progress  made  by  Innocent  in  ex- 
tending the  papal  influence  among  the  priest- 
hood, was  counteracted  by  a  measure  which 
may  have  been  necessitated  by  other  causes,  but 


PONTIFICATE  OF  INNOCENT  III. 


285 


which  certainly  was  ill  calculated  to  increase 
the  attachment  of  that  body.  Not  contented 
to  exact  from  them  very  considerable  occa- 
sional contributions,  he  imposed  a  regular  tax 
on  ecclesiastical  property,  and  he  was  the  first 
Pope  who  ventured  upon  that  measure.  It 
was  called  the  Saladiu  tax  ;  and  it  is  true  that 
the  service  of  religion, — whether  in  Langtie- 
doc  or  in  Palestine,  for  the  murder  of  Sara- 
cens or  of  heretic  Christians, — was  alike  the 
pretext,  and  in  part  the  motive,  for  those  ex- 
actions. Nevertheless,  they  were  advanced 
with  reluctance  ;  and  the  innovation  was  the 
less  tolerable,  as  it  would  certainly  become  a 
precedent  for  future  and  more  oppressive  ex- 
tortions. 

It  is  also  necessary  to  observe,  that  the 
collective  power  of  the  episcopal  order  was 
not  so  great  at  that  time  as  it  had  been  in  the 
ninth  or  tenth,  or  even  in  the  earlier  part  of 
the  eleventh  century,  owing  to  the  gradu- 
al disuse  of  those  national  synods  which, 
in  former  ages,  controlled  the  conduct  of 
kings.  But  we  should  at  the  same  time-  re- 
mark, that  the  authority  thus  lost  by  the 
hierarchy  was  not  gained  by  the  sovereign. 
It  changed  owners,  indeed,  but  it  did  not 
pass  out  of  the  possession  of  the  church.  It 
was  merely  transferred  from  one  part  of  that 
body  to  another;  from  the  members  to  the 
head  ;  from  the  prelacy  to  the  Pope  :  and  by 
him  it  was  exercised  with  a  restless  audacity, 
an  unity  of  design,  and  a  consistent  persever- 
ance, which  could  not  possibly  have  directed 
a  long  series  of  local  and  dependent  councils. 
So  that  the  change  in  the  constitution  of  the 
church,  by  which  it  became  less  aristocratical, 
(if  we  may  so  apply  that  term,)  and  more  des- 
potic, though  it  considerably  altered  the  rela- 
tive positions  of  the  crown  and  the  mitre,  did 
not  at  all  increase  the  preponderance  of  the 
former ;  on  the  contrary,  the  greater  con- 
centration of  ecclesiastical  authority  in  one 
instead  of  many  hands,  made  it  a  more  dan- 
gerous rival  to  the  civil  government.  The 
advance  of  pontifical  power  was  very  closely 
connected  with  the  improvement  of  disci- 
pline, and  the  progress  of  that  system  of 
uniformity,  which  was  designed  entirely  to 
pervade  and  bind  together  the  Universal 
Church. 

The  fourth  Lateran  Council.  Among  the 
most  important  acts  of  Innocent's  pontificate 
was  the  convocation  of  the  fourth  Lateran 
Council, — the  most  numerous  and  most  cel- 
ebrated of  the  ancient  assemblies  of  the  Latin 
church.    This  august  body  consisted  of  near- 


ly five  hundred*  archbishops  and  bishop?, 
besides  a  much  greater  multitude  of  abbot3 
and  priors,  and  delegates  of  absent  prelates, 
and  ambassadors  from  most  of  the  Christian 
courts  of  the  west  and  of  the  east.  It  met 
together  in  the  November  of  1215,  for  the 
professed  consideration  of  two  grand  objects. 
The  first  was  the  recovery  of  the  Holy  Land  ; 
the  second  was  the  Reformation  of  the  church 
in  faith  and  in  discipline.  Seventy  canons 
were  then  dictated  by  Innocent,  and  received 
its  obsequious  confirmation.  It  does  not  ap- 
pear that  its  deliberations  (if  they  may  so  be 
called)  were  attended  with  any  freedom  of 
debate  ;  and  within  a  month  \  from  the  day 
of  its  opening,  having  executed  its  appointed 
office,  it  was  dismissed. 

Among  the  articles  on  that  occasion  enact- 
ed, there  were  several  wisely  constructed  for 
the  welfare  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church  : 
they  amplified  the  body  of  the  canon  law, 
and  regulated  in  many  respects  the  practice 
of  ecclesiastical  procedures,  which  is  follow- 
ed to  this  day.  But  as  we  cannot  in  this 
work  pursue  such  a  variety  of  matter  into  its 
detail,  we  shall  select  only  those  which  were 
the  most  important  hi  substance  or  in  conse- 
quence. 

Transubstantialion.  If  any  doubt  hitherto 
remained  in  the  orthodox  church  respecting 
the  manner  in  which  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ  were  present  at  the  Eucharist,  it  was 
on  this  occasion  removed  by  Innocent,  who 
unequivocally  established,  or  rather  confirm- 
ed,]: that  which  is  now,  and  which  had  then 
been  for  some  time,  the  doctrine  of  Roman 
Catholics.  Moreover,  as  he  well  knew  the 
efficacy  of  a  name  to  propagate  and  per- 
petuate a  dogma,  and  also  that  he  might  have 
a  fixed  verbal  test  whereby  to  try  the  opinions 
and  obviate  the  evasions  of  heretics,  he  in- 


*  The  numbers  are,  of  course,  variously  stated ; 
that  of  the  archbishops  at  seventy-one  or  seventy -seven, 
that  of  the  bishops  generally  at  four  hundred  and 
twelve,  that  of  the  abbots  and  priors  at  eight  hun- 
dred. 

f  This  fact  alone  proves  that  the  canons  in  question 
were  not  made  matter  of  discussion  with  that  nu- 
merous assembly. 

%  Mosheiin  is  probably  wrong  in  supposing  that 
full  liberty  had  hitherto  been  left  to  pious  persons  to 
interpret  the  doctrine  according  to  their  own  reason. 
The  sense  of  the  church  was  sufficiently  expressed  by 
the  councils  which  were  held  against  Berenger;  or 
had  it  not  been  so,  at  least  the  Council  of  Piacenza 
confirmed  the  doctrine  explicitly  declared  on  former 
occasions.  It  only  remained  to  Innocent  to  ascertain 
and  consolidate  the  doctrine  by  the  term. 


286 


HISTORY   OF  THE  CHURCH. 


vented  and  stamped  upon  that  tenet  the  name 
of  '  Transubstantiation.' 

Sacramental  confession.  Another  canon 
(the  twenty-first)  strictly  enjoined  to  all  the 
faithful  of  both  sexes,  to  make,  at  least  once 
in  the  year,  a  private  confession  of  their 
sins,  and  that  to  their  own  priest  or  curate  ; 
and  to  fulfil  the  penance  which  he  might  im- 
pose on  them.  They  were  at  the  same  time 
prohibited  from  confessing  to  any  other  priest, 
without  the  special  permission  of  their  own.* 
They  were  also  directed,  under  severe  eccle- 
siastical penalties  in  case  of  neglect,  to  receive 
the  Eucharist  at  Easter,  unless  a  particular 
dispensation  should  be  granted  them,  also  by 
their  own  priest.  By  this  regulation,  the 
system  of  auricular  confession  was  indeed 
carried  to  very  refined  perfection  ;  and  there 
is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  a  canon,  which  im- 
parted even  to  the  lowest  of  the  priesthood 
such  close  and  searching  influence  over  the 
conscience  and  conduct  of  a  superstitious  gen- 
eration, was  speedily  brought  into  universal 
operation.  That  in  some  instances,  that  on 
very  many  particular  occasions,  the  effect  of 
this  influence  has  been  beneficial  to  society  ; 
that  sinful  dispositions  have  been  frequently 
repressed  and  crimes  prevented  by  the  present 
and  immediate  control  of  a  pious  minister, 
is  not  merely  probable,  but  indisputable.  But 
as  a  system  of  morality,  that  could  not  possi- 
bly be  creative  of  righteous  principles  which 
held  out,  through  bodily  penance,  a  periodi- 
cal absolution  from  sin, — even  if  the  hands 
which  administered  it  were  always  pure. 
But  when  we  consider  the  abuse  to  which 
such  a  power  is  necessarily  liable,  and  how 
greatly,  too,  it  would  increase  through  the 
abuse,  we  cannot  fail  to  perceive  that  it  was  a 
machine  too  powerful  to  be  intrusted  to  the 
necessary  infirmity,  to  the  possible  caprice  or 
wickedness,  of  man. 

Extinction  of  Heresy.  By  the  proposed  re- 
formation in  the  faith  of  the  Church,  nothing 
was  in  fact  meant,  except  the  extirpation  of 
heresy,  and  this  was  the  first  object  presented 
to  the  attention  of  the  council.  After  a  for- 
mal exposition  of  faith,  upon  those  points 
especially  on  which  the  existing  errors  were 

*  The  sacrament  was  taken  immediately  after  con- 
fession. '  This  is  the  first  canon,  as  far  as  I  know,' 
gays  Fleury,  '  which  imposes  the  general  obligation 
of  sacramental  confession.  There  was  then  a  par- 
ticular reason  for  it,  on  account  of  the  errors  of  the 
Vaudois  and  Albigeois  touching  the  sacrament  of 
penance.'  At  the  Council  of  Toulouse,  in  1228,  the 
confession  and  sacrament  were  enjoined  thrice  in  the 
year;  but  this  again  was  in  the  very  focus  of  heresy. 


supposed  to  have  arisen,  the  Pope  and  the 
Prelates  immediately  proceeded  (in  the  third 
canon)  to  anathematize  every  heresy.  As 
soon  as  they  are  condemned  (says  the  Coun- 
cil,) they  shall  be  abandoned  to  the  secular 
power,  to  receive  the  suitable  punishment. 
The  goods  of  laymen  shall  be  confiscated ; 
those  of  clerks  applied  to  the  uses  of  their  re- 
spective churches.  Those  who  shall  only  be 
suspected  of  heresy,  if  they  do  not  clear 
themselves  by  sufficient  justification,  shall  be 
excommunicated.  If  they  remain  a  year  un- 
der the  suspicion,  they  shall  be  treated  as 
heretics.  The  secular  powers  shall  be  ad- 
vised, and,  if  need  be,  constrained  by  cen- 
sures, to  make  public  oath  that  they  will 
exile  all  heretics  marked  out  by  the  Church. 
If  the  temporal  lord,  on  admonition,  shall 
neglect  to  free  his  territories  from  their  pol- 
lution, he  shall  be  excommunicated  by  the 
Metropolitan  and  the  other  Bishops  of  the 
province  ;  and  if  he  should  not  submit  with- 
in a  year,  the  Pope  shall  be  informed  ;  to  the 
end  that  he  may  pronounce  his  vassals  absol- 
ved from  the  oath  of  fidelity,  and  expose  his 
domain  to  the  conquest  of  the  Catholics. 
These,  after  having  expelled  the  heretics, 
shall  peaceably  possess  and  preserve  it  in 
doctrinal  purity— saving  the  right  of  the  liege 
lord,  provided  he  offer  no  obstacle  to  the  ex- 
ecution of  this  decree.  .  .  It  is  remarkable 
that  this  decree,  which  placed  secular  author- 
ities directly  at  the  disposal  of  the  spiritual, 
and  on  the  penalty,  not  of  spiritual  censures 
only,  but  of  subjugation  and  military  posses- 
sion, was  enacted  hi  the  presence,  and  with 
the  consent,  of  the  ambassadors  of  several 
sovereigns.  But  this  subject  has  already  led 
us  to  the  last  division  of  the  chapter,  into 
which  we  shall  properly  enter  with  a  general 
inquiry  as  to  the  forms  which  heresy  assum- 
ed in  that  age,  and  the  measures  which  Inno- 
cent actually  adopted  for  its  extinction, 

IV.  On  the  Extirpation  of  Heresy.  —  Since 
the  termination  of  the  controversy  concerning 
images,  nearly  four  hundred  years  had  elapsed, 
during  which  the  Church  had  been  very  rarely 
disturbed  by  doctrinal  dissension ;  and  amid 
the  various  vices  which  may  have  stained,  in 
so  long  a  space,  her  principles  and  her  disci- 
pline, she  was  at  least  free  from  the  blackest 
of  all  her  crimes,  since  her  hands  were  free 
from  blood.  The  eucharistical  opinion  of 
Johannes  Scotus,  as  it  had  been  nourished  by 
the  partial  brightness  of  the  ninth  century, 
and  overshadowed,  but  not  oppressed,  by  the 
stupid  indifference  of  the  tenth,  so,  when  re- 


PONTIFICATE  OF  INNOCENT  III. 


287 


vived  by  Berenger,  it  disappeared  in  the  su- 
perstition of  the  eleventh,  without  violence  or 
outrage.  Not,  perhaps,  because  the  ecclesi- 
astics of  that  age  were  tolerant  or  temperate, 
but  rather,  because  its  advocates  were  not 
sufficiently  numerous  or  formidable  to  make 
a  general  persecution  necessary  for  its  sup- 
pression. But  in  the  dawning  light  of  the 
twelfth  age  some  new  heresies  were  called 
into  life,  and  others,  which  had  previously 
lain  hid,  were  discovered  and  exposed :  so 
that  the  attention  of  men  was  more  generally 
turned  to  the  subject,  and  the  riders  of  the 
Church  were  roused  from  their  long  and 
harmless  repose.  Since  it  was  even  thus  early 
that  several  of  the  Protestant  opinions  were 
publicly  professed,  and  expiated  by  death ; 
and  since  these  may  be  traced,  under  a  variety 
of  forms  and  names,  but  with  the  same  iden- 
tifying character,  from  the  beginning  of  the 
twelfth  century  to  the  Reformation ;  it  is  prop- 
er to  notice  the  first  obscure  vestiges  which 
they  have  left  in  history.  In  so  doing,  we 
shall  first  describe  those  sects  which  were 
founded  (in  the  West  at  least)  at  that  time ; 
we-,  shall  then  proceed  to  the  mention  of  the 
Vaudois,  to  whom  a  still  earlier  existence  is, 
with  great  probability,  ascribed. 

The  Petrobrussians. — About  the  year  1110, 
a  preacher,  named  Pierre  de  Bruys,  began  to 
declaim  against  the  corruptions  of  the  Church, 
and  the  vices  of  its  ministers.  The  principal 
field  of  his  exertions  was  the  south  of  France, 
Provence  and  Languedoc,  and  he  continued, 
for  about  twenty  years,  to  disseminate  his 
opinions  with  success,  and,  what  may  seem 
more  strange,  with  impunity.  Those  opinions 
may  probably  have  contained  much  that  was 
erroneous ;  but  they  are  known  to  us  only 
through  the  representations  of  his  adversaries. 
In  a  Letter  or  Treatise,  composed  against  his 
followers  (thence  called  Petrobrussians,)  by 
the  Venerable  Abbot  of  Cluni,  *  they  are 
charged  with  a  variety  of  offences,  which  the 
writer  reduces  under  five  heads — (1.)  The  re- 
jection of  infant  baptism.  (2.)  The  contempt 
of  churches  and  altars,  as  unnecessary  for  the 
service  of  a  spiritual  and  omnipresent  Being. 
(3.)  The  destruction  of  crucifixes,  on  the  same 
principle,  as  instruments  of  superstition.  (4.) 
The  disparagement  of  the  holy  sacrifice  of 
the  Eucharist,  in  asserting  that  the  body  and 
blood  were  not  really  consecrated  by  the 
priests.  (5.)  Disbelief  in  the  efficacy  of  the 
oblations,  prayers,  and   good   works  of  the 

*  Petri  Venerabilis,  Lib.  contra  Petrobiussianos, 
in  Biblioth.  Cluniensi 


living  for  the  salvation  of  the  dead.  These 
errors,  howsoever  various  in  magnitude,  are 
controverted  with  equal  warmth  by  Peter  the 
Abbot ;  but  that  which  appears  to  have  been 
most  dangerous  to  the  heretic,  was  the  third ; 
at  least  we  learn,  that  in  the  year  1130,  the 
Catholic  inhabitants  of  St.  Giles's  in  Langue- 
doc were  roused  by  their  priests  to  holy  indig- 
nation against  that  sacrilege  ;  and  consigned 
the  offender  to  those  flames,  which  nis  own 
hand  had  so  frequently  fed  with  the  images 
of  Christ.  He  was  burnt  alive  in  a  popular 
tumult ;  and  this  may  possibly  be  the  suffer- 
ing to  which  St.  Bernard,  in  a  passage  already 
cited,  has  made  allusion.  But  the  errors  were 
not  thus  easily  consumed  ;  the  list,  on  the 
contrary,  was  enlarged  by  many  additional 
notions,  proceeding,  some  from  the  piety, 
others  from  the  ignorance,  of  his  followers. 

The  Henricians.  One  of  these,  *  named 
Henry,  an  Italian  by  birth,  obtained  a  place  in 
the  contemporary  records,  and  gave  an  appel- 
lation to  a  sect,  from  him  called  Henricians. 
This  enthusiast  traversed  the  south  of  France, 
from  Lausanne  to  Bourdeaux,  preceded  by 
two  disciples,  who  carried,  like  himself,  long 
staffs,  surmounted  with  crosses,  and  were 
habited  as  Penitents.  His  stature  was  lofty, 
his  eyes  rolling  and  restless ;  his  powerful 
voice^  his  rapid  and  uneasy  gait,  his  naked 
feet  and  neglected  apparel,  attracted  an  atten- 
tion, which  was  fixed  by  the  fame  of  his  learn- 
ing and  his  sanctity.  These  qualities  gave 
additional  force  to  his  eloquence;  and  as  it 
was  not  uncommonly  directed  against  the  un- 
popular vices  of  the  clergy,  he  gained  many 
proselytes,  and  excited  some  commotions. 
Eugenius  III.  sent  forth,  for  the  suppression 
of  this  evil,  a  legate  named  Alberic ;  but  it 
appears  that  his  mission  would  have  been  at- 
tended with  but  little  success,  had  he  not  pre- 
vailed on  St.  Bernard  to  share  with  him  the 
labor  and  the  glory  of  the  enterprise.  Henry 
was  then  in  the  domain  of  Alfonso,  Count 
of  St.  Giles  and  Toulouse ;  and  St.  Bernard 
wrote  f  to  prepare  that  prince  for  his  arrival, 


*  Henry  is  generally  described  as  a  disciple  and 
fellow-laborer  of  Pierre  de  Bruys.  The  objection  to 
this  opinion,  urged  by  Mosheim,  is,  that  Henry  was 
preceded  in  his  expeditions  by  the  figure  of  the  cross, 
whereas  Pierre  consigned  all  crucifixes  to  the  flames. 
Without  supposing  that  the  objection  of  Pierre  might 
be  to  the  image  of  the  Saviour,  not  to  the  form  of 
the  cross,  the  objection  is  far  from  conclusive.  Some 
account  of  the  heresies  of  the  twelfth  century  is  given 
by  Dupin,  Nouv.  Biblioth.  12  Siecle,  c.  vi. 

t  Epistol  240.  (Lutet.  Paris.  1640.)  It  begins, 
'  Quanta  audivimus  et  cognovimus  mala  quae  in  ec- 


288 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


and  to  signify  his  motives.  'The  churches 
(he  said)  are  without  people ;  the  people  with- 
out priests;  the  priests  without  honor;  and 
Christians  without  Christ.  The  churches  are 
no  Ion cer  conceived  holy,  nor  the  sacraments 
sacred,  nor  are  the  festivals  any  more  cele- 
brated. Men  die  in  their  sins  —  souls  are 
hurried  away  to  the  terrible  tribunal — without 
penitence  or  communion  ;  baptism  is  refused 
to  infants,  who  are  thus  precluded  from  sal- 
vation.' He  added  many  reproaches  against 
Henry,  whom  he  accused  of  being  an  apostate 
monk,  a  mendicant,  a  hypocrite,  and  a  debau- 
chee. The  biographers  of  that  Saint  relate, 
that  he  was  received,  even  in  the  most  con- 
taminated provinces,  like  an  angel  from  heav- 
en ;  aud  at  Albi,  the  place  most  fatally  infected, 
an  immense  multitude  assembled  to  hear  his 
preaching.  The  day  which  he  skilfully  se- 
lected for  their  conversion,  was  that  of  St. 
Peter.  He  examined  in  succession  the  various 
peculiarities  of  their  belief,  and  showed  their 
deviation  from  the  Catholic  faith.  He  then 
required  the  people  to  tell  him  which  of  the 
two  they  would  have.  The  people  immedi- 
ately declared  their  horror  of  heresy,  and  their 
joy  at  the  prospect  of  returning  to  the  bosom 
of  the  Church.  '  Return,  then,  to  the  Church 
(replied  St.  Bernard ;)  and  that  we  may  the 
better  distinguish  those  who  are  sincere,  let 
all  true  penitents  lift  up  their  hands.'  They 
obeyed  this  injunction  with  one  consent:  and 
though  St.  Bernard,  in  the  course  of  a  leisurely 
journey  from  Clairvaux  to  Albi,  had  perform- 
ed many  extraordinary  miracles,  '  this  (as  the 
simple  Chronicler  reports)  was  the  mightiest 
of  all.'  Henry  himself  appears  to  have  fled 
to  Toulouse,  whither  the  eager  Abbot  pursued 
him.  Thence  he  once  more  escaped,  and 
once  more  St.  Bernard  followed,  purifying  the 
places  infected  by  that  pestilence.  At  length 
the  fugitive  was  seized  and  convicted  at 
Rheims,  before  Eugenius  in  person,  and  con- 
signed to  prison  (in  1148,)  where  he  presently 
afterwards  died. 

About  the  same  time  it  would  appear  that 
certain  other  sects,  differing  in  some  less  im- 
portant points  among  themselves,  but  united 
in  a  sort  of  desultory  opposition  to  the  Ro- 
man Church,  had  gained  footing,  net  in 
France  only,  but  in  Flanders,  in  Germany, 
and  even  in  the  north  of  Italy.  Without  any 
formal  separation  from  the  Church,  or  an  en- 
tire disregard  of  its  public  offices,  they  had 


clesiis  Dei  fecit  et  facit  quotidie  Henricus  hsereticus! 
Versatur  in  terra  vestra  sub  vestimentis  ovium  lupus 
rapax,'  &c. 


their  own  ministers,  both  Bishops  and 
Priests,  *  to  whom  they  paid  a  more  obser- 
vant deference,  and  whom  they  affirmed  to 
be  the  only  legitimate  descendants  from  the 
apostles.  The  opposition  of  these  heretics 
seems  to  have  been  more  particularly  directed 
against  the  wealth  and  temporal  power  of  the 
Catholic  clergy — but  at  the  same  time  they 
rejected  infant  baptism,  the  intercession  of 
saints,  purgatory  —  and  professed,  in  fact,  to 
receive  only  those  truths  which  were  posi- 
tively delivered  by  Christ  or  his  apostles. 
They  are  described  to  have  been  extremely 
ignorant,  and  confined  to  the  lowest  classes. 
But  it  is  at  least  certain,  that  in  the  principali- 
ty of  Toulouse,  the  nobility  had  engaged  with 
some  obstinacy  in  the  heresy  of  the  Pauli- 
cians — le  38  through  error  than  through  design, 
and  a  malicious  satisfaction  in  the  humiliation 
of  the  clergy.  But  the  same  motives  are  not 
less  likely  to  have  operated,  wheresoever  the 
same  or  similar  opinions  were  promulgated. 

Heresy  of  the  Calhari  and  Paulicians.  An- 
other religious  faction  had  at  that  time  con- 
siderable prevalence,  which,  under  the  various 
names  of  Cathari  (or  Catharists  —  Puritans,) 
Gazari,  Paterini,  Paulicians  or  Publicans, 
Bulgari  or  Bugari,  f   was  more   particularly 

*  Milner,  Cent.  xii.  c.  iii.,  cites  the  following  pas- 
sage from  Evervinus's  Letter  to  St.  Bernard,  pre- 
served by  Mabillon,  and  written  about  1140:  — 
'  There  have  been  lately  some  heretics  discovered 
among  us,  near  Cologne,  though  several  have  with 
satisfaction  returned  again  to  ihe  Church.  One  of 
their  Bishops,  and  his  companions,  openly  opposed 
us  in  the  assembly  of  the  clergy  and  laity,  in  the 
presence  of  the  Archbishop,  and  many  of  the  nobility, 
defending  the  heresies  by  the  words  of  Christ  and  the 
apostles.  Finding  that  they  made  no  impression, 
they  desired  that  a  day  might  be  appointed  for  them, 
on  which  they  might  bring  their  teachers  to  a  con- 
ference, promising  to  return  to  the  Church,  provided 
they  found  their  masters  unable  to  answer  the  argu- 
ments of  their  opponents;  but  that,  otherwise,  they 
would  rather  die  than  depart  from  their  judgment. 
Upon  this  declaration,  having  been  admonished  to 
repent  for  three  days,  they  were  seized  by  the  people 
in  the  excess  of  zeal,  and  burnt  to  death.  And  what 
is  amazing,  they  came  to  the  stake,  and  bare  the 
pain,  not  only  with  patience,  but  even  with  joy.' 

■f  About  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the 
Emperor  Frederic  II.  enumerated  all  the  forms,  or 
rather  names,  of  heresy  then  most  scandalous,  in  the 
opening  of  an  edict  published  against  them.  It  be- 
gins as  follows:  — '  Catharos,  Patarenos,  Speromis- 
tas,  Leonistas,  Arnaldistas,  Circumcisos,  Passaginos, 
Josephine?,  Garatenses,  Albanenses,  Franciscos,  Be- 
ghardos,  Commissos,  Valdenses,  Romanolos,  Com- 
muncllos,  Varinos,  Ortulcnos,  cum  illis  de  Aqua 
Nigra,  et  omnes  lwereticos  .  . .  damnamus,'  &c.  See 
Limborch.  Hist.  Inquisit.  lib.  i.  c.  12. 


PONTIFICATE  OF  LXNOCENT  III. 


289 


charged  with  Manichsean  opinions.  The 
origiu  of  these  heretics  has  been  the  subject 
of  much  controversy  ;  for  while  some  sup- 
pose their  errors  to  have  been  indigenous  in 
Europe,  there  are  others  who  derive  them  in 
a  direct  hue  from  the  heart  of  Asia.  It  is 
certain  that  a  very  powerful  sect  named  Pau- 
licians,  and  tainted,  though  they  might  affect 
to  disclaim  it,  with  the  absurdities  of  Manes, 
spread  very  widely  throughout  the  Greek 
provinces  of  Asia  during  the  eighth  century. 
It  is  equally  true,  that  after  a  merciless  perse- 
cution of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
their  remnant,  still  numerous,  was  permitted 
to  settle  in  Bulgaria  and  Thrace.  Thence,  as 
is  believed  by  Muratori,  Mosheim,  and  Gib- 
bon, they  gradually  migrated  towards  the 
West ;  at  first,  as  occasions  of  war,  or  com- 
merce, or  mendicity  (another  name  for  pil- 
grimage) might  be  presented  ;  and,  latterly, 
in  the  returning  ranks  of  the  crusaders.  It 
is  asserted,  that  their  first  migration  was  into 
Italy ;  that  so  early  as  the  middle  of  the 
eleventh  century,  many  of  their  colonies  were 
established  in  Sicily,  in  Lombardy,  Insubria, 
and  principally  at  Milan ;  that  others  led  a 
wandering  life  in  France,  Germany,  and  other 
countries  ;  and  that  they  everywhere  attract- 
ed, by  their  pious  looks  and  austere  demean- 
our, the  admiration  and  respect  of  the  mul- 
titude. It  is  moreover  maintained,  that  these 
widely  scattered  congregations  were  organiz- 
ed in  united  obedience  to  a  Primate,  who  re- 
sided on  the  confines  of  Bulgaria  and  Dal- 
matia.  In  confirmation  of  the  authorities 
on  which  these  opinions  rest,  it  should  be  ob- 
served, that  among  the  various  forms  of  heresy 
which  were  detected  by  the  keen  eyes  of  the 
early  Inquisitors,  there  was  scarcely  one  which 
escaped  the  charge  of  Manichaeism.  * 

Admitting,  then,  that  this  charge  was  very 
commonly  invented  for  the  purpose  of  mak- 
ing the  others  more  detestable,  we  cannot 
question  that  it  was  sometimes  founded  in 
truth.  And  while,  on  the  one  hand,  we  are 
far  removed  from  an  opinion,  that  would  re- 
fer the  origin  of  all  the  earliest  Western  sects 
to  the  emigrants  from  the  East  —  that  would 
consider,  not  only  the  Cathari,  but  the  Petro- 
brussians,  Henricians,  and  even  the  Vaudois 
themselves,  as  descendants  from  the  family 
of  Manes — it  is  equally  unreasonable  to  con- 
tend, that  his  wild  opinions  had  no  existence 

*  The  first  canon  of  Innocent's  Lateral]  Council 
distinctly  states  the  church  doctrine  respecting  the 
Unity  of  the  Deity,  in  opposition  to  that  of  the  Two 
Principles — a  sufficient  declaration,  that  many  Mani- 
ohaeans  were  believed  to  be  found  among  die  heretics. 
37 


in  the  West  of  Europe  ;  or  even  to  dispute 
their  perpetuation  through  parties  of  Pauli- 
cians,  who,  from  time  to  time,  may  have  mi- 
grated into  Sicily  or  Italy.  It  is  indeed  un- 
questionable, that  such  was  the  case  ;  and  it 
is  not  impossible,  that  they  may  have  formed, 
even  after  their  dispersion  throughout  Europe, 
a  distinct  and  characteristic  sect.  But  it  would 
be  absurd  to  ascribe  to  their  influence  the 
formation  of  sects,  of  which  the  leading  prin- 
ciples were  wholly  distinct,  if  not  entirely  at 
variance,  with  those  of  the  Asiatics.  Even 
in  the  dawn  of  returning  knowledge,  the 
faintest  glimmerings  of  reason  were  suffi- 
cient to  light  the  mind  to  the  detection  of 
papal  delinquency,  of  the  abberrations  of  the 
Church  and  its  ministers.  It  required  not  a 
star  from  the  East  to  indicate,  even  in  those 
dark  times,  how  distinct  were  the  principles 
of  the  Church  from  the  precepts  of  the  Gos- 
pel ;  or  to  contrast  the  deformities  of  the 
Clergy  with  the  purity  of  their  heavenly  Mas- 
ter. Such  incongruities  obtrude  themselves 
perhaps  the  most  forcibly  upon  illiterate 
minds,  and  excite  the  deepest  disgust  in  the 
simplest  conscience.  It  is  to  this  cause,  that 
the  heresies  of  those  early  ages  may  most 
confidently  be  traced — they  may  indeed  have 
been  infected,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  with 
some  of  the  notions  of  the  Paulician  colonists 
— but  that  assuredly  was  not  the  source  from 
which  they  flowed. 

The  Vaudois.  As  we  have  been  careful  to 
distinguish  the  Catharists,  who  may  have  been 
semi-Manicha?an,  from  the  other  sects  of  re- 
formers who  were  scattered  throughout  Eu- 
rope, so  we  must  again  consider  the  Vaudois 
or  Waldenses  as  a  separate  race  among  these 
latter, — that  we  may  not  fall  into  the  error  of 
Mosheim,  who  ascribes  the  origin  of  that  sect 
to  an  individual  named  Waldus.  Peter  Wal 
dus,  or  Waldensis,  a  native  of  Lyons,  was  a 
layman  and  a  merchant ;  but,  notwithstanding 
the  avocations  of  a  secular  life,  he  had  studied 
the  real  character  of  his  church  with  atten- 
tion, followed  by  shame.  Stung  by  the  spec- 
tacle of  so  much  impurity,  *  he  abandoned 


*  It  is  said  that  the  worship  of  the  Host,  which  \ 
was  first  enforced  about  this  time,  was  the  particular 
superstition  which  awakened  the  indignation  of  Peter 
Waldus.  If,  indeed,  that  practice  was  generally  es- 
tablished in  1160,  there  remained  little  for  Innocent 
to  add  to  the  sanctity  of  the  sacrament  thirty-five 
years  afterwards.  There  is  no  mention  of  it  in 
the  ancient  canonical  books  of  the  church,  —  those 
of  Alcuin,  Amularius,  Walfridus,  and  Micrologus. 
There  is  proof,  however,  that  it  existed  in  France,  "' 
both  at  Paris  and  at  Tours,  a  century  at  least  before 
Innocent  III.     In  Germany  there  is  also  evidence  of 


290 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


his  profession,  distributed  his  wealth  among 
ibe  poor,  and  formed  an  association  for  the 
diffusion  of  scriptural  truth.  He  commenced 
his  ministry  about  the  year  1160.  Having 
previously  caused  several  parts  of  the  Scrip- 
tures to  be  translated  into  the  vulgar  tongue, 
he  expounded  them  with  great  effect  to  an 
attentive  body  of  disciples,  both  in  France 
and  Lombardy.  In  the  course  of  his  exer- 
tions he  probably  visited  the  valleys  of  Pied- 
mont ;  and  there  he  found  a  people  of  con- 
genial spirits.  They  were  called  Vaudois  or 
Waldenses  (Men  of  the  Valleys) ;  and  as  the 
preaching  of  Peter  may  probably  have  con- 
firmed their  opinions,  and  cemented  their 
discipline,  he  acquired  and  deserved  his  sur- 
name by  his  residence  among  them.  At  the 
same  time,  their  connexion  with  Peter  and 
his  real  Lyonnese  disciples  established  a 
notion  of  their  identity  ;  and  the  Vaudois,  in 
return  for  the  title  which  they  had  bestowed, 
received  the  reciprocal  appellation  of  Leon- 
ists:  such,  at  least,  appears  the  most  probable 
among  many  varying  accounts.* 

There  are  some  who  believe  the  Vaudois 
to  have  enjoyed  the  uninterrupted  integrity 
of  the  faith  even  from  the  apostolic  ages ; 
others  suppose  them  to  have  been  disciples 
of  Claudius  Turin,  the  evangelical  prelate  of 
the  ninth  century.  At  least,  it  may  be  pro- 
nounced with  great  certainty,  that  they  had 
been  long  in  existence  before  the  visit  of  the 
Lyonnese  reformer.  A  Dominican,  named 
Rainer  Saccho,  who  was  first  a  member  and 
afterwards  a  persecutor  of  their  communion, 
described  them,  in  a  treatise  which  he  wrote 
against  them,  to  the  following  purpose : 
'  There  is  no  sect  so  dangerous  as  the  Leon- 
ists,  for  three  reasons :  first,  it  is  the  most  an- 
cient,— some  say  as  old  as  Sylvester,  others 
as  the  apostles  themselves.  Secondly,  it  is 
very  generally  disseminated :  there  is  no 
country  where  it  has  not  gained  some  footing. 
Thirdly,  while  other  sects  are  profane  and 
blasphemous,  this  retains  the  utmost  show 
of  piety  ;  they  live  justly  before  men,  and  be- 
lieve nothing  respecting  God  which  is  not 
good  ;  only  they  blaspheme  against  the  Ro- 
man church  and  the  clergy,  and  thus  gain 

its  previous  existence.  But  in  the  Roman  church  it 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  established  before  the 
pontificate  of  Boniface  VIII.  See  Pagi,  Vit.  Innoc. 
III.  ad  finem. 

*  There  are  some  who  derive  the  surname  of  Peter 
from  some  town  or  hamlet  in  the  vicinity  of  Lyons; 
others  contend  that  he  never  personally  preached 
amon?  the  Vaudois  of  Piedmont. 


many  followers.'  *  The  author  of  this  pas- 
sage lived  about  the  middle  of  the  following 
century  ;  and  if  the  sect  against  which  he 
was  writing  had  really  originated  from  the 
preaching  of  Peter  some  eighty  years  before, 
the  Dominican  would  scarcely  have  conceded 
to  it  the  claim  of  high  and  unascertained  an- 
tiquity. Again,  St.  Bernard  in  one  place  ad- 
mits, in  substance,  '  that  there  is  a  sect,  which 
calls  itself  after  no  man's  name,f  which  pre- 
tends to  be  in  the  direct  line  of  apostolical 
succession;  and  which,  rustic  and  unlearned 
though  it  is,  contends  that  the  church  is 
wrong,  and  that  itself  alone  is  right.  It  must 
derive  (he  subjoins)  its  origin  from  the  devil ; 
since  there  is  no  other  extraction  which  we 
can  assign  to  it.' 

At  the  same  time  we  must  admit  that  the 
direct  historical  evidence  is  not  sufficient  to 
prove  the  apostolical  descent  of  the  Vatidois.} 
Alcuin,  the  tutor  of  Charlemagne,  may  have 
complained  '  that  auricular  confession  was 
not  practised  in  the  churches  of  Languedoc 
and  the  Alps  in  his  time.'  Claudius  of  Turin 
may  have  presided  over  a  reformed  and 
Christian  diocese.  Somewhat  later  (in  945,) 
Atto,  Bishop  of  Verceil,^  may  have  lamented 
'that  there  were  some  in  his  diocese  who  held 
the  divine  services  in  derision.'  And  lastly, 
at  the  Synod  of  Arras,  in  1025,  it  may  have 
been  deplored,  '  that  certain  persons,  coming 
from  the  borders  of  Italy,  had  introduced 
heretical  doctrines,' — and  such  as  the  Wal- 
denses, indeed,  professed.  It  still  appears  that 
the  name  is  not  mentioned  in  any  writing 
before  the  twelfth  century ;  and  there  is  no 
direct  specific  evidence  of  the  previous  ex- 
istence of  the  sect.  Nevertheless,  as  its 
origin  was  confessedly  immemorial  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  and  as  there  has  not,  per- 
haps, existed  in  the  history  of  heresy  any  other 
sect  to  which  some  origin  has  not  been  ex- 


*  Bibliotheca  Patrum,  apud  Lenfant,  Guerre  des 
Hussites,  liv.  ii.,  seel.  v. 

t  Quaere  ab  illis  suae  sectse  auctorem,  neminem 
dabit.  Qua?  hseresis  non  ex  liominibus  habuit  propri- 
um  hseresiarcham'?  Manichsei  Manem  habuere  prin- 
cipem  et  prasceptorem,  Sabelliani  Sabellium,  &c 
Ita  omnes  cetera?  hujusmodi  pestes  singula  singulos 
magistros  homines  habuisse  noscuntur,  a  quibus  origi- 
nem  simul  duxere  et  nomen.  Quo  nomine  istos  titu- 
love  vocabis'?  Nullo;  quoniam  non  est  ab  hoinine 
illorum  hseresis,....sed  magis  et  absque  dubio  per  im- 
missionem  et  fraudem  doemoniorum,  &c.  Sermo  su- 
per Cant.  lxvi.  ad  init. 

\  We  refer  to    Mr.  Gilly's  well-known  work  ou 
this  subject. 

§  A  city  situated  between  Turin  and  Milan. 


PONTIFICATE  OF  INNOCENT  III. 


291 


pressly  ascribed,  we  have  just  reason  to  infer 
the  very  high  antiquity  of  the  Vaudois. 

Many  will  think  it  more  important  to  learn 
their  doctrines,  than  to  speculate  on  their 
origin.  On  almost  all  material  points  they 
were  those  of  the  Reformation.*  In  their 
discipline  they  endeavored  to  attain  the  rigid 
simplicity  of  the  primitive  Christians,  and  in 
that  endeavor,  perhaps,  they  exceeded  it ;  for 
while  they  maintained  and  imitated  the  divine 
institution  of  the  three  orders  in  the  priest- 
hood, they  also  reduced  their  clergy  to  the 
temporal  condition  of  the  apostles  them- 
selves; they  denied  them  all  worldly  pos- 
sessions, and  while  they  obliged  them  to  be 
poor  and  industrious,  they  compelled  them  to 
be  illiterate  also. 

The  persecution  of  Peter  Waldensis,  and 
the  dispersion  of  his  followers,  occasioned, 
as  in  so  many  similar  iustances,  the  dissemi- 
nation of  the  opinions  ;  and,  notwithstanding 
some  partial  sufferings  which  were  inflicted 
in  Picardy  by  Philippe  Auguste,  they  were  a 
numerous  and  flourishing  sect  at  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  twelfth  century.  They  were  of- 
ten confounded  in  name  with  the  Vaudois,  in 
crime  and  calamity  with  the  Catharists  and  Pe- 
trobrussians,  and  other  adversaries  of  Papacy. 

The  Albigeois.  But  of  these  various  de- 
scriptions, such  as  were  found  in  France 
during  the  pontificate  of  Innocent,  were 
known  by  the  general  name  of  Albigeois 
or  Albigenses.  A  city  in  Languedoc,  named 
Albi,  f  which  was  peculiarly  prolific  of  here- 
sy, is  usually  supposed  to  have  given  a  com- 
mon designation  to  these  numerous  forms 
of  error.  Such,  very  briefly  described,  were 
the  factions  which  distracted   the  church  on 


*  Reiner,  the  Dominican,  already  cited,  also  di- 
vides the  crimes  of  the  Vaudois  into  three  classes: 
1.  Their  blasphemies  against  the  church,  its  statutes, 
and  its  clergy;  2.  Errors  touching  the  sacraments 
and  the  saints;  3.  Detestation  of  alHionest customs 
approved  by  the  church ;  which  really  means,  objec- 
tions to  the  administration,  the  sacraments,  and  the 
practices  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church.  Mosheim 
treats  the  subject  at  Ceut.  xji.,  p.  ii.,  ch.  v.  Pierre 
d'A illy,  in  a  discourse  composed  at  the  Council  of 
Constance,  alleges  as  their  principal  errors,  that  they 
refused  temporalities  to  the  priesthood,  and  asserted 
that  the  church  of  God  only  lasted  till  the  endowment 
by  Constantine.  Then  arose  the  church  of  Rome, — 
the  other  being  extinct,  except  in  as  far  as  it  was 
perpetuated  in  themselves. 

f  According  to  the  Histoire  Generate  de  Langue- 
doc, by  the  Benedictine  monks,  the  term  is  more 
accurately  derived  from  Albigesium,  the  general  de- 
nomination of  Narbonnese  Gaul  in  that  century.  See 
Mosh.,  note  on  Cent,  xiii.,  p.  ii.,  ch.  v.,  sect.  vii. 


the  accession  of  Innocent  III.  It  now  re- 
mains to  observe  the  measures  which  he 
adopted  to  repress  them.  And  let  us  first 
inquire  to  what  extent  he  might  plead  the 
previous  practice  of  the  church. 

It  appears  that,  at  a  Synod  held  at  Orleans, 
in  the  year  1017,  under  the  reign  of  Robert, 
a  number  of  persons,  of  no  mean  condition 
or  character,  were  accused  of  heretical  opin- 
ions. Manicheism  was  the  frightful  term, 
employed  to  express  their  delinquency  ;  but 
it  is  more  probable  that  their  real  offence  was 
the  adoption  of  certain  mystical  notions,  pro- 
ceeding, indeed,  from  feelings  of  the  most 
earnest  piety,  but  too  spiritual  to  be  tolerated 
in  that  age  and  that  church.  It  is  said  that 
they  despised  all  external  forms  of  worship, 
and  rejected  the  rites,  the  ceremonies,  and 
even  the  sacraments  of  the  church ;  that 
they  valued  none  save  the  religion  within, — 
the  abstracted  contemplation  of  the  Deity, 
and  the  internal  aspirations  of  the  soul  after 
things  celestial.  Some  philosophical  specu- 
lations they  may  also  have  admitted  respect- 
ing God,  the  Trinity,  and  the  human  soul, 
which  excited  the  fears  of  that  generation,* 
in  the  same  degree  that  they  surpassed  its 
comprehension.  Accordingly,  they  were  ac- 
cused and  convicted  of  heresy  ;  and  as  they 
firmly  persisted  in  their  errors,  and  as  the 


*  Such,  at  least,  is  the  opinion  of  Mosheim  (Cent, 
xi.,  p.  ii.,  ch.  v.)  The  history  of  this  Synod  of 
Orleans  is  found  in  Dacherius's  Spicilegium  Veter. 
Script,  (torn,  ii.,  p.  fi~0,  Edit.  Paris,)  and  the 
charges  there  alleged  (besides  the  usual  cahimny  of 
promiscuous  prostitution)  respect  the  nativity,  the 
death  and  resurrection  of  Christ,  and  impute  a  disbe- 
lief in  the  efficacy  of  baptism,  in  the  change  wiought 
by  consecration  in  the  eucharistical  elements,  and  in 
the  meritoriousness  of  prayers  to  martyrs  and  confes- 
sors. In  the  place  of  this  faith  they  substituted  '  ce- 
lestial food,'  '  angelic  visions,'  '  the  companionship 
of  God,'  &c.  .  .  .  and  when  the  prelate  sitting  in 
judgment  on  them  laid  down  the  orthodox  doctrine 
respecting  some  of  those  points,  the  heretics  repiied, 
'  You  may  tell  such  tales  as  those  to  men  whose  wis- 
dom is  of  this  world,  and  who  believe  the  fictions  of 
carnal  men,  written  on  the  skins  (membranis)  of 
animals.  But  to  us,  who  have  a  law  inscribed  on  the 
inward  man  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  who  have  no 
other  wisdom  than  that  which  we  have  learnt  from 
God  the  creator  of  all  things,  you  preach  superfluous 
vanities,  deviating  from  real  holiness.  Wherefore, 
cease  from  your  discourse,  and  do  what  you  will  with 
us.  Already  do  we  behold  our  King  reigning  in  the 
heavens,  who  exalts  us  with  his  right  hand  to  immor- 
tal triumphs,  and  to  the  joys  which  are  above.'  We 
should  recollect  that  this  account  (like  almost  every 
other  in  which  any  heretical  opinions  are  described) 
comes  to  us  from  the  pen  of  an  enemv. 


292 


HISTORY    OF  THE   CHURCH. 


king  had  no  repugnance  to  enforce  the  sen- 
tence, they  were  finally  consigned  to  the 
flames. 

Edicts  of  Alexander  III.  In  this  barbarous 
transaction,  which  was  rather  in  anticipation 
of  the  policy  of  later  ages,  than  in  accordance 
with  that  of  the  eleventh,  we  have  found  no 
proof  of  papal  interference;  nor,  indeed,  have 
we  observed  any  very  important  pontifical 
edicts  for  the  extirpation  of  heresy,  earlier 
than  the  reign  of  Alexander  III.  That  Pope, 
in  a  council  held  at  Tours  in  1163,  published 
a  decree  to  this  effect :  '  Whereas  a  damnable 
heresy  has  for  some  time  lifted  its  head  in  the 
parts  about  Toulouse,  and  has  already  spread 
its  infection  through  Gasconyand  other  prov- 
inces, concealing  itself  like  a  serpent  within 
its  own  fokls ;  as  soon  as  its  followers  shall 
have  been  discovered,  let  no  man  afford  them 
a  refuge  on  his  estates ;  neither  let  there  be 
any  communication  with  them  in  buying  or 
selling  ;  so  that,  being  deprived  of  the  solace 
of  human  conversation,  they  may  be  compel- 
led to  return  from  error  to  wisdom.'  * 

The  same  pontiff,  in  the  third  Lateran 
Council,  held  in  1179,  published  other  edicts 
against  the  heretics,  variously  named  Cathari, 
Paterini,  Pnblicani,  &c,  pursuing  them  with 
anathemas,  refusal  of  Christian  sepulture,  and 
other  spiritual  chastisements.  But  it  does 
not  appear  that  he  invoked,  on  either  occa- 
sion, the  secular  arm  to  his  assistance.  Nev- 
ertheless, without  that  aid,  his  power  was 
sufficient  to  expel  Peter  Waldensis  from  his 
native  city,  and  subsequently  to  pursue  him 
from  Dauphiny  to  Picardy,  and  thence  to 
Germany,  till  he  found  his  final  resting-place 
among  the  Bohemian  mountaineers,  the  an- 
cestors of  Huss  and  Jerome.  The  fugitive 
died  in  that  country  about  the  year  1180. 

Persecution  of  the  Albigeois.  When  the 
torch  of  persecution  was  transmitted  to  Inno- 
cent, f  the  two  principal  seats  of  religious  dis- 
affection were  the  valleys  of  Piedmont  and 
the  cities  of  Languedoc  ;  with  this  difference, 


*  The  original  is  given  by  Pagi,  Vit.  Alexandri 
III.,  sect.  xlii.  He  continues  to  apply  to  them, 
according  to  the  ordinary  confusion,  the  name  of 
Waldenses. 

f  That  Innocent  was  very  ready  to  take  his  turn 
in  this  Jampadephory  appears  from  several  epistles, 
written  to  various  prelates  in  the  very  first  year  of 
his  pontificate,  in  which  he  exhorts  them  to  gird 
themselves  for  the  work  of  extirpation,  and  to  employ, 
if  necessary,  the  arms  of  the  princes  and  of  the  people. 
This  last  suggestion  was  provident.  The  populace 
might  sometimes  be  excited  to  an  act  of  outrage, 
when  the  authorities  were  neutral  in  the  quarrel. 


however,  that  the  Vaudois  flourished  in  com- 
parative and  perhaps  despised  security,  while 
the  latter,  more  particularly  denominated  Al- 
bigeois, were  rendered  more  notorious,  as 
well  as  more  dangerous,  by  the  protection 
publicly  afforded  them  by  Raymond  VI., 
Earl  of  Toulouse.*  Against  these,  therefore, 
the  Pope's  earnest  and  most  assiduous  efforts 
were  directed  ;  and  first,  observing  that  the 
bishops  in  those  provinces  were  deficient 
in  true  Catholic  zeal  for  the  Unity  of  the 
Church,  he  sent,  in  1198,  two  legates  into  the 
rebellious  districts ;  but  rather,  as  it  would 
seem,  for  the  purpose  of  exploring  and  men- 
acing, than  of  actually  commencing  the  con- 
test. Presently  afterwards,  a  more  numerous 
commission,  the  advance  of  his  array,  invaded 
the  haunts  of  heresy,  and  brought  argument 
and  eloquence  in  support  of  intimidation. 
This  body  again  received  great  additional 
efficiency  from  the  accession  of  a  Spaniard, 
named  Dominic,  a  young  ecclesiastic,  remark- 
able for  the  severity  of  his  life,  the  extent  of 
his  learning,  the  persuasiveness  of  his  man- 
ner, and  the  ardor  of  his  zeal.  These  quali- 
ties, and  some  successful  services,  infused  a 
new  spirit  into  the  ranks  of  the  orthodox.  It 
would  also  appear  that  their  exertions  were 
no  longer  restricted  to  verbal  exhortation  and 
reproof;  but  that  they  also  aimed  to  animate 
the  civil  authorities  in  their  favor,  and  to  en- 
force the  infliction  even  of  capital  punish- 
ment, whenever  they  had  influence  to  do  so. 
This  expedition  lasted  six  or  seven  years ; 
and,  at  the  end  of  that  time,  the  spiritual  mis- 
sionaries engaged  in  it  were  generally  known 
by  the  title  of  Inquisitors, — a  name,  not  in- 
deed honorable  or  innocent  even  in  its  origin, 
but  not  yet  associated  with  horror  and  infamy. 
Still  matters  did  not  proceed  with  the 
rapidity  desired  by  the  pontiff;  and  then  the 
missionaries  had  recourse  to  a  new  and  very 
harmless  expedient  to  accelerate  success. 
They  laid  aside  the  pomp  and  dignity  of  their 
train  and  habits,  discharged  the  unpopular 
parade  of  servants  and  equipage,  and  con- 
tinued their  preaching  with  the  more  impos- 
ing pretension  of  apostolical  humility.  But 
neither  had  this  method  the  result  which  was 
hoped  from  it.     At  length,  in  the  year  1207, 


*  Limborch,  in  the  first  book  of  his  History  of  the 
Inquisition  (cap.  viii.),  very  clearly  shows,  both  from 
the  '  Sententiae  Inquisitionis  Tolositanae,'  and  other 
evidence,  that  the  Vaudois,  while  they  held  some 
opinions  in  common  with  the  Albigenses,  had  many 
more  points  of  difference,  in  rites  as  well  as  in  doc- 
trine; for  instance,  the  Manichean  errors  imputed  to 
the  latter  are  never  ascribed  to  the  Vaudois. 


PONTIFICATE  OF  INNOCENT  III. 


293 


Innocent  at  once  addressed  himself  to  the  arms 
of  Philippe  Auguste.  He  easily  exhorted  that 
monarch  to  march  into  the  heretical  provinces, 
and  extirpate  the  spiritual  rebels  by  fire  and 
sword. 

About  the  same  time  one  of  his  legates  or 
inquisitors,  Pierre  de  Castelnovo*  (or  Chateau- 
nenf,)  was  assassinated  by  the  populace  in  the 
states  of  Raymond.  The  act  was  imputed 
to  the  connivance,  if  not  to  the  direct  instiga- 
tion, of  that  prince,  f  The  Pope  immediately 
launched  the  bolt  of  excommunication ;  and 
his  emissaries,  by  his  command,  proceeded 
to  those  measures  which  introduced  a  new 
feature  into  the  history  of  inter-Christian  war- 
fare. They  proclaimed  a  general  campaign 
of  all  nations  against  the  Albigeois,  and  at  the 
same  time  promised  a  general  grant  of  indul- 
gences and  dispensations  to  all  who  should 
take  arms  in  that  holy  cause.  Having  thus 
reduced  those  dissenting  Christians  to  the 
same  level  in  a  religious  estimation  with  the 
Turk  and  the  Saracen,  they  let  loose  an  in- 
furiated multitude  of  fanatics  against  them  ; 
and  the  word  '  Crusade,'  which  had  hitherto 
signified  only  religious  madness,  was  now  ex- 
tended to  the  more  deliberate  atrocity  of  sec- 
tarian persecution. 

Simon  de  Montfort.  —  Several  monks  and 
some  prelates  were  the  spiritual  directors  of 
this  tempest ;  but  the  military  leader  was  Si- 
mon, Count  de  Montfort,  'a  man  like  Crom- 
well, whose  intrepidity,  hypocrisy  and  am- 
bition marked  him  for  the  hero  of  a  holy 
war.'  I  To  irritate  his  ambition,  the  Pope 
artfully  held  out  to  him  the  earldom  of  Tou- 
louse, as  the  recompense  of  his  exertions  in 
the  service  of  the  church.  His  hypocrisy  was 
displayed  and  hardened  by  the  seeming  de- 
votion with  which  he  continually  perpetrated 
the  most  revolting  enormities,  and  his  intre- 
pidity was  exercised  by  the  resistance  of  the 
heretics.  It  would  be  a  painful  office,  and 
of  little  profit,  in  the  present  prevalence  of 
reason  and  of  humanity,  to  pursue  the  fright- 


*  Some  write  the  name  Castronovo. 

f  Historians  differ  as  to  the  probability  of  his  guilt; 
also  as  to  the  fact  whether  the  first  appeal  of  Inno- 
cent to  the  court  of  France  preceded  or  followed  the 
death  of  his  legate.  On  this  point  we  incline  to  the 
former  opinion.  Respecting  the  charge  against  Ray- 
mond, there  seems  to  be  no  clear  proof  on  either  side  ; 
it  is  known  that  he  favored  the  heretics,  and  that  cir- 
cumstance might  occasion  either  the  crime  or  the 
calumny.     The  latter  is,  perhaps,  the  more  probable. 

%  Hallam,  Middle  Ages.  Simon  de  Montfort  was 
descended,  by  an  illegitimate  branch,  from  Robert 
king  of  France.  He  was  connected  on  his  mother's 
side  with  the  Earls  of  Leicester. 


ful  details  of  religious  massacre.  *  It  is  suf- 
ficient to  say,  that  after  many  conflicts  and 
some  variety  of  success,  but  no  intermission 
of  barbarity,  the  triumph  rested  with  the 
Catholics.  It  was  not,  however,  so  complete 
as  either  to  exterminate  the  rebels,  or  to  place 
the  promised  sceptre  in  the  hand  of  the  per- 
secutor. In  the  year  1218,  Montfort  was  kill- 
ed in  battle  before  the  walls  of  the  city,f  which 
Innocent  had  vainly  bestowed  on  him. 

Council  of  Toulouse. — The  contest  was  con- 
tinued by  succeeding  Popes  according  to  the 
principles  of  Innocent;  and  eight  years  after 
the  death  of  Moutfort,  Louis  VIII.  king  of 
France  was  engaged  to  gird  on  the  sword  of 
persecution.  Another  crusade  was  preached, 
and  in  1228  a  system  of  Inquisition  was  per- 
manently established  within  the  walls  of  Tou- 
louse. In  the  same,  or  the  following  year,  a 
Council  there  assembled  published  decrees, 
which  obliged  laymen,  even  of  the  highest 
rank,  to  close   their  houses,  cellars,  forests, 


*  It  was  said  in  this  war,  when  the  Crusaders  were 
on  the  point  of  storming  Beziers,  that  some  one  in- 
quired how  the  Catholic  were  to  be  distinguished 
from  the  heretical  inhabitants  in  the  massacre  about 
to  take  place;  '  Kill  them  all  (replied  Arnold,  a  Cis- 
tercian abbot,  who  happened  to  be  present),  God  will 
know  his  own.'  ■  Csedite — novit  Dominus,  qui  sunt 
ejus.'  His  advice  appears  to  have  been  followed, 
and  about  seven  thousand  of  all  persuasions  suffered. 

The  life  of  Innocent  III.  apud  Muratori,  (which  is 
more  properly  the  History  of  Montfort's  wars,)  men- 
tions many  instances  in  which  small  bodies  of  heretics 
chose  to  be  burnt,  rather  than  return  to  the  Catholic, 
faith. 

t  The  recorded  circumstances  of  his  death  seem 
well  to  illustrate  one  trait  at  least  in  his  character. 
He  was  at  Matins  (on  June  25,)  when  he  was  inform- 
ed that  the  enemy  were  in  arms,  and  concealed  in  the 
fosse  of  the  fortress.  He  instantly  armed  also,  and 
hastened  to  church  to  hear  mass.  Mass  was  just 
begun,  and  he  was  engaged  ill  earnest  prayer,  when 
news  were  brought  him  that  the  Toulousans  had 
made  a  sally,  and  were  attacking  his  machines — '  Let 
me  finish  the  mass  (lie  replied)  and  see  the  sacrament 
of  onr  redemption.'  Instantly  afterwards  another 
courier  arrived,  and  said,  '  Hasten  to  the  succor;  our 
men  are  pressed,  and  can  hold  out  no  longer.'  '  I 
will  not  stir  (he  answered)  until  I  have  seen  my 
Saviour.'  But  as  soon  as  the  priest  had  lifted  up 
the  Host,  according  to  the  usage,  the  Count,  with  his 
knees  still  on  earth,  and  his  hands  raised  to  heaven, 
exclaimed,  'Nunc  dimittis,'  and  he  then  added,  '  Let 
us  now  go  and  die,  if  necessary,  lor  Him  u  li o  has 
died  for  us.'  Accordingly  he  went  forth  and  died. 
Yet,  after  all,  it  were  too  much  to  ascribe  this  con- 
duct to  pure  hypocrisy;  much  of  fanaticism  was 
undoubtedly  mixed  with  it;  aiid  when  religious  en- 
thusiasm is  lihited,  as  has  too  commonly  happened, 
with  religious  hypocrisy,  it  is  impossible  even  for  the 
person  possessed  with  them  to  distinguish  their  limits. 


294 


HISTORY   OF  THE  CHURCH. 


against  the  heretical  fugitives,  and  to  take  all 
means  to  detect  and  bring  them  to  trial ;  here- 
tics voluntarily  converted  were  compelled  to 
wear  certain  crosses  on  their  garments ;  those 
who  should  return  to  the  church,  under  the 
influence  of  fear,  were  still  to  suffer  imprison- 
ment at  the  discretion  of  the  bishop  ;  all  chil- 
dren of  the  age  of  twelve  or  fourteen  were 
compelled  by  oath,  not  only  to  abjure  every 
heresy,  but  to  expose  and  denounce  any  which 
they  should  detect  in  others ;  and  this  code 
of  bigotry  was  properly  completed  by  a  strict 
prohibition  to  all  laymen  to  possess  any  copies 
of  the  Scriptures.  * 

Still  the  Count,  who  succeeded  to  the  scep- 
tre and  to  the  moderation  of  Raymond,  mani- 
fested not  sufficient  ardor  in  the  Catholic 
cause,  and  it  was  not  till  the  Archbishop  of 
the  city  was  formally  associated  with  him  in 
the  office  of  destruction,  that  the  work  was 
thought  to  proceed  with  becoming  rapidity,  f 


*  Some  of  the  statutes  of  this  Council  are  worth 
citing,  as  they  show  not  only  how  far  the  system, 
strictly  speaking  inquisitorial,  was  carried  in  that 
early  age,  but  also  how  closely  the  laity  of  that  time 
co-operated  with  the  clergy  for  the  unity  of  the  church : 
— '  Statuimus  itaque  ut  archiepiscopi  et  episcopi  in 
singulis  parochiis,  tarn  in  civitatibus  quam  extra, 
sacerdotem  unum  et  duos  vel  ties  laicos  vel  plures 
etiam,  si  opus  fuerit,  juramenti  religione  constringant, 
quod  diligenter,  fideliter  et  frequenter  inquiraut  hae- 
reticos  in  iisdem  parochiis,  domos  singulas  et  cameras 
subterraneas  aliqua  suspicione  notabiles  perscrutando, 
et  appensa  seu  adjuncta  in  iis  tectis  sedificia,  seu 
qupecunque  alia  latibula  (qua?  omnia  destrui  prsecipi- 
mus)  perquirendo  repererint  hajreticos,  credentes, 
fautores  et  receptatores  seu  defensores  eorum,  &c.  .  . 
Solliciti  etiarn  sint  domini  terrarum  circa  inquisitio- 
nem  hsereticorum,  in  villis,  domibus  et  nemoribus  fa- 
ciendam ;  et  circa  hujusmodi  appensa,  adjuncta,  seu 
subterranea  latibula  destruenda.  Statuimus  igitur  ut 
quicunque  in  terra  perrnittat  scienter  morari  haereti- 
cum  .  .  .  .  et  fuerit  inde  confessus  et  convictus,  amit- 
tat  in  perpetuum  totam  suam  terrain,  et  corpus  suum 
sit  in  manu  domini  ad  faciendum  inde  quod  debebit. 
Illani  domum  in  qua  fuerit  inventus  hsereticus  diruen- 
dam  decernimus;  et  locus  sive  fundus  ipse  confiscetur,' 
&c. —  See  Spicileg.  Dacherii  (vol.  ii.  p.  621.  Edit. 
Paris.)  under  the  head,  '  Varia  Galliae  Concilia.' 

t  We  read  in  Matthew  Paris,  that  about  the  year 
1236,  the  Fratres  Predicatores  and  other  divines 
were  still  making  great  exertions  for  the  conversion 
of  the  misbelievers.  One  of  those  preachers,  named 
Robert,  was  so  powerful  in  prostrating  an  adversary 
as  to  have  obtained  the  name  of  Malleus  Haereticorum 
— the  Hammer  of  Heretics.  Nor  was  this  only  meant 
in  a  spiritual  sense,  '  since  there  were  many  of  both 
sexes  whom,  being  unable  to  convert,  he  caused  to  be 
burnt  to  death  ;  so  that  within  two  or  three  months 
there  were  about  fifty  persons  whom  he  occasioned 
either  to  be  burnt  or  buried  alive.'  —  Matth.  Paris, 


At  length,  in  1253,  the  Count  entered  serious- 
ly on  the  hateful  task ;  and  from  that  moment 
the  remnant  of  the  Albigeois  were  consigned, 
without  hope  or  mercy,  to  the  eager  hands  of 
the  inquisitors. 

Death  and  Character  of  Innocent. — Innocent 
did  not  himself  live  to  behold  the  success 
of  his  measures  ;  and  the  cause  which  is  as- 
signed for  his  premature  death  is  the  more 
remarkable,  *  as  it  arose  out  of  the  most 
triumphant  exploit  in  his  life.  Since  the 
humiliation  of  John,  the  crown  of  England 
had  been  considered  by  the  Pope  as  a  posses- 
sion valuable  to  his  ambition  no  less  than  to 
his  avarice:  and  when,  on  the  deposition  of 
John,  Louis  of  France  was  proclaimed,  and 
actually  proceeded  to  occupy  the  country  in 
spite  of  the  Pontiff's  determined  opposition, 
Innocent  was  indignant  at  the  affront  and  the 
injury.  He  preached  a  sermon  on  some  pub- 
lic occasion,  and  selected  for  his  text,  '  Even 
say  thou,  the  sword,  the  sword  is  drawn — for 
the  slaughter  it  is  furbished.'  f  la  the  course 
of  his  passionate  harangue  he  pronounced  a 
solemn  sentence  of  excommunication  against 
Louis  and  his  followers ;  and  immediately 
afterwards,  as  it  is  said,  while  in  the  act  of 
dictating  to  his  secretary  some  very  harsh 
censures  against  Philippe  and  his  kingdom, 
he  was  seized  by  that  fatal  fever,  which  was 
ordained,  perhaps,  to  prevent  some  new  en- 
terprise of  warfare  and  desolation. 

If  we  would  reconcile  the  lofty  panegyrics 
with  the  violent  vituperation,  which  are  alike 
bestowed  upon  the  name  of  Innocent  III., 
we  must  first  distinguish  his  private  from  his 
public  character,  and  next  reflect  how  differ- 
ent and  even  opposite  are  the  principles  on 
which  the  latter  has,  in  different  ages,  been 
judged.  The  very  same  exploits  which  would 
naturally  call  forth  loud  approbation  from  the 

Henric.  III.,  ad  an.  1236.  We  should  add,  how- 
ever, for  the  honor  of  pontifical  humanity,  that  only 
two  years  afterwards  the  cruelties  of  Robert  were 
arrested  by  an  order  from  Rome,  and  the  persecutor 
(who,  by  the  way,  had  previously  been  a  heretic) 
was  himself  convicted  of  some  less  equivocal  offences, 
and  imprisoned  for  life. 

*  Some  writers  make  no  mention  of  this  circum- 
stance, but  merely  assert  that  Innocent  died  rather 
suddenly,  while  on  his  way  to  reconcile  some  differ- 
ences between  the  Pisans  and  Genoese,  which  im- 
peded his  grand  crusading  projects. — See  the  Chron. 
of  Richardus  de  S.  Gennano,  and  of  Urspergensis 
Abbas,  ap.  Pagi,  Vit.  Innoc.  III.  Sect.  104.  It  is 
certain  that  his  death  took  place  at  Perugia,  on  July 
16,  1216,  after  a  reign  of  eighteen  years  and  six 
months. 

t  Ezekiel,  c.  xxi.  v.  28. 


PONTIFICATE  OF  INNOCENT  III. 


295 


Catholic  historians  of  those  days,  nay,  from 
some  perhaps  even  at  this  moment,  are  made 
the  subjects  of  severe  censure  by  Protestant 
writers.  This  difference  is  less  properly  his- 
torical than  moral.  It  does  not  respect  the 
reality  of  the  questionable  acts  ascribed  to 
him,  but  only  the  light  in  which  we  are  bound 
to  regard  them.  But  in  respect  to  the  private 
qualities  of  Innocent  there  is  no  ground  for 
such  diversity  ;  and  that  they  were  great  and 
noble  is  attested  by  most  of  his  biographers. 
That  he  was  gifted  with  extraordinary  talents 
— that  he  was  a  profound  canonist,  and  gene- 
rally conversant  with  the  learning  of  his  time 
■ — that  he  was  frequent  in  charitable  offices, 
and  generous  in  the  distribution  of  his  per- 
sonal revenues  —  that  his  moral  conduct  was 
without  reproach,  and  that  he  was  sometimes 
not  untouched  by  sentiments  of  piety,  is  clear 
from  the  evidence  of  contemporary  authors 
and  of  his  own  writings.  But  great  personal 
virtues  are  perfectly  consistent  with  great 
public  crimes  ;  and  it  is  a  truth  which  leads 
to  melancholy  reflection,  that  some  of  the 
heaviest  evils  which  have  ever  been  inflicted 
upon  churches  and  nations,  have  proceeded 
from  the  weak  or  even  wicked  policy  of  men 
of  immaculate  private  characters. 

Such  was  Innocent  III. ;  charitable  to  the 
poor  who  surrounded  his  palace,  steeled 
against  the  wretch  who  deviated  from  his 
faith — generous  in  the  profusion  of  his  private 
expenditure,  avaricious  in  the  exactions  which 
he  levied  for  the  apostolical  treasury  —  hu- 
mane* in  his  mere  social  relations,  merciless 
in  the  execution  of  his  ecclesiastical  projects 
— pious  in  the  expressions  of  internal  devo- 
tion, impious  and  blasphemous  in  his  repeated 
profanation  of  the  name  of  God  and  of  the 
cross  of  Christ. 

Policy  of  Innocent. — Again  :  if  we  confine 
our  retrospect  to  the  public  acts  of  this  Pon- 
tiff we  observe  that  they  bear,  perhaps  with- 
out any  exception,  the  same  stamp — that  of  a 
temporal  and  worldly  policy.  Innocent  sub- 
jected the  civil  authority  of  the  Imperial  Pre- 
fect to  his  own.  He  extended,  with  great 
diligence,  the  boundaries  of  the  Ecclesiastical 
States.  He  found  meaus  to  control  a  great 
portion  of  the  secular  power  of  Europe,  so 
that  he  might  hold  it  at  his  disposal ;  whether 

*  Simon  de  Montfort  killed  Peter  of  Arragon  in 
battle,  and  took  his  son  prisoner.  The  widow,  unable 
to  prevail  with  Montfort  for  the  release  of  the  boy, 
supplicated  the  interference  of  Innocent.  There  is 
no  proof  that  his  policy  was,  in  this  matter,  concern- 
ed on  either  side,  so  he  commanded  the  liberation  of 
the  captive,  and  for  once  humanity  had  its  triumph. 


it  was  his  will  to  overthrow  a  pretender,  or  to 
depose  a  king,  or  to  extinguish  a  heresy.  For 
the  accomplishment  of  his  most  important 
objects  his  final  and  most  confident  appeal 
was  invariably  made  to  the  material  sword. 
Again  :  as  if  it  were  little  to  submit  the  con- 
sciences of  men  to  the  dominion  of  the  Holy 
See,  he  endeavored  to  comprehend  in  its 
grasp  their  property  also.  Heretofore  the 
Popes  had  been  contented  with  the  exercise 
and  the  rewards  of  a  spiritual  tyranny — they 
had  been  satisfied  with  the  obedience,  the 
ecclesiastical  fidelity,  the  ghostly  services  of 
their  clergy  ;  but  Innocent  opened  a  more 
direct  and,  as  he  thought,  a  more  solid  path 
to  power.  He  availed  himself  of  the  pretext 
of  the  crusades  to  levy  pecuniary  contribu- 
tions, immediately  on  the  clergy,  and,  through 
the  clergy  on  the  people.  This  was  the  most 
essential  change  which  he  introduced  into  the 
system  of  the  church.  From  this  epoch  its 
history  takes  another,  and  we  need  not  hesi- 
tate to  say,  a  lower  character ;  and  though 
this  was  not  instantly  developed,  but  awaited 
the  profligacy  of  Avignon,  and  the  vices  and 
necessities  of  the  Schism,  to  bring  it  to  full 
perfection,  still  it  was  from  this  crisis  that  the 
revolution  must  be  dated;  here  originated 
that  gradual  substitution  of  worldly  objects 
and  vulgar  motives  for  the  splendor  of  spirit- 
ual pretension,  which  led,  through  a  succes- 
sion of  pitiful  disputes  and  sordid  usurpations, 
to  mere  naked  avarice  and  avowed  and  shame- 
less venality. 

In  the  comparison  which  we  might  here 
be  tempted  to  draw  between  Innocent  III. 
and  the  greatest  among  his  predecessors, 
there  is  perhaps  no  point  on  which  the  pref- 
erence could  be  refused  to  Gregory.  Both 
availed  themselves  of  the  divisions  of  the  em- 
pire ;  but  the  favorable  circumstances  which 
Innocent  found,  Gregory  in  a  great  measure 
created.  The  design  of  universal  monarchy, 
which  was  carried  so  far  into  execution  by 
the  one,  was  conceived  and  transmitted  to 
him  by  the  other.  With  Innocent  the  libera- 
tion of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  was  made  the  ex- 
cuse for  pecuniary  exactions  ;  with  Gregory 
it  was  the  lofty  aspiration  of  erring  magnanim- 
ity, earnest,  and  attended  by  a  determination 
to  devote  his  repose  and  person  to  the  cause 
which  he  deemed  holy.  In  the  treatment 
of  heretical  delinquency,  the  one  was  moder- 
ate *  beyond  the  principles  of  his  age  and  the 


*  It  is  true,  that  Gregory  offered  to  Sweno,  King 
of  Denmark,  a  province  occupied  by  heretics.  But 
in  this  matter  his  temporal  ambition  was  probably 
more  interested  than  his  ecclesiastical  bigotry. 


296 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


passions  of  his  clergy  ;  the  other  urged  the 
course  and  heated  the  rage  of  persecution, 
and  by  his  perversion  of  the  crusading  frenzy 
into  that  channel,  identified  in  the  popular 
hatred  dissent  with  infidelity,  and  established 
the  law  of  vengeance,  and  multiplied  the 
crimes  of  his  posterity.  And  after  all,  how 
severely  soever  we  may  condemn  the  means 
which  have  created  it,  there  is  something  of 
majesty  and  magnificence  in  the  character  of 
a  spiritual  despotism  —  an  invisible  power 
which  enthrals  mankind  without  the  aid  of 
physical  force,  and  even  in  defiance  of  it ; 
which  humbles  the  mightiest  sceptre,  and 
blunts  the  sharpest  sword  by  a  menace  or  a 
censure  ;  a  power  mysterious  and  undefinable, 
swaying  the  human  race  by  the  name — the 
much-abused  name — of  religion.  If  we  look, 
indeed,  to  its  origin,  it  is  only  an  empire  over 
man's  ignorance  and  credulity.  Still  it  is  the 
empire  of  intellect;  and  as  such  it  stands  on 
loftier  ground  than  that  worldly  fabric  which 
employed  the  ambition  of  Innocent  ;  the 
mere  temporal  sovereignty  of  arms  and  opu- 
'ence,  supported  by  corruption  and  massacre. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

The  History  of  Monachism. 

{I  )  Origin  of  Monachism. —  Early  instance  of  the  monastic 
spirit  in  the  east  — Pliny  the  philosopher  —  The  Thera- 
peutae  or  Essenes  —  The  Ascetics — their  real  character 
and  origin  — The  earliest  Christian  hermits — dated 
from  the  Decian  or  Diocletian  persecutions — Ccenobites. 
Pachomius  and  St.  Anthony — originated  in  .(Egypt  — 
account  of  the  monks  of  ^Egypt — Basilius  of  Csesarea — 
his  order  and  rule  —  his  institution  of  a  vow  questiona- 
ble—  Monasteries  encouraged  by  the  fathers  of  the 
fourth  and  fifteenth  ages  —  from  what  motives  —  Vow 
of  celibacy  —  Restrictions  of  admission  into  monastic 
order  —  Original  monks  were  laymen  —  Comparative 
fanaticism  of  the  east  and  west — Severity  of  discipline 
in  the  west — motives  and  inducements  to  it — contrast- 
ed with  the  Oriental  practice  —  Establishment  of  nun- 
neries in  the  east.  (II.)  Institution  of  Monachism  in  the 
West — St.  Athanasius — Martin  of  Tours — Most  ancient 
rule  of  the  western  monasteries — their  probable  paucity 
and  poverty  —  Benedict  of  Nursia — his  order,  and  rea- 
sonable rule,  and  object — Foundation  of  Monte  Cassino 

—  France  —  St.  Columban  —  Ravages  of  the  Lombards 
and  Danes — Reform  by  Benedict  of  Aniane — The  order 
of  Cluni  —  its  origin,  rise,  and  reputation — its  attach- 
ment to  papacy  and  its  prosperity  —  The  order  of  Cite- 
aux  —  date  of  its  foundation  —  Dependent  Abbey  of 
Clairvaux — St.  Bernard  —  its  progress  and  decline  — 
Order  of  the  Chartreux.  (III.)  Canons  Reo-xdar  and 
Secular — Order  of  St.  Augustin — Rule  of  Chrodegangus 
— Rule  of  Aix-la-Chapelle — subsequent  reforms.  (IV.) 
Connexion    between  the    monasteries    and  the   Pope 

—  mutual  services.  The  Military  orders  —  (I.)  The 
Knights  of  the  Hospital  — origin  of  their  institution  — 
their  discipline  and  character — (2.)  Knights  Templar  — 
their  origin  and  object  —  (3.)  The  Teutonic  order —  its 
establishment  and  prosperity.     (V.)   The  Mendicant  or- 


ders—causes of  their  rise  and  great  progress (1.)  St. 

Dominie  —  his  exertions  and  designs  —  (2.)  St.  Francis 
and  his  followers—  compared  with  the  Dominicans  — 
apparent  assimilation  —  essential  differences— disputes 
of  the  Franciscans  with  the  Popes,  and  among  them- 
selves—Inquisitorial office  of  the  Dominicans,  their 
learning  and  influence  —  quarrels  with  the  Doctors  of 

Paris — Austerity  of  the  Franciscans  — the  Fratricilli 

(3.)  The  Carmelites— their  professed  origin  — (4.)  Her- 
mits of  St.  Augustin  —  Privileges  of  these  four  orders. 
(VI.)  Various  establishments  of  Nuns — their  usual  offices 
and  character  —  General  remarks — The  three  grand  or- 
ders of  the  Western  Church  (suited  to  the  ages  in  which 
they  severally  appeared  and  flourished)— The  Jesuits — 
The  Monastic  system  one  of  perpetual  reformation  — 
thus  alone  it  survived  so  long— its  merits  and  advantages 
—The  bodily  labor  of  the  Monks  —  their  charitable  and 
hospitable  offices  —  real  piety  to  be  found  among  them 
— superintendence  of  education,  and  means  of  learning 
preserved  by  them — limits  to  their  utility  —  their  fre- 
quent alliance  with  superstition  —  their  early  depend- 
ence on  the  Bishops  —  gradual  exemption,  and  final 
subjection  to  the  Pope  —  Their  profits  and  opulence, 
and  means  of  amassing  it — Luther  a  mendicant. 

It  is  not  through  inadvertence,  nor  any  blind- 
ness to  the  magnitude  and  importance  of  the 
subject,  that  a  particular  account  of  the  mon- 
astic system  has  been  so  long  deferred.  We 
have  had  frequent  occasion  to  recognise  its 
existence  and  its  influence  on  the  general 
character  of  the  Church  ;  and  it  was  reason- 
able perhaps  to  expect  some  earlier  notice  of 
its  origin  and  progress.  But  as  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  for  the  correct  comprehension  of 
ecclesiastical  history,  that  the  scheme  of 
monachism  be  understood  aright ;  as  that  end 
could  scarcely  be  accomplished,  unless  by 
presenting  the  entire  institution  at  a  single 
view  ;  and  as  it  is  much  more  instructive,  in 
the  order  of  historical  composition,  to  retrace 
some  steps  and  to  revisit  such  periods  as  have 
been  examined  imperfectly,  rather  than  to 
anticipate  events  and  ages  which  are  remote 
and  wholly  unexplored — for  these  reasons  we 
have  abstained  from  a  partial  or  premature 
treatment  of  this  extensive  subject.  More- 
over, when  we  consider  the  successive  muta- 
tions which  have  perpetually  varied  the  aspect 
of  monasticism,  it  will  appear,  perhaps,  that 
the  present,  as  being  the  epoch  of  its  latest 
change,  is  the  moment  most  proper  for  the 
delineation  of  the  whole  structure.  That  latest 
change  (we  speak  only  of  changes  preceding 
the  Reformation)  was  the  institution  of  the 
Mendicant  Orders — an  event  which  arose  out 
of  the  ministry  of  St.  Dominic,  and  immedi- 
ately followed  the  death  of  Innocent  III.  This 
appendage  completed  the  anomalous  fabric: 
and  while  it  was  so  closely  intermixed  with 
the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  age,  that  its 
nature  could  not  have  been  rightly  compre- 
hended, unless  described  in  connexion  with 
them ;  it  was  at  the  same  time  an  innovation 


ORIGIN  OF  MONACHISM. 


297 


so  essentially  affecting  the  form  and  character 
of  monachism,  that  any  account,  not  embrac- 
ing it,  would  have  conveyed  very  imperfect 
and  even  erroneous  notions.  Led  by  such 
considerations,  we  have  selected  the  present 
period  for  this  purpose ;  not  unmindful  how 
little  justice  after  all  can  possibly  be  done  to 
materials  so  ample  within  such  scanty  limits, 
and  almost  despairing  to  throw  any  new  light 
on  a  subject  which  has  exercised  the  genius, 
and  deserved — as  it  still  deserves — the  deepest 
meditation  both  of  historians  and  philosophers. 

Section  I. 

The  origin  of  Monachism  and  its  progress  in 
the  East. 

The  monastic  spirit  was  alike  congenial  to 
the  scenery  and  climate  of  the  East,  and  to 
the  peculiar  character  of  its  inhabitants.  Vast 
solitudes  of  unbroken  and  unbounded  ex- 
panse ,  rocks,  with  the  most  grotesque  out- 
lines, abounding  in  natural  excavations ;  a  dry 
air  and  an  unclouded  sky,  afforded  facilities — 
might  we  not  say  temptations — to  a  wild,  un- 
social, and  contemplative  life.  The  serious 
enthusiasm  of  the  natives  of  Egypt  and  Asia, 
that  combination  of  indolence  with  energy, 
of  the  calmest  languor  with  the  fiercest  pas- 
sion, which  marks  their  features  and  their 
actions,  disposed  them  to  embrace  with  eager- 
ness the  tranquil  but  exciting  duties  of  relig- 
ious seclusion.  And  thus,  even  in  earlier 
ages,  before  the  zeal  of  devotion  superseded 
all  other  motives  to  retirement,  we  observe, 
without  any  surprise,  the  mention  of  that 
practice,  as  indigenous  and  immemorial. 

Therapeutce  or  Essenes.  —  Pliny*  the  phi- 
losopher has  recorded  the  existence  of  an  ex- 
traordinary race,  who  lived  on  the  borders  of 
the  Dead  Sea,  the  associates  of  the  palm  trees ; 
and  who  had  been  perpetuated  (as  it  was  said) 
through  thousands  of  ages  without  women 
and  without  property.  Satiety  and  disgust 
with  the  business  of  life,  rather  than  any  re- 
ligious feeling,  are  mentioned  as  the  motives 
of  their  seclusion.  Again,  it  is  certain  that 
the   Therapeutae   or   Essenes   inhabited    the 

*  Lib.  v.  cap.  xvii.  Ab  occidente  Juckese  litore 
Esseni  fugitant;  gens  sola  et  in  toto  orbe  prater 
caeteras  niira,  sine  ulla  foemina,  omni  Venere  abdica- 
ta,  sine  pecunia,  socia  palmarum.  Indieni  ex  aequo 
advenarum  turba  renascitur,  longe  frequentantibus 
quos  vita  fessos  ad  mores  eorum  fortuna  fluctibus 
agitat.  Ita per  saeculorum  niillia  (incredibile  dictu) 
gens  sterna  in  qua  nemo  nascitur.  Tain  foecunda 
ill  is  aliorum  vitae  pcenitentia  est.  The  most  import- 
ant references  on  this  subject  are  collected  by  Hospin- 
ian.  Orig.  Monacli. — Lib.  I.  cap.  v. 

38 


deserts  both  of  Egypt  and  of  Syria,  as  early 
as  the  days  of  our  Saviour.  They  had  pro 
bably  dwelt  there  long  before  that  time  ;  and 
they  appear  to  have  sought  to  exalt  the  merit 
of  their  retirement  by  the  practice  of  great 
austerities.  Some  Roman  Catholic  writers, 
being  anxious  to  prove  Monachism  coeval 
with  Christianity,  have  asserted,  on  the  au- 
thority of  Eusebius,  *  Sozomen,  and  Cassian, 
that  the  Therapeutse  were  Christians  ;  and 
that  they  scattered  the  seeds  of  the  monastic 
life  through  the  populous  villages  of  Lower 
Egypt,  whilst  St.  Marc,  their  founder,  presid- 
ed over  the  Church  of  Alexandria.  But  the 
opinion  is  more  probable,  that  they  were,  for 
the  most  part,  Jews  by  religion  as  well  as  by 
birth  ;  and  of  a  much  earlier  origin.  Never- 
theless, it  may  well  be,  that  such  of  them  as 
became  converts  to  the  faith,  still  retained 
their  rigid  eremitical  life  ;  nor  can  it  be  doubt- 
ed, that  the  example  of  their  severities,  and 
the  popular  respect  which  followed  them, 
would  excite  the  attention  and  emulation  of 
surrounding  Christians. 

The  Ascetics. — This  is  one  of  the  causes  to 
which  we  may  attribute  the  very  early  exist- 
ence of  a  sect  unquestionably  Christian,  called 
the  Ascetics ;  and  these  also  have  been  erro- 
neously confounded  with  the  original  Monks. 
The  term  Ascetic  was  applied  by  early  j 
Christian  writers  to  the  most  rigid  and  zeal- 
ous among  the  primitive  converts,  whether 
they  exhibited  their  fervor  in  unusual  assidu- 
ity in  prayer  and  the  offices  of  charity,  or 
extended  it  to  the  more  equivocal  merits  of 
fasting  and  celibacy.  But  these  persons  did 
not  withdraw  themselves  from  the  world  ; 
they  merely  exercised  with  ardor,  perhaps  in 
extravagance,  the  virtues  which  best  qualified 
them  to  benefit  and  amend  it.  Possibly,  in 
their  rigid  devotion  to  the  duties  of  society, 
they  may  have  shunned  with  aversion  even  its 
most  innocent  amusements.  But  such  pious 
excess,  which  has  ever  marked  the  best  forms 
and  ages  of  Christianity,  was  eminently  useful 
to  its  propagation,  and  should  be  sparingly 
censured  under  any  circumstances.^     It  is  at 


*  Hist.  Eccles.  lib.  ii.  c.  xvi.  He  applied  to  the 
Christians  that  which  Philo  had  written  about  the 
Jewish  Essenes.  Such  at  least  is  the  opinion  of 
Marsham,  a  very  impartial  as  well  as  learned  writer, 
in  Itis  Unom'Xaiov  to  Dugdale's  ftlonasticon. —  See 
Joseph,  de  Bell.  Judaic,  lib.  ii.  cap.  vii.  for  a  partic- 
ular description  of  that  sect. 

f  Bingham  (Christ.  Antiq.  b.  vii.)  confirms  his 
account  of  the  Ascetics  by  numerous  and  conclusive 
authorities. 

X  The  Ascetics  were  of  all  ranks  and  professions 


298 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


least  manifest,  that  the  rule  of  the  Ascetics 
was  essentially  at  variance  with  the  monastic 
principle ;  they  dwelt  and  associated  with  their 
fellow  Christians ;  and  perhaps  they  might 
never  have  acquired  the  historical  distinction 
of  a  name,  had  it  not  been,  that  they  affected 
a  different  garb,  and  assumed  the  philosophical 
cloak  as  the  badge  of  their  sect.  Their  origin 
is  attributed  by  Mosheim  *  to  the  double  doc- 
trine of  morals,  which  he  supposes  to  have 
prevailed  in  the  second  century — so  that, 
while  vulgar  Christians  were  contented  to 
obey  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel,  those  who 
aimed  at  higher  perfection,  professed  to  be 
also  directed  by  its  counsels.  This  notion  is 
unquestionably  borrowed  from  heathen  phi- 
losophy ;  and,  if  it  really  existed  to  any  extent 
among  the  Ascetics,  it  affords  another  proof 
of  their  connexion  with  the  schools  of  Greece. 
But  the  unsettled  condition  of  the  Church  in 
those  days,  and  the  jealousies  and  sufferings 
to  which  it  was  subjected,  the  general  demor- 
alization of  the  pagan  world,  the  example  of 
popular  austerities  in  another  religion,  and  the 
melancholy  genius  of  Egypt,  where  Ascetism 
chiefly  prevailed,  were  causes  alone  sufficient 
to  have  produced  —  as  they  did  produce  — 
forms  of  enthusiasm  far  less  rational,  than  any 
which  can  justly  be  ascribed  to  the  Ascetics. 

Anchorets.  —  But  about  the  middle  of  the 
third  century  the  monastic  spirit  exhibited  it- 
self in  a  much  less  equivocal  shape  ;  and  we 
may  observe  that  the  purest  and  most  legiti- 
mate character  of  seclusion  was  that  which  it 
first  assumed.  Flying  from  the  fury  of  the 
Decian  persecution,  a  number  of  Christians 
took  refuge  in  caves,  in  deserts,  or  inaccessi- 
ble islets,  where  they  exercised  their  pro- 
scribed religion  in  solitary  security.  Egypt 
and  Syria,  and  Mesopotamia,  and  the  wildest 
parts  of  Asia  Minor,  were  suddenly  visited  by 
a  race  of  exiles,  in  whom  devotion,  irritated 
by  injustice  and  fed  by  seclusion,  sometimes 
sank  into  sullen  and  gloomy  fanaticism.  These 
probably  were  the  earliest  Christian  Hermits 
or  Anchorets  ;  they  professed  an  absolute  re- 
ligious solitude,  occasionally  interrupted  in- 


Eusebius  calls  them  01  ajiovSuioi  —  the  zealous. 
Clemens  Alexaiidrinus  ixXixTuiv  iy./.ixTuTtooi  —  the 
more  elect  among  (he  elect.  These  expressions  im- 
ply nothing  more  than  a  greater  fervor  (or  at  least 
greater  pretension)  of  piety. 

*  The  same  writer  (Cent,  iii.,  p.  2.,  ch.  ii.)  seems 
disposed  to  attribute  the  rise  of  Monks  and  Hermits 
to  the  influence  of  the  mystical  theology.  Yet  he  ad- 
mits, in  the  same  paragraph,  that  that  method  of  life 
was  very  common  in  Egypt,  Syria,  India,  and  Meso- 
potamia even  before  the  coming  of  Christ. 


deed  by  the  pious  importunity  of  the  neigh- 
boring inhabitants,  but  never  broken  by  any 
regular  connexion  or  association  wit1*  each 
other.  Their  numbers  were  further  increased 
by  the  severities  of  Diocletian  ;  and  still  more, 
perhaps,  by  the  reverence  and  sympathy, 
which  the  spectacle  of  their  austere  piety  ex 
cited  among  the  vulgar.  They  continued  for 
some  time  to  deserve  by  their  habits  the  title 
of  Solitaries ;  nor  do  we  learn  that  they  were 
formed  into  assemblies  until  after  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Church  by  Constantine. 

Ccenobites.  The  first  institution  of  persons 
living  in  common  for  religious  purposes,  and 
therefore  called  Coenobites,  is  attributed  to  St. 
Anthony,  the  contemporary  and  friend  of 
Athanasius,  and  his  fellow-laborer  in  the  same 
soil.  And  it  is  obvious  to  remark,  that  while 
the  greater  of  those  champions  of  the  ancient 
Church  was  engaged  in  defending  the  purity 
of  the  Christian  faith,  in  the  schools  of  Alex- 
andria, the  other  was  scattering  in  the  same 
soil,  with  the  same  applause  and  success,  the 
seeds  of  a  system  directly  at  variance  with 
some  of  its  best  practical  principles.  Another 
Egyptian,  named  Pachomius,  divides  with 
St.  Anthony  the  fame  of  this  enterprise  ;  in 
as  far  at  least  as  he  immediately  extended  to 
the  Upper  Thebaid  the  work  which  Anthony 
commenced  in  the  Lower.*  He  even  ven- 
tured thus  early  to  enlarge  upon  the  first 
scheme  of  religious  union  ;  and  introduced 
the  custom,  which  hi  much  later  ages  was  so 
generally  adopted  in  the  Western  Church,  of 
combining  several  monasteries  into  one  So- 
ciety, or  'Congregation.'  These  events  took 
place  during  the  first  half  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury ;  and  it  is  from  this  epoch  that  we  prop- 
erly date  the  origin  of  the  monastic  system. 

The  multitudes  who  instantly  embraced 
that  manner  of  life,  and  thronged  the  primi- 
tive edifices  of  Upper  Egypt,  were,  no  doubt, 
exaggerated,  when  calculated  at  nearly  half 
the  population  of  the  country.  But  it  is  cer- 
tain, that  the  'New  Philosophy' (it  was  early 
designated  by  that  name)  was  eagerly  adopted 
by  a  crowd  of  proselytes  ;  nor  is  this  wonder- 
ful ;  since  those  to  whom  its  advantages  were 
the  most  obvious,  and  its  duties  the  most  easy, 
were  the  lowest  of  mankind  —  and  since  in 
Egypt,  more  than  in  any  other  land,  religious 
novelties  have  flourished  from  the  remotest 
ages  with  a  peculiar  fec\mdity. 

The  Monks  of  Egypt.  Since  the  original 
monks  of  Egypt  are  praised  by  Roman  Catho- 
lic writers,  as  the  true  models  of  monastic 


*  Histoire  des  Ordres  Monastiques,  Dissert.  Prelim 


ORIGIN  OF  MONACHISM. 


299 


perfection,  and  since  some  accounts  of  them 
remain,  which  may  be  followed  with  little 
suspicion,  it  is  proper  to  employ  some  ad- 
ditional attention  on  that  subject.  John  Cas- 
sian,  a  native  of  Scythia,  a  deacon  by  the 
ordination  of  St.  Cbrysostom,  and  an  inmate 
of  the  Monastery  of  Palestine,  near  Bethle- 
hem, went  forth,  about  the  year  395,  to  ex- 
plore the  holy  solitudes  of  Egypt,  and  draw 
from  its  more  perfect  institutions  a  profitable 
lesson  of  religious  instruction  ;  and  seven 
years  devoted  to  those  inquiries  give  weight 
and  credit  to  the  descriptions  which  he  pub- 
lished. The  latter  part  of  his  life  was  passed 
in  retirement  at  Marseilles  ;  and  to  the  two 
convents  which  he  there  established,  he  pre- 
scribed a  rule  founded  on  the  venerable  prac- 
tice of  the  East.  According  to  his  account, 
the  recluses  of  Egypt  were  divided  into  three 
principal  classes: — the  Anchorets,  the  Coeno- 
bites, and  the  Sarabaites.  The  two  former, 
whose  numbers  were  nearly  equal,  formed 
the  respectable  and  genuine  portion  of  the 
profession.  The  last  were  independent,  and 
were  regarded  as  spurious  and  unworthy 
brethren.  The  Anchorets  occupied,  either 
in  perfect  solitude  or  in  very  small  societies, 
the  rudest  and  most  secluded  recesses  of  the 
desert.  '  We  are  not  destitute  of  parental 
consolation,  (said  the  Hermit  Abraham  to 
Cassian,  who  was  beginning  to  sigh  after  the 
more  agreeable  solitudes  of  Asia  and  Europe,) 
nor  devoid  of  means  of  easy  sustenance  — 
were  we  not  bound  by  the  command  of  our 
Saviour  to  forsake  all  and  follow  Him.  We 
are  able,  if  it  seemed  good,  to  build  our  cells 
on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  instead  of  bringing 
our  water  on  our  heads  from  four  miles'  dis- 
tance— were  it  not,  that  the  Apostle  has  told 
us,  that  "every  man  shall  receive  .his  reward 
according  to  his  labor."  We  know  that  in 
these  our  regions  there  are  some  secret  and 
pleasant  places,  where  fruits  are  abundant, 
and  the  beauty  and  fertility  of  the  gardens 
would  supply  our  necessities  with  the  slightest 
toil — were  it  not  that  we  fear  "to  receive  in 
our  lifetime  our  good  things."  Wherefore 
we  scorn  these  things,  and  all  the  pleasures 
of  this  world  ;  and  we  take  delight  in  these 
horrors,  and  prefer  the  wildness  of  this  deso- 
lation, before  all  that  is  fair  and  attractive,  ad- 
mitting no  comparison  between  the  luxuri- 
ance of  the  most  exuberant  soil  and  the  bit- 
terness of  these  sands.'  * 


*  Cassianus,  Collationes,  lib.  xxiv.  c.  2.  Such 
passages  are  illustrated  by  other  writers  of  the  same,  or 
nearly  the  same  age.    Among  many  others,  the  descrip- 


The  establishments  of  the  Ccenobites,  which 
were  spread  from  one  end.  of  the  country  to 
the  other,  contained,  severally,  from  one  hun- 
dred to  five  thousand  inhabitants.  In  some 
instances,  the  wall  which  confined  them  in- 
closed also  their  wells  and  gardens,  and  all 
that  was  necessary  for  their  sustenance,  so  as 
to  leave  no  pretext  even  for  occasional  inter- 
course with  a  world,  which  they  had  deserted 
for  ever.  The  discipline  to  which  they  were 
subjected  was  rigid,  but  neither  barbarous  nor 
at  all  charged  with  injurious  austerities.  We 
read  nothing  of  those  chains  and  collars  of 
iron,  which  formed  a  necessary  part  of  self- 
devotion  in  the  Syrian  convents,  nor  is  there 
any  mention  of  sackcloth  or  flagellation,  or 
any  other  voluntary  torture.  The  whole 
severity  of  their  practice  consisted  in  abste- 
miousness ;  but  even  that  was  moderate ; 
positive  fasting  was  not  encouraged  ;  nor  was 
it  thought  necessary  to  macerate  the  body  in 
order  to  purify  the  soul.  Bread  and  water 
was  indeed  the  only  nourishment  allowed  to 
the  healthy  devotee  ;  but  the  bread  was  abun- 
dantly supplied  ;  and  those  who  have  drawn 
from  their  infancy  the  sweet  waters  of  the 
Nile  seldom  require  or  seek  an  artificial 
beverage.  Neither  was  this  rule  enforced  on 
all  with  indiscriminate  rigor  ;  but  it  was  fre- 
quently modified  according  to  age,  or  sex,  or 
constitution. 

They  assembled  to  prayer  twice  in  the  twen 
ty-four  hours,  at  evening  and  during  the  night. 
Twelve  psalms  were  chanted,  (the  chant  had 
been  taught  them  by  an  angel,)  each  of  which 
was  followed  by  a  prayer ;  and  then  two  les- 
sons were  read  from  the  Scripture  to  those 
who  desired  to  be  instructed  in  that  volume. 
The  hearers  remained  sitting  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  service,  with  very  short 
interruptions  of  genuflexion  or  prostration. 
The  signal  which  summoned  them  to  prayer 
was  a  simple  trumpet  or  horn  ;  it  was  suffi- 


tion  of  the  Egyptian  monks  by  Gregory  Nazianzen  (in 
Orat.  xxi.  Ei's  tov  ftliyav  ' A&avu.Giov')  is  perhaps 
worth  citing:  Oi  xuouov  ^aqliorrtg  iavrovg,  xai 
r!v  eQtjfiov  aanaiiuevoi  iiofft  0sw  nuvtmv  uhD.ov 
Ti:ir  Otttpouivuiv  tw  odfiari.  Oi  utv  rbv  TTavrij 
uora.8iy.bv  xai  auixrov  diu&XovvTtg  (libv  iuvroig 
liurotq  7TQOO?.a?.OV  VTt c  xai  Tco  Gtco,  xai  TOVTO  tiiirov 
xurtuur  ttduTsg  Sffov  Iv  Tf\  finjila  yvcbfjiiovoi.  of  Se 
roiiov  ityuTtrjg  t»j  xoivtoria  ari^yovTsg  iqijuixoi  re 
ouov  xui  utyuSeg,  rote  utv  li?.?.uig  TsdrifjfoTsj  uidfi- 
urtioig  tt)J.i\7.oig  St  xiauoc  Site?,  xai  t>j  naQa&iosi. 
r)r  uns  1 1 1 •  (V>  oi Tt -~.  The  .  same  writer  describes 
the  character  of  a  true  monk  with  great  minuteness 
and  fervor  in  his  Xllth  Oration,  (Elnyvixog  A,  Eni 
t\  Eulnii  Toiy  JMoratvvTujr.) 


300 


HISTORY   Of    THE    CHURCH. 


cient  to  break  the  silence  of  their  deserts  ; 
and  the  hour  of  their  night-prayer  was  indi- 
cated by  the  declining  stars,  which  shine 
in  that  cloudless  atmosphere  with  perpetual 
lustre.  The  offices  of  their  worship  were 
undisturbed  by  any  sound  of  worldly  care 
or  irreverent  levity.  Their  devotion,  like 
their  pyramids,  was  simple  and  solid,  and 
they  lived  like  strangers  to  the  flesh  and  its 
attributes,  like  sojourners  on  earth  and  citi- 
zens of  a  spiritual  community.* 

Four  objects  were  comprehended  in  their 
profession  —  solitude,  manual  labor,  fasting, 
and  prayer ;  and  we  cannot  forbear  to  ob- 
serve, how  large  a  portion  of  their  time  was 
devoted  to  the  second.  Indeed,  so  strictly 
was  the  necessity  of  such  occupation  incul- 
cated, that  the  moderation  of  their  other 
duties  might  almost  appear  to  have  been  pre- 
scribed with  that  view.  A  body,  debilitated 
by  the  excess  of  fasting  or  discipline,  would 
have  been  disqualified  for  the  offices  of  indus- 
try which  were  performed  by  the  monks  of 
Egypt.  Without  any  possessions,  and  hold- 
ing it  alike  discreditable  to  beg  or  to  accept,  f 
they  earned  their  daily  bread  by  their  skill 
and  diligence  in  making  mats  or  baskets,  as 
cutlers,  as  fullers  ;  or  as  weavers — insomuch, 
that  their  houses  may  seem  to  have  resembled 
religious  manufactories,  rather  than  places 
consecrated  to  holy  purposes ;  and  the  mo- 
tive of  their  establishment  is  liable  to  the 
suspicion  of  being,  in  some  cases  at  least, 
worldly  and  political.  Yet  in  the  descrip- 
tions of  their  practice,  both  objects  were  so 
united,  that  the  prayer  seems  to  have  been 
inseparable  from  the  labor.  J  To  that  end, 
the  employments  which  they  chose  were 
easy  and  sedentary,  so  that  the  mind  might 
be  free  to  expatiate,  while  the  hands  were  in 
exercise.  At  the  same  time,  they  maintained 
that  perpetual  occupation  was  the  only  effect- 
ual method  to  prevent  distractions,  and  fix 
the  soul  on  worthy  considerations  ;  that  thus 
alone  the  tediousness  of  solitude,  and  its  at- 
tendant evils,  can  be  remedied ;  that  the 
monk  who  works  has  only  one  demon  to 
tempt  him,  while  the  monk  unoccupied  is 
harassed  by  demons  innumerable.  § 


*  See  Fleury's  admirable  Eighth  Discourse. 

1  Cassian.  Collat.  xxiv.  s.  11,  12,  13. 

J  Ita  ut  quid  ex  quo  pendeat  haud  facile  possit  a 
quopiam  discemi — i.  e.  utrum  propter  meditationcm 
spiritalem  incessabiliter  manuuin  opus  exerceant;  an 
propter  operis^jugitatom  tam  praeclarum  profecunn 
6piritus,  scientiarque  lumen  acquirant.  Cassian.  In- 
Btit.  lib.  ii.  c.  14. 

§  Unde  heec  est  apud  yEgyptum  ab  antiquis  Patri- 


The  Sarabaites.  The  Sarabaites  *  are  de- 
scribed by  Cassian  in  language  of  violent  and 
almost  unmitigated  censure.  Yet  if  we  neg- 
lect those  expressions,  which  become  suspi- 
cious through  their  very  rancor,  and  adhere 
only  to  the  facts  which  are  mentioned  as  char- 
acteristic of  that  monastic  sect,  it  appears,  that 
they  were  seceders,  or  at  least  independent, 
from  the  Ccenobitical  establishments.  They 
claimed  the  name  of  Monks  ;  but  without  any 
emulation  of  their  pursuits,  or  observance  of 
their  discipline.  They  were  not  subject  to  the 
direction  of  elders,  nor  did  they  strive,  under 
traditional  institutions,  to  subject  their  inclina- 
tions to  any  fixed  or  legitimate  rule.  If  they 
publicly  renounced  the  world,  it  was  either  to 
persevere,  in  their  own  houses,  in  their  former 
occupations  under  the  false  assumption  of  the 
monastic  name,  or  building  cells,  and  calling 
them  monasteries,  to  dwell  there  without  any 
abandonment  of  their  secular  interests.  They 
labored  indeed  with  industry  at  least  as  sedu- 
lous, as  their  more  regular  brethren  —  but 
they  labored  for  their  own  individual  profit, 
not  for  that  of  an  instituted  community,  f 
From  this  hostile  account,  it  would  appear 
that  the  Sarabaites,  if  they  were  spurious 
monks,  were  at  least  useful  members  of  soci- 
ety; and  the  union  which  they  established  of 
the  religious  profession  with  worldly  occupa- 
tions, seems  to  have  revived,  or  rather  perpet- 
uated, the  leading  principle  of  ascetism. 

St.  Basil.  From  Egypt,  the  popular  insti- 
tution was  immediately  introduced  into  Syria 
by  a  monk  named  Hilarion ;  but  the  Syrians 
appear  soon  to  have  deviated  from  the  sim- 
plicity and  moderation  of  their  masters  into 
a  sterner  practice  of  mortification,  and  even 
torture.  From  Syria,  it  was  transmitted  to 
Pontus  and  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  and 
there  it  found  a  respectable  patron,  the  most 
eminent  among  its  primitive  protectors,  Ba- 
silius,  Archbishop  of  Caesarea. 


bus  sancta  (al.  sancita)  sententia — operantem  Mona- 
chum  daemone  uno  pulsari ;  otiosum  vero  innumeris 
spiritibus  devastari.  Cassiani  Instit.  lib.  x.  c.  23. 
It  appears  from  Cassian's  preceding  chapter,  that  any 
superfluity  which  the  monks  might  have  acquired  was 
frequently  employed  in  charitable  purposes,  and  espe- 
cially in  the  redemption  of  captives. 

*  The  same  sect,  no  doubt,  which  St.  Jerome  calls 
Remoboth,  and  stigmatizes  as  '  genus  deterrimum  at- 
que  neglectum.'  Epist.  xviii.  ad  Eustochium.  De 
Custodia  Virginitatis. 

f  Cassian.  Collat.  xviii.  c.  7.     Cassian's  dislike 
for  the  Sarabaites  was  probably  contracted  in  the  cells 
of  the  Ccenobites,  who  viewed  with  a  sort  of  sectarian 
jealousy  the  industry  and  the  profits  of  rebels  or  o 
rivals.  ' 


ORIGIN  OF  MONACHISM. 


301 


That  celebrated  ecclesiastic — who  was  a 
native  of  Cappadocia,  the  brother  of  Gregory 
of  Nyssa,  and  the  fellow-disciple  (as  is  assert- 
ed) of  the  then  'future  apostate  Julian — has 
given  his  name  to  the  single  order,  which 
has  subsisted  in  the  Greek  Church,*  with 
scarcely  any  variation  or  addition,  from  that 
period  to  the  present  moment ;  and  it  is  this 
circumstance,  as  well  as  his  superior  antiqui- 
ty, which  has  established  him  as  the  most 
venerable  of  the  patriarchs  of  Monachism. 
His  claim  to  that  reputation  is  said  to  consist 
in  this — he  united  the  Hermits  and  Coenobites 
already  established  in  his  diocese  ;  and  to  his 
monasteries,  so  formed,  he  prescribed  a  rule, 
which  was  rigidly  observed  by  them,  and  im- 
itated by  others :  by  this  bond,  he  gave  them 
a  consistency  and  uniformity,  which  had 
hitherto  been  peculiar  to  the  institutions  of 
Egypt,  f  Besides  which,  he  strongly  recom- 
mended \  the  obligation  of  a  vow,  on  admis- 
sion to  the  monastic  state  —  an  obligation 
which,  whether  it  were  actually  established 
by  St.  Basil  or  not,  had  certainly  no  existence 
before  his  time.     These  advancements  in  the 

*  It  is  true  thai  certain  heretical  orders,  Maronites, 
Jacobites,  Nestorians,  &c.  professed  to  follow  the  rule 
of  St.  Anthony;  but  St.  Anthony  delivered,  in  fact, 
no  rule.  When  solicited  to  impose  some  code  upon 
his  disciples,  he  is  recorded  to  have  presented  to  them 
the  Bible — an  eternal  and  universal  rule.  Hospin. 
lib.  ii.  c.  4. 

f  It  does  not,  however,  appear,  that  his  rule  was 
in  the  first  instance  very  generally  observed.  At  least 
we  find,  that  as  much  as  thirty  years  later,  Cassian 
(Institut.  lib.  ii.  c.  2.)  contrasted  the  diversity,  par- 
ticularly respecting  the  times  and  nature  of  the  holy 
offices,  which  prevailed  elsewhere,  with  the  uniformi- 
ty of  the  more  ancient  institutions  of  Egypt.  '  In 
hunc  mndiiin  diversis  in  locis  diversum  canonem 
agnovimus  institutum,  totque  propemodum  typos  et 
legulas  vidimus  usurpatas,  quot  etiam  monasteria  ccl- 
lasque  conspeximus.  Sunt  quibus  ....  Quapropter 
necessarium  reor  antiquissimam  patrum  proferre  con- 
stitutionem  qure  nunc  usque  per  totam  Egyptum  a  Dei 
famulis  custoditur,'  &c.  It  is,  indeed,  the  opinion 
of  Hospinian  (though  it  does  not  seem  sufficiently 
founded),  that  St.  Basil's  Coenobia  were  little  more 
than  theological  schools,  and  that  his  rule  was  no 
other  than  the  ordinary  form  of  school  discipline. 
Such,  as  he  thinks,  were  the  monasteries  of  those 
days.  Lib.  iii.  c.  2.  The  Rule  commonly  ascribed 
to  that  saint  may  be  found,  in  Latin,  in  the  same 
place. 

%  Bingham,  Ch.  Antiq.  book  vii.  The  author  of 
the  Histoire  des  Ordres  Monastiques  expressly  as- 
serts, that  as  monasteries  were  instituted  by  Anthony, 
and  congregations  by  Pachomius,  so  the  three  vows 
(of  chastity,  poverty,  and  obedience)  were  the  intro- 
duction of  St.  Basil.  It  is,  at  least,  certain,  that  the 
duties  of  obedience  and  poverty  were  early  and  very 
rigidly  practised  by  the  Eastern  monks. 


system  were  effected  from  the  years  360  to 
370  ;  and  thus  the  plant,  which  had  first  been 
nourished  by  Anthony  and  Pachomius  with 
imperfect,  but  not  improvident  culture,  grew 
up,  within  the  space  of  twenty  years,  into 
vigorous  and  lasting  maturity. 

Conduct  of  the  ancient  Fathers.  It  is  a  fact 
demanding  observation,  that  the  Fathers  of 
the  ancient  Church,  who  flourished  about  this 
period,  among  whom  were  many  eloquent 
and  learned  and  pious  men,  were  favorable, 
without  one  exception,  to  the  establishment 
of  monasticism :  for  though  it  might  be  be- 
neath the  office  of  reason  to  investigate  the 
motives  of  the  illiterate  enthusiasts  who  began 
the  work,  it  would  be  improper  to  pass  over 
without  comment  the  considerate  labors  of 
the  ecclesiastics  who  completed  it.  Moreover, 
as  they  were  apt  enough  to  differ  on  some 
other  points,  in  which  the  interests  of  religion 
were  concerned,  and  as  they  delivered,  on  all 
occasions,  their  particular  opinions  with  great 
boldness  and  independence,  their  unanimity 
in  the  introduction  of  one  grand  innovation 
is,  by  that  circumstance,  still  further  recom- 
mended to  our  attention.  Yet  must  we  hesi- 
tate to  ascribe  to  them  motives  altogether 
unworthy.  We  should  be  wholly  mistaken 
if  we  were  to  attribute  their  conspiracy  to 
any  deep  design  for  the  establishment  of 
priestly  rule,  or  the  increase  of  the  wealth 
and  authority  of  the  Church  beyond  their 
just  limits.  These  evil  consequences  did,  in- 
deed, result  from  the  work,  and  spread,  with 
fatal  influence,  over  the  western  world ;  but 
they  could  not  be  contemplated  by  the  Fa- 
thers of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  because 
they  rose  and  grew  with  the  growth  of  papal 
usurpation,  of  which,  in  those  days,  there  was 
no  fear  nor  thought.  It  was  the  alliance  be- 
tween papacy  and  monasticism  which  tended 
more,  perhaps,  than  any  other  cause,  to  ele- 
vate and  magnify,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
vitiate,  both.  But  the  eye  of  Athanasius,  or 
Chrysostom,  or  Augustin,  could  not  possibly 
foresee  that  union,  nor  penetrate  the  various 
circumstances  which  afterwards  concurred  to 
aggrandize  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  So  far  may 
we  safely  acquit  even  the  most  sagacious 
among  the  Fathers  of  monasticism  ;  and  as 
far  as  the  spirit  of  the  age  can  be  held  to  ex- 
cuse those  whom,  in  appearance,  it  carries 
along  with  it,  but  who,  in  fact,  encourage  and 
influence  it,  so  far  may  the  conduct  of  those 
mistaken  men  be  excused.  And  perhaps  we 
might  add,  in  further  palliation,  that  the  gen- 
eral demoralization  of  society,  over  which 
Christian  principles  were  still  contending  for 


302 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


predominance  with  the  pernicious  remnants 
of  paganism,  seemed  to  permit  so  little  hope 
of  righteous  conduct  to  persons  busied  in  the 
world,  as  almost  to  justify  retreat  and  seclu- 
sion. We  should,  moreover,  in  attempting 
to  account  for  this  agreement,  always  hear  in 
mind,  that  the  early  patrons  of  monasticism 
were,  with  very  few  exceptions,  Orientals  or 
Africans ;  men  of  ardent  temperament,  and 
impetuous  imagination ;  among  whom  the 
theory  of  religion  too  frequently  tended  to 
mysticism,  and  its  practice  to  mere  sensible 
ceremony,  and  bodily  mortification.  We 
have  no  reason  to  believe  that  any  worldly 
premium  to  the  new  philosophy  was  held  out 
by  the  princes  or  nobles  of  those  days ;  nor 
even  that  the  influx  of  oblations  from  the 
vulgar  was  the  immediate  fruit  of  the  profes- 
sion of  poverty,*  as  was  elsewhere  the  case 
in  later  times.  The  monasteries  of  the  East 
were  at  no  period  so  overgrown  with  opulence 
as  those  of  the  Roman  Church  ;  and  in  their 
origin  they  certainly  offered  no  imaginable 
temptations  to  avarice  or  sensuality.  On 
these  and  similar  considerations,  we  may 
acquit  the  original  founders  of  the  monastic 
system  of  those  odious  motives,  with  which 
they  have  sometimes  been  charged  ;  but  we 
must  censure  their  encouragement  of  popular 
superstition ;  we  must  condemn  that  rash 
enthusiasm,  which  exceeded  what  is  written ; 
and  we  must  pronounce  those  to  have  been 
insufficient  guides  to  religious  knowledge, 
who,  at  a  crisis  of  such  infinite  importance, 
inculcated  any  other  rule  of  life,  than  such  as 
tended  directly,  through  the  plain  and  prac- 
tical precepts  of  the  Gospel,  to  the  general 
welfare  of  mankind. 

Early  form  of  Monachism.  The  earliest 
age  of  monachism  differed  in  many  particu- 
lars from  those  which  matured  and  perfected 
the  system.  The  vow  of  Celibacy  was  either 
not  taken  by  the  original  monks,  or  not  uni- 
versally enforced ;  though  the  practice  was 
usual,  and  held  indicative  of  a  higher  condi- 
tion of  sanctity.    Community  of  property  was 


*  Not  that  even  the  earliest  monks  have  escaped 
the  reproaches  of  the  contemporary  Fathers.  St. 
Jerome  especially  (Epist.  xxxv.,  ad  Heliodorum  Mo- 
nachum)  notices  the  birth  of  corruption:  —  'Alii 
nummum  addant  nummo,  et  marsupium  suffocantes 
matronarum  opes  renentur  obsequiis  ;  sint  ditiores 
Monachi,  quam  fuerant  sseculares;  possideant  opes 
sub  Christo  paupere,  quas  sub  locuplete  Diabolo  non 
habuerant  ;  et  suspiret  eos  Ecclesia  divites,  quos 
tenuit  muudus  ante  mendicos.'  .  .  .  But  notwithstand- 
ing this  and  other  particular  passages,  the  general 
expressions  used  by  those  writers  respecting  the  mon- 
astic condition,  prove  its  general  respectability. 


indeed  established  among  them;  but  that 
property  was  chiefly  acquired  by  the  labor 
of  their  hands.  The  necessity  of  manual 
industry,  which  was  coeval  with  the  institu- 
tion, was  subsequently  enforced  by  St.  Au- 
gustin,  as  the  best  safeguard  against  the  snares 
of  the  Tempter;  and  the  spiritual  motives 
to  strict  moral  demeanor  were  encouraged 
by  the  absolute  poverty  of  the  individuals. 
Mendicity,  which  had  an  early  existence  in 
the  system,  was  stigmatized  with  immediate 
censure.  It  does  not  appear  that  the  primi- 
tive monks  were  positively  prohibited  by  any 
vow  from  returning,  if  they  thought  fit,  to 
the  turbulence  of  the  world  ;  though  such 
desertions  were  strongly  discouraged,  as  early 
as  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  both  by  eccle- 
siastical denunciations,  and  perpetual  exclu- 
sion from  holy  orders.  Several  restrictions 
were  imposed  with  respect  to  admission  into 
the  monastic  order.  Of  husbands  and  wives, 
the  mutual  agreement  was  necessary  for  the 
seclusion  of  either ;  servants  were  not  ad 
mitted,  unless  with  the  approbation  of  their 
masters,  nor  children  without  the  consent  of 
their  parents  and  themselves.  These  and 
other  reasonable  impediments  to  the  abuse  of 
monachism  were  first  weakened  by  the  super- 
stitious improvidence  of  Justinian. 

The  original  monks  were,  without  excep- 
tion, laymen ;  but  in  situations,  where  the 
only  accessible  place  of  worship  was  within 
the  walls,  one  priest  was  added  to  the  society, 
and  he  generally  filled  the  office  of  Abbot  or 
Hegoumenos.  St.  Jerome*  has  expressly 
distinguished  the  monastic  from  the  sacerdo- 
tal order;  and  Leo  I.,  in  a  communication  to 
Maximus,  bishop  of  Antioch,  forbade  monks 
to  usurp  the  office  of  religious  instruction, 
which  was  properly  confined  to  the  priests 
of  the  Lord.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that,  very 
early  in  monastic  history,  those  establishments 
were  considered  as  schools  and  nurseries  for 


*  Epist.  V.,  ad  Heliodorum  Monachum.  '  Alia 
Monachorum  est  causa  ;  alia  clericorum.  Clerici 
pascunt  oves;  ego  pascor.  1 11  i  de  altario  vivunt; 
mihi,  quasi  infructuosa?  arbori,  securis  ponitur  ad 
radicem,  si  munus  ad  altare  non  defero.  .  .  .  Mihi 
ante  Presbyterum  sedere  non  licet,'  &c.  .  .  .  Hos- 
pinian,  (lib.  iii.,  c.  13),  under  the  head  '  Monachi 
ab  initio  non  Clerici,'  adduces  strong  reason  (in  spite 
of  some  contradictory  decrees)  to  believe  that  they 
were  permitted  to  take  orders  as  early  as  the  time  of 
Pope  Siricius,  in  390;  and  that  all  the  privileges  of 
the  secular  priesthood  were  subsequently  conferred  on 
monastic  priests,  and  confirmed  by  Gregory  the  Great. 
Still,  as  they  continued  to  be  bound  by  their  vows, 
they  acquired  the  clerical,  without  losing  the  monastic, 
character. 


ORIGIN  OF  MONACHISM. 


303 


the  ministry,  and  that  persons  were  selected 
for  ordination  from  among  their  inhabitants  ; 
but  those  so  ordained  immediately  quitted  the 
cloister,  and  engaged  in  the  duties  of  the 
secular  clergy  ;  and  in  Greece  they  were  dis- 
tinguished by  the  title  of  Hieromonachoi,  or 
Holy  Monks.* 

Character  of  Oriental  Monachism.  There 
is  no  doubt,  that  Orientals  are  naturally  more 
prone  to  acts  of  fanaticism  and  ascetic  austeri- 
ties, than  the  more  rational,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  more  sensual  nations  of  Europe  ;  and 
we  might  have  expected  to  find  the  most 
extraordinary  instances  of  self-inflicted  tor- 
ture among  those  who  originated  that  prac- 
tice, and  whose  habits  and  passions  peculiarly 
prepared  them  for  it.  It  is  uncertain  whether 
this  be  so  ;  for  though  it  be  true  that  the 
madness  of  the  Stylites  gained  no  prevalence 
in  the  Western  Church,  and  that  the  Boskoi, 
or  Grazing  mouks  (an  Asiatic  order  of  the 
fifth  century,  which  proposed  to  unite  the  soul 
to  the  Deity,  by  degrading  the  body  to  a  con- 
dition below  humanity)  found  no  imitators  in 
a  more  inclement  climate  ;  yet  their  mortifi- 
cations and  absurdities  were  rivalled,  if  not  in 
the  cells  of  the  Benedictines,  at  least  by  the 
Flagellants,  and  some  other  heretics  of  the 
fourteenth  century  ;  and  the  discipline  of  the 
more  rigid  Franciscans  was  probably,  in  the 
early  ages  of  that  order,  as  severe  as  human 
nature  could  endure.  But  even  among  the 
regular  orders  of  the  Western  Church,  monas- 
tic austerity  was  carried,  under  particular  cir- 
cumstances, and  in  later  times,  to  a  more 
perfect  refinement  than  it  ever  attained  in  the 
East.  It  is  not  difficult  to  account  for  this 
singularity.  A  variety  of  motives,  and  a 
complication  of  passions,  entered  into  the 
monkish  system  of  the  Roman  Church. 
Many  were  unquestionably  actuated  by  su- 
perstition, many,  perhaps,  by  purer  sentiments 
of  piety  ;  but  many  more  were  impelled  by 
personal  ambition,  by  professional  zeal,  by 
the  jealousy  of  rival  orders,  and,  above  all,  by 
the  thirst  for  that  wealth,  which  so  certainly 
followed  the  reputation  of  sanctity.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  unvarying  constitution,  and 
the  more  tranquil  character  of  the  Eastern 
Church,  presented  fewer  and  feebler  induce- 
ments to  excessive  severity.  The  passion 
which  originally  founded  its  monasteries, 
warm  and  earnest  enthusiasm,  continued  still 
to  animate  and  people  them  ;  but  its  ardor 
gradually  abated  ;  and  the  defect  was  not  sup- 


*  The  foundation  of  an  order  of  Canons,  attributed 
to  St.  Augustin,  (which  will  presently  be  mentioned,) 
was  a  distinct  institution. 


plied  in  the  same  abundance,  nor  by  the  same 
sources,  which  sprang  from  the  rock  of  St. 
Peter.  From  the  earliest  period,  the  Head 
of  the  Eastern  Church  was  subject  to  the  civil 
power,  and  he  has  always  continued  so;  and 
thus,  as  he  has  at  no  time  asserted  any  arro- 
gant claims  of  temporal  authority,  nor  engag- 
ed in  any  contests  with  the  state,  he  possessed 
no  personal  or  official  interest  in  the  aggran- 
dizement of  the  monastic  order.  Again,  the 
two  grand  political  revolutions  of  the  Eastern 
and  Western  empires  produced  effects  pre- 
cisely opposite  on  the  condition  of  monachism 
in  either.  The  overthrow  of  the  latter  by  the 
Pagans  of  the  North,  the  early  conversion  of 
the  conquerors,  and  the  subsequent  establish- 
ment of  the  feudal  system,  became  the  means 
of  enriching  the  monasteries,  from  private  as 
well  as  royal  bounty,  with  vast  territorial  en- 
dowments. Whereas  the  possessions  cf  the 
Oriental  Church,  which,  through  less  favor- 
able circumstances,  had  already  been  reduced 
to  more  moderate  limits,  were-  still  further 
despoiled  by  the  fatal  triumph  of  the  Turks. 
The  institution  of  nunneries  was  contem- 
porary with  that  of  monasteries,  and  is  also 
attributed  to  St.  Anthony  ;  but  the  earliest  ac- 
counts incline  us  to  believe  that  it  was  not 
equally  flourishing.  In  countries  where  ste- 
rility is  common,  and  the  population  either 
scanty  or  fluctuating,  the  government  would 
doubtless  discourage  the  seclusion  of  females. 
We  learn,  too,  that  their  houses  were  less 
carefully  regulated,  and  their  vows  less  strictly 
observed  in  Asia  than  in  the  West  of  Europe. 
Athens  is  mentioned  as  the  nurse  of  several 
such  establishments  ;  but  it  was  lamented  that 
the  ladies  of  rank  and  wealth  were  not  easily 
prevailed  upon  to  devote  themselves  to  re- 
ligious seclusion.  Of  a  convent  which  was 
founded  at  Constantinople  by  the  Empress 
Irene  (in  1108,)  the  constitutions  still  remain.* 
But  the  Nuns  of  St.  Basil  were  more  nume- 
rous and  more  prosperous  in  the  West,  than 
in  the  climate  of  their  origin  ;  and  in  Sicily 
especially,  and  the  South  of  Italy,  they  arriv- 
ed, in  later  ages,  at  considerable  wealth  and 
importance,  f 

*  Histoire  des  Ordres  Monastiques,  (Prem.  Panic, 
Chap,  xxviii.)  By  a  regulation  peculiarly  oriental, 
it  was  herein  ordained,  that  the  steward,  the  confes- 
sor, and  the  two  chaplains,  the  only  males  employed 
about  the  convent,  should  be  eunuchs.  We  do  not 
learn  whether  this  precaution  was  usual  in  the  nun- 
neries of  the  East. 

■f-  Another  class  of  religious  females,  called  Virgins 
of  the  Church,  had  an  early  existence  in  the  East 
They  continued  to  unite  the  discharge  of  their  social 
duties  with  a  strict  profession  of  religious  chastity  — 


•504 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


The  original  monastic  establishments  of 
every  description  were  subjected,  without  any 
exception,  to  tlie  Bishop  of  the  diocese.  The 
exemptions  from  that  authority,  which  were 
afterwards  introduced,  through  the  pernicious 
progress  of  papacy,  into  the  Western  Church, 
had  little  prevalence,  as,  indeed,  they  had  no 
strong  motive,  in  the  East. 

Section  II. 

Institution  of  Monachism  in  the  West. 

It  is  very  generally  asserted,*  that  the  mon- 
astic system  was  introduced  into  the  West  by 
Athanasius,  during  his  compulsory  sojourn  at 
Koine,  in  341.  It  is  believed,  that  he  carried 
in  his  train  to  the  imperial  city  certain  monks 
and  anchorets,  representatives  of  the  Egyp- 
tian commonwealth,  whose  wild  aspect  and 
devout  demeanor  moved  the  reverence,  and 
at  the  same  time  roused  the  emulation,  of  the 
Romans.  Some  monasteries  were  immedi- 
ately founded ;  and  many  retired  to  lonely 
places  for  the  exercise  of  solitary  worship. 
From  Rome,  (if  the  above  account  be  true,) 
the  monastic  practice  was  instantly  diffused 
throughout  Italy  ;  and  at  Milan  especially,  it 
obtained  a  powerful  support  in  the  patronage 
of  Ambrose.  It  speedily  extended  itself  to 
France  ;  and  the  labors  of  Martin  of  Tours, 
which  were  zealously  directed  to  its  diffusion, 
received  at  least  this  posthumous  recompense, 
that  nearly  two  thousand  holy  disciples  as- 
sembled to  do  honor  to  his  obsequies.  The 
establishment,  founded  by  Cassian  at  Mar- 
seilles, and  in  the  neighboring  islands,  were 
immediately  thronged  with  brethren  obedi- 
ent to  his  Rule ;  and  Honoratus,  bishop  of 
Aries,  bears  testimony  (about  the  year  430) 
to  the  existence  of  'religious  old  men  in  the 
isle  of  Lerinus,  who  lived  in  separate  cells, 
and  represented  in  Gaul  the  Fathers  of 
Egypt.'  + 


thus  advancing  one  step  beyond  the  ascetism  of  their 
forefathers. 

*  Baronius,  (ann.  328),  Mabillon,  and  Gibbon  hold 
this  opinion ;  but  Muratori  pretends  that  the  first 
monasteries  founded  in  Italy  were  erected  at  Milan. 
Mosheim  more  wisely  pronounces  the  uncertainty  of 
the  fact. 

f  The  following  are  some  of  the  passages  which 
bear  on  this  subject.  St.  Jerome,  speaking  of  the 
time  of  Athanasius's  visit  to  Rome,  says,  (in  Epist. 
16,  ad  Principiam  Virginem,)  '  Nulla  eo  tempore 
nobilium  feminarum  noverat  Roma?  propositum  Mo- 
nachorum,  nee  audebat,  propter  rei  novitatem,  igno- 
miniosum  (ut  tunc  putabatur)  et  vile  in  populis  nomen 
assuinere.  Hasc  (Marcella)  ab  Alexandrinis  prius 
sacerdotibus  Papaque  Athanasio,  et  poslca  Petro,   .  . 


We  may  here  observe,  that,  as  in  the  wide 
wilderness  of  the  East,  a  secluded  rock,  or  an 
unfrequented  oasis — a  spot  cut  off  by  the  cir- 
cumfluous Nile,  or  breaking  the  influx  of  the 
river  into  the  sea — as  such  were  the  places 
usually  selected  by  the  original  recluses,  so 
their  earliest  imitators  in  the  West,  under 
different  circumstances  of  soil  and  climate, 
adhered  to  the  ancient  preference  for  insular 
retirement.  The  islands  of  Dalmatia,  *  and 
others  scattered  along  the  coasts  of  the  Adri- 
atic, were  peopled  with  holy  inhabitants. 
Along  the  western   shores   of  Italy,  f    from 


vitam  B.  Antonii  adhuc  tunc  viventis,  Monasterior- 
umque  in  Thebaide  Pachumii  et  Virginuin  ac  Vidua- 
rum  didicit  disciplinam,  nee  erubuit  profited  quod 
Christo  placere  agnoverat.'  Soon  afterwards,  when 
Jerome  was  at  Rome,  'fuerunt  tarn  crebra  Virginum 
Monacharumque  innumerabilis  multitudo,  ut  pia  fre- 
quentia  serventium  Deo,  quod  prius  ignominia3  fuerat, 
esset  postea  glorias.'  So  also  Augustin  (De  Morib. 
Eccles.  c.  33)  '  Roma?  etiam  plura  Monasteria  cog- 
novit, in  quibus  singuli  gravitate  alque  prudentia  et 
divina  scientia  pollentes,  caeteris  secum  habitantibus 
praeerant  Christiana  caritate,  sanctitate  et  libertate 
viventibus.'  And  the  same  Father  (Confess.,  lib. 
viii.c.  6)  attests,  on  the  authority  of  one  Pontitianus, 
that  there  existed  at  Milan'  Monaslerium  plenum  bo- 
nis Fratribus,  extra  urbis  moenia  sub  Ambrosio  nutri- 
tore.'  Sulp.  Severus  mentions  the  success  of  St. 
Martin  to  have  been  so  great,  «  ut  ad  exequias  ejus 
monachorum  fere  duo  millia  convenisse  dicantur.  Spe- 
cialis  Martini  gloria,  cujus  exemplo  in  Domini  servi- 
tute  stirpe  tanta  fructificaverat.' 

*  Jerome,  Epist.  xxxv.,  ad  Heliodorum.  *  Quum- 
que  crederet  quotidie  aut  ad  ^Egypti  Monasteria  per- 
gere,  aut  Mesopotamia?  invisere  choros,  aut  certe 
insularum  Dalmatiae  solitudines  occupare,'  &c. 

f  See  Marsham's  n^onvkatov,  in  Dugd.  fllonast. 
Respecting  the  monks  of  the  isles  of  Gorgonia  and 
Capraria,  Rutilius  Numatianus  composed  some  verses, 
(in  the  year  416,)  which  have  more  of  elegance  (says 
Marsham)  than  of  Christianity.  The  following  are 
some  of  them :  — 

Processu  pelagi  jam  se  Capraria  toll  it ; 
Squallet  lucifugis  Insula  plena  viris. 
Ipsi  se  Monachos  Graio  cognoinine  dicunt, 

Quod  soli  nullo  vivere  teste  volunt. 
Munera  fortunae  metuunt,  dum  damna  verentur. 
Quisquam  sponte  miser,  ne  miser  esse  queat'? 
Sive  suas  repetunt  ex  fato  ergastula  pcenas; 
Tristia  seu  nigro  viscera  felle  tument. 
***** 
Noster  enim  nuper  Juvenis,  majoribus  amplis, 

Nee  censu  inferior,  conjugiove  minor, 
Impulsus  furiis  homines  Divosque  relinquit, 

Et  turpem  latebram  credulus  exul  agit 
Infelix  putat  illuvie  coelestia  pasci, 

Seque  premit  caecis  saevior  ipse  Deis. 
Num,  rogo,  deterior  Circasis  secta  venenisl 

Tune  mulabantur  corpora,  nunc  animi. 
Many  other  islands  are  mentioned  as  having  been 
thus  consecrated,  (or  desecrated  —  as  the  describer 


INSTITUTION  OF  MONACHISM  IN  THE  WEST. 


305 


Calabria,  throughout  the  islets  of  the  Tuscan 
Sea,  the  chants  of  monastic  devotion  every- 
where resounded,  as  well  as  at  Lerinus  and 
the  Stoechades,  consecrated  by  the  piety  of 
Cassian.  Such,  in  the  first  instance,  were 
the  favorite  nurseries  of  the  new  institution. 
There  is  even  reason  to  believe,  that  the 
rocks  on  the  southern  coast  of  Italy  furnish- 
ed the  seeds  of  monachisni  to  the  churches 
of  Carthage  ;  and  thus  was  transmitted,  af- 
ter the  revolution  of  half  a  century,  to  the 
more  Western  Africans,  the  boon  which  their 
brethren  of  Egypt  had  first  presented  to  the 
Christian  world. 

Prevalence  and  character  of  Monachism  in 
the  West.  It  is,  indeed,  unquestionable,  that 
towards  the  end  of  the  fourth,  but  especially 
during  the  fifth  century,  the  monastic  practice 
obtained  universal  prevalence,  and  became 
almost  co-extensive  with  the  belief  in  Christ. 
And  on  this  circumstance  there  is  one  obser- 
vation which  it  is  proper  to  offer,  which  has 
indeed  been  made  before,  though  in  a  some- 
what different  spirit,  by  Roman  Catholic  writ- 
ers —  that  the  period,  which  was  marked  by 
this  great  religious  innovation,  was  the  same 
in  which  the  religion  itself  seemed  in  immi- 
nent danger,  at  least  throughout  the  Western 
provinces,  of  utter  extirpation.  This  was  the 
very  crisis  in  which  the  pagan  inundation 
from  the  North  spread  itself  most  fiercely  and 
fatally,  and  while  it  overthrew  the  bulwarks 
of  the  empire,  menaced,  at  the  same  time, 
the  foundations  of  the  Faith,  That  the  mo- 
nastic institution  was  designedly  interposed 
by  Providence,  in  order  to  stay  that  wasting 
calamity,  and  supply  new  means  of  defence 
to  His  fainting  soldiers,  is  a  vain  and  even 
a  presumptuous  supposition.  But  it  would 
equally  be  unjust  to  assert,  that  establish- 
ments of  pious  men,  associated  for  religious 
purposes,  were  without  their  use  in  exciting 
respect  in  the  enemy,  and  confidence  in  the 
Christian.  Still  less  can  we  hesitate  to  be- 
lieve, that  they  were  the  means  of  relieving 
much    individual    misery ;    that   during  the 

might  be  an  ecclesiastical  annalist,  or  a  pagan  poet). 
The  island  Barbara,  situated  above  the  conflux  of 
the  Rhone  and  the  Arar,  boasted  to  have  been  one  of 
the  most  ancient  nurseries  of  the  Holy  Institution; 
and  Jerome,  in  an  epistle  to  Heliodorus,  speaks  of 
'  Insulas  et  totum  Etruscum  mare  Volscorumque  pro- 
vinciam,  et  reconditos  curvorum  littorum  sinus,  in 
quibus  monachorum  consistebant  Chori.'  .  .  .  See 
Mabillon,  Pref.  in  Ann.  Bened.  Saec.  i.  Giannone's 
View  of  the  Origin  of  the  Monastic  Life  in  the  West 
(Stor.  di  Nap.,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  S.)  does  not  appear  to 
be  marked  by  the  accuracy  and  perspicuity  usual  to 
that  excellent  historian. 

39 


overthrow  of  justice  and  humanity,  they  de- 
rived power,  as  well  as  protection,  from  the 
name  of  God,  and  from  the  trust  which  they 
reposed  in  him  ;  that  their  power  was  gen- 
erally exerted  for  good  purposes  ;  and  that 
their  gates  were  thrown  open  to  multitudes, 
who,  in  those  days  of  universal  desolation, 
could  hope  for  no  other  refuge. 

The  rule  commonly  professed  by  the  orig- 
inal Western  monasteries  was  unquestionably 
that  of  St.  Basil ;  and  though  it  was  not  ob- 
served with  any  rigid  uniformity,  there  was 
probably  no  material  variation  either  in  con- 
stitution or  discipline  throughout  the  whole 
extent  of  Christendom,  excepting  such  as 
naturally  resulted  from  the  different  climate, 
morals,  and  temperament  of  its  inhabitants. 
At  least,  there  was  no  distinction  in  order  or 
dignity  :  all  were  united  by  one  common  ap- 
pellation, extending  from  the  deserts  of  Pon- 
tus  to  the  green  valleys  of  Ireland  ;  and  the 
monks  of  those  days  were  sufficiently  separat- 
ed from  the  rest  of  mankind,  and  sufficiently 
disengaged  from  secular  pursuits,  to  dispense 
with  the  baser  motives  to  which  they  were 
afterwards  reduced,  of  partial  interest  and 
rivalry.  Some  wealth,  indeed,  began  already 
to  flow  into  that  channel ;  but  the  still  re- 
maining prevalence  of  hermits,  who  dwelt 
among  the  mountains  in  unsocial  and  inde- 
pendent seclusion,  very  clearly  proves,  that 
the  more  attractive  system  of  the  Ccenobites 
had  not  hitherto  attained  any  luxurious  refine- 
ment. No  large  territorial  endowments  had 
yet  been  attached  to  religious  houses,  and 
their  support  was  chiefly  derived  from  indi- 
vidual charity  or  superstition.  And  during 
the  course  of  the  fifth  century  the  progression 
of  monachism  was  probably  more  popular, 
and  certainly  more  profitable,  among  Eastern 
nations,  than  it  had  yet  become  on  this  side 
of  the  Adriatic. 

Benedict  of  Nursia.  But  in  the  following 
age  a  more  determined  character  was  given 
to  that  profession.  A  hermit  named  Bene- 
dict, a  native  of  Nursia  in  the  diocese  of 
Rome,  instituted,  about  the  year  529,  an  en- 
tirely new  order,  and  imposed  a  rule,  which 
is  still  extant,  for  its  perpetual  observance.  . . 
No  permanent  and  popular  institution  has 
ever  yet  existed,  however  in  its  abuse  it  have 
set  sense  and  reason  at  defiance,  which  has 
not  some  pretension  to  virtue  or  wisdom,  and 
usually  much  of  the  substance  of  both,  in  its 
origin  and  its  infancy.  It  was  thus  with  the 
order  of  St.  Benedict.  That  celebrated  rule, 
which  in  after  ages  enslaved  the  devout  and 
demoralized  the  Church — which  became  a 


306 


HISTORY   OF   THE  CHURCH. 


sign  and  a  watchword  for  the  satellites  of  Pa- 
pacy— was  designed  for  purposes  which,  at 
the  time  of  its  promulgation,  might  seem  truly 
Christian.  Its  objects  were  to  form  a  mon- 
astic body,  which  under  a  milder  discipline 
should  possess  a  more  solid  establishment 
and  more  regular  manners,  than  such  as  then 
existed  ;  and  also  to  ensure  for  those,  who 
should  become  members  of  it,  a  holy  and 
peaceful  life,  so  divided  between  prayer,  and 
study,  and  labor,  as  to  comprehend  the  prac- 
tical duties  of  religious  education.  Such  was 
the  simple  foundation,  on  which  all  the  riches, 
and  luxury,  and  power,  and  profligacy  of  the 
Benedictines  have  been  unnaturally  piled  up 
— consequences,  which  were  entirely  unfore- 
seen by  him  who  founded,  and  by  those  who 
immediately  embraced,  and  by  those  who 
first  protected,*  a  pious  and  useful  institution. 
The  Rule  of  St.  Benedict.  It  is  proper  to 
confirm  these  observations  by  some  account 
of  what  is,  perhaps,  the  most  celebrated  mon- 
ument of  ecclesiastical  antiquity.  The  Rule 
of  St.  Benedict  f  is  introduced  by  a  quadru- 
ple division  of  those  who  professed  the  mo- 
nastic life.  The  first  class  was  composed  of 
the  Coenobites  or  Regular  Monks ;  the  second, 
of  the  Anchorets  or  Hermits,  to  whom  he  as- 
signs even  superior  perfection  ;  the  third,  of 
the  Sarabaites,  whom  he  describes  as  living 
without  any  rule,  either  alone  or  in  small  so- 
cieties, according  to  their  inclination ;  the 
fourth,  of  Gyro  vagi  or  Vagabonds,  a  dissolute 
and  degraded  body.  His  regulations  for  the 
divine  offices  were  formed,  in  a  great  meas- 
ure, on  the  practice  already  described  of  the 
Monks  of  Egypt.  J  Two  hours  after  midnight 
they  were  aroused  to  vigils,  on  which  occa- 
sion twelve  psalms  were  chanted,  and  cer- 
tain lessons  from  the  Scriptures  read  or  recit- 
ed. At  day-break  the  matins,  a  service  little 
differing  from  the  preceding,  were  perform- 
ed ;  and  the  intervening  space,  which  in 
winter  was  long  and  tedious,  was  employed 
in  learning  the  Psalms  by  heart,§  or  in  med- 


*  Gregory  the  Great  was  a  zealous  patron  of  this 
institution,  and  so  approved  the  moderation  of  the 
rule,  that  he  has  not  escaped  the  suspicion  of  being 
its  author. 

t  It  is  given  at  length  by  Hospinian. — De  Origine 
Monachatus,  lib.  iv.  cap.  v. 

%  See  Mabillon,  Pref.  in  sec.  II.  Annal.  Benedict, 
and  Hist,  des  Ord.  Monast. 

§  In  England  the  establishment  of  Monachism  was 
contemporary  with  that  of  Christianity.  '  Augustinus, 
Monasterii  Reguliseruditus,  instituit  conversationem, 
quae  initio  nascentis  ecclesiss  fuit  patribus  nostris, 
quibus  omnia  erant  communia  —  Monasterium    fecit 


itating  on  their  sense,  or  in  some  other  neces- 
sary study.  But.  besides  these  and  the  other 
public  services,  the  duty  of  private  or  mental 
prayer  was  recognised  in  the  Institutions  of 
of  St.  Benedict,  and  regulations  were  impos- 
ed which,  while  they  restricted  its  duration, 
proposed  to  purify  and  spiritualize  its  char- 
acter. 

To  the  duty  of  prayer  the  holy  legislator 
added  those  of  manual  labor  and  reading. 
The  summer's  day  was  so  divided,  that  seven 
hours  were  destined  to  the  former  occupa- 
tion, and  two  at  least  to  the  latter.*  And 
should  it  so  happen,  (he  observes,)  that  his 
disciples  be  compelled  to  gather  their  har- 
vests with  their  own  hands,  let  not  that  be 
any  matter  of  complaint  with  them  ;  since  it 
is  then  that  they  are  indeed  monks,  when 
they  live  by  their  own  handiwork,  as  did 
our  fathers  and  the  apostles.  During  the 
winter  season  the  hours  of  labor  were  altered, 
but  not  abridged  ;  and  those  of  study  seem  to 
have  been  somewhat  increased,  at  least  during 
Lent.  The  sabbath  was  entirely  devoted  to 
reading  and  prayer.  Those  whose  work  was 
allotted  at  places  too  remote  from  the  Monas- 
tery to  admit  of  their  return  to  the  appointed 
services,  bent  their  knees  on  the  spot  and  re- 
peated their  prayers  at  the  canonical  hours. 
The  description  of  labor  was  not  left  to  the 
choice  of  the  individual,  but  imposed  by  the 
Superior.  Thus  if  any  possessed  any  trade 
or  craft,  he  could  not  exercise  it,  except  by 
permission  of  the  Abbot.  If  any  thing  were 
sold,  the  whole  value  was  carefully  appropri- 
ated to  the  common  fund  ;  and  it  was  further 
directed,  that  the  price  should  be  somewhat 
lower  than  that  demanded  by  secular  artisans 
for  the  same  objects — '  to  the  end  that  God 
might  be  glorified  in  all  things.' 

In  respect  to  abstinence,  f  the  Rule  of  St. 
Benedict  ordained  not  any  of  those  perni- 
cious austerities,  which  were  sometimes  prac- 

non  longe  a  Doroverniensi  Civitate,  &c.'  Bede,  lib. 
i.  c.  xxii. 

*  It  was  ordained,  that  if  any  one  were  unable  to 
read  or  meditate,  some  other  occupation  should  be 
imposed  on  him.  But  as  Latin,  the  language  of  re- 
ligious study,  was  at  that  time  the  vulgar  tongue,  at 
least  one  great  impediment  to  religious  instruction, 
which  was  so  powerful  in  after  ages,  did  not  then 
exist. 

f  In  this  matter  St.  Benedict  relaxed  from  the 
rigor  of  the  Eastern  observance;  but  he  did  so  with 
reluctance,  regretting  the  necessary  imperfection  of  a 
system,  which  he  was  compelled  to  accommodate  to 
the  gradually  decreasing  vigor  of  the  human  frame. 
Even  Fleury  (see  his  Eighth  Discourse)  does  not  dis- 
dain to  combat  this  notion. 


INSTITUTION  OF  MONACHISM  IN  THE  WEST. 


307 


tised  by  his  followers.  Notwithstanding  the 
indulgence  of  a  small  quantity  of  wine  to 
those  whose  imperfect  nature  might  require 
it,  it  prescribed  a  system  of  rigid  temperance, 
which  among  those  original  Coenobites  was 
well  enforced  by  their  poverty — but  it  con- 
tains no  injunction  of  fasting  or  mortification. 
Those  vain  and  superstitious  practices,  the 
fruits  of  mingled  enthusiasm  and  indolence, 
scarcely  gained  any  prevalence  in  the  mon- 
asteries of  the  West,  until  increasing  wealth 
dispensed  with  the  necessity  of  daily  labor. 
The  monks  slept  in  the  same  dormitory,  in 
which  a  lamp  was  kept  constantly  burning, 
and  strict  silence  was  imposed.  Even  in  the 
day,  they  spake  rarely  ;  and  every  expression 
partaking  of  levity,  and  calculated  at  all  to 
disturb  the  seriousness  of  the  community — 
every  word  that  was  irrelevant  to  its  objects 
and  uses — was  absolutely  prohibited  within 
the  convent  walls.  The  Rule  makes  no  men- 
tion of  any  sort  of  recreation  ;  but  it  enjoins 
that,  every  evening  after  supper,  while  the 
brothers  are  still  assembled,  one  among  them 
shall  read  aloud  passages  from  the  Lives  of 
the  Saints,  or  some  other  book  of  edification. 

As  the  Abbot  was  then  chosen  by  the  whole 
society  without  regard  to  any  other  considera- 
tion than  personal  merit,  so  in  the  government 
of  the  monastery  he  was  bound  to  consult  the 
senior  brethren  on  lesser  matters,  and  the 
whole  body  on  the  more  important  contin- 
gencies— it  was  ordained,  however,  that  after 
he  had  taken  such  counsel,  the  final  decision 
should  rest  entirely  with  himself.  Obedience 
was  the  vow  and  obligation  of  the  others. 

The  form  prescribed  for  the  reception  of 
Novices  was  not  such  as  to  encourage  a  luke- 
warm candidate.  In  the  first  instance,  he  was 
compelled  to  stand  for  four  or  five  days  before 
the  gates,  supplicating  only  for  admission.  If 
he  persevered,  he  was  received  first  into  the 
Chamber  of  Strangers — then  into  that  of  No- 
vices. An  ancient  brother  was  then  commis- 
sioned to  examine  his  vocation,  and  explain 
to  him  how  rude  and  difficult  Avas  the  path  to 
heaven.  After  a  probation  of  two  months  the 
Rule  was  read  to  him  ;  again,  after  six  other 
months  ;  and  a  third  time,  at  the  end  of  the 
year.  If  he  still  persisted,  he  was  received, 
and  made  profession  in  the  Oratory  before  the 
whole  community.  And  we  should  remark, 
that  that  profession  was  confined  to  three 
subjects — perseverance  in  the  monastic  life ; 
correction  of  moral  delinquencies;  and  obe- 
dience.*   Offences  committed  by  the  brethren 

*  All  those  ancient  brothers  were  laymen.    It  does 


were  punished,  according  to  their  enormity, 
by  censure,  excommunication,  or  corporal 
inflictions ;  expulsion  was  reserved  for  those 
deemed  incorrigible.  Nevertheless  even  then 
the  gate  was  not  closed  against  repentance ; 
and  the  repudiated  member  was  readmitted, 
on  the  promise  of  amendment,  even  for  the 
third  time.  .  .  .  Such  in  substance  was 
the  Rule  of  St.  Benedict ;  and  even  the  very 
faint  delineation  here  presented  may  suffice 
to  give  some  insight  into  the  real  character 
of  the  original  monasteries.  Perhaps  too  it 
may  serve  to  allay  the  bitterness,  which  we 
sometimes  are  too  apt  to  entertain  against  the 
founders  and  advocates  of  the  system,  by 
showing,  that  though  unscriptural  in  its  prin- 
ciple and  pernicious  in  its  abuse,  it  was  yet 
instituted  not  without  some  wisdom  and  fore- 
sight ;  and  was  calculated  to  confer  no  incon- 
siderable blessings  on  those  ages  in  which  it 
first  arose. 

Progress  of  the  Institution. — The  monastery 
of  Monte  Cassino,  which  became  afterwards 
so  celebrated  in  Papal  History,  was  the  noblest, 
though  not  perhaps  the  earliest,  monument  of 
St.  Benedict's  exertions.  The  moment  was 
favorable  to  his  undertaking;  and  his  name 
and  his  Rule  were  presently  adopted  and 
obeyed  throughout  the  greater  part  of  Italy. 
By  St.  Maur,  his  disciple  and  associate,  an 
institution  on  the  same  principle  was  im- 
mediately *  introduced  into  France,  and  be- 
came the  fruitful  parent  of  dependent  es- 
tablishments. Somewhat  later  in  the  same 
century,  St.  Columban  propounded  in  Britain 
a  rule  resembling  in  many  respects  that  of  St. 
Benedict,  but  surpassing  it  in  severity ;  and 
it  was  propagated  with  some  success  on  the 
Continent.  But  it  is  the  opinion  of  the  most 
learned  writers,  that  the  monasteries,  which 
at  first  followed  it,  yielded  after  no  long  inter- 
val to  the  higher  authority  and  more  practica- 
ble precepts  of  the  Nursian  ;  whose  genuine 
institution  indeed  was  soon  afterwards  planted 
in  the  south  of  the  island  by  the  monk  Au- 
gustine. At  the  same  time  the  same  system 
was  spreading  northward  beyond  the  moun- 
tains of  the  Rhine  ;  and  though  it  may  pro- 
bably be  true,  that  the  'Holy  Rule'  (regula 
sancta)  was  not  universally  received  until  the 
ninth  century — until  the  practice  had  been 


not  appear  that  even  St.  Benedict  himself  held  any 
rank  in  the  clergy. 

*  About  the  year  542.  It  was  destroyed  by  the 
Danes,  but  subsequently  re-established  about  the  year 
934,  by  the  Bishop  of  Limoges.  A  great  number  of 
abbeys  presently  grew  up  under  its  shadow. — Histoire 
des  Ordres  Monasteries. 


308 


HISTORY    OF  THE   CHURCH. 


vitiated  by  many  corruptions  —  it  is  evident, 
that  it  obtained  great  prevalence  long  before 
that  time,  while  it  yet  retained  its  original  in- 
tegrity; and  it  is  equally  clear,  that  its  moral 
operation  upon  a  lawless  and  bloodthirsty 
generation  could  not  possibly  be  any  other, 
than  to  restrain  and  to  humanize. 

During  the  greater  part  of  the  seventh  and 
the  beginning  of  the  following  age,  frightful 
ravages  were  committed  by  the  Lombards  in 
Italy,  and  by  the  Danes  in  France  and  Britain, 
against  which  even  the  sanctity  of  the  monas- 
tic profession  furnished  very  insufficient  pro- 
tection. Throughout  this  period  of  devasta- 
tion, while  all  other  laws  and  establishments 
were  overthrown,  it  was  not  probable  that 
even  those  of  St.  Benedict  should  remain  in- 
violate. The  monastery  of  Monte  Cassino 
was  destroyed  about  fifty  years  after  its  foun- 
dation, and  the  holy  spot  remained  desolate 
for  almost  a  century  and  a  half.*  And  though 
the  respectable  fugitives  found  an  asylum  at 
Rome,  where  the  discipline  was  perpetuated 
in  security,  during  that  long  period  of  perse- 
cution, others  were  less  fortunate ;  and  even 
in  those  which  escaped  destruction  a  more  re- 
laxed observance  naturally  gained  ground,  in 
the  midst  of  universal  licentiousness.  Accord- 
ingly we  learn,  that,  towards  the  end  of  the 
eighth  century,  the  order  of  St.  Benedict  had 
so  far  degenerated  from  its  pristine  purity, 
that  a  thorough  reform,  if  not  an  entire  recon- 
struction of  the  system,  was  deemed  necessary 
for  the  dignity  and  welfare  of  the  Church. 

Benedict  of  Aniane. —  The  individual  to 
whom  this  honorable  office  was  destined,  was 
also  named  Benedict ;  he  was  descended  from 
a  powerful  Gothic  family,  and  a  native  of 
Aniane  in  the  diocese  of  Montpellier.  Born 
about  the  year  750,  he  devoted  his  early  life 
to  religious  austerities,  exceeding  not  only  the 
practice  of  his  brethren,  but  the  instruction  of 
the  founder.  The  Rule  of  St.  Benedict  was 
formed,  in  his  opinion,  for  invalids  and  no- 
vices ;  and  he  strove  to  regulate  his  discipline 
after  the  sublimer  models  of  Basil  and  Pacho- 


*  See  Leo  Ostiensis.  Chron.  Cassinens,  lib.  i. 
Gregory  III.  restored  the  monastery,  and  Zachary 
his  successor  granted  to  it  (about  the  year  743)  the 
privilege  of  exclusive  dependence  on  the  Bishop  of 
Rome.  But  one  blessing  was  still  wanting  to  secure 
its  prosperity — and  that  was  happily  supplied  by  the 
Abbot  Desiderius  in  1066.  In  exploring  some  ruins 
about  the  edifice,  he  discovered  the  body  of  St.  Ben- 
edict! It  is  true  that  a  pope  was  soon  found  to  pro- 
nounce the  genuineness  of  the  relic.  Nevertheless 
the  fact  was  long  and  malevolently  disputed  by  rival 
impostors. 


mius.  Presently  he  was  chosen  to  preside 
over  his  monastery ;  but  in  disgust,  as  is  re- 
ported, at  the  inadequate  practice  of  his  sub- 
jects, he  retired  to  Aniane,  and  there  laid  the 
foundation  of  a  new  and  more  rigid  institu- 
tion. The  people  reverenced  his  sanctity  and 
crowded  to  his  cell ;  the  native  nobles  assisted 
him  in  the  construction  of  a  magnificent  edi- 
fice ;  and  endowments  of  land  were  soon  con- 
ferred upon  the  humble  Reformer  of  Aniane. 
Moreover,  as  he  enhanced  the  fame  of  his 
austerities  by  the  practice  of  charity  and  uni- 
versal benevolence,  *  his  venerable  name  de- 
served the  celebrity  which  it  so  rapidly  ac- 
quired. His  Ascetic  disciples  were  eagerly 
sought  after  by  other  monasteries,  as  models 
and  instruments  for  the  restoration  of  dis- 
cipline ;  and  as  the  policy  of  Charlemagne 
concurred  with  the  general  inclination  to  im- 
provement, the  decaying  system  was  restored 
and  fortified  by  a  bold  and  effectual  reforma- 
tion. 

When  Benedict  of  Aniane  undertook  to  es- 
tablish a  system,  he  found  it  prudent  to  relax 
from  that  extreme  austerity,  which  as  a  sim- 
ple monk  he  had  both  professed  and  prac- 
tised. As  his  youthful  enthusiasm  abated,  he 
became  gradually  convinced,  that  the  rule  of 
the  Nursian  Hermit  was  as  severe  as  the  com- 
mon infirmities  of  human  nature  could  en- 
dure.f  He  was  therefore  contented  to  revive 
that  Rule,  or  rather  to  enforce  its  observance  ; 
and  the  part  which  he  peculiarly  pressed  on 
the  practice  of  his  disciples,  was  the  obligation 
of  manual  labor.  To  the  neglect  of  that  es- 
sential portion  of  monastic  discipline  the  suc- 
cessive corruptions  of  the  system  are  with 
truth  attributed ;  and  the  regulations,  which 
were  adopted  by  the  Reformer  of  Aniane, 
were  confirmed  (in  817)  by  the  Council  of 
Aix-la-Chapelle.     From  this  epoch  \  we  ?nay 


*  Besides  the  general  mention  of  his  profuse  dona- 
tions to  the  poor,  it  is  particularly  related  respecting 
this  Benedict,  that  whenever  an  estale  was  made  over 
to  him,  he  invariably  emancipated  all  the  serfs  whom 
he  found  on  it.     Act.  SS.  Benedict.,  lorn.  v. 

t  The  duty  of  silence  was  very  generally  enjoined 
in  monastic  institutions.  In  the  Rule  of  The  Breth- 
ren of  the  Holy  Trinity,'  established  by  Innocent  III., 
we  observe  for  instance — 'Silentium  observent  sem- 
per in  Ecclesia  sua,  semper  in  Refectorio,  semper  in 
Dormitorio,'  —  and  even  on  the  most  necessary  occa- 
sions for  conversation  the  monks  were  instructed  to 
speak  rem  ipsa  voce,  humiliter,  et  honeste. — See  Dug- 
dale,  vol.  ii.  p.  830. 

%  It  would  not  appear  that  these  changes  very  much 
influenced  the  condition  of  monachism  in  England. 
The  three  great  reformations  in  that  system  which 
took  place  in  our  church  were,  (1)  that  of  Archbishop 


INSTITUTION  OF  MONACHISM  IN  THE  WEST. 


309 


date  the  renovation  of  the  Benedictine  Order ; 
and  though,  even  in  that  ago,  it  was  grown 
perhaps  too  rich  to  adhere  very  closely  to  its 
ancient  observance,  yet.  the  sons  whom  it 
nourished  may  nevertheless  be  accounted, 
without  any  exaggeration  of  their  merits, 
among  the  most  industrious,  the  most  learn- 
ed, and  the  most  pious  of  their  own  genera- 
tion. 

It  is  not  our  intention  to  trace  the  number- 
less branches  *  which  sprang  from  the  stem 
of  St.  Benedict,  and  overshadowed  the  sur- 
face of  Europe.  But  there  are  three  at  least 
among  them,  which,  by  their  frequent  men- 
tion in  ecclesiastical  history,  demand  a  sepa- 
rate notice, — the  Order  of  Cluni,  the  Cister- 
cian Order,  and  that  of  the  Chartreux.  The 
monastery  of  Corbie,  also  of  great  renown, 
was  founded  by  Charlemagne  for  the  spiritual 
subjugation  of  Saxony  ;  but  it  is  no  other 
way  distinguished  from  the  regular  Benedic- 
tine institutions,  than  by  its  greater  celebrity. 

The  Order  of  Cluni. — During  the  ninth  cen- 
tury, the  rapid  incursions  of  the  Normans, 
and  the  downward  progress  of  corruption, 
once  more  reduced  the  level  of  monastic 
sanctity  ;  and  a  fresh  impulse  became  neces- 
sary to  restore  the  excellence  and  save  the 
reputation  of  the  system.  The  method  of 
reformation  was,  on  this  occasion,  somewhat 
different  from  that  previously  adopted.  A 
separate  order  was  established,  derived  indeed 
immediately  from  the  stock  of  St.  Benedict, 
yet  claiming,  as  it  were,  a  specific  distinction 
and  character — it  was  the  order  of  Cluni.  It 
was  founded  about  the  year  900,  in  the  dis- 
trict of  Macon,  in  Burgundy,  by  William, 
duke  of  Aquitaine  ;  but  the  praise  of  perfect- 
ing it  is  rather  due  to  the  abbot,  St.  Odo.     It 


Cutlibert,  in  the  year  747;  (2)  that  of  Dunstan,  in 
965,  promulgated  in  the  Council  of  Winchester,  on 
which  occasion  the  general  constitution,  entitled, — 
Regula  Concordia?  Anglican  Nationis, —  was  for  the 
first  time  prescribed.  It  was  founded  partly  on  the 
Rule  of  St.  Benedict,  partly  on  ancient  customs.  (3) 
That  of  Lanfranc,  in  1075,  authorised  by  the  Council 
of  London,  and  founded  on  the  same  principle  as  the 
second.  .  .  Mahillon,  a  zealous  advocate  and  an 
acute  critic,  sufficiently  shows  from  John  the  Deacon, 
(who  wrote  the  Life  of  Gregory  the  Great  in  875,) 
that  the  Rule  of  St.  Benedict  was  received  in  Eng- 
land before  the  second  of  those  reformations.  Our 
allusions  to  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  England  are 
thus  rare  and  incidental,  because  that  Church  is  in- 
tended, we  believe,  to  form  the  subject  of  a  separate 
work. 

*  Such  as  the  Camaldulenses,  Sylvestrini,  Grandi- 
montenses,  Praemonstratenses,  the  Monks  of  Vallom- 
brosa,  and  a  multitude  of  others. 


commenced,  as  usual,  by  a  strict  imitation  of 
ancient  excellence,  a  rigid  profession  of  pov- 
erty, of  industry,  and  of  piety  ;  and  it  declin- 
ed, according  to  the  usual  course  of  human 
institutions,  through  wealth,  into  indolence 
and  luxury.  In  the  space  of  about  two  cen- 
turies it  fell  into  obscurity ;  and  after  the 
name  of  Peter  the  Venerable  (the  contem- 
porary of  St.  Bernard,)  no  eminent  ecclesias- 
tic is  mentioned  as  having  issued  from  its 
discipline.  Besides  the  riches,  which  had  re- 
warded and  spoiled  its  original  purity,  anoth- 
er cause  is  mentioned  as  having  contributed 
to  its  decline — the  corruption  of  the  simple 
Rule  of  St.  Benedict,  by  the  multiplication 
of  vocal  prayers,  and  the  substitution  of  new 
offices  and  ceremonies  for  the  manual  labor 
of  former  days.  The  ill  effect  of  that  change 
was  indeed  admitted  by  the  venerable  Abbot 
in  his  answer  to  St.  Bernard. 

But  in  the  meantime,  during  the  long  pe- 
riod of  its  prosperity,  the  order  of  Cluni  had 
reached  the  highest  point  of  honorable  repu- 
tation ;  insomuch  that  during  the  eleventh 
century,  a  bishop  of  Ostia  (the  future  Urban 
II.)  being  officially  present  at  a  council  in 
Germany,  suppressed  in  his  signiture  his 
episcopal  dignity,  and  thought  that  he  adopt- 
ed a  prouder  title,  when  he  subscribed  him- 
self '  Monk  of  Cluni,  and  Legate  of  Pope 
Gregory.'  *  Those  two  names  were  well  as- 
sociated ;  for  it  was  indeed  within  the  walls 
of  Cluni,  that  Hildebrand  fed  his  youthful 
spirit  on  those  dreams  of  universal  dominion, 
which  he  afterwards  attempted  to  realize :  it 
was  there,  too,  that  he  may  have  meditated 
those  vast  crusading  projects  which  were 
accomplished  by  Urban,  his  disciple.  But 
however  that  may  be,  the  cloister  from  which 
he  had  emerged  to  change  the  destinies  of 
Christendom,  and  the  discipline  which  had 
formed  him  (as  some  might  think)  to  such 
generous  enterprises,  acquired  a  reflected 
splendor  from  his  celebrity  ;  and  since  the 
same  institution  was  also  praised  for  its  zeal- 
ous and  active  orthodoxy,  and  its  devotion  to 
the  throne  of  St.  Peter,  shall  we  wonder  that 
it  flourished  far  and  wide  in  power  and  opu- 
lence;  and  that  it  numbered,  in  the  following 
age,  above  two  thousand  monasteries,  which 
followed  its  appointed  Rule  and  its  adopted 
principles  ?  Yet  is  there  a  sorrowful  reflection 
which  attends  the  spectacle  of  this  prosperity. 
Through  all  the  parade  of  wealth  and  dignity, 
we  penetrate  the  melancholy  truth,  that  the 
season  of  monastic  virtue  and  monastic  utility 

*  See  Hist.  Litter,  de  la  France,  Vie  Urban  II. 


310 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


Was  passing  by,  if  indeed  it  was  not  already 
passed  irrevocably  ;  and  we  remark  how  rap- 
idly the  close  embrace  of  the  pontifical  power 
was  converting  to  evil  the  rational  principles 
and  pious  purposes  of  the  original  institution. 
The  Cistercian  Order.  Howbeit,  we  do  not 
read  that  any  flagrant  immoralities  had  yet 
disgraced  the  establishment  of  Cluni.  Only 
it  had  attained  a  degree  of  sumptuous  refine- 
ment very  far  removed  from  its  first  profes- 
sion. This  degeneracy  furnished  a  reason 
for  the  creation  of  a  new  and  rival  communi- 
ty in  its  neighborhood.  The  Cistercian  order 
was  founded  in  1098,  *  and  very  soon  receiv- 
ed the  pontifical  confirmation.  In  its  origin 
it  successfully  contrasted  its  laborious  pover- 
ty and  much  show  of  Christian  humility  with 
the  lordly  opulence  of  Cluni ;  and  in  its  pro- 
gress, it  pursued  its  predecessor  through  the 
accustomed  circle  of  austerity,  wealth,  and 
corruption.  This  Institution  was  peculiarly 
favored  from  its  very  foundation ;  since  it 
possessed,  among  its  earliest  treasures,  the 
virtues  and  celebrity  of  St.  Bernard.  One  of 
the  first  of  the  Cistercian  monks,  that  vener- 
ated ecclesiastic  established,  in  1115,  the  de- 
pendent abbey  of  Clairvaux,  over  which  he 
long  presided ;  and  such  was  his  success  in 
propagating  the  Cistercian  order,  that  he  has 
sometimes  been  erroneously  considered  as  its 
founder.  The  zeal  of  his  pupils,  aided  by  the 
authority  of  his  fame,  completed  the  work 
transmitted  to  them ;  and  with  so  much  ea- 
gerness were  the  monasteries  of  the  Citeaux 
filled  and  endowed,  that,  before  the  year 
1250,  that  order  yielded  nothing,  in  the  num- 
ber and  importance  of  its  dependencies,  to 
its  rival  of  Cluni.  Both  spread  with  almost 
equal  prevalence  over  every  province  in 
Christendom  ;  and  the  colonies  long  contin- 
ued to   acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  the 


*  Anno  milleno,  centeno,  bis  minus  uno, 
Pontifice  Urbano,  Francomm  Rege  Philippo, 
Burgundis  Odone  duce  et  fundamina  dante, 
Sub  Pane  Roberto  coepit  Cistercius  Ordo. 
Pagi,  Vit.  Urban  II.,  sect.  73.     The  date  of  another 
celebrated  Institution,  which  we  have  no  space  to 
notice,  has  been  similarly  (though  less  artificially) 
recorded : — 

Anno  milleno,  centeno,  bis  quoque  deno 

Sub  Patre  Norberto  Praemonstratensis  viget  Ordo. 

Norbert  was  archbishop  of  Magdeburg,  and  in 
great  repute  with  Innocent  II.  The  site  of  the  mon- 
astery was  praemonstrated  by  a  vision  —  hence  the 
name.  The  rule  was  that  of  St.  Augustin  ;  the 
Brethren  were  confirmed  by  Calixtus  II.,  under  the 
designation  of  Canonici  Regulares  Exempti  ;  and 
they  spread  to  the  extremities  of  the  east  and  the 
west. — Hospin.  lib.  v.  c.  xii. 


mother  monastery.  But  the  Citeaux  was 
less  fortunate  in  the  duration  of  its  authority, 
and  the  union  of  its  societies.  About  the 
year  1350,  some  confusion  grew  up  amongst 
them,  arising  first  from  their  corruptions, 
and  next  from  the  obstruction  of  all  endeav- 
ors to  reform  them.  At  the  end  of  that  cen- 
tury, they  were  involved  in  the  grand  schism 
of  the  Catholic  church,  and  thus  became  still 
further  alienated  from  each  other  ;  till  at 
length,  about  the  year  1500,  they  broke  up 
(first  in  Spain,  arid  then  in  Tuscany  and 
Lombardy)  into  separate  and  independent 
establishments. 

Order  of  La  Chartreuse.  St.  Bruno,  with  a 
few  companions,  established  a  residence  at  the 
Chartreuse,  in  the  summer  of  1084:  the  usual 
duties  of  labor,  temperance,  and  prayer  were 
enjoined  with  more  perhaps  than  the  usual 
severity.*  But  this  community  did  not  imme- 
diately rise  into  any  great  eminence ;  it  was 
long  governed  by  Priors,  subject  to  the  bishop 
of  Grenoble  ;  and  its  founder  died  (in  1101) 
in  a  Calabrian  monastery.  Nearly  fifty  years 
after  its  foundation,  its  statutes  were  written 
by  a  Prior,  named  Guigues,f  who  presided 
over  it  for  eighteen  years.  By  the  faithful 
observance  of  those  statutes,  though  in  its 
commencement  far  outstripped  by  its  Cister- 
cian competitors,  it  gradually  rose  into  honor- 


*The  earliest  Cistercians,  under  Alberic,  who  died 
in  1109,  affected  a  rigid  imitation  of  the  Rule  of  St. 
Benedict.  They  refused  all  donations  of  churches 
and  altars,  oblations  and  tithes.  It  appeared  not 
(they  said)  that  in  the  ancient  quadripartite  division 
the  Monasteries  had  any  share  —  for  this  reason,  that 
they  had  lands  and  cattle,  whence  they  could  live  by 
work.  They  avoided  cities  and  populous  districts; 
but  professed  their  willingness  to  accept  the  endow- 
ment of  any  remote  or  waste  lands,  or  of  vineyards, 
meadows,  woods,  waters  (for  mills  and  fishing),  as 
well  as  horses  and  cattle.  Their  only  addition  to  the 
old  rule  was  that  of  lay  brothers  and  hired  servants. — 
Freres  Convers  Laiques. 

t  Fleury,  H.  E.  1.  67,  s.  58.  From  these  statutes 
it  appears,  that  from  September  to  Easter  the  monks 
were  allowed  only  one  meal  a  day;  that  they  drank 
no  pure  wine;  that  fish  might  not  be  purchased  ex- 
cept for  the  sick ;  that  no  superfluous  gold  or  silver 
was  permitted  at  the  service  of  the  altar;  that  the 
use  of  medicine  was  discouraged;  but  that,  to  com- 
pensate for  that  prohibition,  the  monks  were  bled  five 
times  a  year.  It  is  proper  to  add,  that  during  the 
same  period  they  were  permitted  to  shave  only  six 
times. 

Some  statutes  of  this  order  are  given  by  Dugdale, 
Monast.  vol.  i.  p.  951.  Among  them  we  observe  a 
strict  injunction  to  manual  labor:  — 

Nunc  lege,  nunc  ora,  nunc  cum  fervore  labora; 
Sic  erit  hora  brevis,  et  labor  ille  levis. 


INSTITUTION  OF  MONACHISM  IN  THE  WEST. 


311 


able  notoriety  ;  and  at  length,  about  tbe  year 
1.178,  its  rule  was  sanctioned  by  the  approba- 
tion of  Alexander  III.  From  tins  event,  its 
existence  as  a  separate  order  in  the  church  is 
properly  to  be  dated  ;  and  henceforward  it 
went  forth  from  its  wild  and  desolate  birth- 
place, and  spread  its  fruitful  branches  over 
the  gardens  and  vineyards  of  Europe.  The 
rise  of  the  Chartreuse  gave  fresh  cause  for 
emulation  to  their  brethren  of  older  estab- 
lishment; and  the  rivalry  thus  excited  and 
maintained  by  these  repeated  innovations,  if 
it  caused  much  professional  jealousy  and 
doubtless  some  personal  animosity,  furnished 
the  only  resource  by  which  the  monastic  sys- 
tem could  have  been  brought  to  preserve  even 
the  semblance  of  its  original  practice.  Still 
it  should  be  remarked,  that  these  successive 
additions  to  the  fraternity  implied  no  con- 
tempt of  the  institutions  of  antiquity :  they 
made  no  profession  of  novelty,  or  of  any  im- 
provement upon  pristine  observances  ;  on  the 
contrary,  the  more  modern  orders  all  claimed, 
as  they  respectively  started  into  existence,  the 
authority  and  the  name  of  St.  Benedict. 
The  monk  of  Cluni,  the  Cistercian,  the  Car- 
thusian, were  alike  Benedictines ;  and  the 
more  rigid  the  reform  which  they  severally 
boasted  to  introduce,  and  the  nearer  their 
approximation  to  the  earliest  practice,  the 
better  were  their  pretensions  founded  to  a 
legitimate  descent  from  the  Western  Patri- 
arch. 

Institution  of  Lay  Brethren.  The  rules  of 
the  reformed  orders  invariably  inculcated  the 
performance  of  manual  labor ;  and  the  neg- 
lect of  that  injunction  invariably  led  to  their 
corruption.  But  an  alteration  had  been  ef- 
fected in  the  general  constitution  of  the  body, 
which  alone  precluded  any  faithful  emulation 
of  tbe  immediate  disciples  of  St.  Benedict. 
As  late  as  the  eleventh  age  the  monks  were 
for  the  most  part  laymen  ;  and  they  perform- 
ed all  the  servile  offices  of  the  establishment 
with  their  own  hands.  But  in  the  year  1040, 
St.  John  of  Gualbert  introduced  into  his  mon- 
astery of  Vallombrosa  a  distinction  which 
was  fatal  to  the  integrity  of  former  discipline. 
He  divided  those  of  his  obedience  into  two 
classes  •  -  lay  brethren  and  brethren  of  the 
choir  ;  and  while  the  spiritual  and  intellectual 
duties  of  the  institution  were  more  particu- 
larly enjoined  to  the  latter,  the  whole  bodily 
labor,  whether  domestic  or  agricultural,  was 
imposed  upon  their  lay  associates.*     Thence- 

*  In  the  Ordres  Monastiques,  p.  iv.  c.  18,  two 
sorts  of  laymen  are  mentioned  as  living  in  French 


forward  the  Monks  (for  the  higher  class  began 
to  appropriate  that  name)  became  entirely 
composed  either  of  clerks,  or  of  persons  des- 
tined for  holy  orders;  the  religious  offices 
were  celebrated  and  chiefly  attended  by  them  ; 
while  the  servant  was  commanded  to  repeat 
his  pater  without  suspending  his  work,  and 
presented  with  a  chaplet  for  the  numbering 
of  the  canonical  hours.  A  reason  was  ad- 
vanced for  this  change  ;  and  had  not  a  much 
stronger  been  afforded  by  the  inordinate  ac- 
cumulation of  wealth,  it  might  have  seemed 
perhaps  not  unsatisfactory.  In  earlier  ages, 
Latin,  the  language  of  prayer,  was  also  the 
vulgar  tongue  of  all  western  Christians  ;  but 
as  that  grew  into  disuse,  and  became  the  ob- 
ject of  study,  instead  of  the  vehicle  of  con- 
versation, the  greater  part  of  the  laity  were 
unable  to  comprehend  the  offices  of  the 
church.  Accordingly  it  was  deemed  neces- 
sary to  distinguish  between  the  educated  and 
the  wholly  illiterate  brethren  ;  and,  in  pursu- 
ance of  the  principle,  which  then  prevailed, 
of  confining  all  learning  to  the  sacred  pro- 
fession, the  former  were  raised  to  the  enjoy- 
ment of  leisure  and  authority,  the  latter  con- 
demned to  ignorance  and  servitude.  This 
distinction,  being  earlier  than  the  foundation 
of  the  Cistercian,  Carthusian,  and  all  subse- 
quent orders,  was  admitted  at  once  into  their 
original  constitution  ;  and  therefore,  however 
closely  they  might  affect  to  imitate  the  most 
ancient  models,  there  existed,  from  the  very 
commencement,  one  essential  peculiarity,  in 
which  they  deviated  from  it. 

Papal  Exemptions.  According  to  the  old- 
est practice,  every  monastery  was  governed 
by  an  abbot,  chosen  by  the  monks  from  their 
own  body,  and  ordained  and  instituted  by  the 
bishop  of  the  diocess.  To  the  superintend- 
ing authority  of  the  same  the  abbot  was  also 
subject;  and  thus  abuses  and  contentions 
were  readily  repressed  by  the  presence  of  a 
resident  inspector.  But  when,  in  the  progress 
of  papal  usurpation,  those  establishments 
were  exempted  from  episcopal  jurisdiction, 
and  placed  under  the  exclusive  regulation  of 
the  V'atican,  the  facilities  for  corruption  were 
multiplied  ;  and  a  number  of  evils  were  creat- 
ed, which  escaped  the  observation  or  correc- 
tion of  a  distant  and  indulgent  master.  At 
the  same  time,  the  effect  of  this  connexion 

monasteries:  (1)  Such  as  gave  themselves  over  as 
slaves  to  the  establishment,  and  were  called  Oblats 
or  Donnes.  (2)  Such  as  were  recommended  for  sup- 
port to  monasteries  of  royal  foundation  by  the  king. 
But  neither  of  these  classes  were,  properly  speaking, 
lay  brethren. 


312 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


was  to  infuse  an  entirely  new  spirit  into  the 
monastic  system.  Avarice,  and  especially 
ambition,  took  the  place  of  those  pious  mo- 
tives which  certainly  predominated  in  earlier 
days.  The  inmates  of  the  cloister  were  as- 
sociated in  the  grand  schemes  of  the  pontifi- 
cal policy ;  they  became  its  necessary  and 
most  obsequious  instruments  ;  they  were  ex- 
alted by  its  success, — they  were  stained  by  its 
vices :  and  the  successive  reformations,  which 
professed  to  renovate  the  declining  fabric, 
were  only  vain  attempts  to  restore  its  ancient 
character.  They  could  at  best  only  expect  to 
repair  its  outward  front,  and  replace  the  sym- 
bols of  its  former  sanctity  ;  the  spirit,  by  which 
it  had  been  really  blessed  and  consecrated, 
was  already  departed  from  it. 

Great  complaints  respecting  monastic  cor- 
ruption were  uttered  both  at  the  Council  of 
Paris  in  1212,  and  at  that  of  the  Lateran, 
which  met  three  years  afterwards.  But, 
though  some  vigorous  attempts  were,  on  both 
those  occasions,  made  to  repress  it,  the  coun- 
teracting causes  were  too  powerful ;  and  the 
evil  continued  to  extend  and  become  more 
poisonous  during  the  times  which  followed. 
It  is  singular  that,  at  the  second  of  those 
councils,  it  was  proclaimed  as  a  great  evil  in 
the  system,  that  new  orders  were  too  com- 
monly established,  and  the  forms  of  monas- 
ticism  multiplied  with  a  dangerous  fertility. 
And  therefore,  '  lest  their  too  great  diversity 
should  introduce  confusion  into  the  Church,' 
it  was  enacted  that  their  future  creation  should 
be  discouraged.  This  is  considered  by  some 
Catholic  writers  to  have  been  a  provident 
regulation ;  since  the  jealousy  among  the 
rival  congregations  had  by  this  time  degene- 
rated from  pious  emulation  (if  it  ever  possess- 
ed that  character)  into  a  mere  conflict  of  evil 
passions.  But  whatever  may  have  been  the 
policy  of  the  statute,  it  was  at  least  treated  in 
the  observance  with  such  peculiar  contempt, 
that  the  institution  of  the  Mendicants,  the 
boldest  of  all  the  innovations  in  the  annals  of 
monachism,  took  place  almost  immediately 
afterwards. 

Section  III. 

Canons  Regular  and  Secular. 

The  order  of  monks  was  originally  so  widely 
distinct  from  that  of  clerks,  that  there  were 
seldom  found  more  than  one  or  two  ecclesi- 
astics in  any  ancient  convent.  But  presently, 
in  the  growing  prevalence  of  the  monastic 
life,  persons  ordained,  or  destined  to  the  sacred 
profession,  formed  societies  on  similar  princi- 


ples ;  and  as  they  were  bound,  though  with 
less  severity,  by  certain  fixed  canons,  they 
were  called,  in  process  of  time,  Canonici* 
The  bishop  of  the  diocese  was  their  abbot 
and  president.  It  is  recorded  that  St.  Augus- 
tine set  the  example  of  living  with  his  clergy 
in  one  society,  with  community  of  property, 
according  to  the  canons  of  the  church  ;  but 
he  prescribed  to  them  no  vow,  nor  any  other 
statutes  for  then-  observance,  except  such  in- 
structions as  are  found  in  his  109th  Epistle,  f 
Nevertheless,  above  a  hundred  and  fifty  re- 
ligious congregations  have  in  succeeding  ages 
professed  his  rule  and  claimed  his  parentage, 
and  assumed,  with  such  slight  pretensions, 
the  authority  of  his  venerable  name.  The 
true  origin  of  the  order  is  a  subject  of  much 
uncertainty.  Onuphrius,  in  his  letter  to  Pla- 
tina,  asserts  that  it  was  instituted  by  Gelasius 
at  Rome,  about  495, J  and  that  it  passed  thence 
into  other  churches  ;  and  Dugdale  appears  to 
acquiesce  in  this  opinion.  It  is,  moreover, 
certain,  that  Chrodegangus,  Bishop  of  Metz, 
prescribed  a  rule,  about  the  year  750,  to  the 
Canons  of  his  own  reformation  ;  and  that  he 
made  some  efforts,  though  not  perhaps  very 
effectually,  to  extend  it  more  widely.  Still 
some  are  not  persuaded  that  societies  of  clerks 
were  subject  to  one  specified  form  of  disci- 
pline, till  the  Council  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  § 
under  the  direction  of  Louis  le  Debonnaire, 
confirmed  and  completed  the  previous  enact- 
ments of  Mayence  (in  813,)  and  imposed  on 
them  one  general  and  perpetual  rule. 

The  plausible  principle  on  which  the  order 
of  canons  was  founded,  to  withdraw  from  the 
contagion  of  the  world  those  who  had  pecu- 


*  The  term  Canon  originally  included  not  only  all 
professors  of  the  monastic  life,  but  the  very  Hierodu- 
les  and  inferior  officers  of  the  Church.  Mosheim  (on 
the  authority  of  Le  Bceuf,  Memoires  sur  l'Histoire 
d'Auxerre,  vol.  i.  p.  174.)  asserts  that  it  became  pe- 
culiar to  clerical  monks  (Fratres  Dominici)  soon 
after  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century.  But  we  should 
rather  collect  from  the  Histoire  des  Ordres  Monas- 
tiques,  that  the  distinction  was  not  generally  establish- 
ed till  the  eleventh  age. 

t  It  should  be  observed,  that  this  epistle,  which  is 
cited  by  ecclesiastical  writers  as  containing  instruc- 
tions for  an  institution  of  Canons,  was  in  fact  addres- 
sed to  a  convent  of  refractory  nuns,  who  had  quarrelled 
with  their  Abbess,  and  exhibited  some  unbecoming 
violence  in  the  dispute. 

%  See  Dugdale.  De  Canonorum  Ordinis  Origine. 
There  may  be  found  the  Rule  which  St.  Augustin  is 
said  to  have  prescribed. 

§  The  rule  here  published  was  borrowed,  in  many 
particulars,  from  that  of  St.  Benedict.  But  the  order 
still  retained  the  name  and  banners  of  St.  Augustin 
—  Hist,  des  Ordres  Monastiques. 


ON  THE  MILITARY  ORDERS. 


313 


liarly  devoted  themselves  to  the  service  of 
God,  was  found  insufficient  to  preserve  them 
from  degeneracy.  A  division  was  early  in- 
troduced (in  Germany,  according  to  Trithe- 
mius,  and  in  the  year  977,)  hy  which  the  re- 
formed were  separated  from  the  unreformed 
members  of  the  community,  in  name  as  well 
as  in  deed.  The  former,  from  their  return  to 
the  original  rule,  assumed  the  appellation  of 
Canons-Regular ;  the  latter,  who  adhered  to 
the  abuse,  were  termed,  in  contradistinction, 
Canons-Secular  ;  and  this  sort  of  schism  ex- 
tended to  other  countries,  and  became  perma- 
nent in  many.  . 

The  discipline  of  the  regular  canons  was 
more  seriously  enforced  by  Nicholas  II.  in 
the  year  1059 ;  and  about  eighty  years  later, 
Innocent  II.  subjected  them  to  the  additional 
obligation  of  a  vow ;  for  they  seem  hitherto 
to  have  been  exempt  from  such  profession. 
Nevertheless,  in  the  course  of  the  two  follow- 
ing centuries,  they  once  more  relapsed  into 
such  abandoned  licentiousness,  as  to  require 
an  entire  reconstruction  from  Benedict  XII. 
After  that  period,  they  rose  into  more  con- 
sideration than  hi  their  earlier  history  they 
appear  to  have  attained. 

There  were  besides  some  other  orders,  both 
military  and  mendicant,  which  professed  the 
rule,  or  rather  the  name,  of  St.  Augustine — 
the  Hospitallers,  for  instance,  the  Teutonic 
Knights,  and  the  Hermits  of  St.  Augustine. 
But  they  will  be  mentioned  under  those  heads 
where  we  have  thought  it  more  convenient  to 
place  them,  than  to  follow  in  this  matter  the 
perplexed  method  of  the  '  Historian  of  the 
Monastic  Orders.' 

Section  IV. 

On  the  Military  Orders. 

We  have  thus  shortly  mentioned  the  three 
grand  religious  Orders,  Avhich  have  been  di- 
versified by  so  many  names  and  rules,  and  re- 
generated by  so  many  reforms ;  which  began 
in  austerity,  and  yet  fell  into  the  most  shame- 
less debauchery  ;  which  arose  in  piety,  and 
passed  into  wicked  and  lying  superstition  ; 
which  originated  in  poverty,  and  finally  fat- 
tened on  the  credulity  of  the  faithful,  so  as  to 
spread  their  solid  territorial  acquisitions  from 
one  end  of  Christendom  to  the  other.  Found- 
ed on  the  genuine  monastic  principle  of  de- 
vout seclusion,  so  venerable  to  the  ignorant 
and  the  vulgar,  they  presently  surpassed  the 
secular  clergy  in  the  reputation  of  sanctity, 
and  in  popular  influence.  Thus  were  they 
soon  recommended  to  the  Bishop  of  Home  ; 
and  in  his  ambition  to  exalt  himself  above  his 
40 


brother  prelates,  he  discovered  an  efficient 
and  willing  instrument  in  the  regular  estab- 
lishments. At  an  early  period,  lie  granted 
them  protection,  and  patronage,  and  property, 
with  the  means  of  augmenting  it:  presently, 
he  accorded  to  certain  monasteries  exemption 
from  the  episcopal  authority ;  and  in  process 
of  time,  he  extended  that  privilege  to  almost 
all.  Thus  he  gradually  constituted  himself 
sole  visitor,  legislator,  and  guardian  of  the 
numberless  religious  institutions  which  cov- 
ered the  Christian  world.  The  monks  repaid 
these  services  by  the  most  implicit  obedience 
—  for  obedience  was  that  of  their  three  vows 
which  they  continued  to  respect  the  longest 
—and  to  their  aid  and  influence  may  generally 
be  ascribed  the  triumphs  of  the  pontiff  in  his 
disputes  with  the  secular  clergy.  In  his  con- 
tests with  the  State,  they  were  not  less  neces- 
sary to  his  cause ;  for,  as  his  success  in  those 
struggles  usually  depended  on  the  divisions 
which  he  was  enabled  to  sow  among  the 
subjects  of  his  enemy,  and  the  strength  of 
the  party  which  he  could  thus  create,  so  the 
monks,  in  every  nation  in  Europe,  were  his 
most  powerful  agents  for  that  purpose.  And 
thus,  when  we  consider  the  victory,  which  the 
spiritual  sometimes  obtained  over  the  tem- 
poral power,  as  a  mere  triumph  of  opinion 
over  arms  and  physical  force,  we  do  indeed, 
at  the  bottom,  consider  it  rightly  ;  but  our  sur- 
prise at  the  result  is  much  diminished,  when 
we  reflect  how  extensive  a  control  over  men's 
minds  was  everywhere  possessed  by  the  re- 
ligious orders, — how  fearlessly  and  unsparing- 
ly they  exercised  that  control,  and  with  what 
persevering  zeal  it  was  directed  to  the  support 
and  aggrandizement  of  papal  power. 

The  Benedictines  and  Augustinians  were 
the  standing  army  of  the  Vatican,  and  they 
fought  its  spiritual  battles  with  constancy  and 
success  for  nearly  six  centuries.  The  first 
addition  which  was  made  to  them  was  that 
of  the  Military  orders  ;  and  this  proceeded 
not  from  any  sense  of  the  insufficiency  of  the 
veteran  establishments,  nor  from  any  distrust 
in  them,  but  from  circumstances  wholly  inde- 
pendent of  those  or  any  such  causes.  They 
arose  in  the  agitation  of  the  crusades,  and  they 
were.nourished  by  the  sort  of  spirit  which  first 
created  those  expeditions,  and  then  caught 
from  them  some  additional  fury. 

The  union  of  the  military  with  the  ecclesi- 
astical character  was  become  common,  in  spite 
of  repeated  prohibitions,  among  all  ranks  of 
the  clergy.  It  was  exercised  by  the  vices  of 
the  feudal  system  ;  which  had  given  them 
wealth  in  enviable  profusion,  but  which  pro- 


314 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


vided  by  no  sufficient  Jaws  or  strength  of 
government  for  the  protection  of  that  which 
it  had  bestowed — so  that  force  was  necessary 
to  defend  what  had  heen  lavished  by  super- 
stition. The  warlike  habits  which  ecclesias- 
tics seem  really  to  have  first  acquired  in  the 
defence  of  their  property,  were  presently  car- 
ried forth  by  them  into  distant  and  offensive 
campaigns,  and  exhibited  in  voluntary  feats 
of  arms,  to  which  loyalty  did  not  oblige  them, 
and  for  which  loyalty  itself  furnished  a  very 
insufficient  pretext.  But  these  general  ex- 
cesses did  not  give  birth  to  any  distinct  order 
professing  to  unite  religious  vows  with  the 
exercise  of  arms  ;  and  even  the  first  of  those, 
which  did  afterwards  make  such  profession, 
was  in  its  origin  a  pacific  and  charitable  in- 
stitution. 

The  Knights  of  the  Hospital. — This  was  the 
Order  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem,  or  the  Knights 
of  the  Hospital.  About  the  year  1050,  at  the 
wish  of  some  merchants  of  Amalfi  trading 
with  Syria,  a  Latin  Church  had  been  erected 
at  Jerusalem,  to  which  a  hospital  was  presently 
added,  with  a  chapel  dedicated  to  the  Baptist. 
When  Godfrey  de  Bouillon  took  the  city  in 
1099,  lie  endowed  the  hospital:  it  then  as- 
sumed the  form  of  a  new  religious  order, 
and  immediately  received  confirmation  from 
Rome,  with  a  rule  for  its  observance.  *  The 
revenues  were  soon  found  to  exceed  the  ne- 
cessities of  the  establishment ;  and  it  was  then 
that  the  Grand  Master  changed  its  principle 
and  design  by  the  infusion  of  the  military 
character. 

The  Knights  of  the  Hospital  were  distin- 
guished by  three  gradations.  The  first  in 
dignity  were  the  noble  and  military  ;  the  sec- 
ond were  ecclesiastical,  superintending  the 
original  objects  of  the  institution  ;  the  third 
consisted  of  the  '  Serving  Brethren,'  whose 
duties  also  were  chiefly  military.  To  the  or- 
dinary vows  of  poverty,  chastity,  and  obedi- 
ence, they  added  the  obligations  of  charity, 
fasting,  and  penitence :  and,  whatsoever  laxity 
they  may  have  admitted  in  the  observance  of 
them,  they  unquestionably  derived  from  that 
profession  some  real  virtues  which  were  not 
shared  by  the  fanatics  who  surrounded  them ; 
and  they  softened  the  savage  features  of  re- 
ligious warfare  with  some  faint  shades  of  un- 
wonted humanity.  So  long  as  their  residence 
was  Jerusalem,  they  retained  the  peaceful 
name  of  Hospitallers ;  but  they  were  subse- 
quently better  known  by  the  successive  appel- 

*  The  rule  of  the  Hospitallers  (as  confirmed  by 
Boniface)  may  be  found  in  Dugdale's  Monasticon, 
vol.  ii.  p.  493. 


lations  of  Knights  of  Rhodes  and  of  Malta. 
Faithful  at  least  to  one  of  the  objects  of  their 
institution,  they  valiantly  defended  the  out- 
works of  Christendom  against  the  progress  of 
the  invading  Mussulman,  and  never  sullied 
their  arms  by  the  massacre  of  Pagans  or  here- 
tics. 

The  Knights  Templars.  The  Knights 
Templars  received  their  name  from  their  re- 
sidence in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the 
Temple  at  Jerusalem.  The  foundations  of 
this  order  were  laid  in  the  year  1118;  and 
the  rule,  to  which  it  was  afterwards  subjected, 
was  from  the  pen  of  St.  Bernard.  This  in- 
stitution, both  in  its  original  purpose  and  pre- 
scribed duties,  was  exclusively  military. — To 
extend  the  boundaries  of  Christendom,  to 
preserve  the  internal  tranquillity  of  Palestine, 
to  secure  the  public  roads  from  robbers  and 
outlaws,  *  to  protect,  the  devout  on  their  pil- 
grimage to  the  holy  places  —  such  were  the 
peculiar  offices  of  the  Templar.  They  were 
discharged  with  fearlessness  and  rewarded  by 
renown.  Renown  was  followed  by  the  most 
abundant  opulence.  Corruption  came  in  its 
train  ;  and  on  their  final  expulsion  from  Pal- 
estine, they  carried  back  with  them  to  Europe 
much  of  the  wild  unbridled  license,  which 
had  been  familiar  to  them  in  the  East.  But 
their  unhappy  fate,  as  it  is  connected  with 
one  of  the  most  important  periods  in  papal 
history,  must  be  reserved  for  more  particular 
mention  in  its  proper  place. 

The  Teutonic  Order.  The  Teutonic,  or 
German  Order,  had  its  origin  again  in  the 
offices  of  charity.  During  the  siege  of  Acre, 
a  hospital  was  erected  for  the  reception  of 
the  sick  and  wounded.  This  establishment 
survived  the  occasion  which  created  it ;  and, 
to  confirm  its  character  and  its  permanency, 
it  obtained  a  rule  (in  1192)  from  Celestine 
III.,  and  a  place  among  the  '  Orders  Hospit- 
able and  Military.'  On  the  termination  of 
the  Crusades,  these  knights  returned  to  Ger- 
many,! where  they  enjoyed  considerable  pos- 


*  An  order,  with  a  somewhat  similar  object,  was 
founded  in  France  about  the  year  1233,  called  the 
Order  of  the  Glorious  Virgin  Mary.  It  was  confined 
to  young  men  of  family,  who  associated  themselves, 
under  the  title  of  Les  Freres  Joyeux,  for  the  defence 
of  the  injured,  and  the  preservation  of  public  tran- 
quillity. They  took  vows  of  obedience  and  conjugal 
chastity,  and  solemnly  pledged  themselves  to  the  pro- 
tection of  widows  and  orphans. 

f  In  the  treaty  between  the  empire  and  the  pope- 
dom in  1230,  we  find  that  the  interests  of  the  three 
military  orders  were  expressly  stipulated  for  by  the 
Pope;  and  also,  that  certain  places  were  held  in  se- 
questration by  Herman,  Master  of  the  Teutonic  Order 


THE  MENDICANT  ORDERS. 


315 


sessions  ;  and  soon  afterwards,  by  a  deviation 
lrom  the  purpose  of  their  institution,  which 
might  seem  slight  perhaps  in  a  superstitious 
age,  they  turned  their  consecrated  anus  to  the 
conversion  of  Prussia. 

That  country,  and  the  contiguous  Pome- 
rania,  had  hitherto  resisted  the  peaceful  ex- 
ertions of  successive  missionaries,  and  con- 
tinued to  worship  the  rude  deities,  and  follow 
the  barbarous  manners,  of  antiquity.  But 
where  the  language  of  persuasion  had  been 
employed  in  vain,  the  disciplined  valor  of  the 
Teutonic  Knights  prevailed.  It  was  recom- 
pensed by  the  conquest  of  two  rich  provinces ; 
and  the  faith  which  was  inflicted  upon  the 
vanquished  in  the  rage  of  massacre,  was  per- 
petuated under  the  deliberate  oppression  of 
military  government.  This  event  took  place 
about  the  year  1230 ;  but  in  another  gener- 
ation, when  the  memory  of  its  introduction 
was  effaced,  the  religion  really  took  root  and 
flourished,  by  the  sure  and  legitimate  autho- 
rity of  its  excellence  and  its  truth.  After  that 
celebrated  exploit,  the  Teutouic  Order  con- 
tinued to  subsist  in  great  estimation  with  the 
Church;  and  this  patronage  was  repaid  with 
persevering  fidelity,  until  at  length,  when  they 
perceived  the  grand  consummation  approach- 
ing, the  holy  knights  generally  deserted  that 
tottering  fortress,  and  arrayed  their  rebellious 
host  under  the  banners  of  Luther. 

Section    V. 
77ie  Mendicant,  or  Preaching  Orders. 

Until  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  the 
exertions  of  the  Popes  were  almost  entirely 
confined  to  the  establishment  of  their  own 
supremacy  in  the  Church,  and  of  their  tem- 
poral authority  over  the  State :  and,  through 
the  faithful  subservience  of  the  two  ancient 
orders,  they  had  obtained  surprising  success 
in  both  undertakings.  But  the  increasing 
light  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  ages,  and 
the  increasing  deformities  of  the  Church, 
brought  into  existence  a  number  of  heresies, 
occasioning  dissensions,  such  as  had  not  di- 
vided Christians  since  the  Arian  controversy. 
These  moreover  presented  themselves  not 
with  one  form,  and  one  front,  and  one  neck, 
but  were  scattered  under  a  multitude  of  de- 
nominations, throughout  all  provinces,  and 
among  all  ranks.  The  secular  clergy,  relaxed 
by  habitual  indolence  and  occasional  immo- 
ralities, rather  gave  cause  to  this  disaffection, 


until  the  Emperor  should  have  fulfilled  his  part  of  the 
engagement.     Fleury,  1.  79.  s.  64. 


than  subdued  it ;  and  the  regular  orders,  be- 
come sluggish  from  wealth  and  indulgence, 
wanted  the  activity,  perhaps  the  zeal,  which 
was  required  of  them.  To  detect  the  latent 
error,  to  pursue  it  into  its  secret  holds,  to  drag 
it  forth  and  consign  it  to  the  minister  of 
temporal  vengeance,  was  an  office  beyond 
the  energy  of  their  luxuriousness  ;  still  less 
did  they  possess  the  talents  and  the  learning 
to  confute  and  confound  it.  Wherefore,  as 
the  experience  of  some  centuries  had  now 
proved,  that  the  existing  orders,  how  often 
soever  and  completely  reformed  and  repro- 
duced, had  an  immediate  tendency  to  subside 
again  into  degeneracy  and  decay,  it  seemed 
expedient  to  introduce  some  entirely  different 
organization  into  the  imperfect  system. 

St.  Dominic.  The  first  notion  of  the  new 
institution  *  was  given  by  that  body  of  eccle- 
siastics who  were  commissioned  by  Innocent 
III.  to  convert  the  Albigeois  ;  and  among  these 
the  most  distinguished  was  St.  Dominic.  .  . 
That  favorite  champion  of  the  Roman  Church, 
the  falsely-reputed  inventor  of  inquisitorial 
torture,  was  a  Spaniard  of  a  noble  family  and 
of  the  order  of  Canons-Regular.  In  his  spi- 
ritual campaigns  (it  were  well  bad  they  been 
no  more  than  spiritual)  against  the  heretics  of 
Languedoc,  he  became  eminent  by  an  elo- 
quence which  always  inflamed  and  sometimes 
persuaded  ;  and  having  felt  the  power  of  that 
faculty,  which  through  the  space  of  thirteen 
centuries  had  so  rarely  revisited  the  Roman 
empire,  he  became  desirous  to  establish  a 
fraternity  devoted  to  its  exercise.  His  project 
was  not  discouraged  by  Innocent  III. ;  but 
that  pontiff*  hesitated  to  give  the  formal  sanc- 
tion necessary  to  constitute  a  new  order  :  since 
the  Council  of  Lateran,  acting  according  to 
his  discretion,  had  pronounced  it  generally 
expedient  to  reform  existing  institutions, 
rather  than  to  augment  their  number.  But 
immediately  after  the  death  of  that  Pope, 
Dominic  was  established  in  the  privileges  of 
a  '  Founder,'  by  the  bull  of  Honorius  III.  f 

*  Hospinian's  Sixth  Book  comprehends  a  quantity 
of  valuable  matter  on  the  subject  of  the  Mendicants; 
and  chapters  iv.  v.  and  vi.  should  particularly  be  con- 
sulted. The  author  is  laborious  and  learned,  but  not 
impartial.  In  the  zeal  of  the  Protestant  he  has  for- 
gotten the  moderation  of  the  Historian,  and  (might 
we  not  sometimes  add?)  the  charity  of  the  Christian. 

f  Fleury  asserts,  that  the  Freres  Precheurs  at  first 
were  not  so  much  a  new  order,  as  a  new  congregation 
of  the  Canons-Regular;  since  it  was  only  at  a  Chap- 
ter General  held  in  1220,  that  St.  Dominic  and  his 
disciples  embraced  entire  poverty  and  mendicity. 
This  may  be  so — but  at  any  rate  their  original  con- 
dition was  so  extremely  transient  and  destitute  of  all 


316 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


St.  Francis.  Contemporary  with  St.  Do- 
minic was  his  great  compeer  in  ecclesiastical 
celebrity,  the  father  of  the  rival  institution. 
St.  Francis  was  a  native  of  Asisi  in  Umbra, 
without  rank,  without  letters,  but  of  an  ardent 
and  enthusiastic  temperament.  It  is  asserted 
— perhaps  untruly — that  his  earlier  age  was 
consumed  in  profligacy,  from  which  he  was 
awakened  by  an  opportune  sickness,  occa- 
sioned by  his  vices;  and  that  his  fears  sud- 
denly impelled  him  into  the  opposite  extreme 
of  superstitious  *  austerity.  It  is  certain,  that, 
as  he  inculcated  by  his  preaching,  so  he  re- 
commended by  his  example,  the  utmost  rigor 
of  the  primitive  monastic  principle, — '  that 
there  was  no  safe  path  to  heaven,  unless  by 
the  destitution  of  all  earthly  possessions. ' 
Popularity  was  the  first  reward  of  his  humili- 
ation :  he  was  soon  followed  by  a  crowd  of 
imitators ;  and  the  motive,  which  probably 
was  pure  fanaticism  in  himself,  might  be 
want,  or  vanity,  or  even  avarice,  f  in  his  dis- 
ciples. Howbeit  they  readily  acquired  an 
extensive  reputation  for  sanctity  ;  and  in  the 
year  1210  the  formal  protection  of  Innocent 
was  vouchsafed  to  the  new  order. 

It  appears  probable  that  the  foundation  of 
the  Franciscan  Order  was  laid  in  poverty 
only — not  merely  unaccompanied  by  any 
obligation   of   a    missionary   or    predicatory 


effects  and  characteristics,  as  to  be  wholly  insignifi- 
cant in  history. 

*  The  story  of  the  Stigmata,  or  wounds  of  Christ, 
miraculously  impressed  upon  his  body,  is  known  to 
all.  The  text  on  which  this  imposture  was  founded 
(for  it  pleaded  a  text)  was  Epist.  Galat.  end.  c  From 
henceforth  let  no  man  trouble  me;  for  I  bear  in  my 
body  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus.'  We  read  in 
Sender,  ami.  1222,  that  a  rustic,  who  made  the  same 
experiment  on  human  credulity  at  about  the  same 
time,  was  imprisoned  for  life — felicius  cessit  Francis- 
co, sec.  xiii.  cap.  iii. 

f  Giannone,  an  impartial  writer,  thus  begins  a 
section  (lib.  xix.  cap.  v.  sec.  v.)  entitled  '  Monaci  e 
Beni  Temporal!.'  'Henceforward  we  shall  place 
together  the  subjects  of  "  Monks  "  and  "  Temporali- 
ties;" since,  as  we  have  already  observed,  that  he 
who  pronounces  "  Monachism  "  (Religione,)  pro- 
nounces "  Riches,"  so  the  Monks  were  now  become  in- 
comparably more  expert  in  the  acquisition  of  wealth, 
than  all  the  other  ecclesiastics ;  and  the  monasteries 
in  these  days  reaped  profits  to  which  those  made  by 
the  Churches  bore  no  proportion — so  that  the  expres- 
sions "  New  Religions  "  and  "  New  Riches,"  be- 
came, properly  speaking,  synonymous.  And  this  was 
the  more  monstrous,  because  it  was  in  despite  of  their 
foundation  in  mendicity,  (whence  they  had  the  name 
of  Mendicants,)  that  their  acquisitions  and  treasures 
were  enormous.'  —  Polit.  Eccles.  del  decimo  terzo 
Becolo. 


character,  but  likewise  free  from  the  vow  of 
mendicity.  St.  Francis  himself,  in  the  'Tes- 
tament' which  he  left  for  the  instruction  of 
his  followers,  enjoined  manual  labor  in  pref- 
erence to  beggary ;  though  he  permitted  them, 
in  case  of  great  distress,  to  have  recourse  to 
the  table  of  the  Lord,  begging  alms  from  door 
to  door.  *  It  should  be  mentioned,  too,  that 
he  at  the  same  time  prohibited  them  from 
applying  to  the  Pope  for  any  privilege  what- 
ever. But  the  sophistical  and  contentious 
spirit  of  the  age  precluded  that  simplicity. 
And  their  founder  was  scarcely  consigned  to 
the  grave,  when  his  disciples  obtained  from 
Gregory  IX.  f  a  bull,  which  released  them 
from  the  observance  of  his  Testament,  and 
placed  an  arbitrary  interpretation  on  many 
particulars  of  his  rule.  It  was  thus  that  the 
necessity  of  labor  was  superseded,  and  honor 
and  sanctity  were  preposterously  attached  to 
the  profession  of  mendicity. 

Here  then  we  observe  the  first  point  of 
distinction  in  the  first  constitution  of  the  two 
orders.  The  Dominicans  were,  in  their  earli- 
est character,  a  society  of  itinerant  preachers 
— this  was  the  whole  of  their  profession — 
they  were  not  bound,  as  it  would  seem,  by 
any  vow  of  poverty.  But  after  a  short  space, 
when  their  founder  had  possibly  observed 
that  the  Franciscans  prospered  well  under 
that  vow — that  without  possessing  any  thing 
they  abounded  with  many  things  J  —  he 
thought  it  desirable  to  imitate  such  profita- 
ble self-denial :  accordingly,  he  also  imposed 
upon  his  disciples  the  obligation  of  poverty. 

Again  :  when  the  Franciscans  discovered 
that  no  little  influence  accrued  to  their  rivals 

*  Fleury,  Dissertat.  Sme.  St.  Francis  designated 
his  disciples  by  the  name  Fraterculi —  Little  Broth- 
ers—  and  this  became,  in  different  languages,  Fra- 
tricelli,  Fratres  Minores,  Freres  Mineurs,  Friars 
Minors. 

t  This  Pope  was  at  the  same  time  a  great  patron 
of  the  rival  order.  In  1231  he  wrote  a  letter  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Sorrento,  in  order  to  introduce  the 
Dominicans  to  his  patronage,  in  these  terms:  — '  Di- 
lectos  Filios  Fratres  Ordinis  Predicatorum  velut  no- 
vos  Vinitores  sua?  vinepe  suscitavit;  qui,  non  sua  sed 
qu<e  sunt  Jesu  Christ!  quserentes,  tarn  contra  profli- 
gandas  hasreses,  quam  pestes  alias  mortiferas  extir- 
pandas  se  dedicarunt  evangelizationi  Verbi  Dei,  in 
abjectione  voluntarise  paupertatis.'  The  passage  is 
cited  by  Giaimoiie. 

X  We  read,  in  the  '  Histoire  des  Ordres  Monas- 
tiques,'  of  Franciscan  monasteries  of  very  early 
foundation  —  residences  inconsistent  with  the  perpet- 
ual practice  of  beggary.  But  those  mansions  were 
probably  the  first  profits  of  the  trade,  the  first-fruits 
of  the  violation  of  the  vow. 


THE  MENDICANT  ORDERS. 


317 


from  the  office  of  public  preaching,  they  also 
betook  themselves  to  that  practice  ;  and,  per- 
haps, with  almost  equal  success.  Thus  it 
came  to  pass,  that,  after  a  very  few  years,  two 
orders,  essentially  different  in  their  original, 
were  very  nearly  assimilated  in  character, 
and  even  in  profession,  and  entered  upon  the 
same  career  with  almost  the  same  objects 
and  the  same  principles. 

Nevertheless,  in  the  features  of  their  policy 
and  the  character  of  their  ecclesiastical  in- 
fluence, they  continued  to  be  distinguished 
by  many  important  diversities.  The  whole 
course  of  their  history  is  more  or  less  strong- 
ly marked  by  these.  And  if  many  of  them 
were  occasioned  (as  is  unquestionably  true) 
by  the  passionate  jealousy  which  they  bore 
to  each  other,  and  which  they  displayed  upon 
all  occasions,  to  the  great  scandal  and  injury 
of  the  Church,  it  is  equally  certain,  that  the 
difference  in  their  first  constitution  ever  con- 
tributed to  cause  a  difference  in  their  des- 
tinies. The  original  vow  and  rule  of  St. 
Francis  was  at  no  time  perfectly  erased  from 
the  memory  of  his  followers.  Attempts  were 
soon  made  to  revive  it  in  its  native  austerity ; 
and  thus,  in  addition  to  the  general  conten- 
tion with  the  rival  order,  the  most  violent 
intestine  dissensions  were  introduced  into  the 
family  of  that  Saint,  which  terminated  in  per- 
manent alienation  and  schism. 

Again :  another  evil  was  brought  upon 
the  Church  by  these  disputes — sharpened  as 
they  also  were  by  the  scholastic  subtleties 
which  in  those  days  perverted  reason.  The 
authority  of  the  Pope  interposed  to  set  them 
at  rest,  but  his  interference  produced  the  op- 
posite effect:  *  it  not  only  increased  the  ani- 
mosity of  both  parties,  but  also  raised  up  a 
powerful  branch  of  the  fraternity  in  avowed 
opposition  to  the  pontifical  supremacy.  In 
the  controversy  in  which  these  '  indocile ' 
brethren  engaged  during  the  fourteenth  age, 
against  John  XXII.,  they  proceeded  so  far  in 
rebellious  audacity  as  formally  to  pass  the 
sentence  of  heresy  upon  the  Vicar  of  Christ, 
and  to  abet  the  efforts  of  Lewis  of  Bavaria  to 
depose  him  !  Such  (as  Fleury  has  observed) 
was  the  termination  of  their  humility — the 
deposition  of  a  pope  !  Owing  to  these  inter- 
nal contests,  it  has  even  been  made  a  question 
with  some,  whether  the  institution  of  the 
Mendicants  has  not  contributed,  upon  the 
whole,  to  the  decline,  rather  than  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  papal  interests.     But  there 


*  The  good  and  simple  pope,  St.  Celestine,  sanc- 
tioned the  division  among  the  Franciscans  by  estab- 
lishing the  congregation  of  the  '  Poor  Hermits.' 


is  not  sufficient  reason  for  such  a  doubt. 
The  wound  which  the  Roman  See  may  have 
received  from  the  passionate  insubordination 
of  a  faction  of  one  of  those  orders,  bears  no 
comparison  with  the  benefits  which  it  has  de- 
rived from  the  faithful  assiduity,  the  learning, 
the  zeal,  and  the  uncompromising  devoted- 
ness  of  the  other. 

If  the  Dominicans  surpassed  the  rival  order 
in  obedience  to  their  common  master,  they 
also  afforded  a  better  example  of  internal 
harmony  and  discipline.  Indeed,  as  they  ad- 
hered very  closely  to  the  original  object  of 
their  institution,  the  destruction  of  heresy, 
there  was  little  reason  why  they  should  dis- 
pute with  each  other,  and  the  strongest  mo- 
tive tor  concord  with  the  Holy  See.  The 
destruction  of  heresy  they  were  willing  (as 
we  have  observed,)  in  the  first  instance,  to 
accomplish  by  the  sword  of  the  spirit ;  but, 
whether  through  the  natural  impatience  of 
bigotry,  or  because  the  wisest  among  them 
began  to  suspect  the  weakness  of  their  own 
cause,  the  futility  of  their  sophistry,  and  the 
falsehood  of  their  positions,  after  a  very  short 
attempt  they  abandoned  that  method  of  con- 
version, and  betook  themselves  to  the  materi- 
al weapon.  The  secular  arm  was  summoned 
j  to  their  aid,  and  it  became  in  process  of  time 
their  favorite,  if  not  their  only,  instrument. 

Nevertheless  those  are  in  error  who  attri- 
bute the  foundation  of  the  Inquisition,  as  a 
fixed  and  permanent  tribunal,  to  the  hand  of 
St.  Dominic.  It  may  seem  indeed  to  have 
been  the  necessary  consequence  of  his  labors, 
the  result  to  which  his  principles  infallibly 
tended  ;  and  it  is  true  that  the  administration 
of  its  offices  was  principally  delegated  to  his 
order.  But  it  was  not  any  where  formally 
established  until  ten  or  twelve  years  after  his 
death.*  In  the  meantime,  the  Dominicans, 
already  trained  to  the  chase,  and  heated  by 
the  scent  of  blood,  eagerly  executed  the  trust 
which  was  assigned  to  them.  Over  the  whole 
surface  of  the  western  world  they  spread 
themselves  in  fierce  and  keen  pursuit;  and 
the  distant  kingdoms  of  Spain  and  Poland 
were  presently  inflicted  with  the  same  deadly 
visitation.  Rome  was  the  centre  of  persecu- 
tion ;  the  heart,  to  which  the  circulating  poison 
continually  returned — and  whence  it  derived, 
as  it  flowed  onward,  a  fresh  and  perennial 
supply  of  virulence  and  malignity. 

Dispute  of  the  Dominicans  with  the  Univer 
sity  of  Paris.  The  Dominicans,  soon  after 
their  institution,  seem  to  have  appropriated 


*  The  origin  of  the  Inquisition  will  be  described  in 
chapter  xxi. 


318 


HISTORY    OF  THE   CHURCH. 


most  of  the  learning,  then  so  sparingly  dis- 
tributed among  the  monastic  orders.  They 
applied  themselves  chiefly  to  the  science  of 
controversy,  and  soon  became  very  formida- 
ble in  that  field — the  more  so,  since  they  em- 
ployed the  resources  of  scholastic  ingenuity 
in  the  defence  of  the  papal  government.  The 
means  and  the  end  harmonized  well ;  the 
prejudices  of  the  age  were  to  a  great  extent 
favorable  to  both ;  the  exertions  of  reviving 
reason  were  perpetually  baffled,  and  her 
friends  discomfited  and  overthrown.  . .  We 
shall  briefly  notice  one  signal  campaign  of 
the  Dominicans — that  which  they  carried  on 
for  above  thirty  years  against  the  University 
of  Paris.  .  .  That  body,  which  was  already 
the  most  eminent  in  Europe,  thought  it  expe- 
dient, in  the  year  1228,  to  confine  the  Dom- 
inicans, in  common  with  all  other  religious 
orders,  to  the  possession  of  one  of  its  theolog- 
ical classes,  while  those  Mendicants  warmly 
asserted  their  claim  to  two.  Many  violent 
contentions  arose  from  this  difference,  and 
continued  till  the  year  1255,  with  no  decisive 
result:  the  matter  was  then  referred  to  the 
wisdom  of  Pope  Alexander  IV.  It  is  not 
difficult  to  anticipate  the  response  of  the  Vat- 
ican. The  University  received  an  unqualified 
injunction  to  throw  open  to  the  Dominicans, 
not  two  classes  only,  but  as  many  chairs  and 
dignities  as  it  might  seem  good  to  them  to 
occupy.  For  four  years  the  refractory  doc- 
tore  resisted  the  execution  of  the  sentence 
with  a  boldness  worthy  of  a  better  age  and 
a  happier  result.  At  length,  terrified  by  the 
repeated  menaces  of  the  pontiff,  they  submit- 
ted. .  .  Nevertheless,  the  struggle  had  not  been 
without  its  benefit.  During  the  course  of 
a  protracted  controversy,  subjects  had  been 
handled  of  higher  and  more  general  im- 
portance, than  the  right  of  lecturing  in  the 
schools  of  Paris.  While  the  discipline  and 
principles  of  the  Mendicants  were  examined 
and  assailed,  the  power  which  upheld  them 
did  not  escape  from  public  reprehension. 
The  possibility  of  error  even  in  the  Church 
itself  was  openly  maintained  ;  and  the  spirit 
of  learning,  which  had  hitherto  ministered  to 
ecclesiastical  oppression,  was  at  length  arous- 
ed against  it.  The  first  efforts  of  the  best  prin- 
ciples are  generally  baffled  and  disappointed  ; 
but  the  example  which  they  leave  does  not 
perish  ;  but  only  waits  till  the  concurrence  of 
happier  circumstances  may  bring  the  season 
for  more  successful  imitation. 

In  the  conduct  of  this  dispute,  as  both  par- 
ties became  equally  heated,  the  limits  of  reason 
were  exceeded,  with  almost  equal  temerity, 


by  both.  Among  many  laborious  productions, 
perhaps  the  most  celebrated  was  that  publish- 
ed by  Guilliaume  de  St.  Amour,  a  doctor  of 
Sorbonne,  and  a  powerful  champion  of  the 
University,  'Concerning  the  Perils  of  the 
Latter  Times.'  The  peculiarity  which  has 
recommended  it  to  our  notice  is  this.  It  was 
founded  on  the  belief  that  the  passage  of  St. 
Paul  relating  to  '  the  perilous  times  which 
were  to  come  in  the  last  days,'  was  fulfilled 
by  the  establishment  of  the  Mendicants!  .  .  . 
Every  age  has  affixed  its  own  interpretation 
to  that  text,  and  all  have  been  successively 
deceived  ;  and  this  might  teach  us  some  cau- 
tion in  wresting  the  mysterious  oracles  of 
God  from  their  eternal  destination  to  serve 
the  partial  views  —  to  aid  the  transient,  and 
perhaps  passionate,  purposes  of  the  moment. 
Yet  is  there  an  undue  value  almost  indissolu- 
bly  attached,  even  by  the  calmest  minds,  to 
passing  occurrences  :  however  trivial  and  fu- 
gitive their  character,  they  are  magnified  by 
close  inspection,  so  as  to  exceed  the  mightiest 
events  farther  removed  in  time  ;  and  it  is  this, 
our  almost  insuperable  inability  to  reduce 
present  occurrences  to  their  real  dimensions 
— to  place  them  at  a  distance,  and  examine 
them  side  by  side  along  with  the  transactions 
of  former  days — to  consider  them,  in  short, 
disinterestedly  and  historically — it  is  this  cause 
which  has  begotten,  and  which  still  begets, 
many  foolish  opinions  in  minds  not  destitute 
of  reason  ;  and  which,  among  other  fruits, 
has  so  frequently  reproduced,  and  in  so  many 
shapes,  the  pitiable  enthusiasm  of  the  Millen- 
arians. 

Dissensions  among  the  Franciscans.  Though 
both  Dominicans  and  Franciscans  professed 
to  be  at  the  same  time  mendicants  and  preach- 
ers, yet,  in  some  sort  of  conformity  with  their 
original  rules,  the  former  continued  to  retain 
more  of  the  predicatory,  the  latter  more  of  the 
mendicant,  character.  These  last  were  con- 
sequently less  distinguished  by  their  literary 
contests,  than  by  those  which  they  waged 
against  each  other,  respecting  the  just  inter- 
pretation of  the  rule  of  their  founder.  In  all 
other  monastic  institutions,  the  possession  of 
property  was  forbidden  to  individuals,  but 
permitted  to  the  community  ;  whereas  the 
more  rigid  injunction  of  St.  Francis  denied 
every  description  of  fixed  revenues,  even  to 
the  Societies  of  his  followers.  There  were 
many  among  those  who  wished  for  a  relax 
ation  of  this  rule ;  and  they  obtained  it  Willi 
out  difficulty,  both  from  Gregory  IX.  and  In- 
nocent IV.  But  another  party,  who  called 
themselves  the  Spirituals,  insisted  on  a  strict 


THE  MENDICANT  ORDERS. 


319 


adhesion  to  the  original  institution  ;  they  even 
refused  to  share  the  glorious  title  of  Francis- 
can with  those  who  had  abandoned  it.  This 
feeling  displayed  itself  with  particular  vehe- 
mence in  the  year  1247,  when  John  of  Parma, 
a  rigid  spiritualist,  was  chosen  general  of  the 
order.  But  the  more  worldly  brethren  still 
adhered  to  their  mitigated  discipline ;  and 
their  perseverance,  which  was  favored,  per- 
haps, by  the  secret  wishes  of  many  of  the  op- 
posite party,  received  the  steady  and  zealous 
concurrence  of  the  Holy  See.  For  whatso- 
ever value  the  popes  might  attach  to  the  vol- 
untary poverty  of  then-  myrmidons,  —  to  the 
respect  which  it  excited,  and  the  spontaneous 
generosity  which  so  abundantly  relieved  it, — 
they  no  doubt  considered,  that  it  was  more 
important  to  the  permanent  interests  of  the 
Church  to  encourage  the  increase  of  her  fixed 
nd  solid  and  perpetual  possessions. 

The  success  of  the  Dominicans  and  Fran- 
ciscans encouraged  the  profession  of  beggary ; 
and  the  face  of  Christendom  was  suddenly 
darkened  by  a  swarm  of  holy  mendicants,  in 
such  manner  that,  about  the  year  1272,  Gre- 
gory X.  endeavored  to  arrest  the  overgrowing 
evil.  To  this  end  he  suppressed  a  great  mul- 
titude of  those  authorized  vagrants,  and  dis- 
tributed the  remainder,  still  very  numerous, 
into  four  societies,  —  the  Dominicans,  the 
Franciscans,  the  Carmelites,  and  the  Hermits 
of  St.  Augustine. 

The  Carmelites. — The  order  of  the  Carme- 
lites was,  in  its  origin,  Oriental  and  Eremitical. 
John  Phocas,  a  monk  of  Patmos,  who  visited 
the  Holy  Places  in  1185,  thus  concludes  the 
narrative  of  his  pilgrimage  :  — '  On  Mount 
Carmel  is  the  cavern  of  Elias,  where  a  large 
monastery  once  stood,  as  the  remains  of  build- 
ings attest ;  but  it  has  been  ruined  by  time  and 
hostile  incursions.  Some  years  ago  a  hoary- 
headed  monk,  who  was  also  a  priest,  came 
from  Calabria,  and  established  himself  in  this 
place,  by  the  revelation  of  the  Prophet  Elias. 
He  made  a  little  enclosure  in  the  ruins  of  the 
monastery,  and  constructed  there  a  tower  and 
a  small  church,  and  assembled  about  ten 
brothers,  with  whom  he  still  inhabits  that 
holy  place.'  *  Such  appears  to  be  the  earliest 
authentic  record  of  the  foundation  of  the  Car- 
melites. About  the  year  1209,  Albert,  patri- 
arch of  Jerusalem,  gave  them  a  rule.  It 
consisted  of  sixteen  articles,  which  contain 
nothing  original,  and  are  merely  sufficient  to 
prove  the  ignorance,  the  abstinence,  and  the 
poverty  of  the  original  brothers.     The  iustitu- 

*  We  cite  the  passage  from  Fleury,  1.  lxxvi.  sec.  55. 


tion  was  not,  however,  legitimately  introduced 
into  the  grand  monastic  family  till  the  year 
1226,  when  it  received  the  sanction  of  Ho- 
norius  III.  Twelve  years  afterwards  it  was 
raised  from  among  the  regular  orders  to  the 
more  valuable  privileges  and  profits  of  men- 
dicity ;  and  we  observe  that  the  severe  rule 
of  its  infancy  was  interpreted  and  mitigated 
soon  afterwards  by  Innocent  IV.  Accord- 
ingly it  became  venerable  and  popular,  and 
was  embraced  with  the  accustomed  eagerness 
in  every  country  in  Europe. 

Hermits  of  St.  Augustine.  —  A  great  num- 
ber of  individuals  were  still  found  scattered 
throughout  the  western  Church,  who  cher- 
ished the  name,  though  they  might  dispense 
with  the  severer  duties,  of  hermits  ;  and  they 
professed  a  variety  of  rules  by  which  their 
several  independent  societies  were  governed. 
Innocent  IV.  expressed  his  desire  to  unite 
them  into  one  order ;  and  it  was  executed  by 
his  successor.  Alexander  IV.,  the  better  to 
withdraw  them  from  their  seclusion,  and  en- 
gage them  in  the  functions  of  the  ecclesiastical 
hierarchy,  f  formed  them  into  a  single  con- 
gregation, under  one  rule  and  one  general, 
and  associated  them  by  the  same  title  of 
'  Hermits  of  St.  Augustine.'  We  may  ob- 
serve, however,  that  as  they  were  the  most 
modern,  so  they  were  the  least  considerable  of 
the  mendicant  institutions. 

To  these  four  orders  the  pontiffs  granted 
the  exclusive  indulgence  of  travelling  through 
all  countries,  of  conversing  with  persons  of 
all  ranks,  and  instructing,  wheresoever  they 
sojourned,  the  young  and  the  ignorant.  This 
commission  was  presently  extended  to  preach- 
ing in  the  churches,  and  administering  the 
holy  sacraments.  And  so  great  veneration 
did  they  excite  by  the  sanctity  of  their  ap- 
pearance, the  austerity  of  their  life,  and  the 
authoritative  humility  of  their  manners,  that 
the  people  rushed  in  multitudes  to  listen  to 
their  eloquence,  and  to  crave  their  benedic- 
tion. And  thus  the  spirit  of  sacerdotal  des- 
potism, which  had  been  chilled  through  the 
indecency  or  negligence  of  the  secular  clergy, 
and  the  luxurious  languor  of  the  regular  es- 
tablishments, was  for  a  season  revived  and 
restored  to  an  authority,  in  its  extent  more 
ample,  and  in  its  exercise  far  more  unspar- 
ing, than  it  had  possessed  at  any  preceding 
period. 

Early  merits  and  degeneracy  of  the  Mendi- 
cants.—  In  their  early  years,  the  two  great 
nurseries  of  the  Dominicans  were  Paris  and 


t  Giannone,  Stor.  Nap.,  lib.  xix. ,  oap.  v.,  sec.  5. 


320 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


Bologna.  In  those  cities,  Jourdain,  the  Gen- 
eral of  the  order,  and  successor  of  its  founder, 
alternately  passed  the  season  of  Lent ;  and 
thence  he  sent  forth  his  emissaries  through 
tne  south  and  the  west.  Among  the  first 
converts  to  the  discipline  of  St.  Dominic  were 
many  distinguished  by  rank  and  dignity,  many 
eminent  ecclesiastics,  many  learned  doctors, 
both  in  law  and  theology,  and  many  young 
students  of  noble  parentage.  Nor  is  it  hard 
to  believe  those  accounts,  which  praise  the 
rigor  of  their  moral  excellence,  and  the  gen- 
eral subjection  of  their  carnal  appetites  to  the 
control  of  the  spirit.  The  very  enthusiasm, 
which  at  first  inflamed  them  for  the  purity 
1  and  beauty  of  their  institution,  was  inconsis- 
tent with  hypocritical  pretensions  to  piety;  it 
tended,  too,  somewhat  to  prolong  the  exercise 
of  those  virtues  whence  it  drew  its  origin. 
And  thus,  if  their  literary  exertions  were 
really  stimulated  by  the  highest  motives — the 
glory  of  God,  and  the  salvation  of  the  faithful 
— they  may  well  have  surpassed  the  languid 
labors  of  the  old  ecclesiastics,  which  were  so 
commonly  directed  to  mere  vulgar  and  tem- 
poral objects.  Accordingly,  as  the  Mendicants 
rose,  the  ancient  orders  and  the  secular  clergy 
fell  into  disrepute  and  contempt ;  and  the  chairs 
and  the  pulpits,  which  they  had  so  long  filled, 
were,  in  a  great  measure,  usurped  by  more 
zealous,  more  laborious,  and  more  popular 
competitors. 

But  these  conquests  were  not  obtained  or 
preserved  without  many  violent  and  obstinate 
contests.*  Both  regulars  and  seculars  de- 
fended their  ancient  privileges  with  an  ardor 
which  seemed  to  supply  the  want  of  strength. 
Their  disputes  with  each  other  were  for  the 
season  laid  aside ;    they  united   with   equal 

*  The  grand  dispute  in  England  between  the  Clergy 
and  the  Mendicants,  in  which  the  Archbishop  of  Ar- 
magh was  so  prominent,  took  place  about  1357.  The 
great  complaint  at  that  time  was,  that  the  latter  had 
seduced  all  the  young  men  at  the  University  to  con- 
fess to  ihem,  to  enter  their  order,  and  to  remain  there. 
And  the  prelate  mentions  the  remarkable  fact,  that, 
through  the  suspicions  thus  infused  into  families,  the 
number  of  students  at  Oxford  had  been  reduced  during 
his  time  from  thirty  thousand  to  six  thousand.  It 
was  made  another  matter  of  reproach  on  the  mendi- 
cants, that  they  had  bought  up  all  the  books,  and 
collected  in  every  convent  a  large  and  fine  library. 
The  field  of  contest  was  transferred  to  the  pontifical 
tourt  (then  at  Avignon)  ;  the  mendicants  were  tri- 
umphant, and  the  Archbishop's  mission  appears  to 
have  had  no  result.  And  about  the  same  time  two 
considerable  princes,  Peter,  Infant  of  Aragon,  and 
Charles,  Count  of  Alencon,  became  members  respec- 
tively of  the  Franciscan  and  Dominican  orders. 


earnestness  against  the  invader  of  their  com- 
mon Interests ;  and  the  rancor  thus  occasion- 
ed, and  shared,  in  some  degree,  even  by  the 
most  obscure  individuals  of  both  parties,  was 
far  from  favorable  either  to  the  purity  of  re- 
ligion, or  to  the  honor  of  the  Church  —  in- 
somuch, that  some  Roman  Catholic  writers 
have  expressed  a  reasonable  doubt,  whether 
the  interests  of  then-  Church  would  not  have 
been  more  effectually  consulted  by  a  thorough 
reformation  of  the  two  classes  already  conse- 
crated to  religion,  than  by  the  establishment 
of  a  new  order.  It  is  certainly  true,  that  no 
cause  has  more  scandalized  the  name  of 
Christ,  in  every  age  of  his  faith,  than  the  bit- 
ter dissensions  of  his  ministers.  Their  very 
immoralities  have  scarcely  been  more  poison- 
ous in  their  influence  on  the  people,  than  the 
spectacle  of  their  jealousy  and  rancor.  And 
thus,  if  the  ancient  zeal  and  piety  could  have 
been  revived  by  ordinary  regulations  among 
the  ecclesiastics  of  the  thirteenth  century — 
had  it  been  possible  to  infuse  into  the  decrepit 
the  vigor  of  the  young,  into  the  pampered  the 
virtue  of  the  poor, — such  had,  indeed,  been 
the  safer  method  of  regeneration.  It  appears, 
however,  very  questionable,  whether  the  popes 
had  power  to  accomplish  so  substantial  a  re- 
formation in  the  Church,  even  had  they  been 
seriously  bent  on  it.  It  is  perfectly  certain 
that  they  were  not  so  disposed.  The  interests 
of  papacy  were  now  becoming  widely  differ- 
ent from  the  interests  of  the  Church,  and  their 
policy  (though  they  might  not  themselves  be 
conscious  of  the  distinction)  was  steadily  di- 
rected to  the  former.  With  that  view,  the 
institution  of  the  Mendicants  was  eminently 
useful,  as  it  communicated  a  sort  of  ubiquity 
to  the  pontifical  Chair.  Moreover,  the  scau- 
dals  which  it  occasioned  were,  in  some  mea- 
sure, compensated  by  the  energy  to  which  the 
old  establishments  were  reluctantly  awaken- 
ed ;  and  which  had  been  more  honorable  to 
themselves,  and  more  useful  to  religion,  had 
it  been  excited  by  a  less  equivocal  motive. 

One  essential  characteristic  of  the  Mendi- 
cants was  the  want  of  any  permanent  resi- 
dence ;  and  thus  their  influence  over  the 
people,  though  at  seasons  vast  and  overruling, 
could  not  be  deeply  fixed,  or  very  durable. 
Again,  since  they  professed  absolute  poverty, 
they  could  scarcely  exercise  any  fearless  con- 
trol over  those,  on  whose  favor  and  charity 
they  were  dependent  for  their  daily  subsist- 
ence :  so  that  their  popular  authority  was 
destitute  of  those  substantial  supports  which 
their  opponents  derived  from  the  possession 
of  opulent  establishments,  and  rested  wholly 


THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  NUNS. 


321 


on  their  talents  and  their  virtues.  As  long  as 
their  zeal  and  their  eloquence  far  surpassed 
those  of  the  ancient  ecclesiastics, — as  long  as 
the  sanctity  of  their  moral  practice  was  be- 
yond reproach  or  suspicion,  —  so  long  they 
deserved  and  maintained  the  superiority  of 
their  influence.  But  though  the  impression 
thus  produced  will  generally  last  somewhat 
longer  than  the  excellence  which  produces  it, 
still  the  solid  foundation  of  their  power  de- 
cayed with  the  decay  of  their  original  quali- 
ties; and  the  wealth  which  they  at  length 
substituted  in  the  place  of  these,  reduced  them 
at  best  to  the  level  of  their  rivals. 

And  no  long  time  elapsed  from  their  origin, 
before  the  reproach  of  corruption  was  com- 
monly and  justly  cast  upon  them.  *     General 


*  The  evidence  of  Matthew  Paris,  an  established 
Benedictine  of  St.  Alban's,  maybe  somewhat  colored 
by  professional  jealousy,  but  nevertheless  it  is  sub- 
stantially true.  In  his  Henry  III.,  anno  1246,  he 
mentions,  how,  from  being  preachers,  they  became 
confessors,  and  usurped  the  other  offices  of  the  Ordi- 
nary. In  the  same  place  he  publishes  a  celebrated 
,  Bull  of  Gregory  IX.  in  their  favor,  and  strongly  des- 
cribes the  insolence  which  they  derived  from  it.  '  Ec- 
clesiarum  rectores  .  .  procaciter  alloquentes,  in- 
dulla  sibi  talia  privilegia  in  propatulo  demonstrantes, 
erecta  cervice  ea  exigentes  recitari,  &c.  .  .  He 
then  relates  the  manner  in  which  they  supplanted  the 
clergy  in  the  affections  of  the  people.  '  Esne  pro- 
fessus  ^  Etiam.  A  quo  1  A  sacerdote  meo.  Et 
quis  ille  idiota^  Nunquam  theologiam  audivit ;  rmn- 
quam  in  decretis  vigilavit ;  nunquam  unain  quseslio- 
nem  didicit  enodare.  Cseci  sunt  et  duces  crecorum. 
Ad  nos  accedite,  qui  noviinus  lepram  a  lepra  distin- 
guere  .  .  .  Multi  igilur,  pracipue  nobiles  et 
nobilium  uxores,  spretis  propriis  sacerdotibus,  prre- 
dicatoribus  confitebantur  .  .  unde  non  mediocriter 
viluit  ordinariorum  dignitas.'  .  .  .  Matthew  Paris 
then  goes  on  to  show  the  immorality  thus  introduced  ; 
since  the  people  did  not  feel  for  the  Mendicants  any 
of  that  awe  which  their  own  priests  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  inspire,  and  therefore  repeated  their  sins 
with  less  scruple.  The  same  author  (ad.  aim.  1235) 
repeats  the  complaints  of  the  insolence  of  the  Men- 
dicants, and  of  the  extensive  fooling  which  they  had 
already  usurped  upon  the  domains  of  the  old  establish- 
ments. In  another  place,  (ann.  1247,)  he  describes 
them  as  the  pope's  beadles  and  tax-gatherers.  '  Ut- 
pole  fratres  minores  et  predicatores  (ut  credimus  in- 
vitos)  jam  suos  fecit  Dominus  Papa,  non  sine  ordinis 
eorum  hesione  et  scandalo,  teloniarios  et  bedellos.'  . 
These  passages  were  written  within  half  a 
century  from  the  foundation  of  the  order.  The  evi- 
dence of  the  great  Franciscan,  Buonaventura,  and  of 
Thierri  d'Apolde,  both  writers  of  the  same  age,  is 
also  adduced  by  Fleury,  to  prove  the  early  corruption 
of  the  Mendicants.  Bzovius  (ann.  1304,  sec.  vii.) 
publishes  a  long  decree  of  Benedict  XI.,  still  further 
augmenting  the  privileges  of  the  Mendicants,  and  ex- 
empting them  from  certain  episcopal  restraints. 

41 


complaints  arose  respecting  the  multitude  of 
pretexts  which  they  invented  for  the  extortion 
of  money  ;  respecting  the  vagabond  habits, 
the  idleness,  and  importunity  of  many  among 
them.     It  was  particularly  asserted,  that,  hav- 
ing insinuated  themselves  into  the  confidence 
of   families,   they  took   under  their  special 
charge  the  management  of  wills,  and   con- 
structed them  to  their  own  advantage.     They 
became  perpetual  attendants  on  the  death-bed 
of  the  rich.     Moreover,  they  engaged  with 
intriguing  activity  in  the  political  transactions 
of  the  day,  and  were  intrusted  with  the  con- 
duct of  difficult  negotiations.     The  cabinets 
of  princes  were  not  too  lofty  for  their  ambi- 
tion, the  secrets  of  domestic  life  were  not 
beneath  their  avarice.     Again  —  it  offended 
the  reason  of  many,  that  holy  persons,  pro- 
fessing profound  humility  and  perfect  poverty, 
should  appear  in  the  character  of  magistrates 
having  apparitors  and  familiars  at  their  dis- 
posal, and  all  the  treasures  and  all  the  tortures 
of  the  Inquisition.     They  thus  became  rich, 
indeed,  and  they  became  powerful :  but  there 
were  those  who  did  not  fail  to  contrast  the 
contempt  of  worldly  glory,  which  illustrated 
the  birth  of  their  order,  with  the  pomp  which 
they  afterwards  assumed  so  willingly  ;  and  to 
remark,  that   through  the   abandonment  of 
every  possession,  they  possessed  every  thing, 
and  were  more  opulent  in  their  poverty  than 
the  most  opulent.*     .     .     .     Such  reflections 
were  obvious  to  the  most  illiterate  ;  and  they 
gradually  diminished  a  popularity,  which  was 
ill  compensated  by  riches.      Howbeit,  amid 
the  decline  in  their  reputation  and  the  degen- 
eracy of  their  principles,  from  the  one  grand 
rule  of  their  ecclesiastical  policy  they  never 
deviated, — they  persevered,  without  any  im- 
portant interruption,  in  their  faithful  ministry 
to  the  Vatican.     But  from  the  time  that  they 
parted  with  their  original  characteristics,  their 
agency  became  less  useful ;  and  the  extrava- 
gance with  which  they  sometimes  exalted  the 
pretensions  of  the  See,  began,  in  later  ages, 
to  excite  some  disgust  among  its  more  moder- 
ate and  reasonable  supporters. 

Section  VI. 
The  Establishment  of  Nuns. 
That  there  existed,  even  in  the  Antenicene 
Church,  virgins,  who  made  profession  of  re- 
ligious chastity,  and  dedicated  themselves  to 


*  Pietr.  delle  Vigne.  (i.  Epist.  37).  Fleury,  lib. 
Ixxxii.,  sec.  7.  The  Capucines,  a  branch  of  reformed 
Franciscans,  did  not  arise  till  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century.     Their  progress,  which  was  con- 


322 


HISTORY   OF   THE  CHURCH. 


the  service  of  Christ,  is  clear  from  the  writings 
of  Tertullian,  Cyprian,  and  Eusebius.*  .Bat 
there  is  no  sufficient  reason  to  believe  that 
they  were  formed  into  societies ;  still  less  that 
they  constituted  any  order  or  congregation. 
They  exercised  individually  their  self-imposed 
duties  and  devotions  ;  and  found  then-  practice 
to  be  consistent,  like  the  Ascetse,  among  whom 
they  may  properly  be  classed,  with  the  ordi- 
nary occupations  of  society. 

The  origin  of  communities  of  female  reclu- 
ses was  probably  coeval  with  that  of  monaste- 
ries, and  the  produce  of  the  same  soil.  The 
glory  of  the  institution  is  commonly  ascribed 
to  St.  Syncletica,  the  descendant  of  a  Mace- 
donian family  settled  in  Alexandria,  and  the 
contemporary  of  St.  Anthony.  It  is  at  least 
certain,  that  many  such  establishments  were 
founded  in  Egypt  before  the  middle  of  the 
fourth  century ;  and  that  they  were  propagated 
throughout  Syria,  Pontus,  and  Greece,  by  the 
same  means  and  at  the  same  time  with  those 
of  the  Holy  Brothers,  though  not,  as  it  would 
seem,  in  the  same  abundance.  It  appears, 
however,  that  they  gradually  penetrated  into 
every  province  where  the  name  of  Christ  was 
known  ;  they  were  found  among  the  Arme- 
nians, Mingrelians,  Georgians,  Maronites,  and 
others  ;  and  finally  formed  an  important  and 
not  incongruous  appendage  to  the  Oriental 
Church. 

A  noble  Roman  lady,  named  Marcella,  is 
celebrated  as  the  instrument  chosen  by  Provi- 
dence to  introduce  the  pious  institution  into 
the  West.  In  emulation  of  the  models  of 
Egypt,  she  assembled  several  virgins  and 
widows  in  a  community  consecrated  to  holy 
purposes ;  and  her  example  found  so  many 
imitators,  that  the  Fathers  of  the  next  genera- 


temporary  with  that  of  the  Lutherans  and  the  Jesuits, 
is  also  described  as  extremely  rapid. 

*  Vit.  Constant,  lib.  iv.,  Tertullian,  lib.  ad  Uxo- 
rem.  Cyprian  (lib.  i.  epist.  xi.  ad  Pomponianum, 
De  Virginibus)  reproaches  in  very  severe  language 
certain  consecrated  virgins,  who  had  fallen  under  the 
suspicion  of  incontinence, — '  Quid  Christus  Dominus 
et  Judex  noster,  cum  virginem  suam  sibi  dicatam  et 
sanctitati  subs  destinatam  jacere  cum  altero  cernit, 
quam  indignatur  et  irascitur!'  .  .  .  Again:  'Quod 
si  in  fide  se  Christo  dedicaverunt,  ptidice  et  caste  sine 
ulla  fabula  perseverent.  .  .  Si  autem  perseverare 
nolunt  vel  non  possunt,  melius  est  nubant,  quam  in 
ignein  delictis  suis  cadant.'  .  .  Again  :  (lib.  v. 
epist.  viii.)  he  speaks  of  '  Membra  Christo  dicata  et 
in  aeternum  continentias  honorem  pudica  virtute  de- 
vota.'  .  .  See  also  his  '  Tractatus  de  Disciplina 
et  Habitu  Virginum.'  .  .  These  passages  show, 
at  the  same  time,  that  there  were  in  that  age  virgins 
dedicated  to  religion,  and  that  they  were  not  bound 
by  any  irrevocable  vow. 


tion,  St.  Ambrose,*  St.  Jerome,  and  St.  Augus- 
tine, bear  sufficient  testimony  to  the  preva- 
lence of  the  institution  in  their  time.  It  is 
true  that,  at  least  as  late  as  the  year  400,  many 
devout  virgins  (Virgines  Devotee)  still  pre- 
served their  domestic  relations  and  adhered 
to  the  more  secular  practice  of  the  Antenicene 
Church ;  and  it  is  possible  that  those  devotees 
were  never  wholly  extinct  in  any  age.  But 
the  Associations  for  the  same  end  gradually 
embraced  most  of  those  with  whom  religious 
zeal  was  the  leading  motive  ;  and  their  sanc- 
tity was  recommended  to  popular  reverence, 
as  it  may  also  have  been  exalted  and  fortified, 
by  the  discipline  and  the  vow  which  restrain- 
ed them. 

The  Rules,  to  which  the  convents  of  Nuns  f 
were  subject,  were  formed  for  the  most  part 
upon  those  which  bound  the  monks.  Like 
the  monks,  they  lived  from  common  funds, 
and  used  a  common  dormitory,  table,  and 
wardrobe ;  the  same  religious  services  exer- 
cised their  piety  ;  habitual  temperance  and  oc- 
casional fasting  were  enjoined  with  the  same 
severity.  Manual  labor  was  no  less  rigidly 
enforced;  but  instead  of  the  agricultural  toils 
imposed  upon  their  '  Brethren,'  to  them  were 
committed  the  easier  tasks  of  the  needle  or 
the  distaff.  By  duties  so  numerous,  by  occu- 
pations admitting  so  great  variety,  they  be- 
guiled the  tediousness  of  the  day,  X  and  the 
dulness  of  monastic  seclusion. 


*  Lib.  i.  de  Virginibus  ad  Marcellinam.  The  tes- 
timony of  St.  Jerome,  respecting  Marcella,  has  been 
already  cited  (supra,  p.  396.)  St.  Augustin  (De 
Moribus  Ecclesia?,  c.  33.)  says,  in  speaking  of  the 
monastic  establishments  both  at  Milan  and  Rome  : 
— '  Jejunia  prorsus  incredibilia,  non  in  viris  tantum, 
sed  etiam  in  faeminis;  quibus  item,  multis  viduis  et 
virginibus  siinul  habitantibus  et  lana  ac  tela  victum 
quasritantibus,  proesunt  singula?  gravissimas  probatissi- 
maeque  non  tantum  in  instituendis  componendisque 
moribus,  sed  etiam  instruendis  mentibus  peritae  et 
parata?.'  See  Marsham's  UqonvXaior  to  Dugdale, 
and  Hospinianus  de  Orig.  Monach.,  lib.  iii.  c.  xi., 
et  seq. 

f  The  words  Nonnus,  Nonna,  are  said  to  be  of 
Egyptian  origin.  The  latter  is  used  by  St.  Jerome, 
Epist.  ad  Eustochium  Virginem.  Benedict  of  Nursia 
(Regul.  63)  gives  it  the  interpretation  of  paternal 
reverence,  and  ordains,  that  'Juniores  monachi  pri- 
ores  suos  '  nonnos  vocent;  quod  intelligitur  paterna 
reverentia.'  The  terms  Monialis  and  Sanctimonialis 
are  usually  derived  from  3dorog.  Hospin.  Orig 
Monach.,  lib.  i.  c.  i. 

X  The  two  following  passages  from  St.  Jerome  de- 
serve to  be  cited,  since  they  show  as  well  what  were 
the  vanities,  as  what  were  the  duties,  of  the  earliest 
nuns:  —  *  Vestis  tua  nee  sit  satis  munda,  nee  sordida, 
nullaque  diversitate  notabilis;  ne  ad  te  obviain  prae- 
tereuatinm  tnrba  consistat  et  digito  monstreris.  .  .   . 


THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  NUNS. 


323 


Vow  of  Chastity.  It  appears  probable,  as 
is  warmly  argued  by  Hospinian,  *  tbat  in  the 
very  early  ages  the  virgins,  who  were  dedicat- 
ed to  religious  purposes,  could  enter  without 
any  scandal  into  the  state  of  marriage.  But 
we  should  recollect  that,  at  that  time,  the  mo- 
nastic condition,  properly  speaking,  did  not 
exist.  Immediately  after  its  institution,  we 
find  the  authority  of  St.  Basil  loudly  declared 
against  such  a  departure  from  the  more  per- 
fect purity;  that  patriarch  of  monasticism  does 
not  hesitate  to  pronounce  the  marriage  of  a 
nun  to  be  incest,  prostitution,  and  adultery 
(incestus,  stupri  scelus,  et  adulterium  ;)  and 
Ambrose  and  Augustin  exacted  the  same 
sacred  obedience  to  the  irrevocable  vow.     By 


Plures  .  .  hoc  ipso  cupiunt  placere  quod  placere  con- 
teranunt,  et  minim  in  modum  laus,  dum  vitatur,  appe- 
titur  .  .  .  Ne  cogitatio  tacita  subrepat,  ut,  quia  in 
auratis  vestibus  placere  desiisti,  placere  coneris  in 
sordidis;  et  quando  in  conventum  fiatrum  veneris  vel 
sororum,  lmmilis  (al.  humi)  sedeas;  scabello  te  cau- 
seris  indignam ;  vocem  ex  industria,  quasi  confectam 
jejuniis,  non  tenues,  et  deficientis  mutuata  gressum 
humcris  innitaris  alterius.  Sunt  quippe  nonnullae  ex- 
terminantes  (extenuantcs'?)  facies,  ut  appareant  ho- 
minibus  jejunantes;  qua;  statim  ut  aliquem  viderint 
ingemiscunt,  demittunt  supercilium,  et  operta  facie 
vix  unum  oculum  liberant  (al.  librant)  ad  videndum. 
Vestis  pulla,  cingulum  sacceum  et  sordidis  manibus 
pedibusque  ;  venter  solus,  quia  videri  non  potest, 
aestuat  cibo.  Aliae  virili  habilu,  veste  mutata,  eru- 
bescunt  esse  quod  natae  sunt ;  crinem  amputant  et 
impudenter  erigunt  facies  eunuchinas.  Sunt  quae  cili- 
ciis  vestiuntur  et  cucullis  fabrefactis;  ut  ad  infantiam 
redeant,  imitantur  noctuas  et  bubones  .  .  Hiec  omnia 
argumenta  sunt  Diaboli.' — Hieron.  (Epist.  xviii.)  ad 
Eustoch.  Virginem.  —  Again,  (Epist.  to  Demetrias, 
De  Servanda  Virginit.)  '  Praeter  Psalmorum  et  Ora- 
tionis  ordinem,  qui  tibi  hora  terlia,  sexta,  nona,  ad 
vesperem,  media  nocte,  et  mane  semper  est  exercen- 
dus,  statue  quot  horis  Sanctam  Scripturam  ediscere 
debeas,  quanto  tempore  Iegere,  non  ad  laborem,  sed 
ad  delectationem  ac  instructionem  animoe.  Cumque 
hasc  finieris  spatia  .  .  .  habeto  lanam  semper  in  mani- 
bus, vel  staminis  pollice  fila  deducito,  vel  ad  torquen- 
da  subtegmina  in  alveolis  fusa  vertantur;  aliarumque 
neta  aul  in  globum  collige,  aut  tenenda  (nenda1?)  corn- 
pone.  Quae  texta  sunt  inspice:  quae  errata  repre- 
hende:  quae  facienda  constitue.  Si  tantis  operum 
varietatibus  occupata  fueris  nunquam  dies  tibi  longi 
erunt.'  Similar  instructions  are  delivered  in  Epist. 
86,  ad  Eustochium  Epitaph.  Paula;  Matris.  And  St. 
Augustin  (De  Morib.  Ecclesiae.,  cap.  31.)  mentions 
that  the  garments  manufactured  by  the  nuns  were 
given  to  the  monks  in  exchange  for  food.  '  Lanificio 
corpus  exercent  et  sustentant ;  vestesque  ipsas  fratri- 
bus  tradunt,  ab  iis  invicem  quod  victui  opus  est  re- 
sumentes.'  The  Tonsure  was  not  originally  impos- 
ed, though  it  appears  to  have  been  an  Egyptian  cus- 
tom. 

*  Lib.  iii.  c.  xii. 


the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  nuns  who  married 
were  made  liable,  together  with  their  hus- 
bands, to  the  sentence  of  excommunication  ; 
yet  in  such  manner,  that  penance  might  be 
imposed,  if  they  reverently  requested  it,  and 
communion  restored  in  consequence  of  that 
penance,  after  a  long  interval  proportioned  to 
the  offence.  This  canon  was  generally  re- 
ceived in  the  West.  But  in  the  year  407, 
Innocent  I.  closed  the  outlet  of  penance,  and 
left  no  loop-hole  of  forgiveness  open  to  those 
who  had  violated  their  vow.  Subsequent 
ages  increased,  rather  than  mitigated,  this 
rigor ;  and  imprisonment,  and  tortures,  and 
death,  were  finally  held  out  as  the  punish- 
ments of  monastic  incontinence.  The  re- 
source of  penance  was  still  reserved  by  In- 
nocent *  for  inconstant  Novices — those  who 
married,  after  having  avowed  the  intention  of 
chastity,  but  without  having  yet  taken  the 
veil. 

The  Veil-  The  ceremony  of  consecration 
and  the  imposition  of  the  veil  was  of  origin 
earlier  even  than  the  time  of  St.  Ambrose  ;  f 
and  it  appears,  that  it  might  then  be  performed 
by  a  priest,  no  less  than  by  a  bishop.  The 
words  J  pronounced  on  this  occasion  were 
prescribed  by  the  Fourth  Council  of  Car- 
thage ;  but  they  varied,  or  were  entirely  chang- 
ed, in  subsequent  times.  The  age  at  which 
the  novice  might  be  consecrated  was  equally 
variable,  and  seems  to  have  been  left,  at  least 
in  early  times,  to  the  discretion  of  the  prelate. 
An  age  as  advanced  as  sixty  years,  appears 
at  first  to  have  been  usual ;  but  St.  Ambrose 
gives  reasons  for  permitting  the  veil  to  be 
sooner  assumed  ;  and  the  age  of  twenty -five 
was  afterwards  (generally,  though  by  no 
means  universally)  established  as  the  earliest, 
at  which  the  recluse  was  permitted  to  place 
the  indelible  seal  upon  her  resolution. 

Benedictine  Nuns.  The  first  period,  or,  if 
we  may  so  call  it,  the  Antiquity  of  3Iouachism, 
was  terminated  in  the  Western  Church  by 
the  epoch  of  St.  Benedict ;  and  it  is  generally 
recorded,  that  while  that  hermit  was  invent- 
ing his  new  institution  for  the  brothers  of  his 


*  Hospin.  Orig.  Monach.  lib.  iii.  c.  ult. 

t  We  must  not  however  be  misled  by  the  title  of 
Tertullian's  work,  (De  Virginibus  Velandis,)  to  as- 
cribe to  that  practice  so  high  an  antiquity.  The  ob- 
ject of  that  book  is  only  to  show,  that  all  virgins,  aa 
well  as  matrons,  ought,  in  their  attendance  on  divine 
worship,  to  be  veiled.  It  has  no  reference  to  any 
particular  condition  of  life 

%  They  were  these  —  '  Aspice,  filia,  et  intuere;  et 
obliviscere  populum  tuum  et  domum  patris  tui,  ut  con- 
cupiscat  Rex  decorem  tuuni.' 


324 


HISTORY    OF  THE   CHURCH. 


obedience,  his  sister  Scholastica  was  raising 
the  standard,  *  round  which  the  holy  virgins 
might  collect  with  greater  regularity  and  dis- 
cipline.    It  would  appear,  however,  that  the 
rule  of  her  disciples  was  rather  given  in  res- 
toration of  the  original  observance,  than  on 
any  new  principle  of  religious  seclusion.    The 
alternations  of  industry  and   prayer  ;    absti- 
nence, silence,  obedience,  chastity  were   or- 
dained, as  in   the   primitive  establishments ; 
and  the  first  Benedictine  Nuns  were  in  fact 
rather  reformed  nuns  of  St.  Basil,  than  a  dis- 
tinct order.  .  .  Howbeit,  they  acquired  repu- 
tation and  flourished  so  rapidly,  that  in  the 
pontificate  of  Gregory  the  Great,  Rome  con- 
tained  (according  to  the  assertion  f  of  that 
Pope)  three  thousand  '  handmaids  of  God, ' 
(Ancilte  Dei,)  who  followed  the  Benedictine 
rule.     And  so  boldly  did  they  afterwards  rise 
in  rank  and  power,  that  about  the  year  813 
it  became  necessary  to  repress  the  pretended 
right  of  the  Abbesses  to  consecrate  and  or- 
dain, and  perform  other  sacerdotal  functions.  J 
Canonesses.     The  establishments  of  female 
recluses  followed  very  closely  the  numerous 
diversities  of  the  monastic  scheme,  and  imi- 
tated the  names  of  the  male  institutions,  where 
they  could  not  adopt  their  practice,  or  even 
their  profession.     An  order  of  Canonesses- 
Regular  was  founded,  or  at  least  presented 
with  a  rule,  by  the  Council  of  Aix-la-Chapelle, 
in  813.     And  we  read,  in  later  times,  of  a 
community  of  noble  young  ladies,  who  were 
associated  under  a  very  easy  discipline,  and 
unrestrained  by  any  vow  of  celibacy,  under 
the   title  of  Canonesses-Secular.     But  these 
last  pretenders  to  religious  seclusion  were,  on 
more  than  one  occasion,  discountenanced  by 
the  authorities  of  the  Church. 

A'uns  of  the  Hospital.  An  imitation  of  the 
Military  Orders  might,  at  first  sight,  seem  still 
more  repugnant  to  the  feelings  and  duties 
of  holy  virgins.  But,  in  respect  at  least  to  the 
oldest  of  those  orders,  it  was  in  fact  far  other- 
wise. That  community  originated  (as  has 
already  been  mentioned)  in  an  office  of  gra-  i 
tuitous  humanity  ; — to  entertain  the  stranger, 
and  to  tend  the  sick,  were  the  earliest  offices  j 

*  Mabillon  (Pref.  Hist.  Benedict.)  asserts  this 
Scholastica  to  have  been  the  founder  of  regular  nun-  j 
neries  in  the  West;  and  calls  her  '  Virgi.-.um  Bene- 
dictinarum  Ducem,  Magistram  et  Antesignanam.' 

t  Lib.  vi.  Epist.  xxiii.  See  Hospinian,  Orig. 
Monach.  lib.  iv.  c.  xvi.  The  ceremony  of  consecra- 
tion, by  the  bishop,  is  here  given  at  great  length. 

t  At  the  Council  of  Beconfeld  in  Kent,  abbesses 
subscribed  their  signatures,  no  less  than  Abbots  and  ' 
other  Ecclesiastics.  This  is  recorded  to  have  been  \ 
the  first  instance  of  such  assumption  of  equality.  I 


1  of  the  Knight  of  the  Hospital.  By  him,  in- 
deed, those  humbler  tasks  may  afterwards 
have  been  forgotten  in  the  character  of  the 
soldier  of  the  Cross  ;  but  the  <  Nuns  of  the 
Hospital '  *  adhered  to  the  earliest  and  the  no- 
blest object  of  the  institution.  Their  founda- 
tion was  contemporary  with  that  of  the  Chev- 
aliers ;  and  in  after  times,  they  extended  their 
establishments,  and  perhaps  their  charities, 
into  every  part  of  Europe. 

The  calamities  of  the  Crusades  were  fol- 
lowed and  alleviated  by  another  institution,  in 
which  charitable  females  immediately  took  a 
share,  and  of  which  the  purpose  was  not  less 
worthy  of  its  religious  profession.  A  multi- 
tude of  Christian  captives  had  been  thrown 
by  the  vicissitudes  of  war  into  the  power  of 
the  Saracens ;  and  for  their  redemption,  the 
order  of  the  '  Nuns  of  the  Holy  Trinity '  was 
established  very  early  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury. It  survived  the  occasion  which  gave  it 
birth,  and  flourished  widely,  under  the  pat- 
ronage of  certain  pious  princesses,!  especially 
in  Spain. 

Nuns  of  St.  Dominic.  The  foundation  of 
several  nunneries  divided  with  his  other  ec- 
clesiastical duties  the  busy  zeal  of  St.  Domi- 
nic. And  though  we  cannot  discover  that  the 
essential  characteristics  of  his  order,  preach- 
ing and  mendicity,  were  in  practice  commu- 
nicated to  the  holy  sisters  who  bore  his  name, 
yet  the  name  was  sufficient  to  procure  for  them 
wealth  and  popularity;  and  they  prohably 
were  not  surpassed  in  either  of  those  respects 
by  any  other  order.}:  St.  Catharine  of  Sien- 
na, a  vehement  devotee,  professed  especially 
to  reverence  the  virtues  and  imitate  the  disci- 
pline of  St.  Dominic  ;  and  she  may  properly 

*  A  long  account  of  these  '  Religieuses  Hospitals- 
res,'  together  with  the  formalities  of  reception  into 
the  order,  may  be  found  in  the  Hist,  des  Ordres  Mo- 
nastiques,  Trois.  Partie,  chap.  xiv.  We  may  remark 
that  their  '  Habits  de  Ceremoniede  Choeur,'  indicate 
wealth,  if  not  vanity.  The  '  Religieuse  Chevaliere  de 
1'Ordre  de  St.  Jaques  de  l'Epee '  was  a  Spanish  in- 
vention of  a  much  later  age.  This  order  seems  to 
have  originated  at  Salamanca. 

t  Hist.  Ordres  Monast.  partie  II.  chap.  xlix. 

J  The  historian  '  Des  Ordres  Monastiques,'  asserts, 
that  when  he  wrote  (about  1715,)  there  were  in  Italy 
more  than  one  hundred  and  thirty  nunneries  of  that 
order,  about  forty-five  in  France,  fifteen  in  Portugal, 
and  forty  in  Germany,  in  spite  of  the  devastations  of 
the  heretics.  The  order  which  bears  the  name  of 
St.  Catharine,  was  probably  not  founded  by  herself 
(though  Hospinian  asserts  otherwise,)  and  it  is  vari- 
ously assigned  to  the  year  1372  or  1455  —  a  diversity 
which  some  attempt  to  reconcile.  We  shall  have 
occasion  to  make  further  mention  of  this  celebrated 
devotee  in  a  following  chapter. 


THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  NUNS. 


325 


be  accounted  among  his  most  genuine  disci- 
ples, since  she  interposed  to  smooth  the  po- 
litical difficulties  of  her  country,  and  to  influ- 
ence, by  her  reason  and  authority,  the  most 
momentous  concerns  of  the  Church.  Among 
the  female  Mendicants,  the  latest  institution 
was  that  of  the  Carmelites.  They  appear  to 
have  been  founded  about  1452,  by  virtue  of  a 
bull  of  Nicholas  V.;  and  nearly  a  century  af- 
terwards, they  were  reformed  by  the  celebrat- 
ed St.  Theresa,  a  native  of  Castille. 

We  shall  not  trace  the  endless  catalogue, 
nor  enumerate  the  various  names,  under 
which  the  same  or  very  similar  institutions 
perpetually  reappeared.  Among  those  of 
somewhat  earlier  times,  that  of  St.  Brigida,  a 
Princes  of  Sweden,  is  most  renowned.  It 
was  an  establishment  for  the  reception  of 
both  sexes — though  separated  in  residence — 
under  the  superintendence  of  an  Abbess;  and 
its  Rule  *  was  confirmed  by  Urban  V.  about 
the  year  1360.  Though  manual  labor  was 
strictly  enjoined,  the  royal  hand  which  found- 
ed the  community  appears,  at  the  same  time, 
to  have  blessed  it  with  ample  endowments. 

The  Ursalines.  Of  the  more  modern  orders, 
there  is  also  one  which  may  seem  to  require 
our  notice — that  of  the  Ursulines.  Its  origin 
is  ascribed  t  to  Angela  di  Brescia,  about  the 
year  1537,  though  the  Saint  from  whom  it 
received  its  name,  Ursula  Benincasa,  a  native 
of  Naples,  was  born  ten  years  afterwards. 
Its  character  was  peculiar,  and  recalls  our  at- 
tention to  the  primitive  form  of  ascetic  devo- 
tion. The  duties  of  those  holy  sisters  were 
the  purest  within  the  circle  of  human  benevo- 
lence—  to  minister  to  the  sick,  to  relieve  the 
poor,  to  console  the  miserable,  to  pray  with 
the  penitent.  These  charitable  offices  they 
undertook  to  execute  without  the  bond  of  any 
community,  without  the  obligation  of  any 
monastic  vow,  without  any  separation  from 
society,  any  renouncement  of  their  domestic 
duties  and  virtues.  And  so  admirably  were 
those  offices,  in  millions  of  instances,  per- 
formed, that,  had  all  other  female  orders  been 
really  as  useless  and  as  vicious,  as  they  are 
sometimes  falsely  described  to  be,  the  virtues 
of  the  Ursulines  had  alone  been  sufficient  to 
redeem  the  monastic  name. 

But  it  is  very  far  from  true,  that  these  other 


orders  were  either  commonly  dissolute  or 
generally  useless.  Occasional  scandals  have 
engendered  universal  calumnies.  To  recite 
the  mere  names*  of  those  most  lately  founded 
is  sufficient  to  show  that  their  professed  ob- 
jects were  almost  always  excellent;  and  it 
would  be  as  injurious  to  human  nature,  as  it 
is  contrary  to  historical  evidence,  to  suppose 
that  those  objects  were  instantly  abandoned, 
and  made  merely  a  cover  for  the  opposite 
vices.  In  the  more  secular  institutions  of  the 
other  sex  there  was  greater  space  for  the  ope- 
ration of  evil  passions.  In  those  polluted 
cloisters,  the  seeds  of  avarice  were  commonly 
nourished  by  the  practice  of  profitable  decep- 
tions, and  the  prospect  of  opulent  benefices. 
The  holiest  contemplations  were  interrupted 
by  the  voice  of  ambition  inviting  the  most 
austere  recluse  to  dignity  and  power — to  ab- 
bacies, to  prelacies  ;  to  the  councils  of  kings, 
to  that  predominant  apostolical  eminence, 
whence  kings  and  their  councils  were  insulted 
and  overthrown  .  .  .  But  into  the  cell  of 
the  female  Devotee,  those  passions  at  least  can 
seldom  have  intruded,  because  they  had  no 
object  there.f      Without  insisting  upon  any 


*  This  Rule  occupies  eight  folio  pages  in  Hospinian, 
lib.  vi.  cap.  39.  It  professed  to  proceed  from  the  im- 
mediate dictation  of  Christ. 

f  Hist,  des  Ordres  Monast.  Suite  de  la  Trois. 
Partie,  chap.  xiv.  et  xx.  The  historian  enumerates 
and  describes  thirteen  congregations  of  Ursulines, 
established  for  the  most  part  in  France  and  in  Italy. 


*  Such  were  the  Religieuses  Hospitalieres  de  la 
Charite  de  Notre  Dame,  De  Notre  Dame  du  Refuge, 
De  N.  D.  de  la  Misericorde,  &c.  Orphan  asylums 
were  numerous  as  '  the  Congregations  of  St.  Joseph.' 
Many  were  founded  for  the  maintenance  and  edu- 
cation of  poor  girls  ;  many  for  the  sick  ;  many  for 
the  penitent.  In  a  description  of  the  plague,  in 
1347,  Fleury  (Hist.  Eccles.  liv.  xcv.  s.  45)  bears  the 
following  accidental  testimony  to  female  charity :  — 
'  Plusieurs  Pretres  titnides  abandonnoient  leurs  trou- 
peaux  et  en  laissoient  les  soins  a  des  Religieux  plus 
hardis.  Les  Religieuses  servoient  les  malades  sans 
crainte,  avec  leur  charite  et  lew  humanile  ordinaire. 
Plusieurs  entre  elles  moururent,  mais  on  les  renouvel- 
loit  souvent.' 

f  Some  remarks  have  been  suggested  to  us  on  this 
passage,  which  we  recommend  to  the  reader's  consid- 
eration— premising,  however,  that  the  position  in  the 
text  ouly  affirms  the  moral  superiority  of  nuns  to 
monks,  on  the  ground  that  some  of  the  passions  on 
which  the  habits  of  the  latter  were  formed,  had  no 
object  Jo  rouse  them  in  the  former. 

I*  cannot  help  thinking  (says  an  ingenious  friend) 
that  the  argument  implied  in  the  words  •  passions 
which  had  no  object  there,'  is  fallacious.  Many 
passions,  if  not  all,  will  find  objects,  natural  or  un- 
natural. The  danger  of  wandering,  in  the  absence 
of  express  revelation,  from  that  knowledge  of  the  will 
of  God,  which  may  be  collected  from  induction,  is  as 
pernicious  to  morals,  as  the  a  priori  reasoning  is  to 
science.  An  institution  preventing  women  from  be- 
coming wives  and  mothers,  was  immoral  (considering 
the  natural  evidence  of  their  propensities)  in  the  same 
sense  in  which  the  opposition  to  die  philosophy  of 
Galileo  was  unreasonable. 


326 


HISTORY  OF    THE  CHURCH. 


natural  predisposition  to  piety  and  benevo- 
lence, we  may  be  well  assured  that  the  pre- 
cincts of  the  convent  were  very  fruitful  in 
the  exercise  of  both  ;  and  whatsoever  judg- 
ment we  may  finally  form  respecting  the 
character  of  that  influence,  which  monachisin 
has  exercised  through  so  many  ages  on  so 
many  forms  of  society,  we  may  pronounce 
without  hesitation  the  general  purity  and  use- 
fulness of  the  Female  Orders. 

Voltaire,  in  his  Chapter  on  the  Religious 
Orders,  after  eulogizing  the  charities  of  the  fe- 
male institutions  in  the  noblest  spirit  of  philan  • 
th ropy,  has  remarked  that  'those  who  have 
separated  themselves  from  the  Church  of 
Rome  have  but  faintly  imitated  that  generous 
virtue.'  The  taunt  is  undeserved.  We  did 
not  lay  aside  our  charities,  when  we  dispens- 
ed with  our  vows ;  we  did  not  languish  in 
the  practice,  when  we  rejected  the  profession  ; 
the  religious  motive  acts  not  less  powerfully, 
because  the  name  is  less  commonly  put  for- 
ward ;  and  in  as  far  at  least  as  the  tender  sex 
is  concerned,  there  is  not  a  district  in  our 
Cities,  nor  a  village  in  our  Provinces,  which 
does  not  profit  by  the  unpretending,  unavow- 
ed,  enlightened  benevolence  cf  Protestant 
Ursulines. 

We  shall  now  conclude  a  chapter — already 
disproportionate  to  the  dimensions  of  this 
work,  but  far  too  contracted  for  the  immen- 
sity of  the  subject  —  by  a  few  obvious  and  al- 
most necessary  observations. 

General  Observations.  Without  recurring 
to  the  less  definite  shape  which  monachism 
assumed  in  the  West  during  the  fourth  and 
fifth  ages,  we  may  observe,  that  the  three  dis- 
tinctive characters  which  it  afterwards  adopt- 
ed were  well  suited  to  the  several  periods  in 
which  they  successively  rose  and  flourished. 
First  in  origin  were  the  Regular  Benedictine* 
Coenobites  ;  and  they  reigned  without  any 
rivals  over  the  consciences  of  the  faithful  for 
above  six  centuries.  —  Those  were  centuries 
of  the  deepest  ignorance  and  superstition 
which  the  history  of  Europe  exhibits.  That 
Order  imitated  the  Oriental  enthusiasm  in 
which  the  whole  system  originated ;  it  like- 
wise inculcated  moral  severity,  and  exercised, 
in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  both  useful  in- 
dustry and  virtuous  benevolence.  As  it  thus 
grew  in  reputation  and  temporal  grandeur,  it 


*  We  do  not  here  intend  to  distinguish  between 
monks  and  canons,  because  both  were  Coenobites, 
and  possessed  the  same  general  characteristics,  widely 
removed  from  the  principles  both  of  the  Military  and 
the  Mendicant  Orders — still  less  between  the  Original 
and  Reformed  Benedictines. 


extended  and  multiplied  its  demands  upon 
human  credulity.  The  most  extravagant  spi- 
ritual claims  were  recommended  by  a  great 
parade,  and  by  some  reality,  of  devotion. 
Spacious  and  imposing  edifices,  whence  the 
chant  of  holy  voices  was  heard  unceasingly 
to  proceed  in  solemn  prayer,  by  night  and  by 
day  —  some  practice  of  charitable  offices  — 
great  superiority  in  manner  and  education  — 
the  possession,  almost  exclusive,  of  the  learn- 
ing of  the  age — these  advantages  prepared  an 
uninstructed  people  to  receive  with  blindness 
any  form  of  superstition,  which  their  ghostly 
directors  might  think  proper  to  impose  on 
them,  and  gave  efficacy  to  deception  and  im- 
posture. And  thus  it  proved,  that,  when  su- 
perstition had  once  taken  root  in  the  soil  of 
ignorance,  it  was  nourished  through  so  many 
ages  by  a  much  less  proportion  of  moral  and 
religious  excellence,  and  scarcely  more  of 
knowledge,  than  had  been  necessary  to  plant 
it  there.  The  most  inactive  among  the  forms 
of  monachism  was  found  sufficient  to  hold 
the  human  mind,  as  long  as  it  was  uninform- 
ed and  unexcited,  in  servile  subjugation. 

The  next  which  rose  were  the  Military  Or- 
ders,— and  of  these  it  is  sufficient  to  remark, 
that  they  formed  no  regular  part  of  the  church 
system,  but  were  the  casual  consequence  of 
the  Crusades.  They  were  instituted,  to  assail 
the  externa]  enemies  of  the  faith ;  they  were 
continued,  to  repel  their  invasions,  and  defend 
the  outworks  of  Christendom ;  but  they  did 
not  very  long  survive  the  circumstances  which 
created  and  sustained  them.  Indeed,  the  pro- 
fession of  arms  in  the  name  of  Christ  was  so 
palpable  a  mockery  of  the  true  spirit  of  his 
religion,  that  its  permanence  was  scarcely 
consistent  with  the  fundamental  principles  of 
Christian  society.  An  extraordinary  occur- 
rence could  alone  have  given  it  existence,  but 
it  could  not  possibly  give  it  perpetuity. 

As  corruption  increased  within  the  Church, 
and  ignorance  diminished  without  it,  heresy 
began  to  spread  widely,  and  the  voice  of 
reason  found  many  listeners.  And  then  it 
was  that  a  band  of  active  and  intelligent 
emissaries  was  required  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  established  ecclesiastical  system.  For 
this  purpose  the  talents  of  the  Dominicans 
were  more  especially  serviceable.  But  since 
a  large  measui'e  of  superstition  still  infected 
the  lower  orders,  and  none  were  wholly  free 
from  it,  the  abstinent  and  ragged  devotion  of 
the  Franciscans  was  also  not  without  its  use, 
in  exciting  veneration  towards  themselves,  and 
towards  the  Church,  whose  missionaries  they 
were.     Besides,  the  original  Mendicants  de- 


THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  NUNS. 


327 


nounced,  with  courage  and  vehemence,  the 
vices  and  the  violences  of  the  great.  Their 
close  connexion  with  the  papal,  or  Guelphic 
interests,  placed  them  in  opposition  to  the 
imperial  domination,  and  thus  made  them,  in 
their  political  mediations,  the  advocates  of 
liberal  and  popular  principles.  But  above  all, 
they  were  careful  to  provide  themselves  with 
that  powerful  weapon,  which,  from  the  days 
of  St.  Augustine  to  those  of  the  Crusades,  had 
entirely  rested,  and  which  had  been  very  par- 
tially employed  afterwards.  True  eloquence, 
indeed,  is  not  commonly  attainable  ;  but  they 
possessed  and  perpetually  exercised  that  flu- 
ency of  passionate  declamation,  which  pro- 
duced on  the  people  all  the  effects  of  elo- 
quence. It  had  even  some  advantages  over 
the  more  chastised  effusions  of  antiquity.  * 
It  derived  its  authority  from  the  oracles  of 
God  ;  the  moral  obligations  which  it  urged 
were  more  directly  subservient  to  human  hap- 
piness ;  and  its  particular  application  in  the 
mouth  of  the  Mendicants  was  very  commonly 
to  a  benevolent  object, — to  negotiate  treaties, 
to  reconcile  party  animosities,  to  stay  the  ca- 
lamities of  public  or  private  warfare.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  records  of  the  thirteenth  and 
following  centuries  abound  with  proofs  of  its 
efficacy  and  its  influence  in  political,  no  less 
than  in  ecclesiastical,  transactions.  It  has 
moreover  been  mentioned,  that  the  Mendi- 
cants availed  themselves  with  great  address 
of  the  peculiar  learning  f  of  that  age,  and  ac- 
quired uncommon  dexterity  in  the  perversion 
of  reason.  Conversant,  more  than  any  others, 
with  the  metaphysical  subtilties  of  the  schools, 
they  well  knew  how,  at  the  same  time,  to  in- 
dulge the  sophistical  and  the  superstitious 
spirit  of  the  age,  and,  by  indulging,  to  nourish 
both.  Thus  they  combined,  for  the  defence 
of  papacy,  the  abuse  of  reason  with  the  abuse 
of  religion  ;  and  their  genius  and  their  indus- 


*  A  comparison  in  favor  of  the  Mendicants  is  in- 
geniously drawn  by  Denina,  lib.  xii.  cap.  vi. 

t  Giannone  even  asserts,  that  the  merit  to  which 
the  Mendicants  were  chiefly  indebted  for  the  favor  of 
the  Popes,  was  their  success  in  substituting  the  scho- 
lastic, for  the  dogmatic  theology  and  the  study  of  an- 
tiquity and  history,  so  as  to  occupy  the  minds  of  the 
learned  with  abstract  and  useless  questions  and  dis- 
putes, and  so  many  contrasti  and  raggiri,  that  no 
one  not  conversant  with  that  art  could  confront  them 
with  any  hope  of  success.  It  was  indeed  by  such  a 
method  of  reasoning  that  the  pretensions  of  Rome 
were  best  defended ;  ami  the  Mendicants  were  bound 
to  defend  them,  since  all  their  exemptions,  and  much 
of  their  property,  flowed  directly  from  Rome;  for  the 
Pope  not  uncommonly  gave  them  convents  belonging 
to  other  Orders. 


try,  by  pandering  to  the  existing  prejudices, 
prolonged  the  servitude  and  degradation  of 
the  human  mind. 

A  Roman  Catholic  winter  has  observed, 
with  a  demonstration  of  pious  gratitude,  that 
the  same  God  who  raised  up  St.  Athanasius 
against  the  Arians,  and  St.  Augustine  against 
the  Pelagians,  and  St.  Dominic  and  St.  Francis 
against  the  Albigenses,  deigned,  in  a  later  and 
still  more  perilous  age,  to  call  forth  the  spirit 
of  Loyola  against  the  Lutheran  and  Calvin- 
istic  apostates.  And  it  may  be,  that  at  the 
moment  when  Luther  was  writing  his  book 
against  monastic  vows,  the  Spaniard  was 
composing  his  '  Spiritual  Exercises '  for  the 
restoration  of  other  orders  and  the  establish- 
ment of  his  own.  It  is  only  necessary  for  us 
to  observe,  that  the  defensive  system  of  the 
Roman  Church  was  completed  by  the  institu- 
tion of  the  Jesuits,  though  somewhat  too  late 
for  its  perfect  preservation.  And  we  may  add, 
in  pursuance  of  our  other  observations,  that 
that  order  was  as  justly  accommodated  to  the 
increasing  intelligence  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, as  were  the  Benedictines  to  the  darkness 
of  absolute  ignorance,  and  the  Mendicants  to 
the  twilight  of  reason.  But  each,  in  their  turn 
of  pernicious  operation,  though  they  enjoyed 
their  appointed  range  and  season  of  influence, 
were  too  feeble  to  prevent  the  revival,  to  arrest 
the  growth,  or  to  crush  the  maturity  of  truth 
and  religious  knowledge. 

Successive  Reformations  of  the  Monastic 
System. — If  we  regard  the  monastic  system  in 
another  point  of  view,  we  shall  perceive  it  to 
consist  in  a  continual  succession  of  reforma- 
tions. The  foundation  of  every  institution 
was  laid,  as  it  rose  out  of  the  corruption  of 
its  predecessor,  in  poverty,  in  the  most  rigid 
morality,  in  the  duties  of  religion,  of  educa- 
tion, of  charity.  The  practice  first,  and  next 
the  show,  of  these  qualities,  led,  in  every  in- 
stance, to  wealth  ;  and  wealth  was  surely  fol- 
lowed, first,  by  the  relaxation  of  discipline — 
next,  by  the  contempt  of  decency.  Then  fol- 
lowed the  necessity  of  reform  ;  and  the  same 
system  was  regenerated  under  another,  or 
perhaps  under  the  same  name,  and  passed 
through  the  same  deteriorating  process  to  a 
second  corruption.  Again,  —  the  Reformed 
Order  was  re-reformed  and  re-regenerated, 
and  again  it  fell  into  decay  and  dissolution. 
The  history  of  the  monastic  orders,  when 
pursued  into  the  details  of  the  several  estab- 
lishments, presents  to  us  an  unvarying  picture 
of  vigor,  prosperity,  dissension,  followed  by 
new  statutes,  and  a  stricter  rule.  A  system, 
of  which  the  foundations  were  not  placed 


328 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


either  in  Scripture  or  in  reason,  was  necessa- 
rily liable  to  perpetual  change  ;  nor  was  it  ca- 
pable of  any  other  condition  of  existence,  than 
one  of  continual  decay  and  reproduction. 

If  we  reflect  for  an  instant  on  the  outlines 
of  Western  Monachism,  we  observe,  that  the 
Rule  of  Benedict  of  Nursia  had  already  fallen 
into  great  degradation,  when  it  was  revived 
by   Benedict  of  Aniane.     The  system  then 
flourished  with  extraordinary  vigor;  but  for 
so  short  a  period,  that  when,  about  the  year 
900,  the  Reformed  Order  of  Cluni  was  estab- 
lished, its  founders  deserved  the  glory  of  res- 
toring the  ancient  discipline;  and  that  event 
is  justly  considered  as  marking  an  important 
epoch   in   monastic   history.     Again,   within 
two  other  centuries,  we  observe  the  younger 
and  more  rigid  Cistertians  censuring  the  secu- 
lar pride  and  luxurious  relaxation  of  their 
rivals.     In  the  next  age,  it  was  proposed  to 
heal  the  disorders,  or  at  least  to  supply  the 
deficiencies,  of  the  old  system,  by  the  super- 
addition  of  the  Mendicants,  models  of  primi- 
tive and  apostolical  austerity.*     But  even  the 
very  slight  notice,  which  we  have  been  able 
to  bestow  on  the  history  of  the  Franciscans, 
has  proved  how  very  early  they  fell  into  dis- 
orders, succeeded,  though  not  repaired,  by 
reformation.     Even  the  institution  of  St.  Do- 
minic was  very  far  from  securing  the  purity 
of  his  children  ;  indeed,  it  was  at  no  distant 
period  from  their  foundation,  that  a  part  of 
them  assumed  the  distinctive  appellation  of 
Reformed  Dominicans.     (Dominicani  Rifor- 
mati.)     ...     By  this  process  of  continual 
change  and  restoration,  the  monastic  system 
maintained  an  influence,  varying  extremely 
in  degree,  but  never  wholly  suspended,  over 
the  nations  of  the  West  for  eleven  hundred 
years.     That  it  did  so,  may  well  surprise  us, 
if  we  consider  only  the  principles  of  its  first 
foundation,  and  the  monstrous  and  avowed 
abuses,  which  at  various  periods  infected  it. 
But  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  sustained  by  an 
infusion  of  much  real  piety  and  of  many  un- 
questioned virtues  ;  and  it  was  prolonged  from 
time  to  time  by  a  series  of  judicious  and  sea- 
sonable alterations,  such  as  are  able  to  give 

*  This  was,  indeed,  to  seek  safety  in  the  opposite 
extreme,  and  by  the  entire  renunciation  of  all  tempo- 
ralities to  exceed  the  severity  of  St.  Benedict;  but 
the  disease  at  that  time  demanded  a  violent  remedy. 
The  choice  for  such  an  Order  lay  between  bodily  la- 
bor and  mendicity— the  latter  was  preferred,  as  being, 
in  name,  more  humiliating,  and  also  more  consistent 
with  intellectual  attainments,  and  the  grand  spiritual 
offices  of  instructing  the  vulgar,  converting  heretics, 
&c. 


permanence  even  to  a  feeble  and  mischievous 
establishment,  and  without  which  there  is  no 
security  even  for  the  wisest  and  the  most 
excellent. 

Still  this  last  cause  had  alone  been  insuffi- 
cient.    It  is  not  possible,  that  any  policy  of 
Church  government  could  have  upheld  the 
system  so  long  and  so  triumphantly,  if  it  had 
not  possessed  something  not  only  plausible  in 
its  principle,  and  respectable  in  its  prefession, 
but  also  practical  and  profitable  in  its  influ- 
ence on  society.     It  would  be  ungrateful  and 
unjust  to  disparage  the  benefits  which  it  has 
really  conferred  on  former  ages,  and  of  which 
the  consequences  may  have  reached  our  own. 
Advantages  produced  by  Monachism.     We 
may  comprehend  all  the  useful  merits,  which 
have  ever  been  claimed  for  monachism,  with 
any   shadow   of  reason,   under  four   heads. 
(1.)  The  earliest   monks  lived    by  the  labor 
of  their  hands ;  and  the  large  tracts  of  waste 
land,  with  which  their  houses  were  endowed, 
were  brought  into  cultivation  by  their  person- 
al exertions.     Even  in  the  eighth  and  ninth 
centuries,  when  they  became  for  the  most 
part  clerks,  their  estates  continued  to  bear 
marks  of  more  careful  superintendence  ;  their 
serfs  and  dependents  were  more  numerous 
and  more  prosperous ;  cities  grew  up  under 
their  economy ;  provinces  were  fertilized,  for- 
ests and  marshes  were  peopled  under  their 
administration.     Nor  is  there  any  reason  to 
question,  what  is  generally  admitted,  that  the 
vassals  of  the  monasteries  were  raised  at  least 
some  degrees  nearer  to  domestic  comfort  and 
civilization,  than  those  of  the  adjacent  baronies. 
(2.)   The   earliest   monasteries   were  very 
commonly  consecrated   to  the  discharge   of 
important  moral  and  social,  as  well  as  reli- 
gious,  duties.      That   of  hospitality,   or  the 
entertainment  of  travellers  and  pilgrims,  was 
certainly  practised  with  great  fidelity  ;  and  in 
ages  and  countries  in  which  inns  and  cara- 
vanseras  *  were  yet  unknown,  and  even  the 
personal  safety  of  the  stranger  was  ill-secured 
by  law,  it  was  usefully  and  benevolently  insti- 
tuted, that  his  reception  and  protection  should, 
in  some  manner,  be  associated  with  the  offices 
of  religion.     The  worldly  authority  of  religion 
is  never  more  profitably  employed,  than   in 
supplying  the  defects  of  police,  of  government, 
and  civilization.     And  thus  it  proved,  that, 
during  the  five  or  six  centuries  of  confusion 


*  Muratori  shows  that  the  use  of  inns,  as  places  of 
reception  for  strangers,  was  as  late  as  the  eleventh 
or  twelfth  century.  He  throws  great  light  on  the 
nature  of  the  earliest  Christian  establishments  for  that 
purpose,  in  Dissertations  37  and  56. 


THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  NUNS. 


329 


and  barbarism,  which  followed  the  subversion 
of  the  Western  Empire,  the  monastic  system 
became  a  powerful  instrument  in  correcting 
the  vices  of  society,  and  alleviating  their  pres- 
sure on  the  lower  orders. 

The   earliest   donations,   with   which    the 
Church  was  enriched,  were  for  the  most  part 
the  genuine  unconditional  fruits  of  supersti- 
tion.    But  in  somewhat  later  times,  when  it 
was    discovered   that    the    property   of   the 
Church  was  liable  not  only  to  spoliation  by 
laymen,  but  to  abuse  by  churchmen,  the  pro- 
fusion of  the  pious  admitted  the  admixture  of 
human  motives,  and  was  less  than  formerly 
directed  to  the  support  of  the  clergy,  more  to 
that  of  the  poor  and  miserable.     Accordingly, 
among  the  ecclesiastical  records  of  the  eighth 
and   ninth  centuries,  no  less   than  of  those 
which  followed,  we  find  many  monuments,* 
which  prove  the  general  application  of  a  part 
(and  in  some  few  cases  the  greater  part)  of 
the  revenues  of  certain  monasteries  to  the  use 
of  the  sick,  the  poor  and  the  traveller.     A 
particular   building  f    appropriated   to    these 
purposes  was  attached  to  many  monasteries, 
and  was  an  essential  part  of  the  establishment. 
Thus,  these  religious  institutions  became  the 
channel,  through  which  the  benevolence  of 
the  wealthy  was  communicated  to  the  lower 
classes.    And  though  the  charity,  which  seem- 
ed to  acquire  sanctity  by  passing  through  that 
medium,  may  sometimes  have  been  diminish- 
ed or  perverted,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 


*  Among  those  produced  by  Muratori,  are  some 
bearing  the  dates  759,  812,  790,  718,  721,  757,  764, 
847,  825,  &c.  A  charter  given  to  the  monks  of  Mo- 
dena,  in  99G,  contains  these  words: — '  Et  domum 
Hospitalctn  habeant,  ubi  secundum  morem  hospites 
de  decimis  laborum  suorum  recipiant.'  Some  assert, 
that,  before  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century,  there 
was  no  monastery  in  the  west  which  had  not  an  Hos- 
pital attached  to  it;  and  we  have  remarked  that  in 
later  ages,  that  was,  in  at  least  one  instance,  the 
very  foundation  on  which  a  new  order  was  established. 
We  might  add  that  such  was  the  origin  of  the  Ordre 
du  Saint  Esprit  at  Montpelier;  and  we  observe  that 
in  1198,  Innocent  III.  rebuilt  an  Hospital,  which 
had  been  founded  at  Rome,  in  715,  by  a  Saxon  king 
for  the  use  of  Saxon  pilgrims. 

t  Some  of  these,  called  Matriculse,  seem  to  have 
corresponded  very  nearly  with  our  poor-houses.  The 
Domus  Hospitalis  was  nearly  svnonvmous:  a  Church 
was  usually  founded  with  them.  We  have  an  instance 
of  one  of  these  built  by  Ansaldus  at  Lucca,  in  7S4,on 
the  condition  'that  every  week,  twelve  poor  and 
strangers  should  be  admitted  to  the  table  of  the 
Church.'  There  are  abundant  records  of  such  esta- 
blishments; but  some  of  them  were,  in  process  of 
time,  seized  and  appropriated  by  the  lay-rector.  See 
Muratori,  Dissert.  37. 

42 


much  of  it  reached  its  destination,  even  in  the 
worst  ages  of  the  church.  In  seasons  of  gen- 
eral strife  and  anarchy,  the  contributions  of 
the  pious  found  their  best  hope  of  security 
and  usefulness  in  monastic  hands ;  and  if  the 
sacred  deposit  was  sometimes  violated  by  the 
treacherous  avarice  of  those  to  whom  it  was 
confided,  a  much  greater  portion  was  unques- 
tionably applied  to  its  intended  purpose,  the 
alleviation  of  disease  and  misery. 

In  the  Eastern  Church,  the  introduction  of 
every  variety  *  of  charitable  establishment  im- 
mediately followed  the  receptiou  of  the  Gos- 
pel. It  was  the  work  of  Christian  principles 
and  of  Christian  men  ;  and  was  closely,  though 
not  inseparably,  connected  with  the  monastic 
institution.  Two  of  the  greatest  patrons  of 
that  system,  St.  Basil  and  St.  Chrysostom, 
were  likewise  the  founders  of  hospitals  (Nos- 
ocomia) :  places  of  entertainment  for  stran- 
gers (Xenodochia)  were  early  attached  to 
several  Churches,  and  deacons  appointed 
to  discharge  their  duties.  But  the  monaste- 
ries of  the  East  were  at  no  period  so  enriched 
by  charitable  deposits,  as  those  of  the  Latin 
Church :  for  the  monks  in  those  countries 
never  obtained  influence  so  despotic  over  a 
more  enlightened  people  ;  and  a  more  settled 
form  of  civil  government  secured  the  wealthy 
against  the  rapine,  to  which  they  were  con- 
tinually liable  under  the  feudal  anarchy. 

But  it  was  not  merely  in  respect  to  their 
temporal  necessities  that  the  people,  and  es- 
pecially the  lower  orders,  were  benefited  by 
those  establishments.  Many  blessings  were 
at  the  same  time  conferred  by  their  religious 
character;  many  afflictions  were  consoled, 
many  hopes  suggested,  many  sins  prevented, 
by  the  exertions  of  pious  monks.  Those 
brothers,  though  exalted  as  a  community, 
were  not  individually  removed  above  the 
condition  of  the  peasants,  and  they  had  com- 
monly the  same  origin ;  so  that  the  inter- 
course was  close  and  searching,  and  its  ad- 
vantages frequently  reciprocal.  There  are 
many  spiritual  wounds,  which  are  most  effec- 
tually probed  and  healed  by  a  pastor,  whose 
condition,  whose  associations  and  understand- 
ing, are  not  much  elevated  above  those  of  the 
penitent.  A  more  perfect  confidence,  a  deep- 
er sympathy,  is.  then  excited,  than  when  the 
parties  are  widely  separated  in  rank  or  intel- 
lect. This  advantage  the  monks  in  general 
possessed  over  the  secular  clergy  in  the  Ro- 


*  This  is  proved  by  the  mere  use  of  the  terms 
Xenodochia,  Gerontocomia,  Nosocomia,  Orphano- 
trophia,  Brephotrophia,  Plochotrophia,  so  familiar 
to  the  writers  of  those  ages. 


330 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


man  Church;  and  to  this  we  may  partly 
attribute  the  superiority  of  their  influence. 
That  this  influence  was  often  abused,  we 
know  too  well ;  nor  can  there  be  any  doubt 
that  the  intercourse  which  led  to  it  has  been 
sometimes  injurious.  But  during  the  better 
ages  of  monachism,  it  is  unquestionable  that 
the  blessings  of  that  religious  connexion  be- 
tween the  monks  and  the  poor  were  greatly 
predominant. 

It  is  the  boast  of  St.  Bernard  that  those 
who  had  embraced  the  monastic  condition 
lived  with  greater  purity  than  other  men ; 
that  they  fell  less  frequently  and  rose  more 
quickly  ;  that  they  walked  with  greater  pru- 
dence ;  were  more  constantly  refreshed  with 
the  spiritual  dew  of  heaven  ;  rested  with  less 
danger;  died  with  greater  hope.  And  far 
as  the  monastic  practice  has  generally  fallen 
below  its  profession,  we  doubt  not,  that  in  the 
earlier  ages,  and  especially  in  the  infancy  of 
their  several  institutions,  their  inmates  sur- 
passed all  other  classes  of  society,  not  except- 
ing the  secular  clergy,  in  the  exercise  of  mor- 
al and  religious  offices.  Devoted  to  the  re- 
lief of  the  poor,  and  the  service  of  the  sick  and 
the  stranger,  they  were  so  placed,  that  even 
the  imperfect  discharge  of  their  charitable 
duties  conferred  no  scanty  benefits  on  an 
uncivilized  generation.  Among  the  millions 
who  have  entered  religious  houses,  under  the 
most  solemn  vows  of  virtue  and  piety,  there 
must  have  been  multitudes  whose  mere  inno- 
cence made  at  least  some  amends  to  society 
for  their  seclusion  from  its  care  and  its  temp- 
tations ;  there  were  certainly  many,  whose 
acquirements  and  indisputable  excellence 
threw  out  a  light  and  example  to  their  con- 
temporaries ;  and  some  there  were,  and  not  a 
few,  whose  eminent  qualities  were  directed, 
as  steadily  as  the  spirit  of  their  age  allowed 
them,  to  the  honor  and  improvement  of  their 
Church  —  to  alleviate  private  affliction,  and 
mitigate  the  general  barbarism. 

(3.)  From  the  earliest  period,  in  the  East- 
ern as  well  as  in  the  Roman  Church,  the  du- 
ties of  education  were  intrusted  to  the  monks. 
In  process  of  time  they  became,  in  the  latter 
Church,  nearly  confined  to  them,  and  they 
continued  so  at  least  as  late  as  the  eleventh 
century.  Monastic  schools  were  established 
by  St.  Benedict ;  they  were  inseparably  at- 
tached to  his  institutions,  and  spread,  with 
the  progress  of  his  order,  over  the  kingdoms 
of  the  West ;  and  they  were  open  to  children 
of  the  earliest  age.*     It  would  seem  that,  in 


*  This  was  peculiar  to  the  older  of  St.  Benedict. 
Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France,  Siecle  xii.  p.  11.     See  also 


the  eighth  century,  the  cathedral  or  episcopa. 
academies  *  were  first  established  ;  and  these 
afterwards  became  the  most  distinguished  for 
the  rank  and  eminence  of  their  scholars. 
They  were  conducted,  under  the  superintend- 
ence of  the  bishop,  by  the  canons  of  the  Ca- . 
thedral.  And  here  we  need  only  repeat  a 
former  observation,  that,  if  the  office  of  in- 
struction was  confined  to  the  clergy,  so  also 
were  its  benefits,  for  many  ages,  to  those  in- 
tended for  the  ministry.  So  that  the  advan- 
tages which  those  establishments  really  con- 
ferred on  the  body  of  society  were  neither 
immediate  nor  certain ;  while  the  power  of 
the  clergy,  being  unduly  exaggerated  by  the 
exclusive  possession  of  learning,  was  thereby 
placed  upon  a  principle  absolutely  at  variance 
with  the  highest  earthly  interests  of  man. 

(4.)  This  subject  naturally  leads  us  to  our 
|  last  consideration  —  the  extent  and  character 
of  the  literature,  whether  sacred  or  profane, 
which  was  protected  and  nourished  in  the 
monastic  establishments.  On  the  first  matter, 
Roman  Catholic  writers  do  not  hesitate  to 
ascribe  the  veiy  preservation  of  the  pure  doc- 
trine of  the  Church  to  the  refuge  which  it 
found  within  those  fortresses — though  it  may 
seem  doubtful,  whether  that  doctrine  might 
not  have  been  preserved  with  equal  purity, 
through  ages  too  ignorant  for  controversy  or 
cavil,  by  the  fidelity  of  the  secular  clergy.  At 
any  rate,  this  praise  can  scarcely  be  granted 
to  the  monks  without  some  qualification.  For 
if  it  be  true  that,  during  the  Avian  controversy, 
they  were  the  most  zealous  defenders  of  the 
Nicene  faith,  it  is  not  less  certain,  that  the 
principles  of  Origen,  and  the  mystical  f  in- 
terpretation of  Scripture  gained  great  footing 
among  them,  and  that  not  merely  in  the  East; 

Mabillon,  Etudes  Monastiques,  p.  1.  ch  xi.  The 
same  writer  (ch.  xv.)  enumerates  several  among  the 
early  Christian  heroes,  —  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Chry- 
sostom,  Epiphanius,  Jerome,  &c. — who  studied  for  a 
greater  or  less  time  in  monasteries.  St.  Basil,  in  the 
first  instance,  established  a  school  in  his  monastery 
for  the  reading  of  holy  (as  distinguished  from  profane) 
histories,  and  appointed  rewards  for  superior  merit. 
'  Nunquam  de  inanu  et  oculis  recedat  liber,'  says  St. 
Jerome;  and  it  is  from  the  same  monastic  student 
that  we  have  received  that  much  contemned  precept, 
'  ne  ad  scribendum  cito  prosilias.  Multo  tempore 
prius  disce  quod  doceas.' 

*  See  Mosh.  vol.  ii.  p.  55. 

f  This  is  said  to  have  been,  in  the  first  instance, 
occasioned  by  the  substitution  of  mental  prayer  for 
manual  labor.  From  the  excesses  of  mysticism  pro- 
ceeded the  errors  of  the  Beghards  and  Beguines,  and 
other  enthusiasts  of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  cen- 
turies; they  strove  after  absolute  perfection,  and  they 
fell  into  fanaticism. 


THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  NUNS. 


331 


nor  should  the  support  which  they  persevered 
in  affording  to  the  cause  of  the  Images,  during 
that  long  and  angry  controversy,  be  forgotten 
in  any  estimate  which  we  may  endeavor  to 
form  of  their  pretensions  to  doctrinal  or  eccle- 
siastical purity.  It  is  indeed  unquestionable, 
that  the  externals  of  religion,  so  valuable  to 
the  Latin  church,  its  offices,  *  and  ceremonies, 
were  enriched  and  dignified  by  the  monks 
and  canons.  They  acquired  an  imposing 
splendor  from  the  number  engaged  in  their 
performance,  and  the  resources  of  their  sev- 
eral communities.  But  passing  over  these 
equivocal  merits,  we  may  mention  one  great 
and  truly  incalculable  service  which  those  es- 
tablishments conferred  on  future  ages,  though 
they  neglected  to  derive  much  advantage  from 
it  themselves.  They  preserved,  through  dan- 
gerous and  turbulent  periods,  ancient  copies 
of  the  inspired  writings,  and  of  the  most  val- 
uable commentaries  made  on  them  in  the  ear- 
liest times.  And  those  were  among  the  most 
profitable  moments  of  monastic  leisure,  which 
were  employed  in  multiplying  the  sacred 
manuscripts.! 

Though  religious  houses  were  intended  to 
be  the  depositories  of  virtue  and  piety,  J  not 
of  letters,  yet  letters  were,  to  a  certain  extent, 
encouraged  there,  as  subsidiary  to  the  grand 
object  of  the  institution.  It  is  shown,  indeed, 
by  the  learned  author  §  of  the  '  Monastic  Stud- 


*  Fleury,  Discours.  depuis  800  .  .  1100.  Mura- 
lori,  Dissertat.  56.  The  monks  gained  great  advan- 
tages by  the  introduction  of  chants  into  the  service; 
and  this  was  imitated,  in  the  ninth  century,  by  the 
cathedral  clergy.  Some  rivalry  ensued  between  these 
ecclesiastics,  and  thus,  '  coepit  frequentius  agi  et  au- 
gustius  procedere  divina  Res.'  Some  '  modulation  of 
prayers  and  praises,'  they  had  indeed  used  from  the 
earliest  ages;  but  not  with  that  plenitude  and  majesty, 
which  the  chorus  of  monks  and  canons  afterwards  in- 
troduced. The  organ  appears  to  have  come  into  use 
about  the  year  826. 

f  The  great  increase  of  MSS.  during  the  eleventh 
century,  is  to  be  ascribed  to  this  monastic  leisure, 
and  could  scarcely  be  effected  otherwise.  And  this 
was  the  first  step,  after  the  devastation  of  the  four 
preceding  ages,  towards  the  revival  of  ancient,  and 
the  creation  of  modern,  learning.  In  the  twelfth  age 
we  find  St.  Bernard  inculcating  the  duties  of  writing 
and  copying  as  the  best  substitute  for  labor. 

t  The  words  of  St.  Peter,  '  We  have  left  all  to 
follow  Thee,'  are  those,  as  St.  Bernard  observed, 
which  have  founded  cloisters  and  peopled  deserts. 

§  Mabillon  (Etudes  Monastiques,  p.  1.)  proves  the 
prevalence  of  literary  industry,  in  the  monastic  life, 
by  direct  historical  evidence  ;  by  the  multitude  of 
learned  ecclesiastics  who  emerged  from  them ;  by 
their  libraries;  by  direct  reference  to  the  rule  of  St. 
Benedict.     To   the  neglect  of  study  he  attributes  the 


ies,'  that  the  earliest  monks  entirely  renounced 
profane  literature,  and  confined  their  diligence 
to  theological  works  and  contemplations:  the 
authority  and  example  of  St.  Jerome  confirm- 
ed that  preference.  But  in  later  times,  and 
especially  when  the  practice  of  manual  labor 
fell  into  disuse,  the  limits  of  their  studious  in- 
dustry were  enlarged,  and  they  gradually  em- 
braced some  department  of  profane  science, 
as  well  as  of  classical  lore.  The  compilation 
of  Decretals  led  to  the  study  of  canon  law  ; 
the  discovery  of  the  Digest  directed  attention 
to  civil  legislation.  The  art  of  medicine  pre- 
sented a  spacious  field,  which  was  made  at- 
tractive, first,  perhaps,  by  its  salutary  and 
charitable  uses,  afterwards  by  the  gain*  which 
followed  it.  The  monastic  establishments 
furnished  the  leisure  and  the  best  existing  in- 
struments for  all  those  pursuits ;  and,  after 
the  eighth  or  ninth  age,  they  were  distin- 
guished by  some  efforts  after  knowledge,  not 
fruitless  of  beneficial  effects  and  even  of  use- 
ful discoveries. 

Again,  many  of  the  most  precious  monu- 
ments of  profane  antiquity  owe  their  preser- 
vation to  the  sanctity  of  the  monasteries,  or  to 
the  zeal  of  their  defenders.  All  these  might 
have  perished,  as  many,  notwithstanding,  did 
perish,  had  there  not  existed,  during  the  long 
and  barbarous  anarchy  of  the  Western  Em- 
pire, certain  communities,  associated  in  the 
name  of  religion  for  peaceful,  if  not  pious, 
purposes ;  whose  interests  were  opposed  to 
the  progress  of  disorder  and  rapine,  and 
whose  holy  profession  secured  them  some  re- 
spect from  a  lawless,  but  superstitious,  people. 
The  diligence  which  was  employed  in  trans- 
cribing those  valuable  models,  while  it  pro- 
moted their  circulation,  could  scarcely  fail  to 
infuse  some  taste  or  energy7  into  the  dullest 
mind  ;  and  it  certainly  appears,  that  during 
the  eighth  and  ninth,  and  especially  the  elev- 
enth ages,  mostf  of  the  characters,  who  ac- 


decline  of  the  several  Orders,  and  observes,  that  re- 
form was  commonly  attended  by  its  restoration  ;  that 
academies  or  colleges  were  invariably  connected  with 
the  Benedictine  establishments;  and  that  both  Popes 
and  Councils  perpetually  inculcated  the  duty  of  study. 

*  A  council  held  at  Rheims,  under  Innocent  II.  in 
1131,  published  a  canon,  prohibiting  monks  and 
canons-regular  to  study  civil  law  or  medicine;  and 
the  injunction  was  repeated  by  the  Lateran  Council  in 
1139.  These  occupations  were  on  this  occasion  ex- 
pressly ascribed  to  avarice.  And  we  may  remark, 
that  the  prohibition  was  confined  to  the  monks  —  the 
secular  clergy,  in  the  entire  ignorance  of  the  laity, 
were  permitted  to  practise  both  law  and  physic. 

•f  Bede,  Alcuin,  Willibrod,  &c.  were  monks;  and 
most  of  the  Popes  and  Cardinals  of  the  eleventh  cen 


332 


HISTORY   OF    THE    CHURCH. 


quired  any  ecclesiastical  celebrity,  proceeded 
from  the  discipline  of  the  cloister. 

Having  thus  intended  to  give  a  general 
view  of  the  advantages  which  the  monastic 
system  has  conferred  on  society,  we  cannot 
fail  to  observe,  that  they  are  for  the  most  part 
confined  to  ages  of  ignorance  or  turbulence  ; 
that  they  were  almost  proportionate  to  the 
debasement  of  the  people,  aud  to  the  weak- 
ness or  wickedness  of  the  civil  government. 
The  former  of  those  evils  was  somewhat  al- 
leviated, the  latter  was  partially  obviated,  by 
the  monastic  institutions.  Herein  is  compre- 
hended the  sum  and  substance  of  their  utility. 
In  a  civilized  nation,  under  a  just  and  enlight- 
ened rule,  it  is  their  necessary  effect  to  ob- 
struct industry  and  retard  improvement.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  if  we  consider  them  in  re- 
ference to  the  times  in  which  they  rose  and 
began  to  flourish, —  if  we  compare  the  habits, 
the  morals,  the  intelligence  of  the  monks  with 
those  of  their  secular  contemporaries,  —  shall 
we  not  immediately  admit,  that  in  bad  ages 
they  were  probably  the  best  men  ;  that  they 
were  the  most  useful  members  of  a  disjointed 
community  ;  that  their  vicious  principles  were 
less  vicious  than  the  general  principles  of  so- 
ciety ;  that  they  were  in  advance  of  the  civ- 
ilization of  their  day  ?  If  so  —  and  to  us  it 
appears  indisputable — let  us  be  cautious  how 
ws  cast  unqualified  censure  upon  a  body  of 
religious  persons,  who  formed,  for  the  space 
of  five  or  six  centuries,  the  most  respectable 
portion  of  the  Christian  world. 

Superstitious  tendency. — At  the  same  time, 
we  ought  not  to  forget,  that,  eveu  in  those 
times  to  which  their  utility  was  confined,  it 
was  continually  obstructed  both  by  the  orig- 
inal defects  of  their  system,  and  its  consequent 
corruptions.  Almost  from  their  first  estab- 
lishment, in  the  East  no  less  than  in  the  West, 
we  find  them  the  faithful  defenders,  if  not 
parents,  of  superstitious  abuse.  The  adora- 
tion of  saints,  the  miraculous  qualities  of  relics, 
and  the  homage  due  to  them,  and,  above  all, 
the  sanctity  and  worship  of  images,  have  been 
inculcated  with  peculiar  zeal  by  the  monks 
of  eveiy  order,  in  every  age  of  the  church. 
Again,  as  they  ever  have  been  the  patrons  of 
religious  abuse,  so  have  they  inflexibly  op- 
posed any  general  attempt  at  church  reform. 
Reforms,  indeed,  in  their  particular  establish- 
ments have  been  incessant.  Such,  again,  as 
touched  the  discipline  of  the  secular  clergy 
have  sometimes  found  support  in  the  jealousy 


tury  rose  from  the  ranks  of  the  regular  clergy.     See 
Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France,  xi.  Siecle. 


of  the  regular  orders.  But  any  exertion,  tend- 
ing to  the  restoration  of  pure  Christianity,  has 
ever  found  its  fiercest  opponents  in  the  clois- 
ter ;  and  through  such  opposition  many  un- 
scriptural  practices  have  been  perpetuated 
both  in  the  Eastern  and  Western  Churches. 
Of  course  it  is  not  intended  to  ascribe  to  them 
all  the  corruptions  of  religion  ;  indeed,  we 
have  already  traced  the  origin  of  many  of 
these  to  a  period  preceding  the  creation  of 
monachism.  The  'vices  of  the  clergy'  are 
acknowledged  in  ecclesiastical  records  long 
before  the  prevalence  of  monastic  influence  ; 
and  it  seems  probable  even  that  the  traffic  in 
indulgences  finally  so  scandalous  to  the  Men- 
dicants, was  begun  by  the  bishops.  *  But  all 
existing  abuses  were  carefully  nourished  and 
fostered  by  the  hands  of  monks ;  and  the  ex- 
ecution of  miracles  and  other  popular  impos- 
tures was  conducted  with  peculiar  ingenuity 
and  success  by  the  inmates  of  the  monastery .f 
And  we  may  add,  that  the  lucrative  system 
of  Purgatory  was  by  them  most  zealously  sup- 
ported, as  indeed  the  wealth  which  flowed 
from  it  was  distributed  for  the  most  part 
among  those  establishments. 

In  early  ages  the  monks  were  the  subjects, 
and,  as  it  were,  the  army  of  the  bishops;  they 
maintained  their  rights,  they  fought  their  bat- 
tles, and  profited  by  their  protection.  In  the 
East  this  mutual  relation  long  subsisted  ;  and 
as  the  original  monasteries  were  expressly 
subjected,  by  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  to 
the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  and  as  many  were 
indebted  for  their  foundation  to  episcopal 
munificence  and  piety,  the  claims  were  just, 
and  the  connexion  natural.  But  in  the  Ro- 
man Church  it  was  violated  almost  by  the 
first  movements  of  papal  ambition. 

Exemptions.  In  the  year  601,  Gregory  the 
Great  J  (himself  for  some  time  the  inmate  of 

*  See  Mosheim,  vol.  ii.  p.  420.  We  may  remark, 
that  the  same  author  sometimes  distinguishes  the  regu- 
lar canons  as  more  exempt  from  the  vices  which  he  so 
indiscriminately  objects  to  the  other  monastic  orders. 

f  The  Carthusians  are  stigmatized  by  monastic 
writers  for  inferiority  in  that  power,  if  not  for  the 
entire  destitution  of  it.  The  consequence  is,  that, 
having  performed  few  or  no  miracles,  they  boast  very 
few  names  in  the  calendar  of  the  saints.  See  Hos- 
pinian,  lib.  v.  cap.  vii. 

|  Giannone,  Stor.  Nap.,  lib.  iv.,  cap.  xii.  Mos- 
heim, seemingly  overlooking  this  circumstance,  is 
disposed  to  attribute  the  growing  alliance  of  the 
popes  and  monks  in  the  eleventh  century  to  the  op- 
pression and  rapacity  of  princes  and  bishops.  (Cent, 
xi.  p.  2,  chap,  ii.)  Doubtless  there  were  instances 
of  this;  but  the  principle  of  the  alliance  was  of  much 
earlier  origin. 


MONASTIC  WEALTH. 


333 


a  monastery)  held  a  Council,  in  which  were 
passed  many  regulations  favorable  to  what 
the  monks  considered  their  independence. 
They  were  permitted  to  choose  their  own 
abbot ;  and  the  bishop  was  precluded  not 
only  from  all  interference  in  their  temporali- 
ties, and  all  exercise  of  jurisdiction  over  them, 
but  even  from  the  celebration  of  the  divine 
offices  in  their  churches.  From  this  event 
(if  from  any  single  event)  we  may  probably 
date  the  undue  aggrandizement  of  the  mon- 
astic order,  and  its  increasing  influence  on  civil 
as  well  as  ecclesiastical  politics.  But  in  inde- 
pendence it  only  so  far  gained,  as  to  exchange 
a  near  for  a  distant  master — a  petty  tyrant,  it 
might  be,  for  an  imperious  but  partial  despot. 
One  evil  effect  of  this  change  was  presently 
felt, — the  removal  of  the  bishop's  immediate 
superintendence  facilitated  the  progress  of 
abuse  and  licentiousness.  *  The  eighth  and 
ninth  ages  were,  in  truth,  the  most  triumphant 
era  of  monasticism.  f  Whatsoever  learning 
then  existed  was  confined,  or  nearly  so,  to 
the  convents ;  and  not  only  did  nobles  and 
kings  contest  with  each  other  the  honor  of 
endowing  them,  but  there  were  many  who 
took  refuge  there  in  their  own  persons  from 
the  miseries  and  dangers  of  a  turbulent  world. 
By  such  secession  they  conferred  the  security 
which  they  courted  ;  and  additional  sanctity 
seemed  to  surround  the  buildings  which  were 
dignified  by  the  retreat  of  great,  perhaps  even 
of  good,  men. 

Absolute  exemptions  from  episcopal  au- 
thority were  for  some  time  rare.  The  first 
instance  was  probably  that  of  Monte  Cassino, 
which  might  be  excused  by  its  vicinity  to 
Rome.  But  the  example,  though  sparingly 
imitated,  was  by  no  means  lost  on  following 
times ;  and  after  the  pontificate  of  Gregory 
VII.,  the  abbots  began  universally  to  claim 
the  immediate  protection  of  St.  Peter ;  and 
his  Vicar  was  seldom  slow  to  accord  it.  In 
process  of  time,  entire  congregations  of  mo- 
nasteries (the  Clunian,  for  instance,  and  the 


*  One  of  Charlemagne's  Capitularies  prohibited 
abbots  and  abbesses  from  keeping  fools,  buffoons,  and 
jugglers,  for  their  amusement.  But  this  implied  no 
particular  censure  on  the  monastic  orders,  since  we 
observe  the  same  prohibition  to  be  extended  to  bish- 
ops. 

t  Giannone,  lib.  v.  cap.  vi.  The  same  have  also 
been  considered  as  the  grand  periods  of  episcopal 
authority.  Both  may  be  true.  For  the  monasteries, 
though  in  some  cases,  and  to  a  certain  extent,  inde- 
pendent of  the  bishops,  were  not  yet  placed  in  rivalry 
with  them;  but  they  probably  made  common  cause, 
whenever  the  general  interests  of  the  Church  were 
concerned. 


Cis tertian)  were  included  in  a  single  exemp- 
tion ;  so  afterwards  were  the  Mendicant  Or- 
ders ;  and  finally  the  whole  monastic  body 
acknowledged  no  other  dependence  than  on 
the  Pope  *  alone.  The  abuse  was  at  length 
pushed  so  far,  that  even  a  private  clerk  might 
obtain — of  course  by  purchase — exemption 
from  the  control  of  his  bishop.  Undoubted- 
ly, during  the  eleventh,  twelfth,  and  thirteenth 
centuries,  the  Holy  See  derived  great  power 
from  the  sort  of  separate  hierarchy  thus  es- 
tablished ;  and  for  the  two  following  ages, 
when  ambition  became  less  its  ruling  spirit, 
and  avarice  more  so,  such  exemptions  became 
the  means  of  abundantly  gratifying  the  favor- 
ite passion.  But  in  the  excess  to  which  they 
were  then  carried,  they  shook  the  foundation 
of  papal  power,  by  inflaming  the  jealousy  and 
disunion  of  the  regular  and  secular  clergy  ; 
and  thus  they  mainly  tended  to  promote,  in 
due  season,  the  rise  of  the  Reformation,  and 
to  facilitate  its  progress. 

Monastic  Wealth.  Purgatory,  Indulgences, 
&fc. — At  the  same  time,  if  the  Popes  were  long 
supported  and  aggrandized  through  their  close 
connexion  with  the  monastic  Orders,  so  were 
they  very  sedulous  to  return  the  favor,  and  to 
enrich  those  Orders,  sometimes  at  the  expense 
of  the  secular  clergy,  hut  more  usually  by 
contributions  from  the  laity.  In  earlier  ages, 
the  profusion  of  kings  and  nobles  abundantly 
satiated  the  avarice  of  every  department  of 
the  church  ;  but  when  this  spirit  gradually 
expired,  and  new  Orders  were  still  every- 
where starting  up,  professing  poverty,  and 
clamorous  for  wealth,  it  became  necessary  to 
open  new  resources  for  their  nourishment. 
These  were  easily  discovered  in  the  fruitful- 
ness  of  superstition.  Purgatory  presently  as- 
sumed a  more  definite  shape;  and  it  was  no 
difficult  office  for  the  priests,  who  created  it, 
to  conduct  its  administration  and  economy 
Their  power  over  the  concerns  of  that  state 
was  believed  on  the  same  authority,  which 
had  established  its  existence.  This  grand  in- 
vention, with  the  devices  of  masses,  indul- 
gences, &c,  which  flowed  from  it,  extended 
its  influence  from  the  highest  even  to  the  low- 
est classes  of  the  people  ;    so  that  through 

*  The  papal  right  to  grant  these  exemptions  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  disputed.  Yet  it  rested  on  no 
better  foundation  than  a  Confused  notion,  confirmed 
and  augmented  by  the  Decretals,  that  there  were  no 
limits  to  that  authority.  We  should  observe,  that 
even  in  the  East  there  were  also  instances  of  the  di- 
rect dependence  of  monasteries  on  the  Patriarch;  but 
they  were  rare,  and  probably  in  faint  imitation  of 
the  practice  of  the  West. 


334 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


these  means  every  condition  of  society  be- 
came tributary  to  the  church.  The  monks 
enjoyed  a  very  great  share  in  the  profits  of 
this  "imposture.  During  the  tenth  and  elev- 
enth centuries,  the  reputation  to  which  they 
had  already  risen  was  so  much  augmented  by 
the  foundation  and  name  of  Cluni,  that  some 
are  disposed  to  date  their  triumph  over  the 
secular  clergy  from  this  period*  —  it  is  cer- 
tain that  the  attention  of  churchmen  was  from 
this  time  more  anxiously  directed  to  their 
temporalities  f  than  heretofore.  .  .  After 
the  institution  of  the  Mendicants,  the  lucra- 
tive J  departments  of  the  profession  were 
chiefly  committed  to  their  superintendence  ; 
and  it  was  especially  through  their  heedless 
abuse  of  favors,  as  heedlessly  lavished  on  them 
by  a  succession  of  necessitous  Popes,  and 
most  so  through  the  public  and  confessed  ve- 
nality of  indulgences,  that  the  deformities  of 
the  papal  system  became  generally  acknow- 
ledged and  execrated.  These  were  the  scan- 
dals which,  more  than  any  of  its  pretensions 
and  impostures,  awakened  the  indignation  of 
mankind.  And  thus  it  came  to  pass,  in  the 
fulness  of  time,  that  out  of  the  bosom  of  that 
very  order  which  had  been  most  instrumental 
in  supporting  papal  power,  and  corrupting 
the  very  corruptions  of  religion,  the  voice  of 
Providence  was  pleased  to  call  forth  the  great 
restorer  of  his  holy  church.  While  the  Ben- 
edictines were  reposing  in  their  luxurious 
edifices  —  while  the  Mendicants  were  openly 
prostituting  for  gold  the  offices  and  pretended 
solaces  of  religion,  the  progress  of  knowledge 
and  the  increase  of  corruption  prepared  the 
field  of  triumph  for  the  Saxon  reformer. 


*  It  is  probable  that  they  far  surpassed  the  secular 
clergy  of  this  time  in  austerity  and  even  in  real  piety 
of  life,  which  was  not,  indeed,  any  very  difficult  tri- 
umph. It  is  certain  that  they  now  began  to  apply 
not  only  to  study,  but  to  business,  which  the  seculars 
almost  equally  neglected.  Hence  the  succession  of 
five  monks,  who,  during  the  eleventh  age,  governed 
the  Church  for  fifty  years;  and  to  whom  Mosheim,  in 
his  unqalified  hatred  for  every  thing  monastic,  attri- 
butes almost  all  its  sins. 

f  Giannone  (Stor.  Nap.,  lib.  vii.,  cap.  v.)  remarks, 
that  censures  and  excommunications — those  spiritual 
weapons  which  hitherto  had  been  usually  employed 
for  the  correction  of  sin  —  were  from  this  period 
chiefly  directed  against  persons  who  plundered  or 
alienated  the  property  of  the  Church. 

t  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  French,  in  pur- 
suance of  their  constant  determination  to  preserve 
themselves  from  pure  papacy,  strongly  discouraged 
the  acquisition  of  property  in  Fiance  by  the  Mendi- 
cants, fairly  objecting  to  them  their  unequivocal  vow 
of  poverty. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

History  of  the  Popes,  from  the  Death  of  Inno- 
cent III.  to  that  of  Boniface  VIII. 

The  ardor  of  the  Popes  for  Crusades — its  motives  and 
policy — Honorius  III. — Frederic's  vow  to  take  the  cross, 
and  procrastination — Gregory  IX. — his  Coronation — he 
excommunicates  the  Emperor — who  thus  departs  for 
Palestine  —  Gregory  impedes  his  success,  and  invades 
his  dominions  —  their  subsequent  disputes — Innocent 
IV.  —  his  previous  friendship  with  Frederic  —  Council 
of  Lyons — various  charges  urged  against  Frederic — In- 
nocent deposes  Frederic  and  appoints  his  successor,  on 
his  own  papal  authority  —  Civil  war  in  Germany  —  in 
Italy — death  of  Frederic— his  character  and  conduct — 
his  rigorous  Decree  against  Heretics- — Observations  — 
Other  reasons  alleged  to  justify  his  deposition  —  this 
dispute  compared  with  that  between  Gregory  VII.  and 
Henry- — Taxes  levied  by  the  Pope  on  the  Clergy — Cru- 
sade against  the  Emperor — Exaltation  of  Innocent — his 
visit  to  Italy  and  intrigues — his  death — his  qualities  as 
a  statesman — as  a  churchman — expression  of  the  Sultan 
of  Egypt— Alexander  IV.— Urban  IV.— Clement  IV.— 
Introduction  of  Charles  d'Anjou  to  the  throne  of  Naples 
— Gregory  X.  —  his  piety,  and  other  merits  —  Second 
Council  of  Lyons — Vain  preparations  for  another  Cru- 
sade—  Death  of  Gregory  —  Objects  of  Nicholas  II. — 
Martin  IV. — Senator  of  Rome  —  Nicholas  IV.  diligent 
against  Heresy  —  Pietro  di  Morone  or  Celestine  V. — 
circumstances  of  his  elevation  —  his  previous  life  and 
habits — his  singular  incapacity — disaffection  among  the 
higher  Clergy — his  discontent  and  meditations— his  re- 
signation— Boniface  VIII. — his  excessive  ambition  and 
insolence — on  the  decline  of  the  papal  power — his  tem- 
poral pretensions  —  Sardinia,  Corsica,  Scotland,  Hun- 
gary— Recognition  of  Albert  King  of  the  Romans — and 
act  of  his  submission  — Philip  the  Fair  —  The  Gallican 
Church  —  origin  of  its  liberties  —  Differences  between 
Boniface  and  Philip— Bull  Clericis  Laicos — its  substance 
and  subsequent  interpretation  —  Affairs  of  the  Bishop 
of  Panniers — Bull  Auscuha  Fill — burnt  by  Philip — Con- 
duct of  the  French  Nobles — of  the  Clergy — of  Boniface 
—  Bull  Unam  Sanctam  —  other  violent  proceedings  — 
Moderation  of  Philip — further  insolence  of  the  Pope — 
Philip's  appeal  to  the  General  Council — William  of  No- 
garet — Personal  assault  on  Boniface — his  behavior  and 
the  circumstances  of  his  death. 

The  Church  of  Rome  had  now  so  habitually 
stained  herself  with  blood,  as  to  be  callous  to 
the  common  feelings  of  nature,  and  insensible 
to  the  miseries  of  mankind.  For  more  than 
a  century  she  had  employed  her  power  in 
promoting  the  destruction  of  human  life,  by 
the  most  senseless  expeditions:  and  as  the 
ruinousness  and  vanity  of  the  Crusades  be- 
came more  manifest,  she  seemed  to  redouble 
her  exertions  to  renew  and  perpetuate  them  ; 
for  she  thrived  by  contributions  levied  for 
this  purpose,  and  by  the  property  which  was 
thus  thrown  under  ecclesiastical  protection  ; 
and  she  gathered  strength  through  the  weak- 
ness of  monarchs,  and  the  superstition  of  their 
subjects.  Again,  after  Innocent  had  succeed- 
ed in  throwing  an  additional  outrage  upon 
humanity  and  reason,  by  converting  the  ma- 


THE  POPES  FROM  1216  TO  1205. 


335 


chine,  which  had  been  intended  against  the 
enemies  of  Christ,  into  an  engine  of  domestic 
persecution  and  torture,  it  became  more  than 
ever  the  interest  of  the  pope  to  keep  alive  a 
spirit,  which  might  so  easily  be  made  to  de- 
viate into  arbitrary  channels.  And  thus  the 
zeal  for  Crusades,  which  inflamed  the  breast 
of  Innocent,  passed  without  any  diminution 
into  those  of  his  successors.  Moreover,  it  is 
well  known  how  earnestly  the  holy  See  sup- 
ported the  interests  of  Frederic  II.  against 
Otho  IV.,  as  long  as  the  former  was  the 
weaker  party,  and  how  zealously  it  began  to 
raise  enemies  against  him,  as  soon  as  he  be- 
came powerful  ;  while  the  industry,  with 
which  it  renewed  and  prolonged  the  contests 
between  the  Guelphs  and  the  Ghibelines  — 
contests  which  lacerated  the  vitals  of  Italy  — 
furnishes  melancholy  proof,  that  its  interests 
were  even  at  this  time  associated  with  every 
principle  that  is  subversive  of  peace  and  bane- 
ful to  society  ;  and  that  it  pursued  those  inter- 
ests with  callous,  persevering,  uncompromis- 
ing obduracy. 

Honorius  III. — Innocent  III.  was  succeeded 
by  Honorius  III.,  a  native  of  Rome,  who  for 
four  years  had  been  governor  of  Palermo 
under  Frederic  II. ;  but  the  remembrance  of 
that  connexion  was  easily  thrown  off,  as  soon 
as  he  rose  from  the  condition  of  a  subject  to 
that  of  a  rival.  Frederic  had  made  a  solemn 
vow  to  Innocent,  to  engage  without  loss  of 
time  in  a  new  crusade  ;  and  on  his  coronation 
at  Rome,  in  1220,  he  renewed  that  promise 
with  still  greater  solemnity  to  Honorius.  In 
the  year  following,  instead  of  proceeding  on 
his  expedition,  he  appears  to  have  appointed, 
on  his  own  authority,  to  some  vacant  see  ;  in 
virtue,  as  he  maintained,  of  his  royal  right ; 
in  violation,  as  the  pope  asserted,  of  the  liber- 
ties of  the  church.  During  the  time  consumed 
in  this  dispute,  Damietta  fell  into  the  power 
of  the  Mahometans.  In  the  year  1223,  at  a 
council  held  at  Terentino  in  Campania,  the 
Emperor  renewed  his  oath  to  depart,  and  that 
within  the  space  of  two  years  ;  and  to  give 
earnest  of  his  sincerity,  he  espoused  the 
daughter  of  John  of  Brienne,  King  of  Jeru- 
salem. In  the  year  following,  that  he  might 
atone  to  the  church  for  his  continued  delay, 
and  evince  to  her  the  sincerity  of  his  affec- 
tion, he  published  some  savage  constitutions 
against  heretics,  which  we  shall  presently  no- 
tice. At  the  same  time,  in  a  long  letter  to 
the  Pope,  he  complained  of  the  general  indif- 
ference to  the  cause  of  the  Crusades,  which 
then  unfortunately  prevailed  throughout  Eu- 


rope. *  Some  disputes  with  the  Lombards 
formed  the  next  excuse  for  his  delay  ;  and  in 
1227  Honorius  died,  still  pressing  the  depart- 
ure of  the  monarch,  and  still  pressing  it  in  vain. 
*  Accession  of  Gregory  IX. —  Gregory  IX., 
who  was  nephew  of  Innocent  III.,  was  imme- 
diately raised  to  the  pontifical  chair,  with  loud 
and  unanimous  acclamation.  On  the  day  of 
his  coronation  he  proceeded  to  St.  Peter's, 
accompanied  by  several  prelates,  and  assumed 
the  pallium  according  to  custom  ;  and  after 
having  said  mass  he  marched  to  the  palace  of 
the  Lateran,  covered  with  gold  and  jewels. 
On  Easter  Day,  he  celebrated  mass  solemnly 
at  Sta.  Maria  Maggiore,  and  returned  with  a 
crown  on  his  head.  On  Monday,  having  said 
mass  at  St.  Peter's,  he  returned  wearing  two 
crowns,  mounted  on  a  horse  richly  capari- 
soned, and  surrounded  by  Cardinals  clothed 
in  purple,  and  a  numerous  clergy,  f  The 
streets  were  spread  with  tapestry,  inlaid  with 
gold  and  silver,  the  noblest  productions  of 
Egypt,  and  the  most  brilliant  colors  of  India, 
and  perfumed  with  various  aromatic  odors. 
The  people  chanted  aloud  Kyric  eleison,  and 
their  songs  of  joy  were  accompanied  by  the 
sound  of  trumpets.  The  judges  and  the  offi- 
cers shone  in  gilded  habits  and  caps  of  silk. 
The  Greeks  and  the  Jews  celebrated  the 
praises  of  the  Pope,  each  in  his  own  lan- 
guage ;  a  countless  multitude  marched  before 
him  carrying  palms  and  flowers  ;  and  the  sen- 
ators and  prefect  of  Rome  were  on  foot  at 
his  side,  holding  his  bridle — and  thus  was  he 
conducted  to  the  palace  of  the  Lateran. 

The  first  and  immediate  act  of  a  pontificate 


*  See  Fleury,  [list.  Eccle.  1.  78,  sect.  65,  where 
a  part  of  the  letter  is  quoted.  The  actual  restitution 
of  the  territories  of  the  Countess  Matilda  to  the  Ro- 
man See,  is  by  some  ascribed  to  this  Pontificate. 
Raynaldus  (ann.  1221,  Num.  29)  asserts,  that  the 
imperial  diploma  existed  in  the  Liber  Censuum  of  the 
Vatican  library  —  apud  Pagi.  Vit.  Honor,  iii.  Sect. 
xxx  i. 

f  This  description  is  very  faintly  copied  from  a 
life  of  Gregory  IX.  cited  by  Odoricus  Raynaldus; 
the  following  is  a  specimen:  Divinis  missarum  officiis 
reverenter  expletis  duplici  diademate  coronatus  sub 
fulgoris  specie  in  Cherubini  transfiguratur  aspectum, 
inter  purpuratam  venerabilium  Cardinalium,  Cleri- 
corum  et  Pradatorum  comititivam  innumeram,  insig- 
nibus  papalibus  prrecedentibus,  equo  in  phaleris  pre- 
tiosis  evectus,  per  almre  Urbis  miranda  moenia  Pater 
Urbis  et  Orbis  deducitur  admirandus.  Hinc  cantica 
concrepant,  etc.  etc.  See  Pagi,  Vit.  Gregor.  ix.,  s. 
iii.  Fleury,  1.  79.  s.  31.  There  seems  no  reason  to 
believe,  that  these  demonstrations  of  joy  or  ebullitions 
of  adulation  exceeded  the  customary  parade  of  the 
thirteenth  century. 


336 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


so  gorgeously  undertaken,  was  to  urge  the 
renewal  of  the  Crusades,  both  by  persuasion 
and  menace,  at  the  various  courts  of  Europe. 
The  forces  of  Frederic  were  already  collected 
at  Otranto,  and,  if  we  are  to  believe  some 
writers,*  the  Emperor  did  actually  embark, 
and  proceed  on  his  destination  as  far  as  the 
narrow  sea  between  the  Morea  and  Crete, 
when  a  dangerous  indisposition  obliged  him 
to  return.  It  is  at  least  certain,  that  he  once 
more  deferred  the  moment  of  his  final  depar- 
ture. The  Pope  was  infuriated ;  he  treated 
the  story  of  illness  as  an  empty  pretence,  and 
without  waiting  or  asking  for  excuse  or  ex- 
planation, instantly  excommunicated  the  Em- 
peror. This  took  place  on  the  29th  of  Sep- 
tember, within  six  months  from  his  elevation 
to  the  See ;  and  the  sword  of  discord,  which 
was  drawn  on  that  day,  had  no  secure  or  last- 
ing interval  of  rest,  until  the  deposition,  or 
rather  the  death  of  Frederic. 

The  Emperor  wrote  several  papers  in  his 
justification,  and  among  them  a  letter  to  Hen- 
ry III.  of  England,  containing  much  severe 
and  just  reproach  against  the  Roman  Church. 
'  The  Roman  Church  (such  was  the  substance 
of  his  upbraiding)  so  burns  with  avarice  that, 
as  the  ecclesiastical  revenues  do  not  content 
it,  it  is  not  ashamed  to  despoil  sovereign  Prin- 
ces and  make  them  tributary.  You  have  a 
very  touching  example  in  your  father  King 
John  ;  you  have  that  also  of  the  Count  of 
Toulouse,  and  so  many  other  princes  whose 
kingdoms  it  holds  under  interdict,  until  it  has 
reduced  them  to  similar  servitude.  I  speak 
not  of  the  simonies,  the  unheard-of  exactions, 
which  it  exercises  over  the  clergy,  the  mani- 
fest or  cloaked  usuries  with  which  it  infects 
the  whole  world.  In  the  meantime,  these  in- 
satiable leeches  use  honeyed  discourses,  sayiug 
that  the  Court  of  Rome  is  the  Church,  our 
mother  and  nurse,  while  it  is  our  stepmother 
and  the  source  of  every  evil.  It  is  known  by 
its  fruits.  It  sends  on  every  side  legates  with 
power  to  punish,  to  suspend,  to  excommuni- 

*  See  Giannone,  1.  xvi.  c.  6.  Sigonio  seguitd  la 
fede  di  Matteo  Paris,  il  quale  (ad  ann.  1227,  p.  286) 
scrisse:  '  Aniino  nimis  consternali  in  iisdera  navibus 
quibus  venerant  plusquam  40  armatorum  millia  sunt 
reversi.'  But  this  passage  more  probably  relates  to 
the  numerous  pilgrims,  who  had  actually  sailed  to  the 
Holy  Land  for  the  purpose  of  meeting  Frederic,  and 
who  immediately  returned  on  not  finding  him  there. 
Fleury  makes  no  mention  of  his  having  put  to  sea  at 
all  on  this  occasion;  but  Bzovius  asserts  —  'per  tri- 
duum  in  rnare  provectus  cursum  convertit  ac  se  neque 
maris  jactationem  neque  incommodam  valetudinem 
pati  posse  asseruit.'     Ann.  Eccles.  ad  ann.  1227. 


cate  ;  not  to  diffuse  the  word  of  God,  but  to 
amass  money,  and  reap  that  which  they  have 
not  sown.*  And  so  they  pillage  churches 
monasteries  and  other  places  of  religion,  which 
our  fathers  have  founded  for  the  support  of 
pilgrims  and  the  poor.  And  now  these  Ro- 
mans, without  nobility  and  without  valor,  in- 
flated by  nothing  but  their  literature,  aspire  to 
kingdoms  and  empires.  The  Church  was 
founded  on  poverty  and  simplicity,  and  no 
one  can  give  it  other  foundation  than  that 
which  Jesus  Christ  has  fixed.'  At  the  same 
time  the  Emperor  continued  to  prepare  for 
immediate  departure,  in  spite  of  the  sen- 
tence which  hung  over  him.  The  Pope  as- 
sembled a  numerous  Council,  and  thundered 
forth  a  second  excommunication  ;  and  in  the 
spring  following,  without  making  any  humil- 
iation, or  obtaining  any  repeal  of  the  anathema 
under  which  he  lay,  Frederic  set  sail  for  the 
Holy  Land. 

Frederic  II.  in  Palestine. — If  there  had  been 
a  shadow  of  sincerity  in  Gregory's  professed 
enthusiasm  for  the  liberation  of  Palestine, — 
if  he  had  loved  the  name  and  birth-place 
of  Christ  with  half  the  ardor  with  which  he 
clung  to  his  own  papal  and  personal  dignity, 
he  would  not  have  pursued  the  departed  Em- 
peror with  his  perverse  malevolence,  he  would 
not  have  prostituted  the  ecclesiastical  censures, 
to  thwart  his  projects  and  blast  his  hopes. 
Yet  he  did  so  :  his  mendicant  emissaries  were 
despatched  to  the  Patriarch  and  the  military 
orders  of  Jerusalem,  informing  them  of  the 
sentence  under  which  Frederic  was  placed, 
and  forbidding  them  to  act,  or  to  communicate 
with  him.  At  the  same  time,  provoked,  as 
some  assert,  f  by  a  previous  aggression  from 
Frederic's  lieutenant,  he  invaded  with  all  his 
forces  the  Apulian  dominions  of  the  Emperor. 
Under  these  adverse  circumstances,  Frederic 
made  a  hasty,  but  not  inglorious,}:  treaty  with 

*  In  1229,  Gregory  IX.  levied  an  exaction  of 
tenths  in  England  with  so  much  severity,  that  even 
the  standing  crops  were  anticipated,  and  the  bishops 
obliged  to  selfc  their  property,  or  borrow  money  at  a 
high  interest,  in  order  to  answer  the  demand.  Erat 
Papa  tot  et  tantis  involutus  debitis,  ut  unde  bellicam, 
quam  susceperat,  expeditionem  sustineret,  penitus 
ignorabat.  Matth.  Paris,  anno  citato.  Mention  is 
made  of  the  continual,  though  secret,  maledictions 
with  which  the  Pope  was  pursued. 

t  Fleury,  1.  79,  s.  43.     Giannone,  1.  16,  c.  6. 

f  The  possession  of  the  City  and  of  the  Holy  Se- 
pulchre was  secured  to  the  Christians,  while  the  Tem- 
ple (now  the  Mosque  of  Omar)  which  had  already 
been  desecrated  to  the  Mahometan  worship,  was  left 
in  the  possession  of  the  Saracens:  a  fair  arrangement, 
which  was  misrepresented  by  the  Pope  and  most  ec 


THE  POPES  FROM  1216  TO  1305. 


337 


the  Saracens,  and  instantly  returned  to  the 
defence  of  his  own  kingdom  —  a  measure 
which  became  the  more  necessary,  since  the 
Pope  had  issued  a  third  excommunication, 
releasing  his  subjects  from  their  oath  of  alle- 
giance.* We  do  not  profess,  in  this  peaceful 
narrative,  to  describe  the  details  of  military 
adventures,  or  to  trace  the  perplexed  and  faith- 
less politics  of  Italy.  We  must  be  contented 
to  add,  that  some  successes  of  the  Emperor 
led  to  a  hollow  and  fruitless  reconciliation ; 
that  this  again  broke  out  (in  the  year  1238) 
into  open  war,  which  lasted  till  the  death  of 
the  Pope,  three  years  afterwards.  The  period 
of  nominal  peace  had  been  disturbed  by  the 
constant  complaints  and  recriminations  f  of 
both  parties.  The  perusal  of  those  papers  is 
sufficient  to  convince  us,  that  if  both  had  some, 
the  Pope  had  the  greater,  share  of  blame;  and 
while  the  style,  which  the  prelate  assumes,  is 
that  of  an  offended  and  injured  protector  and 
patron,  the  language  of  the  Emperor,  though 
never  abject,  frequently  descends  to  the  bor- 
ders of  querulousness  and  humility. 

Innocent  IV. — The  cause  of  Frederic  gained 
nothing  by  the  death  of  Gregory,  since  he 
was  succeeded  by  Innocent  I  V.J  This  ex- 
traordinary person  (Sinibaldo  Fieschi,  a  Ge- 
noese) had  been  distinguished  as  cardinal  by 
his  attachment  to  the  person,  if  not  to  the 
cause,  of  the  emperor;  and  on  his  election  to 
the  pontificate,  the  people  of  Italy  indulged 
the  fond  and  natural  expectation,  that  the  dis- 
sensions which  blighted  their  happiness  would 
at  length  be  composed.  Not  so  Frederic  ;  for 
he  was  familiar  with  the  soul  of  Innocent, 
and  had  read  his  insolent  and  implacable 
character.  To  his  friends,  who  proffered 
their  congratulations,  he  replied,  that  there 
was  cause  for  sorrow  rather  than  joy,  since 
he  had  exchanged  a  cardinal,  who  was  his 
dearest  friend,  for  a  pope,  who  would  be  his 
bitterest  enemy .§     And  so,  indeed,  it  proved. 


clesiastical  writers,  and  restored  to  history  by  Gibbon 
and  Sismondi.     Rep.  Ital.  chap.  15. 

*  The  plea  which  he  gave  was  '  because  no  one 
should  observe  fidelity  to  a  man  who  is  opposed  to 
God  and  his  Saints,  and  tramples  upon  his  command- 
ments.' A  new  maxim  (as  Fleury  simply  observes,) 
and  one  which  seems  to  authorise  revolt. 

t  These  disputes  are  related  at  great  length  by 
Fleury,  liv.  81,  sect.  32,  &c. 

%  On  June  24,  1243.  Celestine  IV.,  in  fact,  in- 
tervened, but  died  on  the  sixteenth  day  after  his 
election. 

§  See  Giannone,  Stor.  di  Nap.,  lib.  xvii.,  c.  3, 
and  various  authorities  collected  by  Sismondi,  Rep. 
Ital.,  ch.  xvi. 

43 


On  the  occasion  of  an  early  and  amicable 
conference,  Innocent  refused  to  withdraw  his 
predecessor's  excommunication,  until  Freder- 
ic should  restore  all  that  he  was  charged  with 
having  plundered  from  the  Church.  The 
meeting  had  no  result ;  and  Innocent  present- 
ly repaired  to  France,  and  summoned  a  very 
numerous  council  at  Lyons. 

First  Council  of  Lyons. — As  soon  as  the 
members  were  assembled*  (in  1245)  Inno- 
cent, taking  his  throne,  with  Baldwin,  empe- 
ror of  the  East,  on  his  right  hand,  began  the 
proceedings,  by  conferring  the  use  of  the  red 
bonnet  on  his  cardinals  f — to  the  end  that  they 
might  never  forget,  in  the  use  of  that  color, 
that  their  blood  was  at  all  times  due  to  the 
service  of  the  Church.  At  the  same  time  he 
adorned  them  with  other  emblems  of  dignity, 
in  imitation  of  regal  pomp  and  state,  and  in 
scorn  (as  it  was  thought)  of  a  favorite  ex- 
pression of  Frederic,  that  a  Christian  prelate 
ought  to  emulate  the  meekness  and  poverty 
of  the  disciples  of  Christ.  He  then  opened 
his  discourse  respecting  the  defence  of  the 
Holy  Land,  and  of  other  states  at  that  time 
endangered  by  the  Tartar  invasion,J  and  con- 
cluded with  some  general  reproaches  on  the 
character  and  conduct  of  Frederic, — that  he 


*  See  Giannone,  lib.  xvii.,  cap.  3.  Sismondi,  Rep. 
Ital.,  ch.  xvi. 

f  Bzov.  Ann.  Eccles.,  ad  ann.  1245.  Giannone, 
loc.  cit.  Pagi.  vit.,  Inn.  IV.  sec.  xxxi.  investigates 
the  question  whether  this  dignity  was  conferred  at 
that  time,  or  two  years  later. 

X  Besides  the  affair  of  Frederic,  to  which  our 
account  in  the  text  is  nearly  confined,  the  first  Gene- 
ral Council  of  Lyons  professed  three  grand  objects. 
(1.)  To  assist  the  Latin  emperor  of  Constantinople 
against  the  Greeks.  (2.)  To  aid  the  emperor  of 
Germany  against  the  Tartars.  (3.)  To  rescue  the 
Holy  Land  from  the  Saracens.  For  the  attainment 
of  the  first  of  these  objects,  the  Pope  ordained  a 
contribution  of  half  the  revenues  of  all  benefices  on 
which  the  incumbents  were  not  actually  resident, 
(a  wholesome  and  admirable  distinction,)  placing  a 
still  higher  impost  on  the  largest;  also  of  a  tenth  of 
the  revenues  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  For  the  second, 
he  exhorted  the  inhabitants  to  dig  ditches,  and  build 
castles.  For  the  third,  he  commanded  the  priests, 
and  others  in  the  Christian  army,  to  offer  up  continual 
prayers,  moving  the  Crusaders  to  repentance  and  vir- 
tue. Besides  which  he  promised  a  twentieth  part  of 
the  revenues  of  benefices  for  three  years,  and  a  tenth 
of  those  of  the  Pope  and  his  cardinals.  He  likewise 
encouraged  all  who  had  the  care  of  souls  to  influence 
the  faithful  to  make  donations  by  testament  and  other- 
wise. The  decree  touching  the  levies  of  money  dis- 
pleased many  prelates,  who  openly  opposed  it,  de- 
claring that  the  Court  of  Rome  now  perpetually 
despoiled  them  under  that  pretext. 


338 


HISTORY  OF    THE  CHURCH. 


had  persecuted  the  pontiffs  and  other  minis- 
ters of  the  Church  of  God ;  exiled  and  plun- 
dered the  hishops  ;  imprisoned  the  clergy,  and 
even  put  many  to  a  cruel  death,  with  other 
similar  charges.  The  same  were  repeated  on 
the  next  day  of  meeting,  and  supported  and 
exaggerated  by  the  suspicious  testimony  of 
two  partial  and  intemperate  prelates.  On  both 
occasions  they  were  boldly  repelled  by  the 
emperor's  ambassador,  Taddeo  di  Suessa. 
After  the  delay  of  a  fortnight,  occasioned  by 
an  unfounded  expectation  of  Frederic's  ap- 
pearance in  person,  the  council  assembled  for 
the  third  time  ;  and  then,  after  premising  some 
constitutions  respecting  the  Holy  Land,  In- 
nocent, '  to  the  astonishment  and  horror  of  all 
who  heard  him,'  pronounced  the  final  and 
fatal  sentence  against  Frederic.  He  declared 
that  prince  deprived  of  the  imperial  crown, 
with  all  its  honors  and  privileges,  and  of  all 
his  other  states;  he  released  his  subjects  from 
their  oath  ;  he-  even  forbade  their  further 
obedience,  on  pain  of  excommunication,  and 
commanded  the  electors  to  the  empire  to 
choose  a  successor.  He  presently  recom- 
mended to  that  dignity  Henry,  Landgrave  of 
Thuringia.  For  the  kingdom  of  Sicily,  he 
took  upon  himself,  '  with  the  counsel  of  the 
cardinals,  his  brethren,'  to  provide  a  sove- 
reign. 

Deposition  of  Frederic. — Frederic  was  at 
Turin  when  he  received  the  news  of  this 
proceeding.  He  turned  to  the  barons,  who 
surrounded  him,  and,  with  deep  indignation, 
addressed  them.  'The  pontiff  has  deprived 
me  of  the  imperial  crown — let  us  see  if  it  be 
so.'  He  then  ordered  the  crown  to  be  brought 
to  him,  and  placed  it  on  his  head,  saying, 
'  that  neither  pope  nor  council  had  the  power 
to  take  it  from  him.'  Most  of  the  princes  of 
Europe  were,  indeed,  of  the  same  opinion, 
and  continued  to  acknowledge  him  to  the  end 
of  his  life.  And  we  may  remark,  that  the 
usurpation  of  Innocent  was  in  one  respect 
marked  with  peculiar  audacity, — he  did  not 
even  plead  the  approbation  of  the  Holy  Coun- 
cil, but  contented  himself  with  proclaiming 
that  the  sentence  had  been  pronounced  in  its 
presence.* 

Nevertheless,  his  edict  found  willing  obe- 


*  *  Sacro  prasente  Concilio.'  Bzovius  (Ann. 
Eccles.,  ad  ann.  1445)  gives  llie  precious  document 
entire,  prefaced,  of  course,  with  unqualified  eulogy. 
Pagi,  however,  (Vit.  Inn.  IV.,  sec.  xx.,)  argues, 
that  the  approbation  of  the  Council  was  implied  in 
its  proceedings,  if  not  actually  expressed  in  the  title 
of  the  sentence 


dience  from  the  superstition  or  the  turbulence 
of  the  German  barons.  Henry  was  supported 
by  numerous  partisans,  and  waged  a  prosper- 
ous warfare  against  Conrad,  the  son  of  Fred- 
eric ;  and  on  his  early  death,  William,  Count 
of  Holland,  was  substituted  by  the  Pope  as  a 
candidate  for  the  throne.  Innocent's  genius 
and  activity  suggested  to  him  the  most  refined 
arts  to  insure  success,  and  his  principles  per- 
mitted him  to  adopt  the  most  iniquitous.  He 
even  departed  so  far  from  the  observance  of 
humanity,  and  the  most  sacred  feelings  of 
nature,  as  to  employ  his  intrigues  to  seduce 
Comad  from  the  service  of  his  father,  into 
rebellious  and  parricidal  allegiance  to  the 
Church.  That  virtuous  prince,  rejecting,  with 
firmness,  the  impious  proposition,  replied,  that 
he  would  defend  the  side  he  had  chosen  to 
the  last  breath  of  life  ;  *  and  neither  the  Pope 
nor  the  Church  gained  even  a  temporary  ad- 
vantage by  an  attempt  which  covers  them  with 
eternal  infamy. 

His  death  and  character. — The  same  indus- 
trious hostility  which  had  kindled  rebellion 
among  the  German  princes,  was  exerted  with 
no  less  effect  among  the  contentious  states  of 
Italy.  The  Guelphic  interests  were  every- 
where strengthened  by  the  energy  of  Inno- 
cent ;  and  the  utmost  efforts  of  Frederic  were 
insufficient  to  restore  tranquillity  to  Germany, 
or  even  to  obtain  any  important  triumphs  over 
his  Italian  enemies.  He  died  in  Apulia,  in 
the  year  1250  ;  and  though  he  had  never  for- 
mally renounced  the  title  of  Emperor,  his 
deposition  was  virtually  accomplished  by  the 
edict  of  Innocent,  since  the  rest  of  his  life  was 
spent  in  uninterrupted  confusion  and  alarm, 
in  the  midst  of  battle,  and  sedition,  and  treason, 
without  any  enjoyment  of  the  repose  of  royalty, 
and  with  a  very  limited  possession  either  of  its 
dignity  or  authority.  The  character  of  Fred- 
eric nas  been  vilified  by  Guelphic  writers,  and 
probably  too  highly  exalted  by  the  opposite 
faction.  In  the  conduct  of  affairs  purely  tem- 
poral, he  is  celebrated  for  justice,  magnifi- 
cence, generosity,  as  well  as  for  the  patronage 
of  arts  and  literature.  Familiar  with  the  use 
of  many  languages,  and  himself  an  author, 
he  exhibited  that  disposition  to  cultivate  sci- 
ence, and  nourish  every  branch  of  knowledge, 
which  is  so  seldom  associated  with  great 
vices.  In  regard  to  his  long  and  complicated 
contentions  with  the  Church,  it  is  unquestion- 
ably true  that  he  violated,  without  any  known 
necessity,  certain  solemn  obligations  respect- 
ing  the  time  of  commencing   his  Crusade, 

*  Giannone,  Stor.  Nap.,  lib.  xvii.,  ch.  4. 


THE  POPES  PROM  1216  TO  1305. 


339 


His  reluctance  to  engage  at  all  in  sucb  san- 
guinary and  fruitless  enterprises  may  be  ac- 
knowledged and  justified;  but  his  repeated 
breach  of  faith  gave  some  reason  to  the  Holy 
See  for  suspecting  his  subsequent  promises. 
It  is  also  true  that  he  exiled  some  bishops, 
and  imprisoned  others,  and  even  proceeded  to 
greater  extremities  against  some  individuals 
of  the  inferior  orders  of  the  clergy  ;  and  also 
that  he  levied  contributions  and  imposts  on 
all  classes  of  his  ecclesiastical  subjects.*  But 
those  who  felt  his  rigor  may  probably  have 
deserved  it  by  moral  or  political  misconduct ; 
and  it  was  just  and  legal  f  that  the  clergy 
should  contribute  some  proportion  to  the  sup- 
port of  the  state.  It  may  seem  strange  that, 
while  his  adversaries  heap  upon  him  the  bit- 
terest charges  of  impiety  and  blasphemy,  J  his 
friends  persist  in  asserting  the  unalterable 
fidelity  and  affection  which  he  bore  to  his 
mother  church,  the  protectress  of  his  infancy  ; 
that  he  was  ever  eager  to  advocate  her  cause, 
and  promote  her  interests.  In  support  of 
this  singular  pretension,  it  is  advanced,  that 
he  was  the  inflexible  and  implacable  extirpa- 
tor of  heresy.  This  fact,  though  urged  by  his 
admirers,  is  not  disputed  by  his  enemies.  It 
is  faithfully  recorded,  that  at  an  early  period 
(in  1224)  he  published  three  constitutions, 
which  aggravated  the  guilt  and  punishments 
of  heresy  even  beyond  those  of  treason,  and 
placed  the  temporal  authorities  at  the  disposal 
of  the  ecclesiastical  inquisitors.  §    '  Those  (he 


*  Hence  (says  Giannone)  probably  arose  the  re- 
port, that  he  had  commonly  proclaimed  his  intention 
of  reducing  the  clergy  to  primitive  poverty;  '  so  that 
Matthew  Paris,  who,  before  Frederic's  deposition, 
had  always  adhered  to  his  party,  as  soon  as  he  under- 
stood that  such  were  his  common  expressions,  as  he 
was  himself  abbot  of  Monte  Albano  (St.  Alban's,) 
in  England,  and  wealthy  and  well  beneficed,  was  dis- 
pleased with  such  a  proposition,  and  so  began  to 
change  his  style,  and  to  write  against  hiin,  in  a  man- 
ner different  from  his  former.'  Stor.  di  Nap.,  lib. 
xvii.,  c.  4. 

f  Giannone  proves  that  such  had  been  the  invaria- 
ble custom,  at  least  in  the  southern  provinces  of  the 
empire  of  Frederic. 

J  One  of  these  is  the  celebrated  expression  respect- 
ing the  Three  Impostors,  then  commonly  attributed 
to  Frederic,  though  solemnly  and  publicly  denied  by 
him.  Another  is  a  tale,  recorded  by  certain  monks, 
that,  when  they  requested  him  to  spare  their  crop  of 
wheat,  Frederic  commanded  his  soldiers  '  to  desist, 
and  to  respect  those  ears  of  corn,  since  some  day  the 
grains  which  they  contained  might  become  so  many 
Christs.'  Giannone,  loc.  cit.,  on  authority  of  Simon 
Hanli,  Hist.  Germ,  in  Frederico  II. 

§  Several  authors  assert  that,  in  virtue  of  a  pro- 
mise made  to  Innocent  III.,  he  established  a  perma- 


ordained)  who  have  been  arrested  for  heresy, 
and  who,  being  moved  by  the  fear  of  death, 
are  desirous  to  return  to  the  Church,  shall  be 
condemned  to  the  penance  of  perpetual  im- 
prisonment. The  judges  shall  be  bound  to 
|  seize  the  heretics  discarded  by  the  inquisitors 
j  of  the  holy  See,  or  by  others  zealous  for  the 
Catholic  faith,  and  to  confine  them  closely 
until  their  execution,  according  to  the  sen- 
tence of  the  Church  .  .  We  also  condemn 
to  death  tbose  who,  having  abjured  to  save 
their  life,  shall  return  into  error.  We  deprive 
heretics,  and  all  who  abet  them,  of  all  benefit 
of  appeal ;  and  it  is  our  will  that  heresy  be 
entirely  banished  from  the  whole  extent  of 
our  empire.  And  as  the  crime  which  assails 
God  is  greater  than  that  of  treason,  we  ordain 
that  the  children  of  heretics,  to  the  second 
generation,  be  deprived  of  all  temporal  bene- 
fits, and  all  public  offices,  unless  they  come 
forward  and  denounce  their  parents.'  * 

Such  were  the  measures  by  which  an  inde- 
pendent, and  powerful,  and  (for  those  days) 
an  enlightened  monarch,  evinced  his  affection 
for  the  Church  of  Rome !  Such  were  the 
favors  by  which  he  courted  her  friendship, 
and  sought  to  merit  her  gratitude  !  by  feeding 
her  fiercest  passion  —  by  sanctioning  the  most 
fatal  of  all  her  evil  principles.  It  is  true  that 
Frederic  may  thus  have  established  some 
claims  on  the  sympathy  of  the  furious  zeal- 
ots of  his  time  ;  but  his  indulgence  to  those 
churchmen  was  no  deed  of  friendship  to  the 
Church.  To  protect  and  foster  the  vices  of 
a  system,  is  to  prevent  its  permanence,  and 
poison  its  prosperity  ;  and  if  ever,  during  his 
long  reign,  he  appeared  as  the  real  friend  of 
Rome,  it  was  the  time  when  he  least  profes- 
sed that  name — at  the  time  when  he  exposed 
her  abuses,  and  proclaimed  her  shame,  and 
called  upon  her  to  repent  and  amend.  And 
assuredly,  when  he  lent  his  obsequious  sword 
to  swell  the  catalogue  of  her  crimes,  he  was 
already  preparing  for  his  latter  years  the  tem- 
pest which  disturbed  and  tormented  them ; 
nor  did  it  happen  without  the  spirit  of  God, 
that  his  calamities  were  inflicted  by  that  same 
hand,  whose  darkest  atrocities  had  been  ap- 
proved and  directed  by  himself. 

It  is  strange,  too,  that  among  the  four  rea- 
sons by  which  the  Pope  justified  his  sentence 
of  deposition,  it  was  one,  that  Frederic  had 

nent  Inquisition  in  Sicily  in  the  year  1213.  Stor.di 
Nap.  loc.  cit.  This,  however,  is  scarcely  probable, 
for  the  Inquisition  was  not  at  that  time  permanently 
established  even  at  Toulouse. 

*  Fleury,  Hist.  Eccl.,  lib.  Ixxviii.,  sec.  Ixv. 


340 


HISTORY   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


rendered  himself  guilty  of  heresy,  by  his  con- 
tempt of  pontifical  censures,  and  his  unholy 
alliance  with  the  Saracens.  Thus,  then,  did 
that  prince,  according  to  the  strict  letter  of  his 
own  constitutions,  become  liable,  on  his  con- 
demnation by  the  Church,  to  the  monstrous 
penalties  contained  in  them. 

Disputes  between  Church  and  Empire. — An- 
other, *  perhaps  a  more  plausible  reason,  was 
this, — that  he  bad  been  deficient  in  that  fidel- 
ity, which  he  owed  to  the  Pope,  as  his  vassal 
for  the  kingdom  of  Sicily ;  for  that  claim, 
however  absurd  in  origin  and  principle,  had 
been  previously  asserted  and  acknowledged. 
But,  in  truth,  when  we  compare  the  character 
and  causes  of  this  second  conflict  between  the 
Church  and  the  Empire  with  those  which 
marked  the  contest  of  Henry  with  Gregory 
VII.  and  his  successors,  we  find  it  much 
more  difficult  to  discover  what  was  the  spe- 
cific and  tangible  ground  of  quarrel.  In  the 
former  instance  there  existed  one  grand  and 
definite  object,  for  which  both  parties  perse- 
veringly  struggled ;  in  the  latter,  many  vague 
complaints  and  indeterminate  offences  were 
advanced  and  retorted ;  but  no  single  great 
principle  was  avowedly  contested,  nor  was 
any  one  additional  right  or  privilege  acquir- 
ed or  confirmed  to  the  Church  by  its  final 
triumph.  Only  the  power  and  influence  of 
Rome  were  made  more  manifest ;  and  other 
nations  were  taught  to  tremble  at  the  omnipo- 
tence of  the  double  sword. 

This  leads  us  to  remark  another  distinction 
—  that,  in  the  contest  with  Henry,  it  was,  in 
reality,  the  Church  of  Rome  which  rose  in 
opposition  to  the  empire — the  spiritual,  or,  at 
least,  the  ecclesiastical,  interests  of  the  See 
were  those  most  consulted  and  most  promi- 
nent in  the  debate.  In  that  with  Frederic,  it 
was  rather  from  the  Court  of  Rome,  that  the 
spirit  and  motives  of  policy  proceeded.  In 
the  former  case,  the  material  sword  was  in- 
troduced as  secondary  and  subsidiary  to  the 
spiritual ;  but  in  the  latter,  if  the  contrary 
was  not  actually  the  case,  f  at  least  the  two 

*  See  Sismondi,  Rep.  Ital.,  ch.  xvi. 

t  In  the  year  1251,  Christianus,  (or  Conrad,) 
Archbishop  of  Mentz,  was  actually  deposed  by  Inno- 
cent, for  reluctance  to  use  arms  ni  the  defence  of  the 
Church.  '  He  said,  that  the  woi/<s  of  war  did  not 
become  the  sacerdotal  character ;  but  that  he  was 
ever  willing  to  use  the  sword  of  (he  spirit,  which  was 
the  word  of  God.  The  Scriptures  had  commanded 
him  to  put  his  sword  in  the  sheath.'  Of  this  offence 
(and  no  other  charge  is  mentioned)  he  was  accused 
by  the  king  and  certain  of  the  laity  before  the  Pope, 
and  was  immediately  degraded  from  his  See.  Pagi, 
Innoo.  IV.,  sec.  xlvii. 


weapons  were  so  dexterously  substituted  and 
interchanged  for  each  other — the  one  was  so 
continually  presented  under  the  holy  sem- 
blance of  the  other  —  as  to  show  the  profi- 
ciency which  the  See  had  latterly  made  in 
the  art  of  deluding  the  human  race. 

Again  —  the  avarice  or  the  necessities  of 
Rome  compelled  her,  during  these  disputes, 
to  a  measure  which,  however  expedient  at 
the  moment,  was  finally  very  injurious  to 
her  —  that  of  levying  taxes  rigidly  and  gener- 
ally upon  the  clergy.  It  was  not  in  England 
only  (though  there  most  successfully )  *  that 
Gregory  IX.  exacted  from  all  ranks  of  eccle- 
siastics the  tenth  of  their  movables  immedi- 
ately on  his  breach  with  the  emperor ;  and 
every  one  recollects  with  what  repugnance 
his  second  requisition  (in  1240)  was  admitted 
by  our  clerical  forefathers.  From  the  mo- 
ment that  the  Pope  was  found  so  infatuated 
as  to  publish  a  Crusade  f  against  a  Catholic 


*  The  pages  of  Matthew  Paris  abound  with  instan- 
ces of  pontifical  rapacity  and  insolence.  See  ad 
annos  1244,  1245,  1246,  1247,  1250,  1252,  &c.  . 
Sometimes  a  legate  a  latere  was  the  instrument; 
sometimes  the  Mendicants  acted  as  tax-gatherers ; 
and  even  Ireland  did  not  escape  their  visitations.  In 
1247,  the  complaints  both  of  the  French  and  English 
clergy  assumed  a  formidable  shape  for  that  age.  The 
lasting  effect  was,  that  the  former  devotion  to  Rome 
was  turned  into  '  execrabile  odium  et  maledictiones 
occultas.'  For  all  both  saw  and  felt  that  the  Pope 
was  insatiable  in  his  extortions,  to  their  great  loss 
and  impoverishment.  And  there  were  many  who  be- 
gan to  question  whether  he  had  really  received  from 
heaven  the  power  of  St.  Peter  to  bind  and  to  loose, 
seeing  how  very  unlike  he  was  to  that  apostle.  *  Re- 
solutum  est  igitur  os  iniqua  loquentium,  &c.'  .  . 
and  this  as  well  in  France  as  in  England. 

f  The  same  indulgences  were  promised  to  those 
who  armed  against  the  emperor  as  against  the  sultan  ; 
and  the  apostolic  preachers,  under  Innocent  at  least, 
even  pointed  out  the  former  as  the  easier  and  broader 
road  to  salvation.  Sismondi,  Rep.  Ital.,  chap.  xvi. 
Fleury,  Hist.  Eccl.,  lib.  Ixxxiii.,  sec.  xxxiii.  The 
nobility  of  France,  and  the  Queen  Blanche,  were 
highly  offended  by  this  measure  oflnnocent,  during 
the  Crusade  of  St.  Louis.  '  The  Pope  (they  com- 
plained) is  preaching  a  new  Crusade  against  Christ- 
ians for  the  extension  of  his  own  dominions,  and 
forgets  the  king,  our  master,  who  is  suffering  so  much 
for  the  faith.'  «  Let  the  Pope  (the  queen  replied) 
keep  those  who  go  into  his  service;  and  let  them  de- 
part, never  to  return.'  The  nobles  also  reprimanded 
the  Mendicants  who  had  preached  this  Crusade.  *  We 
build  for  you  churches  and  houses:  we  receive,  nourish, 
and  entertain  you.  What  good  does  the  Pope  for 
you1?  He  fatigues  and  torments  you  ;  he  makes  you 
his  tax-gatherers,  and  renders  you  hateful  to  your 
benefactors.'  They  excused  themselves  on  the  plea 
of  the  obedience  due  to  him.  .  .  Here  we  dis- 
cover the  elements  of  the  Gallican  liberties. 


THE  POPES  FROM  1216  TO  1305. 


341 


emperor,  and  to  feed  his  own  temporal  ambi- 
tion by  despoiling  his  faithful  Catholic  clergy, 
the  minds  of  all  reasonable  laymen  were  start- 
led and  revolted  by  the  former  outrage,  while 
the  hearts  of  the  clergy,  being  touched  by  the 
injustice  of  the  latter,  began  gradually  to  close 
against  so  rapacious  a  protector. 

Conduct  of  Innocent. — When  Innocent  re- 
ceived the  news  of  the  death  of  Frederic,  his 
exultation  broke  forth  without  restraint  or 
moderation; — 'Let  the  heavens  rejoice,  and 
let  the  earth  be  in  festivity ;  for  the  thunder 
and  the  tempest  with  which  a  powerful  God 
has  so  long  threatened  your  heads,  are  chang- 
ed by  the  death  of  that  man  into  refreshing 
breezes  and  fertilizing  dews.'  *  It  was  thus 
that  he  addressed  the  clergy  of  Sicily,  while, 
at  the  same  time,  he  prepared  to  reduce  that 
province,  together  with  the  kingdom  of  Na- 
ples, under  his  own  immediate  government, 
and  attach  it  in  perpetuity  to  the  dominions 
-of  the  Church.  In  pursuance  of  this  project, 
he  quitted  Lyons,  his  constant  residence  \ 
during  the  uncertainties  of  the  war,  and  vis- 
ited, in  a  sort  of  triumphal  procession,  the 
Guelphic  cities  of  Italy.  He  was  everywhere 
received  with  an  enthusiasm  which  he  had 
not  merited  by  any  regard  for  any  interests 
except  his  own  ;  and  he  is  even  supposed 
somewhat  to  have  chilled  the  misplaced  grat- 
itude of  his  allies  by  the  unexpected  assertion 
of  some  spiritual  pretensions  over  themselves. 
In  Sicily,  and  the  south  of  Italy,  he  succeeded 
in  creating  a  powerful  party  ;  but  it  was  over- 
thrown by  the  arms  of  Conrad  and  Manfred, 
the  sons  of  Frederic.  Foiled  by  force,  the 
Pope  had  recourse  to  intrigue ;  and  he  began 
to  treat  successively  with  the  kings  of  Eng- 


*  In  a  similar  spirit  of  Christian  forgiveness,  the 
same  Pope  is  related  to  have  expressed  his  exultation 
at  the  death  of  Grosstete,  bishop  of  Lincoln.  ■  I  re- 
joice; and  let  every  true  son  of  the  Church  rejoice 
with  me — that  my  great  enemy  is  removed.' 
Assuredly  that  admirable  prelate  had  gone  very  far 
in  disaffection,  not  hesitating  to  denounce  Innocent, 
almost  with  his  dying  breath,  as  Antichrist;  'For 
bv  what  other  name  are  we  to  designate  that  power, 
which  labors  to  destroy  the  souls  that  Christ  came  to 
save? ' 

t  On  the  departure  of  the  Pope  from  Lyons,  the 
Cardinal  Hugo  made  a  valedictory  address  to  all  the 
population  of  both  sexes;  and  it  contained  the  fol- 
lowing sentence: —  'Amici,  magnam  fecimus,  post- 
quam  in  banc  Urbem  venimus,utilitatem  et  eleemosy-. 
nam.  Quando  enim  primo  hue  venimus,  tria  vel 
quattuor  prostibula  invenimus.  Sed  nunc  receclentes 
unuin  solum  relinquimus.  Veruin  ipsum  durat  con- 
tiimat'iin  at)  orientali  parte  civitatis  usque  ad  occi- 
dentalem.'  This  is  related  as  fact  by  Matthew  Paris. 
Ad  aim.  1251. 


land  and  France,  with  a  view  to  bestow  the 
crown  of  the  Sicilies  on  a  branch  either  of 
the  one  family  or  the  other.  In  the  mean- 
time, the  death  of  Conrad  revived  in  him  the 
expiring  hope  of  uniting  it  to  his  own.  Am- 
bition resumed  her  sway  ;  and  he  broke  off 
the  imperfect  negotiations.  The  kingdom  of 
Naples  was  again  thronged  with  his  emissa- 
ries ;  seditions  were  in  every  quarter  excited 
in  his  favor  ;  and  even  Manfred  himself,  in 
the  belief  that  resistance  would  be  vain,  ad- 
vanced to  the  frontiers  to  offer  his  submission, 
and  deigned  to  lead  by  the  bridle  the  horse 
of  the  pontiff  as  he  crossed  the  Garigliano. 

This  event,  which  seemed  to  secure  to  the 
Court  of  Rome  the  throne  of  Naples  and  Sic- 
ily, and  thus  to  extend  its  dominions  beyond 
any  limits  which  it  had  at  any  time  reached, 
or,  till  lately,  aspired  to,  took  place  in  the 
summer  of  1254.  The  duration  of  this  un- 
natural prosperity  was  even  shorter  than  could 
have  been  predicted  by  the  most  penetrating 
statesman  ;  for  before  the  conclusion  of  the 
very  same  year,  Manfred  had  again  possessed 
himself  of  the  keys  of  the  kingdom.  But  In- 
nocent did  not  live  to  witness  this  second  re- 
verse ;  —  he  had  already  expired  *  at  Naples, 
in  mature  old  age,  and  in  the  confident  per- 
suasion that  he  had  achieved  the  dearest  ob- 
ject of  his  ambition,  and  that  he  died  tho 
most  powerful  prince  who  had  ever  filled  the 
throne  of  St.  Peter. 

The  Character  of  Innocent  IV. — During  a 
pontificate  of  eleven  years  and  five  months, 


*  Soon  after  Innocent's  death,  (of  which  the  exact 
day,  it  is  proper  to  remark,  is  disputed — Pagi,  Inn. 
IV.,  sec.  lxv.)  a  cardinal  had  the  following  vision. 
He  saw  a  noble  matron,  on  whose  brow  the  word  Ec- 
clesia  was  written,  present  her  petition  at  the  Judg- 
ment-seat, saying,  Justissime  Judex,  juste  judica.  She 
then  brought  forward  these  charges  against  Innocent 
IV.  (1.)  At  the  foundation  of  the  Church,  Thou 
didet  give  it  liberties  proceeding  from  Thyself;  but 
he  has  made  it  the  vilest  of  slaves,  (ancillam  vilissi- 
mam.)  (2.)  It  was  founded  to  benefit  the  souls  ol 
the  miserable; — he  has  made  it  a  table  of  money- 
gatherers.  (3.)  It  was  founded  in  Faith,  Justice, 
and  Truth; — but  he  has  staggered  Faith,  destroyed 
Justice,  and  clouded  Truth.  Justum  ergo  judicium 
redde  mihi.  Then  the  Lord  said  to  him,  Go  and  re- 
ceive thy  reward  according  to  thy  merits.  And  thus 
he  was  carried  away.  The  cardinal  then  woke, 
through  the  terror  of  this  sentence,  and  shouted  so 
loud,  as  to  excite  the  suspicion  of  insanity.  Ista 
visio  (continues  Matthew  Paris)  (nescitur  si  fantas- 
tica)  multos  perterruit ;  et  utinam  cum  eflectu  casti- 
gans  emendavit.  That  it  was  generally  propagated, 
and  perhaps  believed  at  the  time,  is  sufficient  to  prove 
to  us  (if  we  needed  indirect  proof)  what  was  the 
sort  of  reputation  which  Innocent  IV.  possessed 
among  his  contemporaries. 


342 


HISTORY   OF   THE  CHURCH. 


he  had  displayed  all  the  qualities  which  con- 
summate an  artful  politician,  and  which  dis- 
grace a  bishop  and  a  Christian.  As  a  states- 
man, he  designed  daringly,  he  negotiated 
skilfully,  he  intrigued  successfully;  he  per- 
fectly comprehended  the  means  at  his  dis- 
posal, and  adapted  them  so  closely  to  his 
purposes,  that  his  reign  presented  a  series  of 
those  triumphs  *  which  are  usually  designated 
glorious.  As  a  churchman,  he  bade  defiance 
to  the  best  principles  of  his  religion  ;  he  set 
at  nought  the  common  feelings  of  humanity. 
The  spiritual  guide  to  eternal  life,  he  had  no 
fixed  motive  of  action,  except  vulgar  temporal 
ambition.  'The  servant  of  the  servants  of 
God,'  he  rejected  with  scorn  the  humiliation 
of  Frederic,  f  and  spurned  a  suppliant  empe- 
ror, who  had  been  his  friend.  And  lastly, 
when  the  infant  son  of  Conrad  was  presented 
to  his  tutelary  protection  by  a  dying  father, 
the  prayer  was  haughtily  refused  ;  and  'the 
father  of  all  Christians,  and  the  protector  of 
all  orphans,'  hastened  to  usurp  the  hereditary 
rights  of  a  Christian  child  and  orphan.  These 
circumstances  duly  considered,  with  every 
allowance  for  times  and  prejudices,  seem, 
indeed,  almost  to  justify  the  expression  of  the 
sultan  of  Egypt,  in  his  answer  to  a  letter  of 
Innocent — the  taunt  of  a  Mussulman  addres- 
sed to  Christ's  vicar  upon  earth;  —  'We  have 
received  your  epistle,  and  listened  to  your  en- 
voy :  he  has  spoken  to  us  of  Jesus  Christ  — 
whom  we  know  better  than  you  know,  and 
whom  wc  honor  more  than  you  honor  him.'  J 

Alexander  IV. —  Alexander  IV.  succeeded 
to  the  chair,  to  the  passions,  and  to  the  pro- 
jects of  Innocent ;  and  it  was  the  leading  ob- 
ject of  his  reign  of  six  years  to  maintain  or 


*  We  should  mention,  however,  that  the  fall  of 
Frederic  is  not  wholly  attributable  to  Innocent's  in- 
fluence. A  very  strong  republican  and  anti-imperial 
spirit  previously  prevailed  in  many,  especially  the 
northern,  cities  of  Italy,  which  the  Pope  could  not 
have  created,  though  he  very  well  knew  how  to  avail 
himself  to  it.  Another  remark  we  may  here  make 
— that  Innocent  was  much  more  successful  in  foment- 
ing seditions,  and  making  parties  in  foreign  states, 
than  in  securing  the  subordination  of  his  own  capital. 
There  were  few  cities  in  Italy  where  he  had  less 
influence  than  at  Rome;  which  may  account  for  his 
continual  absence  from  it.  SeeSismondi,  Rep.  Ital., 
chap,  xviii.  Matthew  Paris,  Hist.  Anglise,  ann. 
1254. 

t  Sismondi,  Rep.  Ital.,  chap.  xvii. 

%  De  quo  Christo  plus  scimus  quam  vos  sciatis,  et 
magnificamuseum  plusquam  vos  magnificatis.  Bzov., 
Ann.  Eccles.,  ad  ann.  1264.  Matthew  Paris,  Hist, 
ad  ann.  eundem.  The  letter  is  a  very  sensible  com- 
position, and  deals  very  directly  with  the  subjects  on 
which  it  treats. 


recover  the  temporal  possession  of  the  king- 
dom of  Manfred.  But  he  possessed  neither 
the  firmness  of  character  nor  the  various  tal- 
ents necessary  for  success.  The  machine, 
which  had  not  always  moved  obediently  even 
to  the  hand  of  Innocent,  seemed  to  lose,  in 
his  feebler  grasp,  all  the  elasticity  of  its  action  ; 
and  it  became  evident,  before  the  end  of  his 
pontificate,  that  the  sceptre  of  Naples  and 
Sicily  was  not  destined  to  a  bishop  of  Rome. 
At  the  same  time,  Alexander  was  celebrated 
for  the  exercise  of  some  of  those  virtues, 
which  were  not  found  in  his  predecessor  — 
for  earnestness  of  piety,  or,  at  least,  for  assid- 
uity in  prayer,  and  the  strict  observance  of 
Church  regulations.  *  The  favors  which  he 
bestowed  upon  the  Mendicant  orders  will 
prove  his  zeal,  indeed,  rather  than  the  wisdom 
of  his  policy.  But  the  Crusade  which  he 
preached,  from  whatsoever  motive,  against 
Eccelino,  the  tyrant,  was  almost  justified  by 
the  crimes  of  that  miscreant ;  for  though  a  wac 
proclaimed  'in  the  name  of  God'  is,  in  most 
instances,  only  wickedness  cloaked  by  blas- 
phemy, yet  we  may  view  it  with  some  indul- 
gence, when  it  is  directed  against  the  convicted 
enemy  of  mankind. 

Urban  IV.  and  Clement  IV. — For  the  seven 
following  years  (from  1261  to  1268)  the  chair 
was  occupied  by  two  Frenchmen,  Urban  IV. 
and  Clement  IV.,  who  have  obtained  an  emi- 
nent place  in  civil  as  well  as  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory, by  the  introduction  of  Charles  of  Anjou 
to  the  throne  of  Naples.  Whether  from  per- 
sonal hostility  to  the  actual  occupant  of  that 
throne,  or  from  ecclesiastical  rancor  against 
the  son  of  Frederic,  or  from  a  political  de- 
termination to  cut  ofF  all  connexion  between 
the  south  of  Italy  and  the  empire,  or  from  all 
these  causes  united,  the  holy  See,  by  whom- 
soever administered,  did  not  remit  or  relax  its 
exertions  for  the  expulsion  of  Manfred.  The 
negotiations  with  the  court  of  France,  which 
Innocent  IV.  had  commenced  and  interrupted, 
were  renewed  and  concluded  by  Urban  IV. ; 
and  during  the  following  reign  of  Clement, 
the  Crusade  against  a  legitimate  and  virtuous 
monarch  was  completed  with  the  most  san- 
guinary success.  The  brother  of  St.  Louis 
supported  his  usurpation  by  the  same  merci- 
less sword  which  had  achieved  it ;  and  the 
historians  of  Italy  still  recount,  with  tears  of 


*  Alexander  IV.  is  thus  characterized  by  Matthew 
Paris; — Satis  benignus  et  bene  religiosus;  assiduus 
in  orationibns,  in  abstinentia  strenuus,  sed  sibilis 
adulantium  seducibilis  el  pravis  avarorum  suggestion 
ibus  inclinitivus.  Pagi  is  very  much  offended  by  the 
qualification  of  the  praise. 


THE  POPES   FROM  1216  TO  1305. 


343 


indignation,  the  more  than  usual  horrors  of 
the  French  invasion. 

But,  however  strong  this  Pope's  nationality 
may  have  been,  it.  did  not  cause  him  to  forget 
his  papal  interests.  The  conditions  which  he 
exacted  from  Charles,  on  investing  him  with 
the  crown  of  Naples,  contained  most  of  the 
claims  then  in  dispute  between  kings  and 
popes,  such  as  the  unqualified  appointment 
to  vacant  sees,  the  exclusive  care  of  the  tem- 
poralities during  vacancy,  and  even  the  aboli- 
tion of  all  pretensions  rising  from  the  regalia.* 

Gregory  X. — On  the  death  of  Clement,  the 
See  was  vacant,  through  the  disunion  of  the 
cardinals,  for  nearly  three  years.  At  length, 
in  1271,  an  Italian,  a  native  of  Piacenza,  was 
elected,  and  assumed  the  name  of  Gregory  X. 
—  'a  person  (says  Fleury)f  of  little  learning, 
but  of  great  experience  in  secular  affairs,  and 
more  given  to  the  distribution  of  alms,  than 
the  amassing  of  riches.'  He  was  in  the  Holy 
Land  at  the  time  of  his  appointment ;  and  as 
he  returned  with  a  keen  and  recent  impres- 
sion of  its  sufferings,  and  with  an  enthusiasm 
freshly  kindled  by  that  spectacle,  the  first  act 
of  his  pontificate  was  directed  to  the  revival 
of  the  crusading  ardor;  and  the  same  con- 
tinued to  the  end  of  his  life  to  be  the  favorite 
object  of  his  exertions.  He  was  successful, 
because  he  was  sincere.  Those,  who  cared 
not  for  his  reasoning,  listened  to  his  disinter- 
ested supplications ;  those  who  were  not  in- 
flamed by  his  enthusiasm,  still  respected  and 
loved  it.  It  was  no  longer  against  a  Christian 
sectarian,  or  a  Catholic  Emperor  and  his  per- 
secuted race,  that  the  monarchs  of  Europe 
were  called  upon  to  awn ;  it  was  no  longer 
for  the  peculiar  aggrandizement  of  the  Court 
or  Church  of  Rome,  that  the  father  of  Chris- 
tians summoned   them   to   battle ;  they  had 


*  See  Giannone,  Stor.  di  Nap.,  lib.  xix.,  cap.  v. 
In  a  Bull,  dated  in  1266,  he  declared  that  the  dispo- 
sition of  all  benefices  rightfully  belonged  to  the  Pope. 
The  claims  of  the  princes  were  supported  by  a  decree 
of  the  Council  of  Lyons.  See  Dupin,  Siecle  xiii  , 
sec.  x.  That  author  observes  generally  that  com- 
mendams  of  benefices,  and  the  distinction  between 
simple  benefices  and  those  with  cure  of  souls,  were 
the  introduction  of  this  age;  and  that  the  jurisdic- 
tion, privileges,  and  immunities  of  the  clergy,  were 
thus  extended  as  far  as  possible.  Pluralities  were 
strictly  prohibited,  and  commonly  enjoyed.  On  the 
other  hand,  ecclesiastics  were  compelled  to  contri- 
bute, not  only  to  the  real  or  pretended  necessities  of 
the  chinch,  but  frequently,  under  one  pretext  or  other, 
to  the  exigences  of  the  state.  Hence  their  murmurs 
and  discontent.  The  possession  and  enjoyment  was 
the  habit  and  the  right — the  contribution  was  novel 
and  vexatious. 

t  Hist.  Eccl.,  lib.  lxxxvi.  sec.  xvii. 


already  learnt  to  distinguish  between  the  in- 
terests of  the  Vatican  and  the  honor  of  Christ ; 
and  the  magic  which  a  spiritual  Pope  had  so 
long  exercised  over  the  human  mind,  lost 
much  of  its  fascination  and  power,  as  soon  as 
he  degenerated  into  a  temporal  prince. 

But  Gregory  X.  had  higher  and  less  am- 
biguous claims  on  the  gratitude  of  Christen- 
dom than  any  zeal  for  the  deliverance  of  Pal 
estine  could  possibly  give  him.  He  labored 
to  compose  the  dissensions  of  his  distracted 
country ;  to  heal  the  wounds  which  had  been 
so  wantonly  inflicted  by  the  selfish  ambition 
of  his  predecessors.  He  interposed,  impar- 
tially, and  therefore  not  vainly,  to  reconcile 
the  opposite  factions  of  Guelphs  and  Ghibe- 
lines  ;  *  and  exhibited  to  them  the  new  and 
venerable  spectacle  of  a  pacific  Pope.  He  in- 
terposed too  in  the  affairs  of  the  empire  ;  but 
it  was  again  for  the  purpose  of  terminating  a 
division  which  threatened  the  peace  of  Ger- 
many ;  and  he  proved  the  sincerity  of  his  in- 
tention by  confirming  the  election  of  Rodolph, 
who  had  secured  and  deserved  the  affections 
of  his  people.  Another  project,  on  which  he 
was  bent  with  like  earnestness,  had  the  same 
respectable  character, — the  reconciliation  of 
the  Greek  and  Latin  Churches ;  and  in  this 
difficult  affair  he  also  obtained  a  complete 
(though  very  transient)  success,  by  the  con- 
cessions of  the  Emperor  P.Iichael,  and  the 
temporary  or  nominal  submission  of  his 
Church. 

Tke  Second  Council  of  Lyons. — It  was  at 
the  second  Council  of  Lyons,  that  the  deputies 

*  Leonardus  Aretinus  (Hisior.  Florent.  lib.  iii.  p. 
48,  edit.  Argent,  1610)  bears  ample  testimony  to  the 
sanctity  and  pacific  character  of  Gregory,  and  details 
the  circumstances  of  his  attempt  to  reconcile  parties 
at  Florence.  The  following  is  given  as  part  of  his 
address  to  the  citizens: — Qua?  est  igitur  hrec  tarn 
prsepotens  causal  Quod  Guelphus  est  (inquit)  aut 
Gibellinus — nomina  ne  ipsis  quidem  qui  ilia  proferunt 
nota! — Ea  niniiruin  causa  est  cur  cives  necantur,  do- 
inus  incenduntur,  evertitur  patria,  sititur  proximi 
sanguis.  Oh  puerilein  stultitiam  !  oh  amentiam  non 
ferendam  !  Gibellinus  est — at  Christianus,  at  civis, 
at  proximus,  at  consanguineus.  Ergo  hiec  tot  et  tarn 
valida  conjunctionis  nomina  Gibellinis  succumbent'? 
Et  id  unuin  atque  inane  nomen  (nam  quid  significet 
nemo  intelligit)  plus  valebit  ad  odium,  quara  ista 
omnia  tarn  praeclata  et  tain  solida  et  expressa  ad  cari- 
tatem,&c.  These  sentiments  (the  historian  adds) 
were  grateful  to  the  multitude,  but  displeased  the 
aristocracy.  The  Pope  was  then  obliged  to  lay  the 
city  under  an  interdict;  and  his  admirable  intentions 
involved  him  in  an  obstinate  contest  with  the  nobles. 
But  any  doubts  which  might  still  remain  respecting 
his  sanctity  were  removed  (as  Leonardus  gravely 
asserts)  by  the  numerous  miracles  performed  at  hi* 
tomb. 


344 


HISTORY    OF    THE    CHURCH. 


of  the  East  presented  their  faithless  homage 
to  the  Roman  pontiff.  But  that  prelate  had 
two  other,  and,  perhaps,  dearer  objects,  in  the 
summoning  of  that  vast  assembly.*  The  one 
was  to  complete  the  preparations  for  this  long- 
projected  Crusade ;  the  other  was  the  Worthier 
of  his  wisdom,  and  even  of  his  piety  —  to  re- 
form the  obnoxious  abuses  of  his  Church.  In 
the  course  of  the  six  sessions  of  the  Council, 
thirty-one  constitutions  were  enacted  for  the 
better  administration  of  the  Church,  and  they 
did  honor  at  least  to  the  intentions  of  those 
who  promulgated  them.  Some  eight  or  ten 
of  these  related  to  the  election  of  bishops ; 
several  others  to  cures  and  benefices,  to  the 
discipline  or  temporalities  of  the  Church. 
Another  (the  21st)  was  levelled  against  the 
unlimited  growth  of  Mendicant  orders;  dis- 
banding all,  which  had  not  formally  received 
the  papal  confirmation,  and  discouraging  the 
foundation  of  others.  But  that  among  the 
acts  of  this  assembly,  which  was  at  the  time 
the  most  celebrated,  and  perhaps  in  effect  the 
most  permanent,  was  the  law  which  regulated 
the  method  of  papal  election,  by  severe  re- 
straints imposed  upon  the  conclave.f  It  was 
then  enacted,  that  the  cardinals  should  be 
lodged  in  one  chamber,  without  any  separa- 
tion of  wall  or  curtain,  or  any  issue — that  the 
chamber  should  be  so  closed  on  every  side, 
as  to  leave  no  possibility  of  entrance  or  exit. 
'  No  one  shall  approach  them  or  address  them 
privately,  unless  with  the  consent  of  all  pres- 
ent, and  on  the  business  of  the  election.  The 
conclave  (properly  the  name  of  the  chamber) 
shall  have  one  window,  through  which  neces- 
sary food  may  be  admitted,  without  there  be- 
ing space  for  the  human  body  to  enter.  And 
if  (which  God  forbid)  in  three  days  after  their 
entrance  they  shall  not  yet  have  come  to  a 
decision,  for  the  fifteen  following  days  they 
shall  be  contented  with  a  single  dish,  as  well 
for  dinner  as  for  supper.  But  after  these 
fifteen  days  they  shall  have  no  other  nourish- 
ment than  bread,  wine  and  water,  until  the 
election  shall  be  made.     During  the  election, 


*  Five  hundred  bishops,  seventy  mitred  abbots, 
and  a  thousand  inferior  clergy  and  theologians  com- 
posed this  Council,  assembled  in  1274.  The  legates 
of  Michael  the  Greek  Emperor,  and  of  the  King  of 
the  Tartars  were  present.  Also  the  ambassadors  of 
France,  Germany,  England,  Sicily,  &c,  and  one 
Prince,  James  of  Arragon.     Pagi,  Greg,  x.,  s.  xxv. 

t  Pagi,  Vit.  Greg.  X.  sect.  xli.  Fleury,  Iiv. 
lxxxvi.,  sect.  xlv.  It  was  quite  obvious  that,  as  men 
and  cardinals  are  constituted,  these  regulations  could 
not  be  enforced  rigorously.  But  with  some  modifi- 
cations they  subsist  even  to  this  moment. 


they  shall  receive  nothing  from  the  apostol- 
ical chamber,  nor  any  other  revenues  of  the 
Roman  Church.' 

Intended  Crusade,  and  Death  of  Gregory. — 
The  expedition  to  Palestine  gave  promise  of 
the  most  favorable  issue.  The  Emperor  Ro- 
dolph  had  engaged  to  conduct  it ;  Philip  the 
Hardy,  King  of  France,  Edward  of  England, 
James  of  Arragon,  and  Charles  of  Sicily,  had 
pledged  their  faith  to  attend  it :  supplies  had 
been  secured  by  the  universal  imposition  of  a 
tax  on  Ecclesiastical  property ;  and  the  fol- 
lowing year  was  devoted  to  the  necessary 
preparations.  At  the  end  of  that  year,*  before 
one  galley  had  departed,  or  perhaps  one  sol- 
dier embarked,  the  Pope  himself  fell  sick  and 
died.  From  that  moment  (says  Sismondi) 
the  kings  into  whom  he  had  inspired  his  en- 
thusiasm, renounced  their  chivalrous  projects  ; 
the  Greeks  returned  to  their  schisms,  and  the 
Catholics,  divided  afresh,  turned  against  each 
other  those  arms  which  they  had  consecrated 
to  the  deliverance  of  Palestine. 

Nicholas  III. — The  short  reigns  of  Innocent 
V.,  Adrian  V.  and  John  XXL,  were  not  dis- 
tinguished by  any  memorable  event.  Nich- 
olas III.,  a  Roman  of  the  family  of  theUrsini, 
succeeded  in  1277,  and  devoted  himself  with 
great  prudence  and  success,  not  so  much  to 
enlarge  the  temporal  edifice  of  his  church,  as 
to  secure  the  foundations  on  which  it  stood. 
For  that  purpose  he  resumed  some  negotia- 
tions, commenced  by  Gregory  X.  at  Lyons, 
with  Rodolph,  King  of  the  Romans,  and 
brought  them  to  so  fortunate  a  termination, 
that  that  prince  finally  satisfied  all  the  dona- 
tions of  preceding  Emperors,  and  recognised 
the  cities  of  the  ecclesiastical  states,  as  being 
absolutely  independent  of  himself,  and  owing 
their  entire  allegiance  to  the  Pope.  Nicholas 
had  another  object  of  jealousy  in  the  increas- 
ing power  of  Charles,  King  of  Sicily,  and  he 
had  the  address  f  to  engage  that  prince  to  re- 
sign two  very  important  dignities,  which  he 
had  probably  acquired  through  the  subservi- 
ence of  Clement  IV.  One  was  the  office  of 
Imperial  Vicar-general  in  Tuscany  ;  the  other 
was  that  of  Senator  of  Rome.  We  have  al- 
ready had  occasion  to  mention  the  inefficacy 
of  the  Pope's  civil  authority  in  his  own  capi- 
tal ;  and  this  had  lately  been  subjected  even 
to  additional  insult  by  the  frequent  appoint- 


*  In  January,  1276. 

■f-  The  art  with  which  he  played  off  the  Emperor 
and  King  of  Sicily  against  each  other,  until  he  ob- 
tained all  that  he  required  from  both,  was  worthy  of 
the  most  refined  ages  of  papal  diplomacy.  See  Sis- 
mondi, Rep.  Ital.  chap.  xxii.  ann.  1277,  1278. 


THE  POPES  FROM  1216  TO  1305. 


34i 


ment  of  foreigners  J;o  the  highest  offices. 
Pope  Nicholas  published  a  constitution  to 
prevent  the  recurrence  of  this  evil,  and  to 
limit  the  time  of  possession  to  one  year. 

It  is  worth  remarking,  that,  in  defence  of 
his  temporal  sovereignty,  as  well  over  the 
states,  as  over  the  city,  of  Rome,  he  appealed 
to  the  immovable  foundations  on  which  he 
conceived  them  to  rest.  In  favor  of  the  first, 
he  pleaded  the  donations  of  Lewis  the  Meek, 
and  the  confirmations  of  Otho  I.  and  St. 
Henry  ;  *  in  favor  of  the  second,  the  '  Dona- 
tion of  Constantine  ;'  and  he  maintained,  that 
the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope  and  his 
Cardinals  was  absolutely  necessary  for  the 
free  exercise  of  their  spiritual  functions.  He 
reigned  only  two  years  and  nine  months :  he 
is  commonly  described  as  possessing  many 
good  qualities ;  and  we  read  of  no  other  seri- 
ous charge  against  him,  than  that  he  heaped 
upon  his  greedy  relatives  and  connexions  the 
most  splendid  benefices  of  the  church,  with 
unmerited  and  shameless  profusion. 

Martin  IV.  —  The  King  of  Sicily  was  suc- 
cessful in  procuring  the  election  of  a  French- 
man, Martin  IV.,  who  is  chiefly  remarkable 
in  history  for  his  entire  subservience  to  the 
interests  of  his  patron.  In  violation  of  both 
the  clauses  of  the  constitution  of  Nicholas,  he 
accepted  the  office  of  Senator,  and  held  it  for 
life.  As  this  was  the  first  instance  of  such 
condescension  on  the  part  of  St.  Peter's  suc- 
cessors, it  has  not  escaped  the  notice  of  the 
historian.  And  if  indeed  the  claims  on  the 
temporal  sovereignty  of  Rome,  which  they 
had  asserted  for  above  two  centuries,  had 
been  well  founded,  it  would  have  been  a 
strange  and  unprecedented  degradation  for  a 
sovereign  prince  to  exercise  a  simple  magis- 
tracy in  his  own  city,  f  But  Martin  was 
probably  less  disposed  to  examine  the  remote 
and  general  question  of  right,  than  to  avail 
himself  of  the  substantial  power  thus  firmly 
vested  in  his  own  person. 

He  enjoyed  his  dignity  for  a  very  short  time, 
though  sufficient  to  make  him  witness  of  the 


*  Floury,  liv.  lxxxvii.,  sect.  xv.  and  xvi. 

\  Sismondi  (chap,  xxii.)  asserts  that  he  immedi- 
ately transferred  his  dignity  to  Charles,  following 
Jordanus,  apud  Raynaldum,  and  other  authorities. 
The  words  of  the  appointment  sufficiently  express  the 
extent  of  the  power  conferred.  *  Nobiles  viri  .  . 
Electores  ordinati  .  .  .  domino  Martino  Papa?  IV. 
unanimiter  et  concorditer  transtulcrunt  et  plenarie 
commiscrunt  regimen  senatus  Urbis, ejusque  territorii 
et  districtus  toto  tempore  vitae  sua?:  et  dederunt  sibi 
plenam  et  liberam  potestatem  regendi  toto  tempore 
Urbem  .  .  .  per  se,  vel  per  aliuiri,  vol  prr  alios,  et 
eligendi  senatorem,  vel  senatora-/  &c.  &c. 
44 


'  Sicilian  Vespers,'  and  the  misfortunes  of  his 
countrymen.  He  was  buried  in  the  Church 
of  St.  Lawrence,  and  many  sick  were  healed 
at  his  tomb,  in  the  presence  of  vast  numbers 
of  the  clergy  and  laity, — according  to  the  evi- 
dence of  a  contemporary  author,  who  affirms 
that  those  miracles  still  lasted  while  he  was 
writing,  which  was  six  weeks  after  the  de- 
cease of  the  pontiff.*  The  mention  of  these 
impostures  is  so  common,  eveu  in  the  pages 
of  the  most  enlightened  Catholic  historians, 
that  we  are  not  justified  in  passing  them  over 
in  entire  silence.  In  fact,  they  formed  so  es- 
sential a  part  of  the  Roman  Catholic  system, 
that  we  should  do  injustice  to  its  whole  charac- 
ter, if  we  were  not  occasionally  to  notice  them. 

Martin  was  succeeded  by  a  noble  Roman, 
Honorius  IV. ;  and  he,  by  another  native  of 
the  Roman  states,  Nicholas  IV.,  who  was 
elected  in  1288.  The  claims  of  this  Pope  on 
historical  notice,  are  confined  to  some  diligent 
but  almost  hopeless  exertions  to  excite  the 
princes  of  Europe  to  another  Crusade  ;  and  to 
some  as  zealous  and  as  fruitless  efforts  for  the 
extirpation  of  heresy.  In  1288,  he  stimulated 
his  Mendicant  emissaries  to  peculiar  diligence 
both  in  Italy  and  Provence,  and  put  in  prac- 
tice a  somewhat  singular  method  for  securing 
the  orthodoxy  of  his  people.f  He  obliged  the 
converted  heretic  to  be  bound  in  a  pecuniaiy 
recognizance  against  relapse,  and  to  find  suf- 
ficient securities  for  payment.  Avarice  was 
scarcely  become  even  yet  the  ruling  passion 
of  the  Vatican ;  but  since  the  sway  of  Inno- 
cent III.,  it  had  been  rapidly  gaining  ground  ; 
and  the  edict  of  Nicholas  gives  fearful  indica- 
tions of  its  progress.  In  the  year  following, 
an  ordinance  was  published  at  Venice,  for  the 
purpose  of  facilitating  the  operations  of  the 
Inquisition;  and  it  was  approved  and  con- 
firmed by  the  pontiff. 

Election  of  Pietro  di  Morone,  or  Celestine  V. 
—  Nicholas  died  soon  afterwards;  and  the 
history  of  his  successor  is  distinguished  by  so 
many  strange  circumstances  from  the  ordina- 
ry annals  of  papal  biography,  that  it  mayafford 
relief  as  well  as  advantage  to  unfold  its  par- 
ticulars. Through  the  disunion  of  the  cardi- 
nals, the  See  had  already  been  vacant  for 
seven-and-twenty  months,   and  no  progress 


*  Fleury,  liv.  Ixxxviii.,  sect.  xvi.  Both  Martin 
and  his  predecessor  were  extremely  attached  to  the 
Franciscan  Order. 

f  The  idea  was  not  original.  .  Instructions  to  the 
same  effect  were  given  to  the  Minorites  by  Alexander 
IV.  in  125S.  It  was  then  provided,  that  the  money 
so  raised  should  be  employed  in  the  prosecution  of 
heretics. 


346 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


seemed  yet  to  have  been  made  towards  the 
decision.  They  were  still  assembled  in  con- 
clave, and  still  without  any  prospect  of  imme- 
diate accommodation,  when,  on  some  day  in 
the  beginning  of  July,  1294,  one  of  their  num- 
ber was  prevented  from  attending  the  delib- 
eration by  the  sudden  and  violent  death  of 
his  brother.  By  this  casual  occurrence,  the 
thoughts  of  the  venerable  society  were  direct- 
ed to  man's  mortality ;  and  their  reflections 
assumed  a  serious  and  solemn  character.  At 
length,  returning  to  the  subject  before  them, 
the  bishop  of  Tusculum  asked  with  vehe- 
mence, '  Why  then  delay  we  so  long  to  give 
a  head  to  the  Church  ?  whence  this  division 
among  us?'  To  which  Cardinal  Latino  add- 
ed, '  It  has  been  revealed  to  a  holy  man,  that 
unless  we  hasten  to  the  election  of  a  Pope,  in 
less  than  four  months  the  anger  of  God  will 
burst  upon  us.'  Hereupon,  Benedict  Gaiet- 
ano,  (the  same  who  was  afterwards  Boniface 
VIII.)  sarcastically  smiled  and  said,  'It  is 
brother  Pietro  di  Morone,  to  whom  that  rev- 
elation has  been  vouchsafed  ?  '  Latino  ans- 
wered, '  The  same  ;  he  has  written  to  me  that, 
when  engaged  in  his  nocturnal  devotions  be- 
fore the  altar,  he  had  received  the  command 
of  God  to  communicate  this  warning.'  Then 
the  cardinals  began  to  discourse  of  what  they 
knew  concerning  that  holy  man.  One  dwelt 
on  the  austerity  of  his  life,  another  on  his 
virtues,  another  on  his  miracles :  presently 
some  one  proposed  him  as  a  candidate  for  the 
See ;  and  a  discussion  immediately  arose  on 
that  question. 

The  debate  was  of  very  short  duration,  for 
reason  had  given  place  to  passionate  emotion, 
and  passion  was  mistaken  for  inspiration. 
Cardinal  Latino  first  gave  his  suffrage  for 
Pietro  di  Morone :  his  example  was  eagerly 
followed  by  his  colleagues,  and  the  sudden 
and  ardent  unanimity  of  the  conclave  was 
attributed  to  the  immediate  impulse  of  the 
divinity.* 

Its  choice  had  fallen  upon  a  weak  and  aged 
recluse,  whose  life  had  been  devoted  to  the 
most  rigorous  observances  of  superstition,  and 
whose  inveterate  habits  of  solitary  meditation 
disqualified  him  for  the  commonest  offices  of 


*  A  suspicious  historian  would  perhaps  except 
Benedict  Gaietano  from  the  charge  of  superstitious 
enthusiasm.  Possibly  even  then  he  proposed  to  profit 
by  the  weaknesses  of  Pietro ;  but  he  could  scarcely 
have  considered  them  as  the  object  of  God's  especial 
interposition ;  or  have  believed  that  an  old  man,  who 
had  not  hitherto  filled  any  office  in  society,  had  been 
selected  by  the  especial  favor  of  Providence  to  occupy 
the  highest. 


society.  His  very  name  was  derived  from 
the  mountain  top  where  his  existence  had 
passed  away.  The  cave  in  which  he  dwelt 
had  been  the  refuge  of  a  dragon,  who  obse- 
quiously resigned  it  to  his  human  successor  ; 
and  we  are  seriously  assured,  that  his  infancy 
had  been  the  object  of  that  miraculous  agency, 
which  he  so  profusely  exercised  in  his  later 
years ;  and  that  even  at  his  entrance  into  this 
polluted  world,  he  was  protected  by  the  sem- 
blance, or  the  reality,  of  the  monastic  habit.* 
The  deputies  proceeded  to  announce  to  him 
the  astounding  change  in  his  fortune.  They 
arrived  at  the  city  of  Sulmone,  and  having 
received  permission  to  present  themselves, 
ascended  with  toil  and  sweat  the  narrow  and 
rugged  path,  which  led  through  a  desolate 
wilderness  to  the  cell  they  sought.  The  cell 
was  closed  against  them,  and  they  were  com- 
pelled to  make  their  communication  through 
a  small  grated  window.  Through  the  inter- 
stices they  beheld  a  pale  old  man,  attenuated 
with  fasting  and  macerations,  with  a  beard 
dishevelled,  and  eyes  inflamed  with  tears, 
trembling  with  the  agitation  into  which  the 
awful  announcement  had  thrown  him.  The 
Archbishop  of  Lyons  then  assured  him  of  the 
enthusiasm  which  had  united  the  Cardinals 
in  his  favor ;  and  pressed  him,  by  accepting 
the  dignity,  to  compose  the  troubles  of  the 
Church.  Pietro  answered,  'I  must  consult 
God — go  and  pray  likewise.'  He  then  pros- 
trated himself  on  the  earth,  and  after  remain- 
ing some  time  in  supplication,  he  rose  and 
said,  '  I  accept  the  pontificate,  I  consent  to  the 
election — I  dare  not  resist  the  will  of  God,  I 
will  not  be  wanting  to  the  Church  in  her  ne- 
cessity.' No  sooner  was  the  result  of  this 
interview  bruited  abroad,  than  the  sides  of 
Mt.  Morone  were  frequented  by  assiduous 
visitants,  whom  piety,  or  interest,  or  curiosity 
conducted  to  the  cavern  of  the  hermit-pope. 
Churchmen  and  laymen  of  every  rank  hasten- 
ed to  pay  homage  to  his  virtues  or  his  dignity ; 
and  his  earliest  levee  was  adorned  by  the 
presence  of  two  kings.f 


*  All  these  fables  are  sedulously  and  solemnly  re- 
lated by  Bzovius.  Manebat  matri  fixuin  quod  nas- 
centi  olim  filio  contigerat,  ac  tanquam  magnum  ali- 
quod  divinumque  portendebat.  Ex  utero  siquidem 
materno  exierit  ciicumamictus  Jndumento  qnodani, 
quod  nihil  ab  his  quibus  religiosi  homines  vestiuntur, 
ditTerebat.     Ad  ann.  1294. 

f  Charles  le  Boiteux  of  Sicily,  and  his  son  Charles 
Martel,  titular  Prince  of  Hungary.  The  Pope  elect 
descended  to  Aquila  to  assume  his  pontificals,  on  an 
ass,  and  the  two  princes  held  the  bridle. 

lntumidus  vilem  Murro  conscendit  asellum 


THE  POPES  FROM  1216  TO  1305. 


347 


His  Character. — It  was  immediately  discov- 
ered that  the  qualifications  of  Celestine  V. 
(Pietro  assumed  that  name)  fell  far  short  even 
of  the  ordinary  limits  of  monastic  capacity. 
He  was  entirely  ignorant  of  all  science  and 
all  literature  ;  even  the  Latin  language  was 
nearly  strange  to  him;  against  the  compre- 
hension of  worldly  matters  his  eyes  were 
closed  by  perpetual  seclusion,  and  his  blind- 
ness was  confirmed  by  old  age  ;  his  simplicity 
tempted  and  rewarded  deception,  and  he  was 
guilty  of  the  most  extraordinary  errors  in  the 
discharge  of  his  easiest  duties.  Besides  this, 
he  brought  with  him  from  his  cell  and  his 
convent  (for  he  had  been  the  founder  of  a  new 
Order  of  Monks,  distinguished  for  their  illite- 
rate vulgarity)  a  disaffection  towards  the  high- 
er ranks  of  the  secular  clergy,  which  was  not, 
perhaps,  without  reason  ;  and  a  contempt  for 
their  luxuries  and  abhorrence  for  their  vices, 
which  formed  the  holiest  feature  in  his  char- 
acter. It  was  probably  this  disposition,  which 
endeared  him  to  the  laity,  as  well  as  to  many 
among  the  regular  clergy ;  and  no  doubt  it 
was  the  alienation  from  his  own  official  coun- 
sellors, which  subjected  him  too  obsequiously 
to  the  influence  of  the  king  of  Sicily.  For 
under  this  influence  he  was  assuredly  acting, 
when,  without  any  foresight  of  the  inevitable 
consequences  of  the  measure,  he  added  to  the 
college  of  Cardinals  seven  natives  of  France. 

These  were  circumstances  sufficient  to  ex- 
cite the  dissatisfaction  of  that  body,  and  their 
suspicions  respecting  the  nature  of  the  spirit 
which  had  decided  their  choice.  They  pro- 
fessed apprehensions,  which  were  not  wholly 
unreasonable,  lest,  by  some  new  imprudence, 
the  Pope  should  compromise  or  concede  the 
inviolable  rights  of  the  Church. — They  dis- 
liked the  frugal  severity  of  his  Court ;  they 
complained  with  justice,  that  he  preferred  an 
obscure  residence  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples 
to  the  Holy  and  Imperial  City ;  and  the  bit- 
terness of  their  displeasure  was  completed, 
when  he  revived,  in  all  its  rigor,  the  obnox- 
ious constitution  of  Gregory  X.  respecting  the 
manner  of  papal  election. 

In  the  meantime,  Celestine  had  discovered 
his  own  disqualifications,  and  his  inability  to 
correct  them.  Amidst  the  incessant  toil  of 
occupations  which  he  disliked  and  dignities 
which  he  despised,  he  sighed  for  the  tranquil- 
lity of  his  former  solitude ;  and  then,  that  his 


pious  meditations  might  not  wholly  be  dis- 
continued, he  caused  a  cell  to  be  constructed 
in  the  centre  of  his  palace,  whither  he  fre- 
quently retired  to  prayer.  On  such  occasions, 
he  sometimes  gave  vent  to  his  deep  disquie- 
tude. '  I  am  told  that  I  possess  all  power 
over  souls  in  this  world — why  is  it  then  that 
I  cannot  assure  myself  of  the  safety  of  mine 
own  ?  that  I  cannot  rid  myself  of  all  these 
anxieties,  and  impart  to  my  own  breast  that 
repose,  which  I  can  dispense  so  easily  to 
others  ?  Does  God  require  from  me  that 
which  is  impossible  ;  or  has  he  only  raised 
me  in  order  to  cast  me  down  more  terribly? 
I  observe  the  Cardinals  divided ;  and  I  hear 
from  every  side  complaints  against  me.  Is  it 
not  better  to  burst  my  chains,  and  resign  the 
holy  See  to  some  one  who  can  rule  it  in 
peace  ? — if  only  I  could  be  permitted  to  quit 
this  place  and  return  to  my  solitude!' 

His  Resignation. — Several  of  the  Cardinals 
having  observed  that  disposition,  were  sedu- 
lous to  encourage  it.  It  was  entirely  in  ac- 
cordance with  their  general  wishes,  with  that 
most  especially  of  Benedict  Gaietano ;  since 
he  designed  himself  for  the  successor.  Those, 
on  the  other  hand,  who  profited  by  Celestine's 
simplicity,  or  reverenced  his  piety,  or  admired 
his  popular  austerities,  dissuaded  him  from  so 
unprecedented  a  project.  But  the  good  man 
was  sincere  and  inflexible;*  and  after  tasting 
for  only  five  months  of  the  bitterness  of  power, 
he  pronounced  his  solemn  resignation  f  of  the 
pontificate. 

Thus  far  his  vows  were  accomplished  with- 


Regum  fraena  manu  dextra  laevaque  regente 

Pontificis.  .  . 
Might  there  not  in  this  act  be  some  of  that  '  Humility 
which  apes  the  Divinity!' 


*  Bzovius  describes  his  ardor  for  abdication,  by 
the  strong  expression,  '  that  no  one  ever  accepted  of- 
fice so  eagerly  as  he  resigned  it.'  That  writer  (if 
we  could  forget  the  miraculous  absurdities  which 
overload  his  narrative)  has  described  this  curious  epi- 
sode in  papal  history  more  fairly  than  Mosheim;  for 
the  latter  overlooks  the  old  hermit's  absolute  incapa- 
city, in  a  partial  eagerness  to  attribute  the  discontent 
of  his  clergy  to  the  consciousness  of  their  own  vices, 
and  the  fear  of  a  rigorous  reformation — though  that 
may  unquestionably  have  been  one  of  their  motives. 

f  '  I,  Celestine  V.,  moved  by  sufficient  causes — by 
humility,  by  the  desire  of  a  better  life,  bv  respect  for 
my  conscience,  by  the  feebleness  of  my  body,  by  my 
deficiency  in  knowledge,  by  the  evil  disposition  of  the 
people;  and  to  the  end  that  I  may  be  restored  to  the 
repose  and  consolation  of  my  past  life  —  resign  the 
papacy  freely  and  voluntarily,  and  renounce  that  office 
and  that  dignity,  &c.  .  .  .  '  Such  was  the  form  of 
his  resignation,  as  given  by  Fleury  (I.  89,  s.  3-1)  on 
the  authority  of  Wadingus,  1294,  n.  6.  As  his  power 
to  resign  was  by  some  held  doubtful,  the  Cardinals 
suggested  to  him  first  to  publish  a  general  Constitu- 
tion, authorizing  a  Pope  to  abdicate  his  office.  He 
did  so. 


348 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


out  any  obstruction.  But  the  last  aspirations 
of  his  prayer  were  not  accorded,  nor  was  it 
given  him  again  to  breathe  the  peaceful 
breezes  of  Mt.  Morone.  The  shadow  of  his 
dignity  continued  to  haunt  him  after  he  had 
cast  away  the  substance  ;  the  man  who  had 
possessed  the  chair  of  St.  Peter,  and  abdicated 
it,  could  not  possibly  descend  to  insignificance 
or  rise  to  independence.  The  merit  of  re- 
signing a  throne  was  insufficient  to  atone  for 
the  imprudence  of  accepting  it ;  and  Celestine 
was  condemned  for  the  remainder  of  his  days 
to  strict  confinement  by  the  jealousy  of  Boni- 
face. * 

Boniface  VIII. — As  the  pontificate  of  Boni- 
face VIII.  is  the  hinge  on  which  the  subse- 
quent history  of  papacy  almost  entirely  turns, 
we  must  follow  its  particulars  with  more  than 
usual  attention.  Whatsoever  flexibility  or 
show  of  moderation  Benedict  Gaietano  may 
have  exhibited  before  his  advancement,  he 
threw  off  all  disguise  and  all  restraint  as  soon 
as  he  had  attained  the  object  of  his  ambition. 
His  pride  seemed  to  acknowledge  no  limit, 
and  no  considerations  of  religion,  or  policy, 
or  decency  could  repress  his  violence.  In 
1298,  Albert  of  Austria  caused  himself  to  be 
saluted  king  of  the  Romans ;  and  having  slain 
his  competitor  in  battle,  made  the  usual  over- 
ture to  the  Pope  for  confirmation.  But  this 
favor  Boniface  was  so  far  from  according,  that 
he  placed  the  crown  ■)■  upon  his  own  head,  and 
seizing  a  sword,  exclaimed,  '  It  is  I  who  am 
Csesar,  it  is  I  who  am  Emperor ;  it  is  I  who 
will  defend  the  rights  of  the  empire !'  There 
is  a  solemn  and  affecting  function  in  the  Ro- 
man Church,  (celebrated  on  the  first  day  of 
Lent,)  in  which  ashes  are  thrown  on  the 
heads  of  the  proud  and  great,  to  remind  them 


*  Soon  after  his  resignation,  he  escaped  from  some 
attendants  whom  Boniface  had  placed  over  him,  with 
the  view  of  returning  to  his  ancient  cell ;  but  finding 
himself  pursued,  he  turned  towards  the  eastern  coast, 
in  the  hope  of  finding  a  refuge  in  Greece.  He  was 
speedily  overtaken ;  but  in  the  meantime  he  had  ma- 
terially swelled  the  catalogue  of  his  miracles,  and 
established  that  sort  of  reputation  by  which  he  merit- 
ed his  canonization. 

f  We  may  here  observe  that,  in  consistency  with 
his  principles,  Boniface  VIII.  introduced  the  use  of 
the  double  crown.  It  appears  from  the  images  of 
the  Popes,  as  well  as  from  historical  evidence,  that 
from  St.  Sylvester  to  Boniface  VIII.,  they  were  con- 
tented with  a  single  crown.  From  Boniface  to  Ur- 
ban V.,  they  doubled  the  symbol  of  royalty,  as  its 
substance  was  really  falling  from  under  them.  From 
Urban  downwards,  throughout  the  decline  and  over- 
throw of  their  authority,  they  have  fondly  clung  to  the 
majesty  of  the  triple  crown. 


of  their  insignificance  and  mortality.  While 
the  Pope  was  performing  this  ceremony,  one 
Spinola,  Archbishop  of  Genoa,  a  political  ad- 
versary, presented  himself  in  his  turn  to  re- 
ceive the  lesson  of  humiliation.  Boniface 
beheld  him,  and  dashing  the  ashes  in  his  face, 
said  to  him,  '  Ghibeline !  remember  that  thou 
art  dust,  and  that  with  thy  brother  Ghibelines, 
thou  wilt  return  to  dust.'*  As  the  kingdoms 
of  Europe  were  then  situated,  not  only  in  po- 
litical reference  to  papal  usurpation  and  pre- 
dominance, but  also  in  respect  to  the  revival 
of  learning,  the  progress  of  civilization,  the 
change  of  principles,  and  the  decay  even  of 
some  inveterate  prejudices,  there  only  wanted 
an  intemperate  defender,  such  as  Boniface, 
to  decide  the  wavering  balance,  and  precipi- 
tate before  its  time  the  baseless  despotism  of 
Rome. 

Those  historians  are,  notwithstanding,  in 
error,  who  date  the  decline  of  the  papal  su- 
premacy from  the  reign  of  Innocent  III.  On 
the  contrary,  the  system  had  not  then  quite 
attained  the  fulness  of  its  force  ;  it  had  not 
then  achieved  its  greatest  triumph,  which, 
without  question,  was  the  deposition  of  Fred- 
eric II.  And  if  it  is  true,  that,  from  Innocent 
IV.  to  Boniface  VIII.,  no  additional  ground 
was  gained,  that  no  fresh  claims  were  assert- 
ed, even  that  some  former  claims  were  less 
effectually  enforced  ;  it  is  certain,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  not  one  iota  of  the  papal  preten- 
sions had  been  resigned  ;  and  that  they  had 
met  for  the  most  part  with  ready,  or  at  least 
undisputed,  acquiescence.  But  in  the  mean- 
time, the  understanding  of  mankind  had  been 
no  longer  stationary  ;  knowledge  and  genius 
and  reason  had  revived  and  taken  courage, 
and  were  advancing  to  the  assertion  of  their 
eternal  rights ;  and  in  the  eye  of  the  philoso- 
pher, it  was  a  circumstance  of  evil  omen  to 
the  projects  of  Boniface,  that  they  were  urged 
by  the  contemporary  of  Dante.  Nevertheless, 
whether  insensible  to  the  weakness  of  his 
own  cause,  or  to  the  progress  of  the  princi- 
ples opposed  to  it,  or  imagining  by  violence 
to  supply  the  want  of  strength,  he  resolved  to 
push  the  temporal  pretensions  of  the  See  to 
their  most  extravagant  limits,  f 

*  These  anecdotes  are  related  by  Sismondi  (Rep. 
Ital.  chap,  xxiv.)  without  suspicion,  on  the  authority 
of  Pipini  and  Muratori. 

f  Ruggiero  di  Loria  having  conquered  Gerba,  and 
some  other  islands,  till  then  nearly  unknown,  near  the 
coast  of  Africa,  was  contented  to  receive  them  in  fief 
and  on  condition  of  tribute,  from  Boniface,  who 
vouchsafed  him  a  Bull  of  Investiture,  in  1295.  (In- 
sulas  objacentes  Africae,  Gerbam  nimirum  et  Cherchi- 


THE  POPES  FROM  1216  TO  1305. 


349 


His  temporal  pretensions.  —  His  first  meas- 
ures wore,  indeed,  a  specious  appearance, 
since  he  presented  himself  as  the  advocate  of 
peace.  He  endeavored  to  reconcile  Charles 
of  Sicily  and  James  of  Arragon  ;  and  more 
than  once  obtruded  his  mediation  upon  the 
Kings  of  England  and  France :  these  attempts 
seem  to  have  had  no  other  fruit,  than  a  con- 
siderable contribution  levied  upon  the  English 
clergy.  He  then  turned  his  attention  in  other 
directions.  In  1297,  he  gave  the  kingdom  of 
Sardinia  and  Corsica  in  fief  to  James  of  Ar- 
ragon and  his  posterity,  on  certain  conditions 
of  aid  and  subsidy  to  Rome.  In  1300  he  laid 
claim  to  the  kingdom  of  Scotland,  and  direct- 
ed Edward  I.  to  withdraw  his  soldiers  from 
that  country  ;  and  in  the  correspondence  thus  j 
occasioned  between  those  two  great  usurpers, 
each  party  might  have  found  it  easier  to  in- 
validate the  claims  of  the  other,  than  to  estab- 
lish his  own  —  this  burst  of  empty  arrogance 
passed  of  course  without  effect.  He  pretend- 
ed to  the  disposal  of  the  crown  of  Hungary, 
and  gave  it  to  a  grandson  of  Charles  le  Boi- 
teux  ;  and  when  some  of  the  nobles  (in  1302) 
ventured  to  support  a  rival  prince,  he  addres- 
sed his  legate  there  established,  in  the  follow- 
ing terms: — 'The  Roman  pontiff",  established 
by  God  over  kings  and  their  kingdoms,  sove- 
reign chief  of  the  hierarchy  in  the  church 
militant,  and  holding  the  first  rank  above  all 
mortals,  sitteth  in  tranquillity  in  the  throne 
of  judgment  and  scattereth  away  all  evil  with 
his  eyes.  *  ...  You  have  yet  to  learn  that 
St.  Stephen,  the  first  Christian  King  of  Hun- 
gary, offered  and  gave  that  kingdom  to  the 
Roman  Church,  not  willing  to  assume  the 
crown  on  his  own  authority,  but  rather  to  re- 
ceive it  from  the  vicar  of  Jesus  Christ;  since 
he  knew,  that  no  man  taketh  this  honor  on 
himself,  but  he  that  is  called  of  God.'  f  In 
1303  Boniface  found  it  expedient  to  acknow- 
ledge as  king  of  the  Romans  the  same  Albert 
whom  he  had  formerly  reviled  :  this  conces- 
sion was  attended  by  a  recognition  of  his  own 
authority,  by  that  prince,  to  the  following  ef- 

nas,  quas  Loria  barbaris  eripuerat,  jure  fiduciario, 
sedis  Apostolicse  liberalitate  Bonifacius  ei  possiden- 
das  aitribuit.  Raynaldus.  Ann.  1295, s.  xxxvi.)  It 
was  on  the  ground  of  this  precedent,  that  two  centu- 
ries afterwards,  Alexander  VI.  assumed  the  right  to 
dispose  of  all  undiscovered  tracts,  continental  or  in- 
sular; and  to  concede  the  whole  extent  of  terra  in- 
cognita to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  by  drawing  a  line 
on  the  map  from  pole  to  pole.  Giannone,  lib.  xix. 
cap.  5. 

*  Prov.  xx.  8. 

t  Heb.  v.  4. 


feet.  '  I  acknowledge  that  the  Roman  empire 
has  been  transferred  by  the  holy  See,  from 
the  Greeks  to  the  Germans  in  the  person  of 
Charlemagne ;  that  the  right  to  elect  a  king 
of  the  Romans,  destined  to  be  emperor,  has 
been  accorded  by  the  holy  See  to  certain 
princes  ecclesiastical  and  secular ;  and  that 
the  kings  and  emperors  receive  from  the  holy 
see  the  power  of  the  sword.'  He  concluded 
that  act  of  subservience  by  an  unconditional 
promise  of  military  aid,  if  it  should  be  re- 
quired by  the  Pope.  His  sincerity  was  never 
put  to  trial,  and  when  we  consider  for  how 
long  a  period,  and  with  what  general  success, 
the  dependence  of  the  empire  had  been  as- 
serted by  the  Popes,  and  recollect  the  peculiar 
foundation  on  which  that  claim  rested,  we 
shall  scarcely  wonder  at  its  unequivocal  ac- 
knowledgment by  Albert.  From  these  facts, 
we  may  at  least  observe  the  assiduity,  with 
which  Boniface  pressed  his  temporal  preten- 
sions in  every  quarter  of  Europe.  We  shall 
now  proceed  to  the  principal  theatre  of  his 
exertions,  and  watch  the  accumulation  of  the 
tempest  which  followed  them. 

Philip  the  Fair  of  France.  —  The  throne  of 
France  was  then  occupied  by  Philip  the  Fair 
—  a  man  as  arrogant,  as  jealous,  as  violent  as 
Boniface,  and  perhaps  even  surpassing  him  in 
audacity.  The  clergy  of  France,  though  very 
faithfully  attached  to  the  Catholic  Church  and 
respecting  the  Pope  as  its  head,  had  on  vari- 
ous occasions,  from  the  earliest  period  of 
papal  usurpation,  displayed  an  independent 
spirit  of  which  we  find  no  trace  in  other 
countries — yet  not  such  as  to  give  the  slight- 
est indications  of  schism,  or  even  to  prevent 
the  holy  see  from  making  some  successful 
inroads.  The  first*  mention  that  we  find  of 
the  liberties  of  the  Gallican  (as  distinguished 
from  the  Roman)  Church,  is  in  the  year  1229, 
and  on  an  occasion  of  which  it  has  no  reason 
to  be  proud.  A  very  rigorous  Ordonnance 
was  then  published  in  the  king's  name  for  the 
extinction  of  Heresy — enjoining  the  immedi- 
ate punishment  of  offenders,  commanding  the 
strictest  search  to  be  made  for  them,  and  of- 
fering a  reward  on  conviction  —  and  the  end 
of  this  was  —  'to  establish  the  liberties  and 
immunities  of  the  Gallican  Church.'  —  But 
the  act  from  which  those  liberties  really  date 
their  origin,  is  the  celebrated  Pragmatic  Sanc- 
tion of  St.  Louis,  published  in  12G9,  on  his 
departure  against  the  Saracens.  Its  constitu- 
tions will  be  recorded  in  the  next  chapter. 
Their  leading  object  was  to  protect  episcopal 

*  Fleury,  liv.  Ixxix.  sect.  L. 


350 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


election  and  preferment  to  benefices,  the  priv- 
ileges granted  to  monasteries  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal persons,  and  the  property  of  the  church 
generally,  from  the  intrusions  and  exactions 
of  Rome.  Thus  this  matter  rested  till  the 
reign  of  Boniface  VIII.  The  fixed  and  dis- 
tinct principle  on  which  the  Gallican  liberties 
were  finally  placed  (the  inferiority  of  the  Pope 
to  a  General  Council)  was  not  yet  established, 
not  perhaps  even  broached  ;  but  enough  had 
been  done  to  prove  to  a  moderate  Pope,  that 
neither  the  king  nor  the  clergy  of  France 
were  prepared  to  acknowledge  an  implicit 
obedience. 

Bull  Clericis  Laicos. — The  first  difference 
between  Boniface  and  Philip  was  merely  suf- 
ficient to  discover  the  disposition,  and  inflame 
the  animosity  of  both.  The  Pope  had  learnt, 
that  the  kings  both  of  France  and  England 
had  levied  contributions  on  their  clerical,  as 
well  as  their  lay,  subjects,  for  purposes  of  state. 
In  consequence,  he  published,  in  1296,  his 
celebrated  Bull,  beginning  Clericis  Laicos,  of 
which  the  substance  was  this:  'Antiquity  re- 
lates to  us  the  inveterate  hostility*  of  the  laity 
to  the  clergy,  and  the  experience  of  the  pres- 
ent age  confirms  it  manifestly — since,  without 
consideration  that  they  have  no  power  over 
ecclesiastical  persons  or  property,  they  load 
with  impositions  both  prelates  and  clergy, 
regular  and  secular;  and  also,  to  our  deep 
affliction,  prelates  and  other  ecclesiastics  are 
found,  who,  from  their  greater  dread  of  tem- 
poral than  eternal  majesty,  acquiesce  in  this 
abuse.'  He  then  proceeds  to  pronounce  sen- 
tence of  excommunication  against  all  who 
shall  hereafter  exact  such  impositions,  wheth- 
er kings,  princes,  or  magistrates,  and  against 
all  who  shall  pay  them. 

Disputes  between  Boniface  and  Philip. — 
Very  soon  afterwards,  Philip  published,  in  re- 
tort, an  edict,  forbidding  the  export  of  money, 
jewels,  and  other  articles  specified,  out  of  his 
dominions.  The  Pope,  who  was  thereby  de- 
prived of  his  ecclesiastical  contributions,  pre- 
sently put  forth  a  long  reply  and  remonstrance, 
in  which  he  explained  his  preceding  Bull  to 
mean,  that  the  consent  of  the  Pope  is  neces- 


*  On  this  sentence,  Fleury,  the  most  candid  of 
Catholics,  very  simply  remarks,  '  That  aversion  of 
laymen  for  the  clergy,  which  the  Pope  mentions,  as- 
cended not  to  a  very  high  antiquity;  since  for  the 
five  or  six  first  ages,  the  clergy  secured  the  respect 
and  affections  of  all  men,  by  their  charitable  and  dis- 
interested conduct.'  (liv.  lxxxix.  s.  xliii.)  No  clergy, 
which  shapes  its  conduct  by  any  other  principle,  ever 
will  secure,  or  ever  ought  to  secure,  either  affection 
sr  respect. 


sary  for  the  levying  of  the  aforesaid  contribu- 
tions; that,  in  circumstances  of  great  national 
exigency,  even  that  might  be  dispensed  with; 
and  that  the  prohibition  did  not  extend  to  do- 
nations strictly  voluntary.*  At  the  same  time 
he  enlarged  on  the  liberty  of  the  Church  — 
the  ark  of  Noah — the  spouse  of  Jesus  Christ 
— to  which  He  had  given  power  over  all  the 
body  of  the  faithful,  and  over  every  individual 
member  of  it.  By  these  general  expressions 
he  intended  to  insinuate,  not  only  that  princes 
had  no  power  over  the  Church,  but  that  the 
Church  possessed  unlimited  control  over  prin- 
ces. The  rejoinder  on  the  part  of  the  king 
had  more  reason  in  its  theology,  and  more 
piety  in  its  reason.  It  professed  a  holy  fear 
of  God,  and  respectful  reverence  for  the  min- 
isters of  the  Church;  but,  in  the  full  con- 
sciousness of  justice,  it  repelled  with  disdain 
the  senseless  menaces  of  man.  In  the  follow- 
ing year,  the  Pope  had  the  prudence  to  ad- 
dress to  the  archbishop  of  Rheims  such  an 
interpretation  of  the  Bull  as  left  to  Philip  no 
reasonable  ground  of  complaint ;  and  French 
historians,  with  great  probability,  attribute  the 
rare  moderation  of  Boniface  to  his  necessities 
or  his  avarice. f 

The  truce  thus  tacitly  established  between 
the  parties  was  of  very  short  duration.  In- 
deed, where  were  so  many  undefined  and  dis- 
putable rights,  it  was  not  possible  that  peace 
could  long  subsist  between  two  rivals  equally 
disposed  to  encroachment  and  usurpation.  In 
the  year  1301,  Philip  arrested  (and  seeming- 
ly with  justice)  Bernard  de  Saisset,  bishop 
of  Panders,  a  creature  of  the  Pope,  on  the 
charge  of  sedition  and  treasonable  language, 
and  caused  him  to  be  confined  until  the  sen- 
tence of  degradation  should  be  passed  on  him, 
previous  to  the  infliction  of  legal  punishment. 
At  the  same  time  he  wrote  a  respectful  letter 
to  Boniface,  praying  him  to  deprive  the  cul- 
prit of  his  clerical  privileges,  or  at  least  to  take 
measures  for  his  conviction.  But  Boniface, 
having  learnt  that  a  bishop  had  been  placed 
in  confinement,  addressed  his  answer  (which 
he  sent  by  a  special  legate)  to  that  point  only  ; 
and  denying  that  laymen  had  received  any 
power  over  the  clergy,  he  enjoined  the  king 
to  dismiss  the  prisoner  freely  to  the  pontifical 
presence,  with  full  restitution  of  all  his  pro- 
perty, at  the  same  time  reminding  him  that 


*  Pagi,  Vit.  Bonif.  VIII.,  sect,  xxviii. 

f  To  the  same  cause  we  may  probably  ascribe  the 
proclamation  of  the  first  Jubliee,  in  the  year  1300, 
by  Boniface, — an.  institution  to  which  we  shall  recur 
in  a  future  chapter. 


THE  POPES  FROM  1216  TO  1305 


351 


he  had  himself  incurred  canonical  punish- 
ment for  having  rashly  laid  his  hand  on  the 
person  of  a  bishop.  On  the  same  day,  or 
very  soon  afterwards,  he  published  a  Bull, 
addressed  also  to  Philip,  in  which,  after  ex- 
horting his  son  to  listen  *  with  docility  to  his 
instructions,  he  proceeded  in  the  following 
terms :  — '  God  has  set  me  over  the  nations 
and  over  the  kingdoms,  to  root  out  and  to 
pull  down,  and  to  destroy  and  to  throw  down, 
to  build  and  to  plant,  f  in  his  name,  and  by 
his  doctrine.  Let  no  one  persuade  you,  then, 
that  you  have  no  superior,  or  that  you  are  not 
subject  to  the  chief  of  the  ecclesiastical  hier- 
archy. He  that  holds  that  opinion  is  sense- 
less, and  he  that  obstinately  maintains  it  is  an 
infidel,  separate  from  the  flock  of  the  good 
Shepherd.'  .  .  He  then  continued,  still  out 
of  his  affection  J  for  Philip,  to  charge  him 
with  many  general  violations  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical privileges,  or,  as  they  were  then  more 
commonly  called,  Liberties;  and  concluded 
by  informing  him,  that  he  had  summoned  all 
the  superior  clergy  of  France  to  an  assembly 
at  Rome,  on  the  1st  of  the  November  follow- 
ing (1302,)  in  order  to  deliberate  on  the  reme- 
dies for  such  abuses. 

Philip  burns  the  Pope's  Bull. — Philip  was 
astonished  by  this  measure,  but  not  so  con- 
founded as  to  deviate  either  into  timidity  or 
rashness.  He  convoked  a  full  and  early  as- 
sembly or  parliament  of  his  nobles  and  clergy. 
In  the  meantime,  he  burnt  the  Bull  of  the 
Pope  as  publicly  as  possible,  and  caused  that 
act  to  be  proclaimed  with  trumpets  through- 
out the  whole  of  Paris.  In  his  subsequent 
address  to  his  parliament,  he  mentioned  the 
proceedings    of   Boniface,    disclaimed    with 

*  Ausculta,fili  —  the  two  first  words  of  this  Bull 
— have  affixed  to  it  its  historical  name.  It  was  pub- 
lished in  December,  1301,  and  was  preceded  only  two 
days  by  another  constitution  of  Boniface,  called  Sal- 
vator  Mundi,  by  which  he  suspended  all  favors  and 
privileges  which  had  been  accorded  by  his  predeces- 
sors to  the  kings  of  France,  and  to  all  their  subjects, 
whether  lay  or  clerical,  who  abetted  Philip.  Pagi, 
Bnnif.  VIII.,  sec.  lvii. 

t  Jerem.  i.  10.  The  words  are  addressed  to  Jere- 
miah, in  respect  to  his  prophetic  mission;  but  they 
had  been  perverted  to  the  support  of  the  papal  pre- 
tentious long  before  the  time  of  Boniface.  See,  for 
instance,  the  letter  of  Honorius  III.,  written  in  1225, 
to  Louis  of  France.  The  '  plenitude  of  power 
which  the  Holy  See  has  received  from  God'  is  there 
placed  chiefly  on  that  foundation. 

X  Another  reason,  by  which  he  justified  his  inter- 
ference, was  his  own  responsibility  to  God  for  the  soul 
of  King  Philip. 


scorn  any  temporal  allegiance  to  him,  retorted 
the  charges  of  corruption  and  mal-adminis- 
tration,  declared  his  readiness  to  risk  any  loss 
or  suffering  in  defence  of  the  common  in- 
terests, and  referred  the  decision  of  the  ques- 
tion to  the  assembly.  The  barons  and  lay 
members  pronounced  their  opinions  loudly 
and  unhesitatingly  in  favor  of  the  king.  With 
them  the  question  was,  in  a  great  degree,  na- 
!  tional.  They  were  jealous  of  the  honor  of 
the  crown,  and  eager  to  protect  it  from  any 
foreign  insult.  And  though  a  calmer  judg- 
ment would,  perhaps,  have  taught  them,  that 
such  a  restraint  upon  the  monarchy  might,  in 
its  effects,  be  beneficial  to  all  classes  of  the 
people,  they  sacrificed  every  consideration  of 
policy  to  the  passion  of  the  moment.  The 
situation  of  the  clergy  was  exceedingly  diffi- 
cult, since  they  had  two  duties  to  reconcile, 
which,  even  in  ordinary  times,  were  not  al- 
ways in  strict  accordance,  and  which  were 
then  in  direct  opposition.  Their  first  attempt 
was  to  explain  and  justify  the  intentions  of 
the  Pope ;  but  that  was  repelled  with  general 
contempt  and  indignation.  Then  they  ex- 
pressed a  dutiful  anxiety  to  assist  the  king, 
and  maintain  the  liberties  of  the  kingdom  ; 
but  at  the  same  time  they  pleaded  the  obedi- 
ence due  from  them  to  the  Pope,  and  prayed 
for  permission  to  attend  his  summons  to 
Rome.  This  permission  was  clamorously 
refused  by  the  king  and  his  barons. 

The  clergy  then  addressed  a  letter  to  the 
Pope,  in  which  they  expressed  an  apprehen- 
sion lest  the  violent  and  universal  hostility,  * 
not  of  the  king  and  his  barons  only,  but  of 
the  body  of  the  laity,  should  lead  to'  an  entire 
rupture  between  France  and  Rome,  and  even 
between  the  clergy  and  the  people  ;  and  they 
prayed  that  he  would  release  them  from  the 
summons  to  Rome.  At  the  same  time  the 
barons  also  wrote  —  not,  indeed,  to  the  Pope, 
but  to  the  College  of  Cardinals  —  in  severe 
censure  of  the  new  and  senseless  pretensions 
of  Boniface,  on  whom  personally  they  cast 
I  the  entire  blame  of  the  difference.  In  reply, 
the  cardinals  disavowed,  on  the  part  of  Boni- 
face, any  assertion  that  the  king  of  France 
held  his  temporalities  of  the  Pope  ;  while,  in 
defence  of  his  ghostly  authority,  they  main- 


*  '  The  laity  absolutely  fly  from  our  society,  and 
repel  us  from  their  conferences  and  councils,  as  if  we 
were  guilty  of  treason  against  them.  They  despise 
ecclesiastic  censures,  from  whatsoever  quarter  they 
may  come,  and  are  preparing  and  taking  precautions 
to  render  them  useless.'     Fleury,  Hist,  Eccles.,  liv. 


xc,  sec.  ix. 


352 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


tained,  'that  no  man  in  his  senses  can  doubt, 
that  the  Pope,  as  chief  of  the  spiritual  hie- 
rarchy, can  dispense  with  the  sin  of  every 
man  living.'  In  his  reply  to  the  dutiful  sup- 
plication of  the  prelates,  the  Pope  rebuked 
them  for  their  want  of  courage  and  attach- 
ment, enforced  on  them  the  indisputable 
subjection  of  things  temporal  to  things  spirit- 
ual, and  persisted  in  commanding  their  at- 
tendance at  Rome. 

Bull  Unam  Sanctam.  —  The  great  majority 
disregarded  the  summons  ;  but  some  few 
were  found  who  considered  their  first  obedi- 
ence as  due  to  their  ecclesiastical  sovereign. 
These  proceeded  to  Rome  ;  and,  in  spite  of 
their  small  number,  Boniface  availed  himself 
of  the  name  of  this  Council  to  publish  the 
Decretal,  commonly  known  as  the  Bull  Unam 
Sanctam.  The  propositions  asserted  in  this 
celebrated  constitution  are,  first,  the  Unity  of 
the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  without  which 
there  is  no  salvation  ;  wherein  is  one  Lord, 
one  faith,  one  baptism.  Hence  it  follows, 
that  of  this  one  and  only  Church  there  is  one 
body  and  one  head,  (not  two  heads,  which 
would  be  monstrous,)  namely,  Christ,  and 
Christ's  vicar,  St.  Peter,  and  the  successor  of 
St.  Peter.  The  second  position  is,  that  in  the 
power  of  this  Chief  are  two  swords,  the  one 
spiritual,  and  the  other  material  ;  but  that  the 
former  of  these  is  to  be  used  by  the  Church, 
the  latter  for  the  Church  ;  the  former  is  in 
the  hand  of  the  priest,  the  latter  in  the  hand 
of  kings  and  soldiers,  but  at  the  nod  and  suf- 
ferance of  the  priest.  It  is  next  asserted,  that 
one  of  these  swords  must  be  subject  to  the 
other  sword,  otherwise  we  must  suppose  two 
opposite  principles,  which  would  be  Mani- 
chsean  and  heretical.  Thence  it  is  an  easy 
inference,  that  the  spiritual  is  that  which  has 
rule  over  the  other,  while  itself  is  liable  to  no 
other  judgment  or  authority  than  that  of  God. 
The  general  conclusion  is  contained  in  one 
short  sentence,  —  'Wherefore  we  declare,  de- 
fine, and  pronounce,  that  it  is  absolutely  es- 
sential to  the  salvation  of  every  human  being, 
that  he  be  subject  unto  the  Roman  pontiff.'* 

But  Boniface  did  not  content  himself  with 
mere  assertions.  On  the  very  same  day  he 
also  published  a  Bull  of  excommunication 
against  all  persons,  of  whatsoever  rank,  even 
kings  or  emperors,  who  should  interfere  in 
any  way  to  prevent  or   impede   those,  who 


*  The  texts  on  which  these  propositions  were 
chiefly  founded  are  John  x.  16;  Romans  xiii.l;  Je- 
remiah i.  10;    1  Corinthians  ii.  15. 


might  desire  to  present  themselves  before  the 
Roman  See.  This  edict  was,  of  course,  un- 
derstood to  be  directly  levelled  against  Philip. 
Soon  afterwards  he  sent  a  legate  into  France, 
the  bearer  of  twelve  articles,  which  boldly 
expressed  such  papal  pretensions,  as  were  in 
opposition  to  those  of  the  king ;  and  con- 
cluded with  a  menace  of  temporal  as  well  as 
spiritual  proceedings.  The  claims  contained 
in  these  articles  have  been  already  mentioned, 
and  do  not  require  enumeration.  But  what 
may  raise  our  surprise  is,  that  the  answer  of 
Philip  was  extremely  moderate  ;  that  he  con- 
descended to  explain  away  much  that  seemed 
objectionable  in  his  conduct;  that  he  prom- 
ised to  remedy  any  abuses  which  his  officers 
might  have  committed,  and  expressed  his 
strong  desire  for  concord  with  the  Roman 
Church. 

His  moderation  may  have  been  affected, 
and  his  explanations  frivolous,  and  the  abuses 
in  question  he  may  not  have  seriously  intend- 
ed to  alleviate.  But  at  least  it  is  true  that  he 
had  never  sought  the  enmity  of  Rome  ;  and 
had  Boniface  availed  himself  of  that  occasion 
to  close  the  breach,  when  lie  might  have 
closed  it  with  profit  and  dignity,  his  last  days 
might  have  been  passed  in  lofty  tranquillity ; 
he  would  have  been  respected  and  feared, 
even  by  those  who  hated  him  ;  and  posterity 
would  still  have  admired  the  courage  and  the 
policy  which  had  contended  against  the  most 
powerful  prince  in  Europe,  in  no  very  blind 
or  superstitious  age,  without  disadvantage  or 
dishonor.  But  the  Pope  did  not  perceive  this 
crisis  in  his  destiny.  He  proceeded  in  his 
former  course  —  he  proclaimed  his  dissatis- 
faction at  the  answers  of  the  king,  and  repeat- 
ed and  redoubled  his  menaces. 

Philip  had  then  recourse  to  that  public 
measure  which  so  deeply  influenced  the  fu- 
ture history  of  papacy — the  convocation  of  a 
General  Council,  to  pronounce  on  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Pope.  But  while  he  was 
engaged  in  preparations  for  this  great  contest, 
and  for  the  establishment  of  a  principle  to 
which  his  clergy  were  not  yet  prepared  to 
listen,  *  a  latent  and  much  shorter  path  was 
opened  to  the  termination  of  his  perplexities. 

Outrage  on  Boniface.— William  of  Nogaret, 
a  celebrated  French  civilian,  in  conjunction 


*  Not  only  did  the  bishops  and  the  whole  clergy 
decline  any  active  part  in  the  proceedings  against  the 
Pope,  but  they  refused  any  share  in  them,  and  only 
consented  to  the  convocation  of  the  council  through 
the  necessity  of  seeking  some  remedy  for  the  disorders 
of  the  Church. 


THE  POPES  FROM  1216  TO  1305. 


353 


with  certain  Romans  of  the  Colonna  family, 
who  had  fled  for  refuge  to  Paris  from  the 
oppression  of  Boniface,  passed  secretly  into 
Italy,  and  tampered  successfully  with  the 
personal  attendants  of  the  Pope.  The  usual 
residence  of  the  latter  was  Anagni,  a  city 
some  forty  or  fifty  miles  to  the  south  east  of 
Rome,  and  his  hirth-place.  There,  in  the 
year  1303,  he  had  composed  another  Bull,  in 
which  he  maintained,  'that,  as  vicar  of  Jesus 
Christ,  he  had  the  power  to  govern  kings 
with  a  rod  of  iron,  and  to  dash  them  in  pieces 
like  a  potter's  vessel ; '  *  and  he  had  destined 
the  8th  of  September,  the  anniversary  of  the 
nativity  of  the  Virgin,  for  its  promulgation. 
A  rude  interruption  disturbed  his  dreams  of 
omnipotence,  and  discovered  the  secret  of 
his  real  weakness.  On  the  very  day  preced- 
ing the  intended  publication  of  the  Bull, 
Nogaret,  with  Sciarra  Colonna,  and  some 
other  nobles,  escorted  by  about  three  hun- 
dred horsemen,  and  a  larger  number  of  par- 
tisans on  foot,  bearing  the  banners  of  France, 
rushed  into  Anagni,  with  shouts  of  '  Success 
to  the  king  of  France  !  —  Death  to  Pope 
Boniface ! '  After  a  feeble  resistance,  they 
became  masters  of  the  pontifical  palace. 
The  cardiuals  dispersed  and  fled  —  through 
treachery,  as  some  assert,  or,  more  prob- 
ably, through  mere  timidity.  The  greater 
part  of  the  Pope's  personal  attendants  fled 
also. 

Boniface,  when  he  perceived  that  he  was 
surprised  and  abandoned,  prepared  himself 
with  uncommon  resolution  for  the  last  outrage. 
'Since  I  am  betrayed  (he  cried)  as  Jesus 
Christ  was  betrayed,  I  will  at  least  die  like  a 
Pope.'  He  then  clothed  himself  in  his  official 
vestments,  and  placed  the  crown  of  Constan- 
tineon  his  head,  and  grasped  the  keys  and  the 
cross  in  his  hands,  and  seated  himself  in  the 
pontifical  chair.  He  was  now  eighty-six 
years  of  age.  And  when  Sciarra  Colonna, 
who  first  penetrated  into  his  presence,  beheld 
the  venerable  form  and  dignified  composure 
of  bis  enemy,  his  purpose,  which  doubtless 
was  sanguinary,  seemed  suddenly  to  have  de- 
serted him,  and  his  revenge  did  not  proceed 
beyond  verbal  insult. f  Nogaret  followed.   He 


*  Psalms  ii.  9. 

■f-  Some  modern  French  historians  assert  that  Bon- 
iface was  severely  wounded  by  the  assailants — a  story 
which  is  idly  repeated  by  Mosheim,  and  re-echoed 
even  by  Gibbon.  It  is  the  unanimous  affirmation 
of  contemporary  writers,  that  no  nand  was  raised 
againsthim.  See  Sismondi, chap.  xxiv.  The  words 
of  S.  Antoninus  (part  3.,  tit.  xx.,  cap.  8.  sec.  xxi.) 
45 


approached  the  Pope  with  some  respect,  but 
at  the  same  time  imperiously  informed  him, 
that  he  must  prepare  to  be  present  at  the 
council  forthwith  to  he  assembled  on  the  sub- 
ject of  his  misconduct,  and  to  submit  to  its 
decision.  The  Pope  addressed  him — '  Wil- 
liam, of  Nogaret,  descended  from  a  race  of 
heretics,  it  is  from  thee,  and  such  as  thee, 
that  I  can  patiently  endure  indignity.'  The 
ancestors  of  Nogaret  had  atoned  for  their 
errors  in  the  flames.  But  the  expression  of 
the  pontiff"  was  not  prompted  by  any  offence 
he  felt  at  that  barbarity  ;  not  by  any  conscious- 
ness of  the  iniquity  of  his  own  oppression,* 
or  any  sense  of  the  justice  of  the  retribution  ; 
it  proceeded  simply  from  the  sectarian  hatred 
which  swelled  his  own  breast,  which  he  felt 
to  be  implacable,  and  which  he  believed  to  be 
mutual. 

While  their  leaders  were  thus  employed, 
the  body  of  the  conspirators  dispersed  them- 
selves throughout  the  splendid  apartments  in 
eager  pursuit  of  plunder.  Any  deliberate  plan 
which  might  have  been  formed  against  the 
person  of  the  Pope,  was  disappointed  by  their 
avarice.  During  the  day  of  the  attack,  and  that 
which  followed,  the  French  appear  to  have 
been  wholly  occupied  in  the  ransack.  But 
in  the  meantime  the  people  of  Anagni  were 
recovered  from  their  panic  ;  and  perhaps  they 
were  more  easily  awakened  to  the  shame  of 
deserting  their  Pope  and  their  citizen,  when 
they  discovered  the  weakness  of  the  aggres- 
sors, and  the  snare  into  which  their  license 
had  led  them.  They  took  up  arms,  assaulted 
the  French,  and  having  expelled  or  massacred 
them,  restored  to  the  pontiff  his  freedom  and 
authority. 

His  Death.  But  they  were  unable  to  restore 
his  insulted  honor  and  the  spirit  which  had 
been  broken  by  indignity.  Infuriated  by  the 
disgrace  of  his  captivity,  he  hurried  from 
Anagni  to  Rome,  burning  for  revenge.  But 
the  violence  of  his  passion  preseutly  over- 
powered his  reason,  and  his  death  iinmediate- 

are  express.  '  Domino  autem  disponente,  ob  digni- 
tatem Apostolicae  Sedis,  nemo,  ex  iriimicis  ejus  ausus 
fuit  mittere  in  eum  manus  ;  sed  indutum  sacris  vestibus 
dimiseruirt  sub  honesta  custodia,  et  ipsi  insistebant 
praeda?,  &c.'     See  Pagi,  Bon  if.  VIII.,  sec.  Ixx. 

*  Boniface  VIII.  was  a  very  faithful  patron  of  the 
Inquisition;  and  if  his  name  is  not  distinguished  in 
the  list  of  persecuting  popes,  it  is  rather  from  the 
want  of  opportunity,  than  of  inclination.  Persecu- 
tion being  now  systematized  by  the  regular  machinery 
of  the  inquisition,  there  were  fewer  occasions  for  in- 
dividual  distinction.  See  Whately  on  '  The  Errors 
of  Romanism,'  ch.  v.,  sec.  iii.,  vi.,  p.  241 — 244. 


354 


HISTORY    OF    THE    CHURCH. 


]y  followed.  He  was  attended  by  an  ancient 
servant,  who  exhorted  him  to  confide  himself 
in  his  calamity  to  the  Consoler  of  the  afflicted. 
But  Boniface  made  no  reply.  His  eyes  were 
haggard,  his  mouth  white  with  foam,  and  he 
gnashed  his  teeth  in  silence.  He  passed  the 
day  without  nourishment,  the  night  without 
repose ;  and  when  he  found  that  his  strength 
began  to  fail,  and  that  his  end  was  not  far  dis- 
tant, he  removed  all  his  attendants,  that  there 
might  be  no  witness  to  his  final  feebleness  and 
his  parting  struggle.  After  some  interval,  his 
domestics  burst  into  the  room,  and  beheld  his 
body  stretched  on  the  bed,  stiff  and  cold.  The 
staff  which  he  carried  bore  the  mark  of  his 
teeth,  and  was  covered  with  foam  ;  his  white 
locks  were  stained  with  blood ;  and  his  head 
was  so  closely  wrapped  in  the  counterpane, 
that  he  was  believed  to  have  anticipated  his 
impending  death  by  violence  and  suffoca- 
tion. * 

This  took  place  on  the  10th  of  October; 
and  precisely  on  the  same  day,  aftei  an  inter- 
val of  three  hundred  and  three  years,  his 
body  was  dug  up,  and  transferred  to  another 
place  of  sepulture.  Spondanus,f  the  Catholic 
historian,  was  at  Rome  at  the  moment.  He 
relates  the  circumstances,  and  mentions  the 
eagerness  with  which  the  whole  city  rushed 
to  the  spectacle.  His  body  was  found,  cov- 
ered with  the  pontifical  vestments,  still  fresh 
and  uncorrupted.  His  hands,  which  his  ene- 
mies had  asserted  to  have  been  bitten  away  in 
his  rage,  were  so  free  from  decay  and  mutila- 
tion, with  every  finger  entire,  that  even  the 
veins  and  nerves  appeared  to  be  swelling  with 
flesh  and  life. 

After  the  death  of  Boniface  the  French  in- 
terest presently  prevailed  in  the  College  ;  and 
in  the  year  1305  the  archbishop  of  Bourdeaux, 
a  native  of  France,  was  elected  to  the  chair. 
He  took  the  title  of  Clement  V.,  and  presently 
transferred  the  papal  residence  from  Rome  to 
Avignon. 

*  Sismondi,Rep.  Ital.,end  of  chap.  xxiv.  '  Con- 
cerning which  Boniface  (says  Matthew  of  Westmin- 
ster) a  certain  versifier  wrote  as  follows: — 

Ingredilur  Vulpes,  regnat  Leo,  sed  Cam's  exit; 

Re  tandem  vera  si  sic  fuit,  ecce  Chimsera! — 

Flores  Histor.  ad  ann.  1303. 

Others  give  the  same  in  the  form  of  a  prophecy, 
delivered  by  Mororie  during  his  imprisonment.  As- 
cendisti  ut  Vulpes,  regnabis  ut  Leo,  et  morieris  ut 
Canis.     Antiq.  Eccles.  Britann.  ad  ann.  1295. 

t  Spondanus  continued  the  History  of  Baronius 
from  the  year  1197,  in  which  it  concludes,  to  1646. 
See  also  Bzovius  on  this  same  occurrence. — Ann. 
1303. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

(I.)   On  Lewis  IX.  of  France  —  His  public  motives con- 
trasted with  those  of  Constantine  and  Charlemagne 

His  virtues,  piety,  and  charity — Particulars  of  his  civil 
legislation —  His  superstition  —  The  original  Crown  of 
Thorns — its  removal  to  Paris — its  reception  by  the  king. 
His  death — His  miracles  and  canonization  —  The  Bull 
of  Boniface  VIII. — (II.)  On  the  Inquisition. — Whether 
St.  Lewis  contributed  to  its  establishment  —  Origin  of 
the  Inquisition — Office  of  St.  Dominic  and  his  contem- 
poraries— Erection  of  a  separate  tiibunal  at  Toulouse — 
by  Gregory  IX. — The  authority  then  vested  in  the  Men- 
dicants— Its  unpopularity  in  France — Co-operation  of 
St.  Lewis — Conduct  of  Frederic  II. — Of  Innocent  IV. 
— Limits  to  the  prevalence  of  the  Inquisition. — (III.)  On 
the  Oallicnn  Liberties. — Remonstrance  of  the  Prelates  of 
France  respecting  excommunications.  Firmness  of 
Lewis — His  visit  to  the  Cistercian  chapter.  The  sup- 
plication of  the  monks,  and  the  reply  of  the  King  — 
Early  spirit  and  sense  of  independence  in  the  French 
clergy — The  Pragmatic  Sanction  of  St.  Lewis — Its  prin- 
ciple—  The  six  articles  which  constitute  it  —  Conse- 
quences of  the  policy  of  Innocent  III.  —  (IV.)  On  the 
Crusades.  Remarks  on  the  character  and  circumstan- 
ces of  the  first  Crusade  —  Exertions  of  St.  Bernard  for 
the  second  Crusade  —  its  fatal  result  —  Excuse  of  that 
abbot — Causes  of  the  fall  of  the  Latin  kingdom  of  Je- 
rusalem—Third, fourth,  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  Cru- 
sades— The  eighth  and  ninth.  St.  Lewis — Termination 
of  the  Crusades,  and  final  loss  of  Palestine  —  General 
remarks  —  (1.)  On  the  Origin  anr!  first  motives  of  re- 
ligious pilgrimage — Treatment  of  first  pilgrims  by  the 
Saracens  —  Pilgrimage  during  the  10th  and  11th  centu- 
ries— Conquest  of  Palestine  by  the  Turks — Practice  of 
private  feuds  and  warfare  in  Europe — prevalent  in  the 
10th  century — The  superstitious  spirit  of  the  same  age 
— associated  with  the  military  —  General  predisposition 
in  favor  of  a  Crusade  —  Failure  of  Sylvester  II.  and 
Gregory  VII. —  (9.)  On  the  Objects  of  the  Crusades  — 
what  they  were — what  they  were  not  —  The  object  of 
the  first  distinguished  from  that  of  following  Crusades 
— Conduct  and  policy  of  the  sovereigns  of  Europe — Of 
the  Vatican  —  Gradual  change  in  its  objects.  —  (3.)  On 
the  Results  of  the  Crusades— Advantages  produced  by 
them — Few  and  partial — on  government — on  commerce 
— on  general  civilization — Evils  occasioned — Religious 
wars — Immoral  influence — Corruption  of  Church  disci- 
pline— Canonical  penance — Introduction  of  the  Plenary 
Indulgence — its  abuses — The  Jubilee — Interests  of  the 
clergy.  Note  (A.)  On  the  collections  of  papal  decretals 
— That  of  Gratian — the  Liber  Sextus — Clementines,  &c. 
—  JYote  (B.)  On  the  University  of  Paris  — The  Four 
Faculties  —  Foundation  of  the  Sorbonne.  —  J\l'ute  (C.) 
On  certain  Theological  Writers  —  Rise  and  progress  of 
the  Scholastic  System  of  Theology — Peter  the  Lombard 
— His  'Book  of  the  Sentences' — St.  Thomas  Aquinas 
— His  history  and  productions — St.  Bonaventure — the 
character  of  his  theology  —  The  Realists  and  Nomin- 
alists— or  Thomists  and  Scotists.  —  The  Immaculate 
Conception. 

It  is  seldom  that  the  stream  of  ecclesiastical 
history  receives  any  important  contribution 
from  the  biography  of  kings.  Our  more 
peaceful  course  is  indeed  perpetually  troubled 
by  the  eddies  of  secular  polity,  and  most  so 
in  the  most  superstitious  ages.  The  names  of 
Constantine  and  Charlemagne  have,  it  is  also 
true,  deserved  an  eminent  rank  among  the 
heroes  of  the  church.     But  if  we  pass  over 


LEWIS  IX.  OF  FRANCE. 


355 


the  legendary  tales  of  the  monarch-monks  of 
the  darkest  days,  we  shall  scarcely  discover 
any  other  powerful  prince  whose  policy  was 
formed  either  on  an  ardent  sense  of  religion, 
or  an  attachment   to  ecclesiastical  interests, 
until  we  arrive  at  the  reign  of  Lewis  IX. 
And  here  we  must  at  once  distinguish  the  prin- 
ciples of  that  prince  from  those  either  of  Con- 
stantine  or  of  Charlemagne.     By  whatsoever 
motives  of  genuine  piety  those  two  sovereigns 
may  really  have  been  influenced,  it  is  certain 
that  their  ecclesiastical  institutions  were  chief- 
ly regulated  for  political  ends.     It  was  their 
object  —  an  object  worthy  of  their  royal  rank 
and  virtues — to  improve  the  moral  and  relig- 
ious condition  of  their  subjects  through  the 
instrumentality  of  Christ's  ministers;  and  at 
the  same  time  to  raise  the  dignity  and  charac- 
ter of  those,  whose  sacred  office,  when  they 
are  not  the  worst  of  men,  is  calculated  to 
make   them   the   best.     But   the   actions  of 
Lewis  were  not  guided  by  any  such  consid- 
erations.    They  proceeded  from  that  which  it 
was  the  purpose  of  the  others'  policy  to  cre- 
ate—  an  absorbing  Christian   piety,  with  its 
train  of  concomitant  excellences.      On  this 
subject  there  is  no  difference  among  histori- 
ans, except  in  as  far  as  some  are  more  dis- 
posed to  ridicule  the  superstitious  excesses 
into  which  he  fell,  through  the  practice  of 
his  age,  than  to  do  justice  to  the  lofty  motives 
whence  his  virtues  proceeded. 

Section  I. 

On  Lewis  IX. 

Lewis  IX.  was  born  about  the  year  1215, 
and  came  to  the  throne  at  a  very  early  age. 
He  was  educated  by  a  mother  named  Blanche, 
who  was  eminent  for  her  devotion  to  God 
and  the  church  ;  and  we  should  here  remark, 
that  he  drew  his  first  breath,  and  received  his 
earliest  notions  of  ecclesiastical  polity,  among 
the  groans  of  the  suffering  Albigeois.  The 
sanctity  of  his  private  life  was  not  sullied  by 
any  stain,  nor  was  it  clouded  by  any  austerity. 
'Never,  since  I  was  born,'  (says  Joinville,) 
'did  I  hear  him  speak  ill  of  any  one.'  He 
loved  his  subjects;  and  had  his  lot  been  cast 
in  happier  days,  he  would  have  loved  man- 
kind. But  the  principles  of  his  church  so 
contracted  those  of  his  religion,  that  his 
benevolence  could  never  expand  itself  into 
philanthropy. 

He  was  devout  in  private  prayer,  as  well  as 
a  constant  attendant  on  the  offices  of  the 
church.  On  the  one  hand,  his  submission  to 
the  admonitions,  and  even  to   the  personal 


corrections,  of  his  confessor,  is  diligently  re- 
corded ;  and  on  the  other,  his  adoration  of 
the  Holy  Cross  *  is  recounted  with  no  less 
admiration.  He  would  descend  from  his  seat, 
and  advancing  in  a  homely  garment,  with  his 
head,  neck,  and  feet  bare,  and  his  children 
behind  him,  bend  with  such  profound  hu- 
mility before  the  emblems  of  his  salvation, 
that  the  spectators  were  moved  to  tears  of 
affection  and  piety.  He  appears,  too,  from 
the  same  accounts,  to  have  washed  the  feet  of 
monks  and  of  mendicants,  by  a  very  common 
exercise  of  self-abasement.  And  we  may 
overlook  this  foolish  affectation  in  that  sub- 
stantial excellence,  which  distributed  his  char- 
itable benefactions  without  thrift  or  partiality, 
through  every  class  of  those  who  needed 
them.  The  foundation  of  many  churches 
and  monasteries  secured  at  the  same  time  the 
gratitude  and  fidelity  of  his  spiritual  subjects. 
Hume  has  ascribed  to  Lewis  IX.,  together 
with  '  the  mean  and  abject  superstition  of  a 
monk,  the  magnanimity  of  a  hero,  the  integ- 
rity of  a  patriot,  the  humanity  of  a  philoso- 
pher.' —  That  insatiable  zeal  for  crusades, 
which  neither  his  reason,  which  was  power- 
ful, nor  his  humanity,  nor  his  philosophy,  nor 
all  united,  were  even  in  later  life  sufficient  to 
allay,  afforded  at  the  same  time  the  most  per- 
nicious proofs  of  his  superstition  and  his 
heroism.  But  his  patriotism  was  more  hon- 
orably displayed  in  the  internal  regulation  of 
his  kingdom  ;  in  the  removal  of  abuses,  in  the 
advancement  of  civilization  ;  and  in  this  office, 
(as  his  domestic  biographer  observes,)  he  so 
combined  the  secular  with  the  spiritual  inter- 
ests of  his  subjects,  that  he  seemed  to  dis- 
charge by  the  same  acts  the  double  office  of 
priest  and  king,  f  He  detested  the  practice 
of  usury  ;  and  to  that  motive  we  may  perhaps 
attribute  his  hatred  for  the  Jews,  who  exer- 


*  See  the  book  '  De  Vita  et  Actibus  Ludovici,' 
Stc.  by  his  chaplain,  William  (Carnotensis)  of  Char- 
tres;  and  his  '  Vita,  Conversatio  et  Miracula,'  by  F. 
Gaufridus  his  confessor.  One  object  of  the  latter  is 
to  point  out  the  exact  correspondence  of  the  charac- 
ter of  Lewis  with  that  of  Josiah.  The  particular 
description  and  changes  of  his  coarse  raiment;  the 
days  of  his  fasting,  of  his  abstinence  from  meat,  or 
from  fruit  and  fish,  or  from  every  kind  of  fish  except 
one,  or  from  every  tiling  except  bread  and  water,  and 
such  like  details  of  his  devotional  observances,  are 
related  by  both  writers;  especially  by  the  confessor, 
and  in  his  17th  chapter.  The  king's  eleemosynary 
liberality  forms  the  worthier  subject  of  that  which 
follows.     Both  his  biographers  were  Dominicans. 

f  '  Quod  etiam  quodammodo  regale  sacerdotium, 
aut  sacerdotale  regimen  videretur  pariterexercere.'— 
Gulielm.  Carnotensis. 


356 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


cised  the  trade  exclusively.  Still  we  must 
doubt  the  wisdom,  while  we  censure  the  cru- 
elty, of  the  edict,  by  which  he  expelled  them 
from  the  country.  He  enacted  a  very  severe 
(according  to  our  notions,  a  barbarous)*  law 
against  blasphemy.  While  we  praise  his 
bold,  though  seemingly  ineffectual,  attempts 
to  restrain  the  moral  profligacy  of  his  nobles, 
we  shall  scarcely  less  applaud  the  vigor,  with 
which  lie  exerted  against  that  body  the  power 
of  royalty,  in  a  cause  almost  equally  sacred. 
It  was  a  leading  object  of  his  policy,  to  pro- 
tect the  lower  classes  of  his  subjects  against 
the  brutal  f  oppression  of  the  aristocracy  ; 
and  to  unite  the  interests  of  the  crown  and 
the  people  against  that  privileged  order,  which 
was  equally  hostile  to  the  independence  of 
both.  Justice  he  commonly  administered  in 
person,  J  and  tempered  it  with  his  natural 
clemency.  At  the  same  time  he  endeavored 
to  purify  its  sources  by  permanent  alterations, 
and  to  secure  at  least  for  future  ages  the  bles- 
sings, which  he  might  despair  effectually  to 
impart  to  his  own.  Accordingly,  he  struck 
at  the  root  of  the  evil,  and  made  it  the  grand 
object  of  his  efforts,  to  substitute  trial  by  evi- 
dence for  the  'judgments  of  God  ;'  and  most 
especially  for  the  most  sanguinary  among 
them,  the  decision  by  duel.  His  ordinances 
on  those  subjects  were  obeyed  within  the 
boundaries  of  his  own  domains:  but  he  had 


*  He  caused  the  lips  (or,  as  some  say,  the  fore- 
head) of  those  convicted,  to  be  seared  with  a  hot  iron. 

t  Having  learnt,  on  one  occasion,  that  a  nobleman 
had  hanged  three  children  for  the  offence  of  hunting 
rabbits,  Lewis  condemned  him  to  capital  punishment. 
But  the  rest  of  the  nobility  united  with  so  much  de- 
termination to  preserve  the  life  of  their  fellow-tyrant 
and  the  prerogatives  of  their  order,  that  the  king  was 
obliged  to  commute  the  punishment  for  deprivation 
of  property. 

X  '  I  have  often  seen  the  saint,'  (says  Joinville,) 
'  after  he  had  heard  mass,  in  summer,  come  out  to  the 
Forest  of  Vincennes,  and  seat  himself  at  the  foot  of 
an  oak,  and  make  us  sit  all  round  him.  And  those 
who  had  any  business  came  and  spoke  to  him  without 
any  officer  giving  them  hinderance. — And  sometimes 
he  would  come  to  the  Garden  of  Paris,  and  have 
carpets  spread  for  us  to  sit  near  him;  and  then  he 
administered  justice  to  his  people,  as  he  did  at  Vin- 
cennes.'—  Histoire  du  Roy  St.  Louis,  p.  23.  Edit. 
Paris,  1617.  This  history,  which  is  the  life  of  an 
admirable  king  and  Christian,  by  a  candid,  loyal, 
unaffected  soldier,  is  a  beauliful  specimen  of  inarti- 
ficial biography.  But,  unhappily,  the  most  beneficial, 
and,  therefore,  the  noblest  acts  of  the  monarch,  are 
not  those  which  have  most  attracted  the  attention  of 
the  soldier.  The  details  of  his  campaigns,  and  many 
anecdotes  of  his  private  life,  are  related  with  minute- 
ness and  seeming  accuracy ;  but  his  great  legislative 
enactments  are  slightly,  or  not  at  all  noticed. 


not  the  power  to  enforce  them  uuiversally 
The  Barons,  who  were  severally  the  legisla- 
tors in  their  own  estates,  adhered  to  the  ven- 
erable establishments  of  former  days  ;  and  a 
more  general  diffusion  of  knowledge  was  re- 
quired, before  the  plainest  reason,  aided  even 
by  royal  authority,  could  prevail  against  the 
inveterate  sanctity  of  instituted  absurdities. 

It  was  the  same  with  those  humane  endeav- 
ors to  arrest  the  practice  of  private  warfare, 
in  which  he  anticipated  the  course  of  civiliza- 
tion by  more  than  two  centuries.*  But  when 
he  despaired  of  effecting  this  object  at  once, 
he  attempted  at  least  to  mitigate  the  mischief 
by  a  judicious  prohibition — that  neither  party 
should  commence  hostilities  till  forty  days 
after  the  offence  had  been  offered.f  Thus 
was  he  compelled  to  temporize  with  a  great 
national  evil,  of  which  he  felt  at  the  same  time 
the  whole  extent,  as  well  as  his  own  incapa- 
city to  correct  it.  From  these  instances  we 
may  observe,  that  the  civil  legislation  of  St. 
Lewis  was  generally  founded  on  wise  policy, 
and  that  it  always  sprang  from  benevolent 
motives.  We  shall  presently  notice  some  of 
his  ecclesiastical  enactments;  but,  at  the  same 
time,  it  must  be  admitted,  that  the  charge  of 
'  abject  superstition '  alleged  against  him  by 
the  philosophical  historian  is  not  less  just, 
than  the  merits  also  ascribed  to  him ;  nor  will 
it  here  be  out  of  place  to  recount  one  cele- 
brated incident  in  support  of  this  imputation. 

Reception  of  the  Crown  of  Thorns. — The 
History  of  the  Church  comprises  the  records 
of  superstition,  which  in  those  corrupt  ages 
was  indeed  so  interwoven  with  piety,  that  it 
is  rare  to  find  them  separate.  The  character 
of  St.  Lewis  particularly  exemplified  their 
combination  ;  it  may  be  perpetually  detected 
in  his  warlike  enterprises ;  but  there  is  not 
one  among  his  spiritual  adventures  which 
better  illustrates  himself  and  his  age  than  the 
following: — The  original  Crown  of  Thorns 
had  been  long  preserved  at  Constantinople  as 
the  most  precious  and  venerable  among  the 
relics  of  Christ ;  yet  such  were  at  this  time 
the  necessities  of  the  government,  that  the 
holy  treasure  was  consigned  in  pawn  to  the 
government  of  Venice.  It  was  delivered  over 
to  the  commissioners  of  the  Republic,  who 


*  The  right  of  private  feud  cannot  be  considered 
as  abolished,  until  nearly  the  end  of  the  15th  century. 
In  collecting  a  large  and,  for  those  days,  a  valuable 
library,  and  in  encouraging  the  progress  of  knowledge 
among  his  subjects,  St.  Lewis  opened  the  only  certain 
path  to  their  civilization 

t  Some  attribute  this  regulation  to  Philippe  Au- 


LEWIS  IX.  OF  FRANCE. 


357 


immediately  set  sail,  in  a  wintry  and  incle- 
ment season,  full  of  religious  confidence,  and 
were  preserved  (as  it  was  thought)  through  a 
perilous  voyage  by  the  holiness  of  their  charge. 
The  pledge,  which  the  Greeks  were  too  poor 
or  too  wise  to  redeem,  was  eagerly  purchased 
by  St.  Lewis,  and  the  relic,  after  a  few  months 
at  Venice  of  repose  and  adoration,  continued 
its  pilgrimage  to  the  west.  During  the  course 
of  an  overland  journey  it  was  again  distin- 
guished by  the  favor  of  the  elements;  and 
though  the  rain  fell  abundantly  during  the 
nights,  not  a  drop  descended  by  day  to  inter- 
rupt its  progress.  At  length  when  it  arrived 
at  Troves  in  Champagne,  the  event  was  noti- 
fied to  the  king  at  Paris,  and  he  instantly  set 
off  to  welcome  it,  accompanied  by  the  Queen 
Blanche  his  mother,  by  his  brothers,  by  some 
prelates,  and  other  nobles. 

The  royal  company  met  their  holy  acquisi- 
tion in  the  neighborhood  of  Sens,  and  after 
they  had  uncovered  the  case  and  beheld  the 
object,  and  moistened  it  with  pious  tears,  they 
assembled  the  clergy  of  the  diocese  and  form- 
ed a  solemn  procession  towards  the  city.  As 
they  approached  the  gates,  the  king  and  his 
eldest  brother,  the  Count  d'Artois,  received 
the  venerated  burden  on  their  shoulders  ;  and 
in  this  manner,  with  naked  feet,  and  no  other 
covering  than  a  shirt,*  they  carried  it,  in  the 
midst  of  the  adoring  crowd,  into  the  cathe- 
dral. .  .  Thence  it  proceeded  to  Paris,  and 
there  its  arrival  was  hailed  with  a  repetition 
of  the  same  degrading  solemnities.  The 
whole  clergy  and  the  whole  people  were  in 
motion,  and  again  the  two  illustrious  brothers, 
barefoot  and  naked  as  before,  supported  and 
deposited  it  in  the  destined  sanctuary.  An 
annual  festival  was  instituted  to  commemorate 
an  event  of  such  national  importance — the  in- 
troduction of  this  new  palladium.  But  its 
value  was  soon  afterwards  diminished  by  the 
importation  of  a  formidable  rival  for  the  pop- 
ular adoration.  It  was  not  long  before  the 
royal  enthusiast  succeeded  in  procuring  some 
substantial  fragments  of  the  real  Cross ;  and 
this  acquisition  again  furnished  him  with  an- 
other pretext  to  multiply  to  his  lively  subjects 
the  occasions  of  religious  festivity. 

His  Death  and  Canonization. — In  the  year 
1270,  St.  Lewis  died  before  Tunis,  while  in 
the  prosecution  of  his  second  crusade.  His 
last  words  were  said  to  have  been  these  f — 


*  Vita  et  Convers.  S.  Ludovici,  &c,  per  F.  Gau- 
fridum.  Aug.  11,  1239,  was  the  day  consecrated  by 
this  exploit. 

t  So  says  William  of  Chartres,  and  Boniface  VIII. 
in  his  Bull  of  Canonization,  confirms  it. 


1  '  Lord,  I  will  enter  into  thine  house ;  I  will 
worship  in  thy  holy  temple,  and  give  glory  to 
!  thy  name.  Into  thy  hands  I  commend  my 
J  spirit.'  From  the  beginning  of  his  life  to  its 
j  latest  breath  the  same  principle  predominated, 
|  the  same  religious  fervor  (however  it  may 
sometimes  have  been  perverted)  influenced  all 
his  actions;  and,  perhaps,  in  the  interminable 
catalogue  of  her  Saints,  the  Church  of  Rome 
cannot  number  a  name  more  worthy  of  that 
celestial  dignity  than  Lewis  IX.  But  the 
merit  to  which  that  pious  monarch  was  chief- 
ly indebted  for  his  heavenly  office,  was  not 
that  to  which  he  had  ever  particularly  pre- 
tended. His  eminent  virtues,  his  religious  life 
and  death,  even  his  services  to  the  Catholic 
Church,  might  seem  to  have  entitled  him  to 
that  high  reward.  But  those  claims  had  been 
wholly  insufficient,  had  it  not  also  been  con- 
clusively attested  that  he  had  performed  many 
manifest  and  astonishing  miracles. 

The  canonization  of  Lewis  IX.  took  place 
twenty-seven  years  after  his  death,  and  almost 
the  whole  of  that  time  was  employed  in  col- 
lecting the  necessary  documents.*  The  rapid 
succession  of  the  Popes  was  the  cause  which 
retarded  it ;  and  it  may  seem  as  if  in  mockery 
of  his  holy  character,  that  the  performance 
of  this  office  did  at  last  devolve  upon  Boni- 
face VIII.  It  was  Boniface  who  preached 
the  panegyrical  sermon,  and  enlarged  on 
those  various  virtues  which  had  no  counter- 
part in  his  own  bosom.  It  was  the  genius  of 
arrogance  which  paid  homage  to  the  spirit  of 
humility,  and  exalted  it  even  to  the  thrones 
of  heaven.  '  Let  the  hosts  of  heaven  rejoice 
at  the  arrival  of  so  noble  and  glorious  an  in- 
habitant— an  approved  and  eminent  husband- 
man of  the  Christian  faith  is  added  to  then- 
multitudes.  Let  the  glorious  nobility  of  the 
celestial  citizens  sound  the  jubilee  of  joy,  for 
an  honored  stranger  is  adscribed  to  their 
ranks.  Let  the  venerable  assembly  of  the 
Saints  arise  with  gladness  and  exultation,  to 
receive  a  compeer  who  well  deserves  such 
dignity.     Arise,  thou  innumerable  council  of 

*  In  the  first  of  the  two  sermons  delivered  by 
Boniface  on  that  occasion,  he  expressly  asserts,  that 
after  the  fullest  examination  into  the  evidence  for  the 
miracles,  he  has  ascertained  that  sixty-three  miracles 
were  assuredly  performed,  besides  others  which  God 
evidently  vouchsafed  to  him  —  (sexaginta  tria,  inter 
caetera  (\\xve  Domimis  evidenter  ostendit,  certitudina- 
liter  facta  cognovimus.)  Respecting  the  tedious  du- 
ration of  the  investigation,  Boniface  remarks,  in  the 
same  discourse,  with  great  simplicity  — '  Et  ita  per 
tot  et  totiens  exominatum  est,  rubricatum  et  discussum 
negocium,  quod  de  hoc  plus  facta  est  descriptura, 
quam  unus  asinus  posset  portare.' 


353 


HISTORY   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


faith  ;  zealots  of  the  faith  arise,  and  sing  the 
hymn  of  praise  in  concert  with  the  Church 
which  is  your  own.  .  .  He  offered  offence 
to  no  one,  to  no  one  violence  or  injury.  He 
carefully  observed  the  boundaries  of  justice, 
without  deserting  the  path  of  equity.  He 
punished  with  the  sword  the  daring  and  law- 
less enterprises  of  the  wicked.  An  ardent 
lover  of  peace  and  concord — an  anxious 
promoter  of  unity — hostile  to  scandals  and 
dissensions,'*  &c.  &c.  We  may  remark  that 
this  last  topic,  in  the  mouth  of  Boniface  VIII., 
was  at  best  an  equivocal  eulogy.  A  zeal  for 
'  unity,'  and  an  abhorrence  of  '  scandals  and 
dissensions,'  is  a  praise  which,  when  proceed- 
ing from  pontifical  lips,  conveys  the  necessary 
suspicion  of  intolerance.  Lewis  has  been 
accused  of  that  crime — the  ruling  iniquity  of 
his  age — and  we  shall  now  examine  on  what 
facts  that  charge  is  really  founded. 

Section  II. 

On  the  Inquisition. 

It  is  asserted,  and  with  truth,  that  the  Inqui- 
sition was  permanently  established  in  France 
during  the  reign  of  St.  Lewis ;  that  he  never 
ceased  to  manifest  great  partiality  for  the 
Dominicans  and  Franciscans, f  and  all  invest- 
ed with  the  inquisitorial  office ;  and  that  it 
was  even  at  the  particular  solicitation  of  the 
king,J  that  Alexander  IV.  confirmed,  in  1255, 
the  institution  of  that  tribunal,  and  appointed 
the  Prior  of  the  Dominican  Convent  at  Paris 
to  be  Inquisitor-general  in  France.  That  we 
may  be  able  to  estimate  the  real  weight  of 


*  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  a  more  turgid  and  tau- 
tologous  composition  than  this  celebrated  bull.  The 
merits  which  Lewis  really  possessed,  are  enumerated 
without  taste  or  feeling ;  and  the  author  of  the  pane- 
gyric seems  to  have  been  wholly  incapable  of  esti- 
mating the  character  which  he  pretended  to  eulogize. 

t  It  appears  that  he  intended  to  educate  two  of  his 
sons  in  monasteries,  and  that  by  his  Testament  he 
consigned  one  to  Dominican,  the  other  to  Franciscan 
tuition. — Gaufridus,  Vita  et  Conversat.  chap.  14. 

$  See  Liinborch,  Hist.  Inquisit.  lib.  i.  cap.  16. 
The  annalist  Raynaldus  has  expressed  his  pious  re- 
gret, that  the  admirable  institution  of  the  Saint  was 
feebly  supported,  and  even  entirely  overthrown  by  his 
degenerate  successors!  We  should  observe  that  the 
domains  of  the  Count  of  Poitiers  and  Toulouse,  who 
was  then  Alphonso,  brother  of  the  king,  were  except- 
ed from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  prior,  as  being  already 
subject  to  a  special  commission  on  matters  of  faith. — 
Fleury,  liv.  lxxxiv.  §  lxxxv.  The  act  of  St.  Lewis 
was  to  establish  that  generally  throughout  his  king- 
dom, which  had  hitherto  been  confined  to  the  most 
nfected  province. 


these  assertions,  and  (what  is  more  important 
than  the  reputation  of  any  individual)  that  we 
may  understand  on  what  ground  that  fright- 
ful structure  was  erected,  we  must  trace  as 
shortly  as  possible  the  causes  which  led  to  its 
foundation. 

The  itinerant  emissaries  of  Innocent  III., 
among  whom  Dominic  is  the  name  most 
celebrated,  first  obtained  the  title  of  Inquisit- 
ors— that  is  to  say,  they  were  invested  by  the 
Pope  with  authority  to  discover,  to  convert 
or  to  arraign  before  the  ecclesiastical  courts 
all  guilty  or  suspected  of  heresy.  But  this 
was  the  limit  of  their  commission.  They  did 
not  constitute  an  independent  tribunal,  nor 
were  they  clothed  with  any  judicial  power. 
The  process  was  still  carried  on,  according 
to  the  practice  then  prevailing,  before  the 
bishop  of  the  diocese,  and  the  secular  arm 
was  invited,  when  necessary,  to  enforce  his 
sentence.  But  this  form  of  proceeding  was 
not  found  sufficiently  rapid  to  satisfy  the 
eagerness  of  the  Pope  and  his  missionaries. 
The  work  of  extirpation  was  sometimes  re- 
tarded by  the  compunctions  of  a  merciful  pre- 
late, sometimes  by  the  reluctance  of  the  civil 
authorities  to  execute  a  barbarous  or  unpop- 
ular sentence.*  And  to  remove  these  im- 
pediments to  the  course  of  destruction,  there 
was  no  resource,  except  to  institute  in  the  in- 
fected provinces,  with  the  direct  co-operation 
of  the  ruling  powers,  a  separate  tribunal  for 
causes  of  heresy.  This  object  was  not  imme- 
diately accomplished.  In  the  meantime  the 
Dominicans  and  Franciscans  were  spreading 
their  numbers  and  influence  in  every  country. 
And  as  they  were  the  faithful  myrmidons  of 
the  Roman  See,  and  more  devoted  in  their 
allegiance  than  either  the  secular  or  the  regu- 
lar clergy,  thus  arose  an  additional  reason  for 
investing  them  with  a  distinct  jurisdiction. 
By  the  council  held  at  Toulouse  in  1229,  (of 
which  the  decrees  have  been  noticed  in  a 
former  chapter,)  a  canon  was  published  which 
united  '  one  priest  with  three  laymen,'  in  a 
sort  of  council  of  inquisition.     It  is  this  regu- 


*  It  should  be  remarked  on  the  other  hand,  that  it 
was  sometimes  (especially  in  the  beginning  of  the 
persecutions)  precipitated  by  the  agency  of  popular 
fury,  excited  by  the  preachers  against  the  heretics. 
Their  favorite  text  is  said  to  have  been  (Psalm  xciv. 
v.  16.)  'Who  will  rise  up  for  me  against  the  evil- 
doers'! Who  will  stand  up  for  me  against  the  work- 
ers of  iniquity"]'  Many  of  them  were  eloquent — the 
people  were  superstitious  —  the  preachers  were  fana- 
tics. In  fact,  when  the  ecclesiastical  censures  were 
despised,  and  the  secular  power  refused  its  aid,  pop- 
ular madness  was  their  only  remaining  instrument. 


THE  INQUISITION. 


359 


lation  which  is  reasonably  considered  as  the 
foundation  of  the  Court  of  Inquisition.  * 

To  Pope  Gregory  IX.  be  ascribed  the  honor 
of  this  success!  Still  the  court  thus  established 
continued  to  be  a  court  of  bishops.  Its  object 
was  indeed  exclusively  such  as  the  most,  zeal- 
ous pontiff  could  have  desired  ;  but  it  was 
composed  of  materials  neither  wholly  desti- 
tute of  human  feeling,  nor  blindly  subservient 
to  the  papal  will.  A  further  change  was, 
therefore,  necessary  ;  and,  accordingly,  about 
three  years  afterwards,  Gregory  found  means 
to  transfer  the  authority  in  the  new  court  to 
the  Dominican  order.  It  was  thus  that  the 
Inquisition,  properly  so  called  —  that  is,  a 
court  for  the  trial  of  heretics,  erected  by 
papal  authority,  and  administered  by  papal 
dependents — was  indeed  instituted.  .  .  Some 
popular  commotions  f  followed  its  first  pro- 
ceedings; —  the  persons  of  the  judges  were 
exposed  to  insult,  and  the  whole  body  was,  for 
a  short  time,  expelled  from  the  city.  But  the 
spirit  of  Rome  was  yet  too  powerful, — the  fu- 
gitives were  presently  restored.  And  though 
the  inquisitorial  system  never  reached  in 
France  those  refinements  in  barbarity  which 
some  other  countries  have  endured — though 
it  obtained,  in  truth,  no  very  permanent  foot- 
ing among  a  humane  and  generous  people — 
it  continued  to  subsist  there  for  several  years; 
and  if  there  was  any  sceptre  under  which  it 
can  be  said  to  have  flourished,  it  was  assur- 
edly the  sceptre  of  St.  Lewis.  Still  we  must 
not  forget  that  it  was  established  in  his  boy- 
hood ;  so  that  the  guilt  of  that  %  act  is  unjustly 


*  By  the  Council  of  Narbonne,  held  two  years  lie- 
fore,  it  was  enacted,  '  that  the  bishops  should  estab- 
lish in  each  parish  synodal  witnesses  lo  inquire  into 
heresy,  and  other  notorious  crimes,  and  to  make  their 
report.'  These  were  truly  established  inquisitors; 
— still  their  office  was  to  report,  not  to  judge. 

f  Besides  the  indignation  excited  by  the  object  of 
this  institution,  there  was  a  general  objection  among 
laymen  to  the  establishment  of  any  new  ecclesiastical 
tribunal,  lo  which  all  classes  were  alike  amenable. 
And  this  was  not  diminished  when,  to  the  original  of- 
fences of  heresy,  those  of  Judaism,  Mahometanism, 
sodomy,  sacrilege,  and  even  polygamy,  were  added. 
But  we  have  not  observed  that  this  wide  extension 
of  the  objects  of  that  court  was  ever  made  in  France. 

%  We  must  notice  the  injustice  which  has  hastily 
been  offered  to  the  character  of  Lewis  IX.  by  Mosh- 
eim.  That  writer  having  asserted  (on  the  authority 
of  the  Benedictine  compilers  of  the  history  of  Lan- 
guedoc)  that  Lewis  published  a  barbarous  edict  against 
heretics,  in  the  year  1229,  proceeds  thus: — '  A  great 
part  of  the  sanctity  of  good  King  Lewis  consisted  in 
his  furious  and  implacable  aversion  to  heretics.'  .  .  . 
Now,  that  this  aversion  formed,  at  any  age,  a  promi- 
nent part  of  his  character,  will  be  asserted  by  no  one 


cast  upon  him.  He  perpetuated  the  evil  which 
he  found  ;  and  in  the  religious  code  of  those 
days,  the  '  unity  of  the  Church'  was  so  care- 
fully identified  with  the  glory  of  Christ,  that 
an  ardent  desire  for  the  one  might  easily  de- 
generate into  a  misguided  zeal  for  the  other  : 
and  thus,  without  intending  to  exculpate  the 
royal  persecutor,  we  are  bound  to  distinguish 
between  the  crime  of  those  who  created  that 
ecclesiastical  system,  and  of  him  who  blindly 
supported  it;  —  of  the  churchmen*  who  art- 
fully confounded  the  essence  of  religion  with 
the  maintenance  of  their  own  power,  and  of 
the  pious  laymen,  who  adopted  with  reverence 
the  undisputed  and  consecrated  maxims. 

Progress  of  the  Inquisition.  The  brutal 
edictsf  of  Frederic  II.,  published  about  1244 
and  not  exceeded  by  the  most  barbarous  em 
anations  of  the  Vatican,  were  not  palliated  by 
any  motive  of  misdirected  piety:  yet  were 
they  much  more  effectual  than  the  encour- 
agement of  Lewis  in  arming  the  fury  of  the 
Dominicans,  at  least  within  the  limits  of  his 
empire.  But  the  intolerant  zeal  of  Frederic 
neither  softened  the  hostility  of  Innocent  IV., 
nor  preserved  himself  from  the  anathemas  of 
the  Church.  J  After  his  triumph,  Innocent 
pursued  and  exceeded  the  footsteps  of  his 
predecessors.     He  established  the  Tribunal  § 

who  has  studied  the  whole  of  his  life.  But  in  res- 
pect to  this  particular  edict,  was  Mosheim  ignorant 
that  it  was  published  under  the  regency  of  Queen 
Blanche,  when  the  prince  was  not  yet  fifteen  years 
old? 

*  In  1239,  one  hundred  and  eighty  heretics  were 
burut  in  Champagne,  in  the  same  flames,  and  in  the 
presence  of  eighteen  bishops.  'It  is  a  holocaust 
agreeable  to  God!  '  exclaimed  a  monk  who  witnessed 
the  execution.  .  .  .  Was  it  to  be  expected  that 
a  woman  and  a  child  should  rise  up  against  an  eccle- 
siastical practice,  which  was  sanctioned  by  the  con- 
current zeal  of  monks,  of  prelates,  of  popes,  and  of 
councils'? 

f  Four  of  them  are  cited  by  Limborch,  Hist,  of 
Inquisit.,  lib.  i.  cap.  12. 

%  He  was  accused  of  having  favored  and  fostered 
heresies.  His  edicts  may  have  had  that  tendency; 
but  he  was  assuredly  innocent  of  the  intention. 

§  Giannone  (lib.  xix.,  chap.  v.  sect,  iv.)  seems  to 
ascribe  the  establishment  of  the  court  virtually  ad- 
ministered by  the  Mendicants,  to  Innocent  IV.,  and 
with  truth,  so  far  as  Italy  was  concerned.  Two  cir- 
cumstances (he  remarks)  were  opposed  to  it.  (1.) 
The  judicial  rights  of  the  episcopal  courts.  (2.)  The 
executive  rights  of  the  secular  magistrates.  The  first 
was  obviated  by  the  nominal  association  of  bishops 
in  the  inquisitorial  office.  The  second,  by  permitting 
the  magistrate  to  have  his  minister  in  the  court, 
though  at  the  appointment  of  the  grand  inquisitor. 
There  was  much  art  in  this  concession;  for  thus, 
while  the  ecclesiastics  really  held  the  whole  power, 


360 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


of  the  Inquisition  in  the  north  of  Italy,  and  in 
that  form  which  made  it  most  effectually  the 
engine  of  the  Vatican.  It  is  true,  that  in  this 
court  the  hishop  was  nominally  appointed  as 
coadjutor  to  the  papal  inquisitor  ;  hut  all  sub- 
stantial judicial  authority  was  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  latter.  *  The  civil  magistrate 
was  likewise  admitted  to  a  seat  among  the 
members  of  the  court ;  but  in  reality  his 
power  was  ministerial  only.  The  whole 
effective  power,  both  judicial  and  executive, 
was  vested  in  the  Dominicans  and  Francis- 
cans. .  .  From  Italy,  the  pestilence  rapidly 
spread  to  the  island  of  Sardinia,  to  Syria,  and 
to  Servia.  f  On  the  other  hand  into  Spain, 
the  field  of  its  most  destructive  ravages,  it 
was  introduced  so  late  as  the  reign  of  Ferdi- 
nand and  Isabella — a  reign  more  renowned, 
more  panegyrized,  than  any  other  in  the  his- 
tory of  that  country.  But  from  Spain  even 
the  despotism  of  Charles  V.  was  insufficient 
to  communicate  it  to  the  rest  of  his  subjects  ; 
the  natural  humanity  of  the  Germans  perse- 
veringly  repelled  that  pestilence  ;  and  the  in- 
habitants of  Naples  on  one  side,  and  of  the 
Low  Countries  on  the  other,  resisted  and  re- 
jected it  with  equal  constancy. 

We  shall  not  enter  more  deeply  into  the 
records  of  the  Inquisition,  nor  particularize 
the  combinations  of  its  machinery,  and  the 
exquisite  harmony  of  its  movements,  because 
it  did  not  reach  that  fatal  perfection  until  a 


the  secular  authorities,  by  being  united  with  them  in 
name,  were  associated  in  hatred.  They  were  tools, 
— they  were  mistaken  for  accomplices. 

*  We  learn  from  Bzovius  at  a  later  period,  (aim. 
1302,  sect,  x.,)  that  Boniface  VIII.  transferred  the 
inquisitorial  office  from  the  Franciscans  to  the  Domi- 
nicans, publishing  at  the  same  time  some  severe  con- 
stitutions against  heretics.  There  is  one  feature  in 
them  which  we  have  not  remarked  in  the  earliest 
edicts.  Not  only  were  their  defensores,  receptatores, 
&c,  included  in  the  penalties,  but  also  their  filii  et 
nepotes  —  children  and  grandchildren.  The  bishop 
of  the  diocese  was  permitted  to  act  in  concert  with 
the  inquisitors;  and  the  investigation  was  ordered  to 
proceed  '  simpliciter  et  de  piano,  absque,  advocato- 
rum  et  judiciorum  strepitu  et  figura! '  The  accusers 
were  allowed  to  give  evidence  secretly,  if  there  should 
seem  to  be  any  danger  to  them  from  the  publication 
of  their  names. 

■f-  Limborch,  lib.  i.,  cap.  xvi.  The  '  Liber  Sen- 
tentiarum  Inquisitionis  Tholosana?,'  published  at  the 
end  of  his  work,  is  of  great  value,  not  only  as  it 
faithfully  represents  the  spirit  of  the  ruling  party  in 
the  Church  at  that  time,  (there  were  no  doubt  many 
individuals  of  greater  moderation  and  humanity,) 
but  also  as  the  best  storehouse  of  the  opinions  with 
which  the  heretics  were  charged,  and  for  which  they 
suffered. 


time  posterior  to  the  conclusion  of  this  His- 
tory. *  It  is  with  no  trifling  satisfaction  that 
we  dispense  with  this  labor;  for  the  details 
of  ingenious  barbarity,  though  they  may 
awaken  a  transient  attention,  convey  little 
that  is  instructive  to  a  reasonable  mind  ;  and 
the  feelings  of  horror  and  indignation  which 
they  excite,  do  they  not  sometimes  miss  their 
true  object,  and  exceed  their  just  limits  ? — do 
they  not  sometimes  rise  into  a  detestation 
too  general  and  too  unqualified  against  the 
Church  which  permitted  such  iniquities? — 
do  they  not  sometimes  close  our  charities 
against  fellow  Christians  and  fellow  Catho- 
lics, who  perhaps  abominate,  as  intensely  as 
we  do,  the  crimes  of  their  ancestors  ?  To  ex- 
pose the  deviations  from  the  precepts  of  the 
Gospel  and  the  principles  of  philanthropy, 
into  which  the  Church  of  Rome,  in  different 
ages,  has  fallen,  is  a  painful  task  so  common- 
ly obtruded  upon  the  historian,  that  he  may 
well  be  spared  the  gratuitous  denunciation 
of  those  which  do  not  lie  within  the  bounda- 
ries prescribed  to  his  work. 

Section  III. 

On  the  Gallican  Liberties. 

St.  Letvis  and  his  Clergy. — A  difference 
which  took  place  between  St.  Lewis  and  his 
clergy,  in  the  year  1263,  throws  some  light 
both  on  his  own  character,  and  on  the  eccle- 
siastical history  of  the  age.  The  bishops 
were  desirous  to  make  to  the  king  a  remon- 
strance from  their  whole  body  ;  and  when 
they  were  admitted  into  his  presence,  the 
bishop  of  Auxerre  spoke  in  their  name  as 
follows : — '  Sire,  all  these  prelates  here  assem- 
bled desire  me  to  say,  that  you  are  permitting 
the  Christian  religion  to  fall  to  ruins,  and  to 
crumble  in  your  hands.'  On  which  the  good 
king  f  made  the  sign  of  the  Cross,  and  said, 
'Now  tell  me,  bishop,  how  that  is,  and  for 
what  reason  ? '  '  Sire,'  continued  the  bishop, 
'the  evil  is,  that  no  regard  is  any  longer  paid 
to  excommunication.  In  these  days,  a  man 
would  rather  die  under  the  sentence,  than 
obtain  absolution  by  making  the  necessary 
satisfaction  to  the  Church.  Wherefore,  Sire, 
all  these  here  present  request,  with  one  voice, 
that,  for  the  honor  of  God,  and  in  the  dis- 


*  It  was  indeed  introduced  into  Spain  under  Pope 
Sixtus  IV.,  before  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century; 
but  its  first  efforts,  which  were  directed  against  the 
Jews,  were  merely  characterized  by  savage  barbarity. 

f  Joinville,  who  tells  the  story,  was  present.  Prem. 
Partie  Vie  de  St.  Louis,  p.  24. 


GALLICAN  LIBERTIES. 


361 


charge  of  your  own  duty,*  it  may  please  you 
to  command  all  your  bailiffs,  provosts,  and 
other  administrators  of  justice,  as  follows  : — 
that,  if  any  one  be  found  in  your  kingdom 
who  shall  have  lain  under  a  sentence  of  ex- 
communication for  a  year  and  a  day  continu- 
ous, he  be  compelled,  by  seizure  of  his  goods, 
to  reconcile  himself  to  the  Church.'  The 
holy  man  (le  saint  homme)  answered,  that  he 
would  issue  such  order  in  respect  to  those 
who  should  be  proved  guilty  of  injustice 
either  to  the  Church,  or  to  their  neighbor. 
The  bishop  pressed,  in  reply,  the  exclusive 
privileges  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  ;  but 
the  king  firmly  refused  the  secular  aid,  un- 
less the  nature  of  the  offence,  and  the  justice 
of  the  censure,  should  be  such  as  required  its 
interference.  This  was  the  endeavor  of  a 
wise  prince  to  distinguish  the  boundaries  of 
ecclesiastical  and  civil  jurisdiction,  and  to  re- 
strain the  former  within  its  just  limits  ;  and  it 
shows  at  least,  that,  on  matters  which  were 
still  left  open  to  the  exercise  of  reason,  Lewis, 
how  much  soever  he  might  love  the  religion, 
was  not  at  all  disposed  to  be  overreached  or 
overawed  by  its  ministers. 

We  may  relate  another  anecdote  of  the 
same  monarch,  which  will  suggest  one  or 
two  instructive  reflections  to  the  intelligent 
reader.  St.  Lewis  had  promised  to  be  pres- 
ent at  a  chapter-general  of  the  Cistercian  or- 
der, to  he  held  in  the  year  1244  with  unusual 
solemnity.  Innocent  IV.  received  informa- 
tion of  his  intention  ;  and  as  the  contest  with 
Frederic  involved  him  at  that  moment  in 
some  difficulties,  he  took  measures  to  profit  by 
the  pious  disposition  of  the  king  of  France. 
The  monarch  arrived,  attended  by  his  moth- 
er, his  brothers,  and  some  nobles  ;  and  all  the 
abbots  and  the  monks  of  the  community,  con- 
sisting of  five  hundred,  went  forth  in  proces- 
sion to  meet  and  welcome  the  royal  visiter. 
Immediately,  while  he  was  seated  in  the 
chapter,  surrounded  by  his  court,  the  abbots 
and  the  monks  fell  on  their  knees  before 
him,  with  their  hands  in  the  attitude  of  pray- 
er, and  their  eyes  suffused   with  tears — for 


*  '  Pour  Dieu,  et  pour  ce  qu'  ainsi  le  devez  faire.' 
We  should  observe  that  the  demand  on  the  part  of  the 
prelates  was  not  new,  and  that  it  had  even  been  grant- 
ed by  the  predecessor  of  Lewis.  The  first  canon  of 
the  Council  of  JN'arbonne,  held  in  1227,  mentions,  as 
the  law  then  in  force,  that  whoever  remained  under 
the  sentence,  after  three  admonitions,  should  pay  a 
fine  of  nine  livres  and  a  denier;  but  that  whoever 
remained  so  for  a  whole  year,  should  suffer  the  con- 
fiscation of  all  his  property.  Fleury,  iiv.  lxxix.  sec. 
xxxii. 

46 


such  had  been  the  instructions  of  Innocent. 
Their  prayer  was  this: — 'That,  according  to 
the  ancient  custom  and  liberty  of  France,  he 
would  protect  their  father  and  pastor,  the 
holy  pontiff,  against  the  insults  of  the  empe- 
ror ;  that  he  would  receive  him,  if  necessary, 
into  the  bosom  of  his  kingdom,  as  Alexander 
had  formerly  been  received,  while  flying  be- 
fore the  Emperor  Frederic,  and  Thomas  of 
Canterbury,  in  his  persecution  by  Henry  of 
England.'  .  .  St.  Lewis  descended  from 
his  seat,  and  placed  himself  in  like  manner 
upon  his  knees  before  the  holy  suppliants. 
But  his  reply  was  dictated  by  the  calmest 
prudence  and  policy — 'that  he  would  defend 
the  Church,  as  his  honor  required,  from  the 
insults  of  the  emperor ;  and  no  less  willingly 
would  he  receive  the  exiled  Pope  into  his 
kingdom,  if  his  barons  should  so  counsel 
him  ;  but  that  a  king  of  France  could  on  no 
occasion  dispense  with  the  counsels  of  his 
nobles.'  *  .  .  It  was  no  secret  from  the 
king,  nor,  perhaps,  even  from  his  monastic 
petitioners,  that  the  barons  of  France  would 
never  consent  to  open  their  rich  domains,  as 
a  refuge  for  the  rapacious  court  of  Innocent 
IV. 

If  St.  Lewis,  on  the  one  hand,  protected  the 
liberties  of  his  lay-subjects  from  the  usurpa- 
tions of  the  clergy,  he  was  no  less  vigilant, 
on  the  other,  in  shielding  all  parties  from  the 
increasing  exactions  of  Rome.  Even  from 
very  early  ages  the  Church  of  France  had 
exhibited  on  some  important  occasions  marks 
both  of  independence  and  good  sense,  above 
the  level  of  other  nations.  The  oriental  ab- 
surdity of  the  Stylites  was  rejected  by  that 
more  rational  people.  The  rising  authority 
of  St.  Leo  was  unable  to  silence  the  refracto- 
ry bishops  of  France.  The  use  of  images 
was  for  sometime  discountenanced  in  that 
country.  The  Augustinian  doctrine  of  pre- 
destination found,  perhaps,  its  wannest  ad- 
versaries among  the  divines  of  France.  But 
most  especially  in  the  contest  of  Hinemar 
with  Pope  Nicholas,  and  some  other  occur- 
rences of  the  ninth  century,  do  we  detect 
the  spirit  of  a  clergy  not  prepared  to  pay  im- 
plicit obedience  to  the  foreign  autocrat  of  the 
Church.  Nevertheless,  no  formal  declaration 
of  resistance — no  national  attempt  to  emanci- 
pate the  Gallican  Church  from  any  of  its  fet- 


*  See  Matthew  Talis,  ad  ami.  1244.  We  must 
not  confound  this  affair  with  a  conference  which  did 
actually  take  place  two  years  afterwards  between  the 
king  and  the  Pope  within  the  walls  of  Cluni.  See 
Pagi,  Vit.  Innoc.  IV.,  sec.  xxxiii. 


362 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


ters,  or  give  it  security  by  a  separate  constitu- 
tion against  further  aggressions — had  hitherto 
been  made  by  any  king  of  France. 

The  Pragmatic  Sanction.  It  was  the  last 
among  the  legislative  acts  of  St.  Lewis  to 
publish  those  institutions  which  formed  the 
basis  of  the  boasted  '  Liberties  of  the  Gallican 
Church.'  Just  before  his  departure  for  Tu- 
nis, he  issued  his  Pragmatic  Sanction.  It 
was  founded  on  the  necessity  of  distinguish- 
ing temporal  from  spiritual  authority,  and 
became,  in  after  times,  the  foundation  of  a 
more  extensive  emancipation.  Like  those, 
however,  which  were  built  upon  it,  it  was  pe- 
culiarly directed  against  the  pecuniary  usur- 
pations of  Rome,  and  her  claims  to  the  pat- 
ronage of  the  Church.  The  latter  subject 
had  indeed  occasioned  the  earliest  conten- 
tions between  the  empire  and  the  Vatican, 
at  a  time  when  the  rights  of  the  dispute  were 
on  the  side  of  the  latter.  But  since  the  days 
of  Innocent  II.,  the  usurpations,  whether  in 
the  imposition  of  taxes,  or  the  distribution  of 
benefices,  had  proceeded  from  the  court  of 
Rome  ;  and  Lewis  IX.  having  acquired  by 
his  personal  character,  as  well  as  his  wise 
'Establishments,'*  the  affection  and  fidelity 
of  his  subjects,  felt  strong  enough  to  repress 
them. 

Accordingly,  in  the  year  1269,  that  he  might 
insure  the  tranquillity  of  his  Church  and  king- 
dom during  his  absence,  and  also  secure  for 
his  enterprise  the  protection  of  God,  he  pro- 
mulgated his  celebrated  Ordinance.  It  is 
comprised  in  six  articles.  (1.)  The  churches, 
the  prelates,  the  patrons,  and  the  ordinary 
collators  of  benefices,  shall  enjoy  their  rights 
to  their  full  extent,  and  each  shall  be  sustain- 
ed in  his  jurisdiction.  (2.)  The  cathedral  and 
other  churches  shall  possess  the  liberties  of 
elections,  which  shall  be  carried  into  complete 
effect.  (3.)  We  will,  that  simony,  the  pest  of 
the  Church,  be  wholly  banished  from  our 
kingdom.  (4.)  Promotions,  collations,  pro- 
visions and  dispositions  of  prelatures,  dignities, 
and  other  ecclesiastical  benefices  and  offices, 
whatsoever  they  may  be,  shall  be  made  ac- 
cording to  the  institutions  of  common  law,  of 


*  The  *  Establishments  of  St.  Louis'  belong,  for 
the  most  part,  to  civil  history.  It  is  only  necessary 
to  observe,  that  though  many  particular  enactments 
were  severe,  and  even  barbarous,  according  to  the 
estimation  of  a  civilized  age,  they  were  founded  upon 
principles  of  policy,  and  even  humanity,  far  above 
those  of  the  times  in  which  they  were  promulgated. 
Le  Roi  (says  Millot)  devint  legislateur:  l'anarchie 
feodale  devoit  finir.  Another  half  century,  and  it 
did  so. 


the  councils,  and  of  our  ancient  Fathers.  (5.) 
We  renew  and  approve  of  the  liberties,  fran- 
chises, prerogatives,  and  privileges,  granted 
by  the  kings  our  predecessors,  and  by  our- 
selves, to  churches,  monasteries,  and  other 
places  of  piety,  as  well  as  to  ecclesiastical 
persons.  (6.)  We  prohibit  any  one  from,  in 
any  manner,  levying  and  collecting  the  pecu- 
niary exactions  and  heavy  charges  which  the 
Court  of  Rome  has  imposed,  or  may  hereafter 
impose,  upon  the  Church  of  our  kingdom, 
and  by  which  it  has  been  miserably  impover- 
ished—unless it  be  for  a  reasonable  and  very 
urgent  cause,  or  by  inevitable  necessity,  and 
with  the  free  and  express  consent  of  the  king 
and  of  the  Church.  * 

Six  years  earlier,  when  the  archbishop  of 
Tyre  arrived  in  France,  as  the  legate  of  the 
Holy  See,  to  impose  a  contribution  on  the 
clergy  for  the  cost  of  a  holy  f  war,  an  assem- 
bly of  bishops  referred  his  Bull  to  the  king 
and  ordained  that,  if  any  chose  to  accede  to 
the  claim,  they  would  do  so  by  their  own  free 
will,  not  through  any  legal  compulsion  from 
Rome.  .  .  It  is  obvious,  from  these  occa- 
sional ebullitions,  to  observe,  that  the  sordid 
policy  of  Innocent  IV.  was  already  producing 
its  effect,  in  disposing  the  secular  clergy  to 
resist  the  despotism  of  Rome.  Fifty  years 
had  not  yet  elapsed  from  the  death  of  that 
pontiff,  when  we  find  the  prelacy  of  France 
placed  in  direct  opposition  J  to  the  Vatican, 


*  '  Item  exactiones  et  onera  gravissima  pecumarum 
per  Curiam  Romanam  Ecclesire  regni  nostri  imposi- 
tas  vel  imposita,  qtiibus  regnum  nostrum  miserabiliter 
depauperatum  extitit,  sive  etiam  imponendas  vel  im- 
ponenda,  levari  aut  colligi  niillatenus  volumus,  nisi 
duntaxat  pro  rationabili,  pia  et  uigentissima  causa, 
vel  inevitabili  necessitate,  ac  de  spontaneo  ac  expiesso 
consensu  nostro  et  ipsius  Ecclesiae  regni  nostri.'  .  . 
There  are  some  copies  in  which  the  last  article  does 
not  appear.  But  there  is  more  reason  for  the  opin- 
ion, that  it  was  curtailed  in  those,  than  interpolated 
in  the  rest.  Though  the  other  articles  do  not  make 
express  mention  of  the  court  of  Rome,  yet  it  seems 
clear  that  the  second,  third,  fourth,  and  a  part  of  the 
first,  are  levelled  against  it.  See  Fleury,  liv.lxxxvi. 
sec.  i.  Dupin.  Nonv.  Biblioth.,  sec.  xiii.  chap.  vii. 
The  act  was  cited,  as  here  given,  by  the  Parliament 
to  Lewis  XL,  in  1483,  and  in  the  Act  of  Appeal  of 
the  University  of  Paris,  in  1495. 

f  The  Declaration  of  the  bishops  is  given  by  Me- 
nard in  his  notes  on  Joinville,  p.  287. 

%  The  same  spirit,  of  course,  extended  itself  to  the 
lower  clergy.  It  was  during  this  reign  that  a  Cure 
at  Paris  thus  addressed  his  congregation. — 'You 
know,  my  brethren,  that  I  am  ordered  to  publish  an 
excommunication  against  Frederic  (II.)  1  am  igno- 
rant of  the  motive.  I  am  only  certain  that  there  has 
been  a  quarrel  between  that  prince  and  the  Pope — 


THE  CRUSADES. 


363 


and  a  politic  prince  availing  himself  of  that 
spirit  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  Holy  See. 
As  long  as  the  Popes  were  contented  to  make 
common  cause  with  their  clergy  against  the 
secular  authorities,  they  were  indeed  strong 
and  formidable.  But  when  they  openly  dis- 
tinguished between  the  interests  of  the  court 
of  Rome  and  of  the  rest  of  the  hierarchy-  - 
when  they  proceeded  to  supply  the  luxuries, 
or  forward  the  ambitious  projects  of  the  one 
by  invading  the  revenues  of  the  other  —  from 
that  moment  the  despotism  of  the  apostolical 
Chair,  notwithstanding  the  swarm  of  Mendi- 
cants which  it  created  for  its  defence,  had 
parted  with  its  only  ground  or  hope  of  per- 
manence. 

Section  IV. 

On  the  Crusades. 

•The  report  of  the  Council  of  Clermont 
wafted  a  cheering  gale  over  the  minds  of 
Christians.  There  was  no  nation  so  remote, 
no  people  so  retired,  as  did  not  respond  to 
the  papal  wishes.  This  ardent  wish  not  only 
inspired  the  continental  provinces,  but  the 
most  distant  islands  and  savage  countries.'  * 
Accordingly  a  mighty  mass  of  fanaticism  put 
itself  in  motion  towards  the  East.  The  frame 
of  society  was  convulsed,  and  seemingly  dis- 
solved ;  and  as  the  will  of  Heaven  is  not  un- 
commonly pleaded  to  justify  the  extravagance 
of  man,  the  phenomena  of  the  physical  world 
were  pressed  into  the  same  adventure:  mete- 
ors and  exhalations  pointed  out  the  road  to 
Jerusalem,  and  the  most  ordinary  signs  of 
nature  became  portents  and  prodigies.  The 
first  burst  of  the  storm  fell  upon  some  mise- 
rable Jews,  who  were  living  in  peace  under 
Christian  protection,  and  many  were  massa- 
cred. It  then  rolled  onwards ;  and  the  follies, 
the  sufferings,  and  the  crimes,  which  marked 
the  progress  of  the  first  crusade,  have  not  ever 
been  equalled  in  the  history  of  human  mad- 
ness. Nevertheless,  as  a  military  enterprise, 
it  was  successful.  Some  exploits  were  per- 
formed of  extraordinary  daring.     The  same 

God  alone  knows  which  is  right.  I  excommunicate 
him  who  has  injured  the  other,  and  absolve  him  who 
has  suffered  the  injury.'  The  congregation  were 
amused  with  the  sally.  The  emperor  is  said  to  have 
sent  a  present  to  the  preacher;  but  the  Pope  con- 
demned him  to  canonical  penance;  and  he  performed 
it  accordingly. 

*  Malmsbury.p.  416.  He  continues:  'The  Welsh- 
man left  his  hunting;  the  Scotch  his  fellowship  with 
vermin;  the  Dane  his  drinking  party ;  the  Norwegian 
his  raw  fish 


agency  which  had  lighted  the  flame  was  at 
hand  to  nourish  it  on  every  occasion  of  disas- 
ter ;  and  the  spirit  that  was  chilled  by  famine 
or  by  fear,  was  immediately  revived  and  in- 
flamed by  some  new  and  stupendous  miracle. 
Men  who  could  be  brought  really  to  believe, 
while  under  the  endurance  of  the  most  fright- 
ful reverses,  that  the  favor  of  God  was  espe- 
cially extended  and  continually  manifested  to 
them,  were  capable  of  more  than  human  ex- 
ertion ;  the  entire  abandonment  of  reason  left 
space  for  the  operation  of  energies  which  do 
not  properly  belong  to  man. 

The  victory  of  Doryleum  was  followed  by 
the  siege  of  Antioch  ;  the  capture  of  that  city 
led  the  way  to  the  investment  of  Jerusalem 
itself;  and  the  banner  of  the  cross  was  finally 
planted  on  Mount  Sion  amidst  horrors,  which 
probably  had  not  been  paralleled  since  the 
triumph  of  Titus  over  the  same  devoted  city. 
Respecting  the  double  massacre  inflicted  upon 
the  infidels,  we  shall  merely  remark,  that  it 
had  not  the  excuse  of  hasty  uncontrollable 
passion,  but  that  it  was  designed  and  deliber- 
ate. A  deeply  settled  resolution  of  revenge 
may  have  had  some  share  in  the  deed,  but 
the  policy  of  extermination  had  probably 
more  ;  and  the  spirit  of  religious  persecution 
certainly  directed  the  weapons  and  poisoned 
the  wounds.  In  the  meantime,  Deux  el  volt 
—  it  is  the  will  of  God  —  was  the  watchword 
and  the  battle-shout  of  the  Christians  ;  it 
overpowered  the  prayers  of  the  women  and 
the  screams  of  their  dying  children  ;  *  and 
was  then  loudest  upon  Sion  and  Calvary 
when  the  commandments  of  God  and  Christ 
were  most  insultingly  violated. 

St.  Bernard  preaches  the  Second  Crusade. — 
The  loss  of  the  Crusaders,  in  this  first  enter- 
prise, is  calculated  with  probability  at  about 
1,200,000  lives  ;  but  the  Holy  Sepulchre  was 
freed  from  the  pollution  of  the  infidel ;  and, 
what  perhaps  was  of  more  consequence,  as 
respects  the  continuance  of  similar  expedi- 
tions, a  Latin  kingdom  was  established  in 
Jerusalem.  It  is  remarkable,  that  not  one 
of  the  sovereigns  of  Europe  adventured  his 
person,  or  even  deeply  risked  his  reputation, 
in  the  unknown  perils  of  the  first  crusade. 
But,  nearly  fifty  years  afterwards,  the  loss  of 
Edessa,  and  some  other  reverses  in  the  East, 
awakened  the  sympathy  of  Lewis  VII.  of 
France   and   Conrad  III.  of  Germany,  and 


*  Christian!  sic  neci  totum  laxaverant  animum,  ut 
nee  sugens  masculus,  aut  fjemina,  nedum  infans  unius 
anni  vivens  maniim  percussoris  evaderet. — Albert,  p. 
283,  cited  by  Mills,  Hist.  Crusades,  chap.  vi. 


364 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


they  determined  to  aid  an  afflicted  Christian 
and  a  brother  king.  For  this  purpose  it  was 
necessary  to  rouse  the  fury  of  Europe  a 
second  time ;  and  the  eager  co-operation  of 
St.  Bernard  secured  success.  A  less  powerful 
instrument  might  have  answered  the  object. 
Any  intemperate  enthusiast  *  can  excite  his 
fellow-mortals  to  deeds  of  wickedness ;  the 
genius  of  St.  Bernard  was  given  him  to  do 
good  to  mankind  —  but  it  was  contracted  by 
the  severity  of  monastic  discipline ;  it  was 
stained  with  the  prejudices  of  an  ignorant 
age ;  it  was  distorted  by  the  very  austerity  of 
his  virtues  ;  it  was  misdirected  even  by  his 
piety.  He  entered  with  ardor  upon  his  mis- 
sion of  evil.  He  traversed  fruitful  provinces 
and  populous  cities.  Vast  multitudes  every- 
where assembled  to  applaud  and  to  listen ; 
and  the  energy  of  his  delivery  and  the  vehe- 
mence of  his  tones  and  action,  roused  the 
feelings  of  many,  who  were  even  ignorant  of 
the  language  in  which  he  addressed  them,  f 
Such  excitement,  in  a  matter  where  passion 
and  not  reason  was  engaged,  produced  every 
effect  of  persuasion ;  and  if,  besides,  there 
were  any  so  torpid,  as  to  resist  the  natural 
eloquence  of  the  holy  man,  he  enjoyed  that 
other«resource,so  potent  in  its  influence  where 
all  the  ordinary  operations  of  the  mind  are 
suspended,  —  he  possessed  the  gift  of  mira- 
cles, and  proved  his  heavenly  mission  (so  his 
credulous  panegyrists  assert)  by  many  preter- 
natural signs.  At  the  same  time  he  affected, 
by  a  more  dangerous  assumption,  the  pro- 
phetic character;  and,  on  the  faith  of  Him, 
who  can  neither  err  nor  deceive,  he  foretold 
and  promised  a  splendid  career  of  triumphs. 
Armed  with  so  full  and  various  a  quiver 
against  the  feeble  reason  of  a  superstitious 
generation — with  high  personal  celebrity  and 
eloquence  ;  with  the  support  of  powerful 
princes ;  with  pontifical  approbation  ;  with 
the  repute  of  supernatural  aid,  and  preten- 
sions to  heavenly  inspiration — what  wonder 

*  It  is  amusing  to  observe  the  contempt  with  which 
the  Ahbot  of  Clairvaux  speaks  of  the  hermit-preacher 
of  the  first  crusade:  '  Fuit  in  priori  expeditione,  an- 
tequam  Hierosolyma  caperetur,  vir  quidam,  Petrus 
nomine,  cujus  et  vos  (ni  fallor)  s;epe  mentionem  an- 
distis,'  &c— Bernard.  Epist.  363,  p.  328,  vol.  i.  ed. 
Mabil.  The  reference  is  made  by  Mills,  Hist.  Cru- 
sades, chap.  ix. 

t  Latin  was  the  language  which  he  indiscriminately 
addressed  to  the  vulgar  in  all  the  provinces  in  which 
he  preached.  Since  preternatural  powers  have  been 
ascribed  to  him,  it  has  been  thought  remarkable  that 
the  gift,  of  which  he  seemed  to  stand  most  in  need, 
was  perversely  withheld. 


was  it  that  St.  Bernard  confounded  the  sense 
and  broke  up  the  repose  of  Europe  ;  that  he 
depopulated  cities  and  provinces  (such  was 
his  own  rash  boast,)  and  sent  forth  the  whole 
flower  and  vigor  of  Christendom  on  the  holy 
enterprise ! 

The  history  of  religious  war  has  not  re- 
corded any  expedition  at  the  same  time  more 
fatal  and  more  fruitless,  than  the  crusade  of 
St.  Bernard.  After  two  or  three  years  of 
suffering  and  disaster  almost  uninterrupted, 
a  miserable  remnant  of  survivors  returned  to 
relate  their  misfortunes  and  marvel  at  their 
discomfiture.  A  general  outcry  was  raised 
against  the  author  of  those  calamities ;  in- 
numerable widows  and  orphans  demanded 
of  the  prophet  their  husbands  and  their  sires  ; 
or  at  least  they  claimed  the  sacred  laurels 
which  he  had  promised — the  triumphs  which 
he  had  vouchsafed,  in  his  dispensation  of  the 
boons  of  heaven,  to  the  soldiers  of  the  cross. 
The  detected  impostor  was  not  ashamed  to 
take  shelter  under  the  usual  pretext  of  relig- 
ious hypocrites.  He  asserted  that  his  pro- 
phecies (the  prophecies  of  God)  were  only 
conditional ;  that  in  foretelling  the  success  of 
the  crusaders,  he  had  assumed  their  righteous- 
ness and  the  purity  of  their  lives  ;  that  their 
own  enormous  crimes  had  diverted  or  sus- 
pended the  designs  of  Providence,  just  as  in 
ancient  days  the  sins  of  the  Jews  in  the  wil- 
derness had  foiled  the  policy  and  foresight  of 
Moses.  *  If  at  any  time  we  can  regard  with 
levity  any  pious  artifice  of  the  meanest  ec- 
clesiastic for  the  most  innocent  purpose,  still 


*  This  celebrated  passage  is  in  the  beginning  of 
the  second  book  of  his  Treatise,  '  De  Consideratione,' 
addressed  to  Pope  Eugenius  III.,  and  should  be  cited: 
— '  Moyses  educturns  populum  de  terra  ^Egypti  me- 
liorem  illis  pollicilus  est  terram.  Namquando  ipsum 
aliter  sequeretur  populus,  solam  sapiens  terrain'? 
Eduxit;  eductos  tamen  in  terram  quam  protniserat 
non  introduxit.  Nee  est  quod  ducis  temeritati  im- 
putari  queat  tristis  et  inopinatus  eventus.  Omnia 
faciebat  Domino  imperante,  Domino  cooperante,  et 
opus  confirmante  sequenlibus  signis.  Sed  populus 
ille,  inquis,  dura?  cervicis  fuit,  semper  contentiose 
agens  contra  Doininum  et  contra  Moysem  servum 
ejus.  Bene  illi  creduli  et  rebelles —  Hi  auteni  quid^ 
Ipsos  interroga.  Quid  me  dicere  opus  est  quod  fa- 
tentur  ipsil  Dico  ergo  unura — Quid  poterant  confi- 
cere,  qui  semper  revertebantur,  cum  ainbularent'? 
Quando  et  isti  per  totam  viam  non  redierunt  corde 
in  ^Egyptum1?  Quod  si  illi  ceciderunt  et  periernnt 
propter  iniquitatem  suam,  miramur  istos,  eadem  fa- 
cientes,  eadem  passos!  Sed  numquid  illorum  casus 
adversus  promissa  Deil  Ergo,  nee  istorum.  Neque 
enim  aliquando  promissiones  Dei  justitiae  Dei  prteju- 
dicant.' 


THE  CRUSADES. 


365 


our  smile  is  not  unmixed  with  melancholy  or 
contempt.  But  the  crime  of  St.  Bernard,  the 
most  enlightened  prelate  of  his  time,  who 
usurped  the  attrihutes  and  forged  the  seal  of 
God,  in  order  to  launch  some  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  confiding  Christians  into  pro- 
bable destruction,  or  at  best  into  successful 
massacre,  excites  a  serious  indignation,  which 
it  would  be  partial  to  suppress,  and  which 
neither  his  talents,  nor  his  virtues,  nor  his 
piety,  nor  the  vicious  principles  of  his  age, 
are  sufficient  to  remove. 

Subsequent  Crusades. — Forty  years  after  the 
departure  of  this  expedition,  in  the  year  1187, 
Saladin  gained  the  battle  of  Tiberias,  and  soon 
afterwards  recovered  from  the  Christians  the 
possession  of  the  Holy  City.  The  Latin 
kingdom  of  Jerusalem  had  struggled  through 
eighty-eight  years  of  precarious  existence, 
against  internal  dissension  and  tumult,  and 
the  perpetual  aggressions  of  the  infidel.  Per- 
haps it  must  have  yielded  under  any  circum- 
stances to  the  genius  of  Saladin  ;  but  its  fate 
was  precipitated  by  the  feudal  divisions  of  its 
defenders,  the  jealousy  subsisting  between 
the  Knights  of  the  Temple  and  those  of  the 
Hospital,  and  the  violent  quarrels  in  which 
the  latter  were  engaged,  through  the  effect 
of  their  papal  immunities,  with  the  avaricious 
hierarchy  of  Palestine.* 

The  Third  crusade  (1189—92)  was  distin- 
guished by  the  adventures  of  the  lion-hearted 
Richard.  The  Fourth  followed  only  three 
years  afterwards,  under  the  auspices  of  Pope 
Celestine  III.,  and  terminated  iu  inglorious 
failure.  The  Germans,  of  whom  it  chiefly 
consisted,  accused  the  faint  co-operation  of 
the  barons  resident  in  the  Holy  Land.  The 
Fifth  and  Sixth  were  created,  or  at  least  pro- 
tected and  fostered,  by  Innocent  III.  The 
former  of  these  may  possibly  be  ascribed  to 
the  still  surviving  spirit  of  popular  supersti- 
tion, lashed  into  fanaticism  by  the  preaching, 
or  at  least  by  the  miraculous  pretensions,  of 
an  enthusiast  named  Fulk.  But  whatever 
may  have  been  its  origin,  its  termination — 
the  capture  of  Constantinople — was  certainly 
neither  foreseen  nor  designed  by  its  advocates. 
The  warriors  of  the  sixth  crusade  likewise 
declined  from  the  original  object  of  these  mili- 
tary pilgrimages,  and  deviated,  with  greater 
promise  of  profit  if  not  of  glory,  into  the 
wealthy  plains  of  Egypt.  Their  courage 
was  repaid  by  the  conquest  of  Damietta  ;  but 

*  This   subject   will    be   again   mentioned  in  the 
twenty-sixth  chapter. 


the  advantage  thus  obtained  was  neither  great 
nor  permanent.  The  force  of  the  Christians 
in  the  East  was  weakened  by  division,  and 
they  were  contented  to  despoil  what  they 
could  not  hope  to  possess.  Still,  if  we  are 
to  assign  to  this  expedition  the  concluding 
exertions  of  Frederic  II.,  it  terminated  with 
more  honor  to  the  Christian  name,  and  with 
a  nearer  approach  to  the  liberation  of  the 
Holy  Sepulchre,  than  any  which  had  been 
undertaken  since  the  first.  And  that  its  re- 
sults were  not  more  lasting,  is  to  be  ascribed, 
not  to  the  insincerity  of  the  emperor,  but  to 
the  narrow  jealousy  of  a  passionate  pope,  * 
who  roused  all  his  military  and  monastic 
myrmidons  in  opposition  to  that  very  cause 
which  he,  as  well  as  his  faithless  predecessor, 
had  dared  to  designate  the  cause  of  God. 

Those  of  St.  Leivis. — The  chivalrous  enter- 
prize  of  the  Couut  of  Champaigne,  and  Rich- 
ard Earl  of  Cornwall,  followed  the  council  of 
Spoleto,  in  1234 ;  and  the  imperfect  success, 
which  attended  it,  was  rather  occasioned  by 
the  dissensions  of  the  Mussulman  princes, 
than  by  the  cordial  co-operation  of  the  Chris- 
tians. It  added  one  to  the  list  of  the  crusades ; 
and  was  presently  succeeded  by  two  others, 
the  Eighth  and  Ninth,  with  which  the  melan- 
choly catalogue  at  length  concluded.  Both 
of  these  may  probably  be  attributed  to  the  re- 
ligious fervor  of  St.  Lewis.  In  the  access  of 
a  dangerous  sickness,  in  the  year  1244,  that 
prince  vowed  the  sacrifice  of  his  personal  ser- 
vice to  God,  should  his  health  providentially 
be  restored.  It  was  so.  In  the  following 
year,  the  numerous  host  of  prelates,  assembled 
at  the  council  of  Lyons,  proclaimed  the  cru- 
sade, and  enjoined  four  preparatory  years  of 
peace  and  seriousness  throughout  the  western 
nations.  During  this  interval  large  contribu- 
tions were  levied  both  on  the  clergy  and  laity, 
and  other  effectual  means  adopted  to  secure 
success  ;  and  at  its  expiration,  the  pious  mon- 
arch spread  his  sails  for  the  East.  His  imme- 
diate object,  however,  was  not  the  liberation 
of  the  Sepulchre,  but  the  conquest  of  E.zypt ; 
and  in  the  conduct  of  this  campaign  he  close- 


*  Gregory  IX.  Innocent  III.  died  before  the  de- 
parture of  the  expedition,  which  he  had  been  par- 
ticularly and  personally  diligent  in  promoting.  See 
tile  preceding  chapter.  Not  professing  to  give  a 
regular  history  of  these  various  expeditions,  nor  to 
mention  more  facts  than  are  necessary  for  our  infer- 
ences, we  have  nut  noticed  the  celebrated  Crusade  of 
Children  under  this  pope;  yet  it  may  fairly  be  con- 
sidered as  the  consummation  of  the  work  of  fanati- 
cism. 


366 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


]y  imitated  both  the  gallantry  and  the  errors 
of  his  predecessors,  who  had  triumphed  and 
perished  in  the  same  field.  The  misfortunes 
of  the  sixth  crusade,  though  still  fresh  in  the 
memory  of  mankind,  taught  as  usual  no  les- 
son and  conveyed  no  warning  to  the  genera- 
tion which  followed ;  and  the  repetition  of 
similar  blunders  only  led  to  a  more  disastrous 
result.  The  army  was  defeated,  and  Lewis 
himself  fell  a  captive  into  the  power  of  the 
infidel.  But  his  follies  were  redeemed  by  the 
gold  of  his  subjects ;  and  he  returned  to  expiate 
his  fatal  enthusiasm  by  the  exercise  of  peace- 
ful virtues,  and  to  repair,  by  useful  and  hu- 
mane institutions,  the  wrongs  which  he  had 
done  to  his  people. 

But  the  spark  of  superstition  was  neither 
extinguished  by  the  discharge  of  his  best  du- 
ties, nor  chilled  by  the  advance  of  age.  After 
an  interval  of  twenty  years  of  wisdom,  he  re- 
lapsed into  the  old  infatuation,  and  unfurled, 
for  the  last  time,  the  consecrated  banner  of 
fanaticism.  His  second  expedition  consisted, 
for  the  most  part,  as  the  first  had  done,  of 
French  and  English  ;  and,  like  the  first,  it  was 
again  directed  against  the  Moslems  of  Africa, 
not  against  the  usurpers  of  the  Holy  Land. 
The  heroic  plains  of  Carthage  were  occupied 
by  the  Christian  force;  and  the  tombs  of  Ter- 
tullian,  Cyprian  and  Augustin  may  perhaps 
have  been  rescued  from  the  pollutions  of  the 
unbeliever;  but  the  army  was  still  encamped, 
without  any  decisive  success,  before  the  walls 
of  Tunis,  when  St.  Lewis  was  called  away 
for  ever  from  the  sanguinary  scene. 

His  death  was  immediately  followed  by 
the  romantic  adventures  of  the  English  Ed- 
ward, which  closed  the  long  succession  of 
fruitless  efforts  for  a  worthless  object.  The 
power  of  the  Infidel  presently  increased  in 
might  and  boldness;  and,  in  the  year  1291, 
the  last  fragments  of  Christian  rule  were  swept 
away  from  the  surface  of  Palestine.  .  .  Acre, 
the  conquest  of  the  English  hero,  was  the  last 
possession  of  the  Cross :  it  had  long  been  the 
only  strong  bulwark  against  the  Moslem  force. 
It  was  important,  through  its  situation  at  the 
end  of  that  large  and  fertile  plain  which  ex- 
tends to  the  Jordan  eastward,  and  which  has 
been  the  field  of  decisive  conflicts  in  every 
age  of  the  history  of  Palestine  ;  it  was  import- 
ant, as  the  centre  of  commercial  intercourse 
between  the  east  and  the  west,  the  resort  of 
all  nations  and  all  languages.  But  the  uni- 
versal profligacy  which  prevailed  within  its 
walls,  and  the  crimes  with  which  it  was  stain- 
ed, beyond  the  shame  of  any  other  Christian 


city,  were  thought  to  justify  the  judgment  of 
God,  when  at  length  he  delivered  it  over  to  a 
Mahometan  conqueror.* 

The  Causes  of  the  Crusades. — To  this  hasty, 
but  necessary  outline  of  the  history  of  the 
Crusades,  we  are  called  upon  to  subjoin  some 
general  observations  on  their  causes,  their 
objects,  and  their  results:  not  aspiring  to  em- 
ulate the  eloquence  with  which  this  subject 
has  been  so  commonly  treated,  nor  affecting 
to  add  any  thing  original  in  thought  or  ex- 
pression to  the  successful  labors  of  our  pre- 
decessors; but  simply  to  justify  the  preten- 
sions of  this  work,  which  would  vainly  assume 
the  title  of  an  Ecclesiastical  History,  if  it 
should  pass  in  entire  silence  over  the  most 
amazing  phenomena,  which  ever  proceeded 
from  the  abuse  of  religion.  And  if,  indeed,  it 
be  a  true  reflection,  that  the  only  enterprise, 
in  which  the  nations  of  Europe  have  at  any 
time  engaged  with  a  single  arm  and  a  com- 
mon soul, — and  that,  too,  no  vague  and  tran- 
sient adventure,  but  the  passion  or  policy  of 
two  hundred  years, — stands  singularly  mark- 
ed in  the  historic  temple,  as  a  monument  of 
human  absurdity:  if  this  be  true,  is  it  possible 
to  search  too  frequently  for  the  sources  of  such 
unanimous  infatuation,  or  to  ascertain  too  mi- 
nutely what  passions  or  what  prejudices,  01 
what  interests  those  were,  which  availed  tt 
dispossess  and  enchain  for  so  long  a  period 
the  reason  of  mankind  ?  Moreover,  as  we 
have  found  occasion  to  observe,  that  an  indul- 
gent Providence  will  sometimes  extract  bless- 
ings from  man's  blindest  follies,  it  becomes  us 
also  to  inquire,  whether  the  fruits  of  those 
wild  enterprises  were  any  other  than  shame, 
degradation,  and  misery.  Though,  indeed,  in 
this  case,  it  might  seem  presumptuous  to  look 
for  any  manifestation  of  divine  compassion, 
where  impiety  called  itself  religious  devotion, 
and  massacre  pleaded  for  reward,  and  pleaded 
in  the  blessed  name  of  Christ. 

Pilgrimage. — To  visit  the  spots  which  have 
been  consecrated  by  immortal  deeds,  —  to 
tread  in  the  footsteps  which  those  have  traced 
whose  memory  we  love  and  revere,  —  is  the 
suggestion  of  natural  piety,  not  the  maxim  or 
observance  of  religion.  Nevertheless,  such 
practice  is  easily  associated  with  any  religion, 
whenever  the  qualities  of  its  founder  have 
been  such  as  to  excite  the  enthusiasm  of  its 


*  E  questo  pericolo  non  fii  senza  grande  e  giusto 
giudizio  di  Dio,  che  quella  citta  era  piena  di  piu 
peccatori  uomini  e  femine  d'ogni  dissoluto  peccato, 
che  terra  chi  fosse  Ira'  Christiani.  Giovanni  Villani, 
lib.  vii.,  c.  144,  as  cited  bv  Mills,  Hist.  Crusades 


THE  CRUSADES. 


367 


votaries ;  and  thus  the  performance  of  holy 
pilgrimage  became  an  early,  a  frequent,  and 
almost  a  peculiar  usage  of  the  Christians. 
From  an  innocent,  perhaps  useful  custom,  it 
was  gradually  exalted  into  a  spiritual  duty  ; 
and  the  journey  to  the  sepulchre  of  the  Sav- 
iour was  encouraged  and  enjoined  by  some  of 
the  oldest  Fathers  of  the  established  Church. 
The  pure  principle  of  pilgrimage  was  pres- 
ently mixed  and  alloyed  by  vulgar  motives  : 
a  faint  shade  of  superstition  was  insensibly 
heightened  into  a  darker ;  and  the  traveller 
returned  from  the  holy  places,  no  longer  satis- 
fied with  the  consciousness  of  pious  intent 
and  sincere  devotion,  but  also  charged  with 
relics  of  departed  saints,  or  fragments  of  the 
holy  crown  or  cross.  .  .  This  degenerate 
passion  was  nourished  by  the  rulers  of  the 
churcb  ;  multitudes  thirsted  for  those  vain 
possessions,  whom  a  mere  ardor  to  worship 
at  the  tomb  of  Christ  would  scarcely  have 
fortified  against  the  toils  of  the  journey ;  the 
Syrian  dispensers  of  the  profitable  patrimony 
unceasingly  discovered  new  treasures  by  rev- 
elation, or  multiplied  the  original  by  miracles ; 
so  that  the  crowds  who  thronged  the  sanc- 
tuary perpetually  increased,  and  the  sources 
which  fed  their  credulity  were  never  closed 
nor  lessened. 

It  was  natural  to  expect  that  the  conquest 
of  Palestine  by  the  unbelieving  Saracens 
would  have  abolished  the  means,  if  it  did  not 
desecrate  the  objects,  of  pilgrimage.  But  it 
proved  otherwise.  The  enlightened  Caliphs 
immediately  perceived  the  policy  of  tolera- 
tion; they  saw  the  direct  advantages  which 
flowed  into  Syria  through  the  superstition 
and  commerce  of  the  West;  they  may  even 
have  learned  from  their  own  practice  to  re- 
spect the  motives  of  the  travellers,  and  the 
kindred  passion  which  occasioned  an  annual 
visit  to  the  Christian  Mecca.  Certainly  they 
received  the  visiters  without  insult,  and  dis- 
missed them  without  injury. 

During  the  concluding  portion  of  the  tenth 
century,  a  strange  impulse  was  given  to  the 
spirit  of  pilgrimage  by  an  accidental  cause, 
which,  as  it  was  sown  in  delusion,  produced 
the  customary  harvest  of  wickedness.  The 
belief  prevailed  of  the  approaching  dissolution 
of  the  world  and  the  termination  of  earthly 
things  ;  Mount  Sion  was  to  become  the  judg- 
ment-seat of  the  Most  High  ;  and  the  Chris- 
tian nations  were  taught  to  depart  and  humble 
themselves  before  his  throne.  Those  inter- 
ested exhortations  were  too  obsequiously  obey- 
ed; and  though  the  notion  which  created 
them  was  after  a  few  years  falsified  and  ex- 


ploded, yet  the  habit  of  journeying  to  the 
Holy  Land  had  in  the  meantime  gained  great 
prevalence,  and  the  idea  of  an  expiatory  obli- 
gation became  commonly  attached  to  it.  In 
the  century  following,  the  journey  assumed 
not  unfrequently  the  form  of  an  expedition, 
and  was  sometimes  undertaken  by  considera- 
ble bodies  of  associated  and  even  armed  de- 
votees. We  still  peruse,  in  the  narrative  of 
Ingulphus,  a  native  and  historian  of  England, 
the  adventures  of  seven  thousand  holy  Ger- 
mans, who  engaged  in  the  enterprise  under 
the  direction  of  the  archbishop  of  Mayence, 
and  in  the  society  of  thirty  Norman  horsemen. 
They  encountered  many  dangers  and  suffered 
many  losses ;  but  they  attained  their  object, 
and  worshipped  at  the  fountain  of  their  relig- 
ion. And  when  they  recounted,  in  domestic 
security,  their  various  fortunes,  their  listeners 
were  more  likely  to  be  inflamed  by  the  admi- 
ration of  their  success,  than  deterred  by  suf 
ferings  or  perils,  which  greater  foresight  or 
felicity  might  easily  ward  off"  from  themselves. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  eleventh  age, 
about  the  year  1076,  the  dominion  of  Palestine 
was  torn  from  the  Arabian  dynasty  by  the 
wilder  hand  of  the  Turks.  The  pure  fanati- 
cism of  that  rude  people  was  not  yet  softened 
by  friendly  intercourse  with  the  followers  of 
the  adverse  faith,  nor  would  it  stoop  to  yield 
even  to  the  obvious  dictates  of  interest.  3Iany 
outrages  were  at  this  time  unquestionably  per- 
petrated upon  the  strangers  who  visited  the 
sepulchre,  and  upon  the  Christian  natives  and 
sojourners  in  Syria.  Those  who  returned 
from  the  East  were  clamorous  in  their  des- 
criptions and  their  complaints;  and  tales  of 
suffering  and  of  sacrilege,  of  the  prostration  of 
Christ's  followers,  the  profanation  of  his  name, 
the  pollution  of  his  holy  places,  tales  of  Mos- 
lem oppression  and  impiety,  were  diffused 
and  exaggerated  and  believed,  with  fierce  and 
revengeful  indignation,  from  one  end  of  Eu- 
rope to  the  other. 

Warlike  Spirit  of  the  -Qge.  —  Whatsoever 
may  have  been  the  merits  of  the  feudal  prin- 
ciples in  earlier  times,  they  had  degenerated, 
in  the  eleventh  century,  into  a  mere  code 
of  military  service  and  subordination.  The 
whole  business,  the  pleasure,  the  passion  of 
that  age  was  war.  It  animated  alike  the  cities 
and  the  villages ;  it  presided  over  the  domestic 
regulations  of  every  family  ;  it  was  familiar 
with  the  thoughts,  where  it  did  not  constitute 
the  habits,  of  every  individual.  Even  the 
higher  orders  of  the  clergy  forgot  their  spirit- 
ual in  their  secular  obligations,  and  very  com- 
monly engaged  in  the  same  pursuits  from  a 


368 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


common  necessity.  *  It  was  in  vain  that 
Charlemagne  had  restrained  by  his  Capitula- 
ries that  preposterous  practice.  The  policy 
of  Charlemagne  was  too  wise  for  the  times  in 
which  he  lived :  he  attempted  to  anticipate 
the  operation  of  progressive  ages;  he  enacted 
some  useful  laws ;  but  he  was  unable  to  per- 
petuate a  premature,  and  therefore  transient, 
civilization.  No  sooner  was  he  removed  by 
death  than  inveterate  barbarism  resumed  its 
sway,  and  the  bulwark  which  his  single  hand 
had  raised  against  the  principles,  customs, 
and  prejudices  of  ancestral  ignorance,  was 
hastily  swept  away.  During  the  two  centu- 
ries which  followed,  in  spite  of  the  general 
exertions  of  the  clergy,  as  a  body,  to  arrest 
the  desolating  spirit,  in  spite  of  canonical  leg- 
islation and  ecclesiastical  censure,  the  practice 
of  private  warfare  continued  with  no  mitiga- 
tion. Early  iu  the  eleventh  age,  the  Treuga 
Dei  (the  Trace  of  God)  was  solemnly  enjoin- 
ed, with  the  purpose  of  enforcing  a  suspension 
of  hostilities  during  certain  days  in  every 
week.  But  though  this  humane  ordinance 
was  frequently  confirmed  and  reiterated,  there 
was  no  age  in  which  the  military  frenzy  had 
such  general  prevalence  throughout  Europe, 
none  in  which  the  exercise  of  arms  and  the 
effusion  of  blood  were  so  completely  the  habit, 
the  motive,  almost  the  morality,  of  the  west- 
ern nations. 

Supe7stitious  zeal.  —  At  a  period  when  re- 
ligious notions  or  observances  were  mingled 
with  all  customs  and  all  institutions,  and  thus 
interwoven  with  the  whole  texture  of  private 
as  well  as  public  life, — and  when,  besides,  the 
corruptions  of  Christianity  had  so  superseded 
its  genuine  spirit,  that  the  notions  which  we 
have  called  religious  should  rather  have  been 
designated  superstitious, — the  ruling  passion 
of  the  age  was  easily  associated  with  its  ruling 
weakness.  Martial  enterprise  went  hand  in 
hand  with  enthusiasm,  misnamed  pious  ;  the 
exploits  of  the  one  were  consecrated  by  the 
expressions,  sometimes  by  the  feelings,  of  the 
other ;  and  the  words  of  the  priest  were  re- 
peated, or  the  image  of  the  Saviour  embraced, 
even  in  the  fiercest  moments  of  the  strife. 
Abject  ignorance,  followed  by  credulity,  held 
dominion  almost  undisputed  ;  and  the  minds 

*  Olim  (says  Guido,  abbot  of  Clairville)  non  habe- 
bant  castella  et  arces  ecclesise  cathedrals,  nee  ince- 
debant  pontifices  loricati.  Sed  nunc,  propter  abun- 
dantiam  teinporalium  rerum,  flamma,  ferro,  cjede 
possessiones  ecclesiarum  praelati  defendunt,  quas  de- 
berent  pauperibus  erogare.  Du  Cange,  Gloss.  Lat., 
art.  Advocatns.  The  abbot's  olim  extended  through 
the  first  five  centuries,  and  not  much  later. 


of  men  were  destitute  of  any  moral  principles 
to  restrain,  or  any  moral  knowledge  to  direct, 
the  course  of  their  passions.  The  faculties 
which  distinguish  sense  from  absurdity,  piety 
from  fanaticism,  truth  from  falsehood  and  im- 
posture, were  extinct  or  dormant ;  and  a  rest- 
less and  irrational  generation  lay  exposed  to 
the  impulse  of  any  rising  tempest. 

On  such  an  age  and  race, — so  inured  to  the 
use  of  arms,  so  alive  to  the  emotions  of  re- 
ligion, so  familiar  with  the  practice  of  holy 
pilgrimage, — the  indignity  of  Turkish  oppres- 
sion, the  outrages  on  the  name  and  sepulchre 
of  Christ,  fell  with  an  electric  efficacy.  At 
another  time,  under  other  circumstances,  the 
bolt  might  have  passed  by  unfelt  and  almost 
unheeded ;  but  at  that  moment  it  was  no 
premature  nor  unseasonable  visitation,  but  "it 
found  men  prepared,  and  intensely  sensible 
to  its  operation  ;  and  the  flash  which  attend- 
ed it  descended  on  materials  prepared  for  ex- 
plosion. 

It  argues  a  superficial  knowledge  both  of 
nature  and  of  history  to  suppose  that  a  phe- 
nomenon, so  astounding  as  the  first  crusade, 
could  have  been  produced  in  any  condition 
of  society  without  strong  predetermining 
causes;  and  that  the  preaching  of  the  Hermit 
or  even  the  indulgences  of  the  Pope  could 
have  excited  to  that  enterprise,  minds  that 
were  not  deeply  disposed  to  receive  the  im- 
pulse. There  are  some,  indeed,  who  consider 
the  increase  of  pontifical  power  during  the 
eleventh  age,  under  the  auspices  of  Hilde- 
brand,  to  have  been  a  leading  cause  in  pro- 
ducing the  Crusades.  It  is  true  that,  a  cen- 
tury earlier,  the  aspirations  of  Sylvester  II. 
were  without  effect :  it  is  more  remarkable 
that  even  Gregory  himself,  though  professing 
an  ardent  and  even  personal  eagerness  for  the 
enterprise,  carried  his  project  to  no  result ; 
while  Urban,  with  much  less  individual  in- 
fluence, accomplished  the  work  with  great 
facility.  But  in  the  time  of  Sylvester,  some 
of  the  popular  motives  for  the  crusade  did  not 
yet  exist,  others  had  not  attained  sufficient 
prevalence  and  maturity ;  and  Gregory  was 
diverted  from  his  scheme  by  the  more  press- 
ing solicitations  of  domestic  ambition.  But 
when  Urban  threw  the  torch  among  the  mul- 
titudes of  Placentia  and  Clermont,  their  hands 
were  prepared  and  eager  to  seize  it,  and  ex- 
tinguish it  in  Moslem  blood.  A  pilgrimage  to 
the  sepulchre  of  Christ  was  then  a  common 
and  almost  customary  act  of  devotion  ;  a  pil- 
grimage in  arms  was  congenial  with  the  spirit 
of  a  warlike  race ;  to  liberate  the  holy  places 
and  to  chastise  the  usurpers  were  objects  con- 


THE  CRUSADES. 


369 


sistent  with  each  other,  and  witli  the  ruling 
principles  of  the  age. 

Objects  of  the  first  Crusade. — And  such  were 
the  objects  of  the  first  crusade — to  deliver  the 
Holy  Land  from  a  state  of  imaginary  pollution, 
and  to  take  vengeance  on  the  infidel  possessor. 
No  consideration  of  distant  consequences,  nor 
even  of  immediate  utility,  entered  into  them. 
Reason  was  not  consulted,  nor  were  her  pre- 
cincts approached:  of  the  passions  themselves, 
those  most  akin  to  reason  had  no  share  in  the 
adventure.  Ambition  was  silent  in  the  up- 
roar. *  Policy  might,  indeed,  have  offered 
plausible  justification,  by  suggesting  that  the 
hurricane  which  had  wasted  Asia  might  pre- 
sently break  over  Europe  ;  but  the  argumenta 
justi  metus,\f  they  have  satisfied  some  writers 
on  this  subject,  entered  not  in  any  degree  in- 
to the  motives  of  the  Crusaders.  They  were 
not  men  to  calculate  remote  dangers ;  still  less 
did  they  perplex  themselves  with  any  theo- 
retical speculation  as  to  the  right  of  hostility, 
or  seek  their  excuse  in  the  antichristian  prin- 
ciples of  their  enemy.  From  the  rule  and 
practice  of  Mahometan  aggression,  they  might 
almost  have  inferred  the  right  of  reciprocal 
invasion  ;  but  they  looked  for  immortality, 
not  for  justification  ;  it  never  occurred  to 
them  to  doubt  the  justice,  or  rather  the  holi- 
ness, of  their  cause ;  they  sought  no  plea  or 
pretext,  except  in  the  passion  of  their  re- 
ligious frenzy  and  in  the  sharpness  of  their 
sword. 

There  was  still  another  motive  which  might 
have  seemed  substantial  to  the  warriors  of 
those  days,  and  which  thoy  might  equally 
have  borrowed  from  the  Infidel — a  design  to 
convert  the  miscreants  by  force,  and  to  drag 
them  in  chains  to  the  waters  of  baptism  ;  but 
even  this  project  held  no  place  among  the  in- 
centives to  the  first  crusade.  In  later  times, 
indeed,  when,  in  the  vicissitudes  of  military 
adventure,  the  arms  of  the  Mahometan  were 
found  to  preponderate,  some  faint  attempts 
were  made,  or  meditated,  \  to  convince  those 


*  The  success  which  had  attended  the  Asiatic,  and 
even  Syrian,  campaigns  of  Nicephorns,  Pltocas,  and 
John  Zimisces  (963 — 975)  might  have  offered  rea- 
sonable hopes  to  the  ambition  of  the  Crusaders,  and 
almost  justified  the  military  policy  of  the  expedition 
— if  ambition  or  policy  had  ever  entered  into  their 
consideration.  •     fc 

f  In  1285,  Honorius  IV.,  in  order  to  convert  the 
Saracens,  strove  to  establish  at  Paris  schools  for 
Arabic  and  other  oriental  languages.  The  Council 
of  Vienna,  in  1312,  recommended  the  same  method; 
and  Oxford,  Salamanca,  Bologna,  as  well  as  Paris, 
were  places  selected  for  the  establishment  of  the  Pro- 

47 


whom  it  proved  impossible  to  subdue ;  but 
the  earliest  soldiers  of  the  Cross  were  moved 
by  no  such  design :  they  rushed  in  thought- 
less precipitation  to  an  unprofitable  end,  and 
they  believed  that  a  Power  irresistibly  im- 
pelled them,  and  that  that  Power  was — the 
Will  of  God. 

Of  those  which  followed.  —  These  remarks 
are  properly  confined  to  the  origin  of  the  first 
crusade  —  to  that  burst  of  pure  fanaticism 
which  was  itself  unmixed  with  worldly  in- 
centives, though  it  opened  the  field  for  other 
enterprises,  proceeding  from  the  usual  motives 
of  human  action.  An  inattention  to  this  dis- 
tinction has  misled  some  writers,  who,  failing 
to  discriminate  between  the  circumstances 
which  produced,  and  those  which  nourished, 
the  crusades,  have  not  taken  an  accurate  view 
of  either.  A  multitude  of  causes  combined 
to  impel  the  machine  when  it  was  once  in 
motion,  though  the  agency  which  launched 
it  was  simple  and  uniform.  In  the  first  place, 
by  the  success  of  the  first  expedition,  an  im- 
portant kingdom  was  established  in  the  East. 
Immediately  measures  were  taken  to  provide 
for  its  protection,  and  secure  its  stability. 
Natives  of  most  of  the  western  states  settled 
in  Palestine.  The  Latin  colony  adopted  the 
feudal  discipline,  and  the  common  constitu- 
tion of  Europe.  Hence  a  thousand  links 
were  extended  of  sympathy  and  of  interest ; 
and  together  they  formed  an  entirely  new 
ground  for  exertion,  and  gave  a  different 
character  to  the  movement  which  agitated 
the  West.  Henceforward,  reciprocal  rela- 
tions existed  ;  the  honor  of  Christendom  was 
now  engaged  to  maintain  its  conquests  over 
the  unbeliever;  it  was  held  base  to  relinquish 
a  possession,  acquired  through  so  many  losses, 
even  by  those  who  might  not  think  the  losses 
counterbalanced  by  the  possession.  It  is  one 
thing  to  rush  into  a  desperate  enterprise,  and 
another  to  encounter  some  additional  risk  in 
defence  of  that,  which  by  much  previous  risk 
has  been  achieved. 

Not  one  of  the  sovereigns  of  Europe  was 
either  personally  engaged  in  the  first  crusade, 
or  very  zealous  in  promoting  it :  it  proceeded 
from  sources  wholly  distinct  from  the  policy 
of  courts  and  the  springs  of  civil  government. 
But  the  second,  and  most  of  the  following 
expeditions,  were  undertaken,  some  with  the 
aid  and  countenance,  others  under  the  very 
authority  and  direction,  of  the  leading  mon- 
archs.      It   is   unnecessary  to   observe   how 


fessorships.     But  the  decree  appears  to  have  remain- 
ed without  effect,  until  Francis  I.  called  it  into  life. 


370 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


many  different  ingredients  were  thrown  into 
the  cup  of  fanaticism  by  such  co-operation,— 
obedience  to  the  command,  affection  for  the  j 
person,  gratitude  for  the  favor,  hope  from  the 
generosity,  of  the  prince  —  and,  what  was  I 
scarcely  less  potent  than  these,  the  seal  of  ap-  | 
probation  which  stamped  the  practice,  which 
gave  it  prevalence  and  fashion,  which  placed  ! 
it  among  the  ordinary  means  of  distinction, 
among  the  legitimate  duties  of  military  ser-  I 
vice.  .  .  Again,  the  policy,  which  mixed 
itself  almost  necessarily  with  the  royal  mo- 
tives, entirely  lost  sight  in  some  cases  of  the 
original  object.  The  pollution  of  the  holy 
places  was  forgotten  in  the  fruitful  prospect 
of  the  plains  of  Egypt,  or  of  the  commerce 
which  thronged  the  African  ports ;  in  such 
manner,  as  to  make  it  very  questionable 
whether  plunder,  rather  than  conquest,  was 
not  the  principal  motive  of  three,  at  least, 
among  the  latest  crusades.  St.  Lewis  himself 
was,  perhaps,  as  politic  as  he  was  pious  ;  and 
it  is  not  easy  to  perceive  how  the  sufferings 
of  the  Holy  Land  could  have  been  much  al- 
leviated by  any  advantages  which  he  might 
have  achieved  before  the  walls  of  Tunis.  At 
any  rate,  though  the  same  vows  and  intentions 
might  still  be  professed,  very  different  incen- 
tives were  certainly  proposed,  and  very  dif- 
ferent methods  adopted,  to  accomplish  them. 

The  policy  of  the  Popes.  —  The  principles 
and  motives  of  the  Vatican,  which  are  gen- 
erally found  so  consistent,  were  subject  to 
some  fluctuation  in  the  encouragemeut  which 
it  extended  to  the  crusades.  The  feeling  of 
Sylvester  appears  to  have  been  the  anticipation 
of  that,  which  animated  the  first  adventurers  a 
century  afterwards.  Gregory  VII.  had  more 
specific  and  tangible  objects.  His  practical 
mind  was  not  perhaps  much  moved  by  the 
tears  of  Palestine  and  the  tales  of  her  pollu- 
tion ;  but  he  considered  the  union  of  the  rival 
churches,  and  the  general  triumph  of  the 
Christian  over  the  Moslem  cause,  as  projects 
not  unworthy  of  the  confederacy  of  the  West, 
and  of  his  own  superintendence. 

The  Popes  of  the  12th  century  followed, 
where  they  did  not  direct  or  inflame,  the  pas- 
sion of  their  age  ;  and  the  successive  arma- 
ments of  martyrs  were  launched  with  the 
apostolical  benediction  on  their  holy  destina- 
tion. But  the  designs  of  Innocent  III.  were 
of  a  different  and  more  selfish  description  ; 
and  he  did  not  fear  to  pervert  to  their  accom- 
plishment the  machine  intrusted  to  him  for 
other  purposes.  The  arms  which  had  been 
consecrated  to  the  service  of  Christ,  against 
the  blasphemers  of  his  name,  were  now  turn- 


ed against  the  domestic  adversaries  of  the  See 
of  Rome.  The  views  and  policy  of  Innocent 
were  purely  ecclesiastical :  they  did  not  ex- 
tend in  any  direction  beyond  the  interests  of 
the  Church  over  which  he  presided  ;  and  it 
was  the  impulse  of  the  moment  to  crush  the 
foe  in  his  bosom,  before  he  sought  for  a  re- 
mote and  defensive  enemy. 

When  the  precedent  of  converting  the  ban- 
ner of  the  Cross  into  a  badge  of  Papal  sub- 
servience was  once  established,  the  name  and 
object  of  a  holy  war  passed  through  different 
methods  of  profanation  ;  and  the  sword  of 
the  Crusader,  after  being  steeped  in  heretical 
blood,  was  drawn,  in  the  same  hateful  service, 
against  a  Catholic  adversary.  The  Popes  had 
thus  accomplished  their  final  object  in  sub- 
stituting the  defence  of  the  Church  —  which 
really  meant  the  temporal  interests  of  the  See 
of  Rome  —  as  a  recognised  object  for  arming 
the  subjects  of  all  governments,  in  the  name 
of  Christ;  and  to  this  purpose  the  plenary 
indulgence,  still  the  great  lever  of  popular 
fanaticism,  was  commonly  and  not  vainly 
applied. 

From  that  time  forward  it  does  not  appear 
that  the  Vatican  pursued  any  fixed  policy 
respecting  the  expeditions  really  undertaken 
for  the  chastisement  of  the  Infidel.  Its  gen- 
eral voice  was  indeed  loud  in  their  favor ; 
and  bulls  and  exhortations  were  perpetually 
promulgated  to  quicken  or  revive  the  ardor 
of  the  Faithful.  Notwithstanding,  there  were 
particular  occasions — such  as  the  attempts  of 
Frederic  IT.  and  the  seventh  crusade  —  on 
which  the  pontifical  power  was  employed  to 
thwart,  or  even  to  prevent,  the  enterprise. 
But  the  secret  of  this  fluctuation  was  too  often 
and  too  openly  betrayed.  The  advantage 
and  aggrandizement  of  Rome  was  now  be- 
come in  papal  eyes  the  only  legitimate  object 
of  the  religious  spirit ;  and,  according  to  the 
more  modern  and  favorite  method,  she  now 
turned  that  spirit  into  the  channel  of  her  ava- 
rice. The  Indulgence,  which  in  the  first 
instance  was  only  granted  as  the  reward  of 
actual  service  in  the  holy  cause,  was,  in  pro- 
cess of  time,  publicly  exchanged  for  gold  ; 
and  the  timid  or  indolent  devotee  was  first 
permitted,  and  afterwards  encouraged,  to  re- 
deem by  his  wealth  the  toils  and  dangers  of  a 
military  penance.  Again  :  Innocent  III.  had 
taxed  the  clergy  of  Europe  tor  the  benefit  of 
the  Holy  Land  ;  but  presently  we  find  com- 
plaints, that  the  tax  was  become  the  object, 
instead  of  the  means,  and  the  crusade  only 
the  pretext.  And  thus  the  treasury  of  Rome 
was  filled,  amidst  the  disappointment  of  all 


THE  CRUSADES. 


371 


honest  enthusiasts  and  the  murmurs  of  a  de- 
frauded priesthood.  The  memory  of  Gregory 
VII.,  and  the  fame  of  his  spiritual  triumph 
and  lofty  ambition,  were  put  to  shame  by  the 
sordid  cupidity  of  his  degenerate  successors. 

Decline  of  the  Crusading  Spirit. — The  above 
observations  are  sufficient  to  show  how  wide- 
ly both  the  causes  and  objects  of  the  Crusades 
varied  during  the  long  period  of  their  contin- 
uance, and  how  far  they  sometimes  deviated 
from  the  pure  martial  fanaticism  of  their  ori- 
gin. As  they  were  thus  mixed  up  with  the 
ordinary  motives  of  policy,  and  were  de- 
graded to  the  selfish  service  of  Rome,  so  the 
fuel  by  which  they  were  nourished  gradually 
disappeared,  and  the  flame  insensibly  burnt 
out ;  and  in  this  circumstance  we  observe  the 
limits  to  which  the  influence  of  the  Vatican 
itself  was  confined.  When  popular  spirit 
was  kindled  by  other  causes,  the  Pope  was 
abundantly  powerful  to  fan  and  excite  it ; 
when  it  had  risen  to  the  height  of  its  fury,  he 
had  control  sufficient  to  misdirect  it;  hut 
when  it  began  to  sink  and  die  away,  his  ut- 
most efforts  were  unable  to  sustain  or  revive 
it.  As  long  as  the  Vatican  was  contented  to 
feed  and  minister  to  the  universal  passion,  its 
influence,  which  was  really  great,  appeared 
to  have  no  bounds ;  but  when  that  passion 
had  once  subsided,  the  Pontiffs  lost  their  hold 
on  human  weakness  ;  and  neither  the  increase 
of  exemptions*  or  indemnities,  nor  the  mul- 


*  The  Crusaders,  besides  their  plenary  indulgences, 
had  several  alluring  temporal  privileges,  which  are 
perhaps  correctly  reduced  under  the  following  heads: 
— 1.  They  were  exempted  from  prosecution  for  debt 
during  the  time  of  their  service.  2.  From  paying 
in'erest  for  the  money  which  they  had  borrowed  for 
the  outfit.  3.  For  a  certain  time,  if  not  entirely, 
from  the  payment  of  taxes.  4.  They  might  alienate 
their  lands  without  the  consent  of  the  superior  lord. 
5.  Their  persons  and  effects  were  taken  under  the 
protection  of  St.  Peter,  and  anathemas  denounced 
against  all  who  should  molest  them.  6.  They  enjoy- 
ed all  the  privileges  of  ecclesiastics;  such  as  not  be- 
ing bound  to  plead  in  civil  courts,  &c. — (See  Robert- 
son's Proofs  and  Illustrations.)  It  remained,  of 
course,  very  uncertain  how  far  these  privileges  would 
be  acknowledged  by  the  secular  authorities,  and  to 
what  extent  those  civil  courts  would  consent  to  forego 
their  jurisdiction  over  so  large  a  multitude;  and  thus 
the  real  value  of  these  papal  immunities  depended 
on  the  Pope's  influence,  and  various  other  causes. 
The  serfs  who  exchanged  their  agricultural  service 
for  that  of  the  Cross  appear  by  that  act  to  have  ob- 
tained their  freedom:  at  least,  that  which  was  con- 
ferred by  common  military  service,  would  scarcely  be 
withheld  from  the  crusader. 


tiplication  of  indulgences,  availed  to  inflame 
the  descendants  of  those  spontaneous  enthu- 
siasts, who,  in  obedience  to  the  preaching  of 
the  Hermit,  had  rushed  forth  to  restore  the 
honor  of  Christ,  and  avenge  the  wrongs  of 
his  worshippers. 

Effects  of  the  Crusades. — As  the  causes,  from 
which  the  crusading  frenzy  at  first  broke  forth, 
were  of  long  and  regular  growth,  so  likewise 
was  the  process  of  its  extinction  slow  and 
gradual.  Throughout  the  space  of  two  hundred 
years,  the  original  flame,  though  continually 
sinking,  was  not  wholly  lost; — it  was  still  min- 
gled, though  in  smaller  proportions  and  fainter 
colors,  with  the  various  mass  of  new  motives, 
which  ineffectually  endeavored  to  supply  its 
place,  and  which  really  derived  their  bright- 
ness from  it.  But  when  at  length  the  sky 
cleared,  and  the  last  clouds  had  passed  away, 
what  were  the  traces  of  evil  or  of  good  which 
were  left  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  ?  What 
permanent  effects  were  engraven  upon  the 
destinies  of  Europe  by  the  violent  haud  which 
had  so  long  directed  them  ?  From  a  system  of 
military  aggression,  which  had  no  foundation 
in  reason,  or  even  in  those  passions  which  are 
nearest  to  reason,  few  indeed  were  the  fruits 
which  could  be  expected  for  the  benefit  of 
society ;  and  if  any  such  did  in  effect  proceed 
from  the  crusades,  it  was  through  circumstan- 
ces wholly  independent  of  their  design.  It 
appears  to  us,  that  these  fortuitous  advantages 
were  both  few  in  number  and  extremely  par- 
tial. Perhaps  it  would  be  unreasonable  to 
dispute  that  the  decline  of  the  baronial  des- 
potism, with  the  birth  of  municipal  rights  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  just  extension  of  royal 
authority  on  the  other,  was  accelerated  by  the 
violent  alienations  of  property  which  the  cru- 
sades occasioned  ;  but  those  salutary  changes 
would  have  been  produced,  and  perhaps  at 
no  later  period,  by  the  sure  agency  of  wiser 
principles,  advancing  with  the  advancement 
of  knowledge.  We  may  indeed  hail  the  acci- 
dent which  hastened  (if  it  hastened)  their  ap- 
pearance ;  but  we  should  err  were  we  to  as- 
cribe to  it  their  existence.  The  commercial 
benefits  which  historians  too  generally  connect 
with  the  expeditions  to  the  East  were  princi- 
pally confined  to  three  cities  of  Italy — Venice, 
Genoa,  and  Pisa;*  and  if  they  were  thence 


*  The  results  were  probably  unfavorable  to  Ham- 
burgh, Lubeck,  and  the  other  towns  forming  the 
Hanseatic  League,  by  draining  the  capital  southward. 
Besides  the  aristocratic  military  spirit,  which  was 
nourished  by  the  Crusades,  is  essentially  anti-com- 
mercial. 


372 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


partially  reflected  to  some  other  parts  of  the 
Peninsula,  that  was  a  poor  compensation  to 
the  commonwealth  of  Europe  for  the  violent 
extortions  which  exhausted  its  more  powerful 
members — France,  Germany,  and  England. 
Their  treasuries  were  drained,  and  the  mighty 
sources  of  their  national  industry  dried  up, 
that  the  sails  of  two  or  three  small  republics 
might  overspread  the  Mediterranean,  and  re- 
ceive the  first  fruits  of  the  contributions  so 
painfully  levied  for  the  chastisement  of  the 
Infidel. 

The  loss  of  Christian  life  occasioned  by  the 
Crusades  is  fairly  calculated  at  more  than  two 
millions.  But  if  the  mutual  animosities  of 
princes,  or,  what  was  even  more  destructive, 
the  rage  of  private  warfare,  had  been  suspend- 
ed during  their  continuance,  some  consolation 
for  the  sacrifice  would  have  been  offered  to 
humanity  by  the  repose  and  concord  of  the 
survivors.  The  fact,  however,  was  otherwise : 
for  a  very  few  years  after  the  departure  of  the 
first  crusaders,  the  Truce  of  God  was  indeed 
observed ;  but  immediately  the  tide  of  feudal 
barbarism  returned  into  its  former  channel, 
and  proved  that  the  passion  for  international 
or  domestic  broils  was  neither  consumed  in 
foreign  adventure,  nor  superseded  by  the  thirst 
for  it.  It  is  even  probable  that  the  nature  of 
such  contests  was  still  further  imbittered  by 
the  introduction  of  those  habits  of  unrelenting 
ferocity,  which  are  invariably  generated  by 
religious  warfare. 

It  is,  again,  at  least  questionable,  whether 
the  arts  of  peace  and  civilization  acknowledge 
any  obligation  to  the  influence  of  the  Crusades. 
The  barbarians  gazed  in  ignorant  admiration 
at  the  splendid  magnificence  of  Constantino- 
ple— '  How  great  is  this  city !  how  noble  and 
beautiful !  What  a  multitude  of  monasteries 
and  palaces  it  contains  of  exquisite  and  won- 
drous fabric  !  How  many  structures  are  scat- 
tered even  in  the  streets  and  alleys,  which  are 
marvellous  to  behold !  It  were  tedious  to 
recount  what  an  abundance  of  all  good  things 
is  found  there,  of  gold  and  of  silver,  of  every 
form  of  vestment,  and  of  the  relics  of  the 
saints. '  *     The  records  of  the  time  are  filled 


*  Fulcher.  ap.  Bongars.  vol.  i.  p.  386.  Fulche- 
rius  Carnotensis  was  chaplain  to  the  Count  of  Char- 
tres.  The  original  passage  is  cited  by  Mills,  Hist. 
Cms.  chap.  iii.  It  is  certain  that  the  collecting  of 
relics  was  a  very  favorite  occupation  with  the  crusad- 
ers, who  thus  enriched  with  many  remarkable  trea- 
sures the  sanctuaries  of  the  West.  But  to  this  pursuit 
their  curious  industry  seems  to  have  been  confined. 
We  do  not  learn  that  they  brought  back  any  other 


with  similar  expressions  of  wild  astonishment. 
But  have  we  any  proof  that  these  enthusiasts 
profited  by  what  they  beheld  ? — that  they  imi- 
tated what  they  admired? — that  they  strove 
to  transplant  to  their  own  soil  that  exotic  ge- 
nius and  taste  of  which  they  felt  the  excel 
lence?  Or  were  they  merely  ruffled  by  a 
transient  inconsequential  emotion,  uncounect 
ed  with  any  principle  of  action,  or  intelligence 
of  observation  ?  ...  It  is  asserted,  that 
if  the  Greeks  were  far  superior  to  the  western 
nations  in  the  culture  of  humanity,  the  Sara- 
cens were  scarcely  less  so  ;  and  the  strangers 
had  thus  a  double  opportunity  of  discovering 
and  correcting  their  deficiencies.  But  it  is 
forgotten  that  the  soldier  of  the  Cross  was  no 
enlightened  and  leisurely  traveller,  searching 
to  instruct  himself  and  his  generation  ;  but  a 
fierce,  unlettered  fauatic,  proceeding  on  a  pur- 
pose of  bloodshed.  In  his  prejudiced  eyes, 
the  civilization  of  the  Greeks  was  inseparably 
associated  with  luxurious  indolence  and  ef- 
feminate timidity  ;  that  of  the  Saracens  with 
an  impious  faith  and  blaspheming  tongue ; 
and  the  disdain  with  which  he  regarded  the 
one,  and  the  detestation  with  which  he  ap- 
proached the  other,  repelled  him  equally  from 
the  imitation  of  either.  And  if  it  be  true,  that, 
during  the  long  period  of  two  hundred  years, 
some  trifling  advancement  in  the  arts  of  civili- 
zation did  in  fact  take  place,  it  would  still  be 
difficult  to  specify  a  single  invention  as  the 
indisputable  effect  of  the  Crusades.  Chrono- 
logical coincidences  are  sometimes  mistaken 
for  moral  connexions  ;  and  the  changes  which 
distinguish  any  age  are  thus  too  commonly  as- 
cribed to  the  passion  or  principle  which  may 
have  predominated  at  the  time.  But  in  the 
present  case,  when  we  reflect  that  during  the 
eleventh  century — before  the  commencement 
of  the  crusades — the  human  mind  had  already 
revived  and  entered  upon  its  certain  career 
of  improvement,  we  may  indeed  wonder  that 
its  progress  was  so  slow,  and  its  exertions  so 
barren,  during  the  two  which  followed  ;  but  it 
would  be  preposterous  to  attribute  the  few 
advantages,  which  may  really  have  been  in- 
troduced, to  a  cause  which  was  in  itself 
decidedly  hostile  to  every  moral  meliora- 
tion. 

For,  since  knowledge  is  the  only  sure  in- 
strument for  the  elevation  of  man,  can  we 

contributions  to  the  store  of  European  piety,  or  any 
to  the  store  of  its  learning.  On  the  other  hand, 
many  monks  took  up  arms,  who  would  have  been 
more  innocently  and  more  profitably  employed  ac 
home 


THE  CRUSADES. 


373 


imagine  a  condition  of  society  more  fatal  to 
its  progress  than  that  which  was  regulated  by 
the  co-operation  of  superstitious  zeal  with 
military  turbulence?  —  wherein  two  princi- 
ples, separately  so  fruitful  of  mischief  and 
misery,  were  leagued,  together  against  the  vir- 
tue and  happiness  of  mankind  ?  What  need 
we  to  pursue  the  inevitable  consequences  ? 
War  assumed  a  more  frightful  character  by 
the  impulse  of  fanaticism  ;  and  the  ordinary 
barbarities  of  European  strife  were  multi- 
plied in  the  conflicts  of  the  East.  This  ne- 
cessarily grew  out  of  the  very  nature  of  the 
contest.  When  the  authority  of  Heaven  is 
pleaded  for  the  infliction  of  punishment,  it 
creates  an  implacable  and  remorseless  spirit ; 
since  it  supersedes,  by  a  stern  necessity,  all 
ordinary  motives,  and  stifles  the  natural  plea- 
dings of  humanity.  The  crusaders  exclaim- 
ed, '  It  is  the  will  of  God  ! '  and  in  that  fancied 
behest  the  fiercest  brutalities,  which  the  world 
had  ever  beheld,  sought  not  palliation,  but 
honor,  and  the  crown  of  eternal  reward. 

The  spirit  of  religious  persecution  appears 
to  have  borrowed  the  peculiar  *  features, 
which  afterwards  distinguished  it,  from  the 
practice,  and  even  from  the  principles,  of  the 
Crusades.  To  destroy  the  votaries  of  a  dif- 
ferent faith  was  esteemed  an  act  of  religion  ; 
and  that,  too,  not  so  much  because  they  were 
dangerous,  as  because  they  differed.  The  prin- 
ciple, which  was  originally  intended  against 
Mahometans  only,  took  root  generally.  The 
rude  understandings  of  a  superstitious  race 
were  perplexed.  One  sort  of  difference  might 
be  as  offensive  to  Heaven  as  another.  The 
word  heresy  was  not  less  diligently  and  deeply 
stigmatized  in  the  tablets  of  the  church,  than 
infidelity.  To  the  Pope,  the  infallible  inter- 
preter of  the  spiritual  oracles,  the  former  was 
at  least  as  formidable  and  as  hateful  as  the 
latter.  And  thus  the  weapon  which  had 
been  applied  with  so  much  praise  of  piety  to 
chastise  the  one,  might  be  turned,  with  the 
same  salutary  efficacy,  to  the  extirpation  of  the 
other.     Through    such   an  inference,  which 

*  We  Tuore  particularly  mean  the  practice  of  as- 
saulting whole  sects  and  districts  of  heretics,  as  such, 
by  authorized  military  force.  The  religious  wars 
between  the  Catholics  and  the  Arians  were  of  a  very 
different  character  from  those  between  the  Church 
and  the  Albigeois,  &c. ;  and  from  the  Arian  Contro- 
versy to  the  time  of  the  Crusades,  persecution,  in  the 
West,  had  never  the  opportunity,  whether  it  had  the 
will  or  not,  of  destroying  by  wholesale.  The  exist- 
ence of  the  heresy  of  the  Vaudois  during  that  period, 
though  not  improbable,  is  not  historically  certain. 


then  appeared  not  unreasonable,  urged  by  the 
authority  of  a  powerful  pontiff,  the  practice 
of  religious  massacre  was  introduced  into  the 
church  of  Christ ;  and  when  the  ministers  of 
bigotry  had  once  revelled  in  blood,  they  were 
not  soon  or  easily  compelled  to  relinquish  the 
cup.  Among  the  many  evil  consequences 
of  the  Crusades,  we  may  account  this,  per- 
haps, as  the  worst, — that  they  put  arms  into 
the  hands  of  intolerance,  and  finally  kindled 
in  the  bosom  of  Europe  the  same  fanatical 
passions,  with  which  they  had  desolated  the 
East. 

If  we  are  to  believe  the  contemporary 
historians,  the  heroes  of  the  cross  were  re- 
markable for  their  contempt  of  every  moral 
principle ;  and  the  cities  of  Palestine  were 
peculiarly  polluted  by  the  preyalence  of  vice. 
If  those  who  resorted  to  the  birth-place  of 
their  religion  were  not  touched  even  on  that 
holy  spot  by  its  plainest  precepts — if  the  wo- 
men were  involved  with  the  men,  the  priest 
with  the  warrior,  in  equal  and  indiscriminate 
profligacy — there  can  be  no  doubt  in  which 
direction  the  moral  system  of  Europe  was  in- 
fluenced by  the  Crusades ;  nor  can  we  sup- 
pose that,  the  habits  acquired  in  Sjria  were 
forgotten  or  abjured  by  the  returning  pil- 
grim. 

Tlit  Plenary  Indulgence.  Ecclesiastical 
writers  are  equally  loud  in  their  complaints, 
respecting  the  corruption  sustained  through 
the  same  means  by  the  discipline  of  the 
church.  The  final  cessation  of  canonical 
penance  is  ascribed  to  the  introduction  of 
the  plenary  indulgence.  In  uncivilized  ages, 
the  moderate  use  of  the  spiritual  authority 
was  unquestionably  attended  with  advantage. 
The  practice  of  prayer,  of  fasting,  of  alms- 
giving, under  the  superintendence  of  a  pious 
confessor,  was  salutary  to  the  offending  indi- 
vidual and  useful  to  society.  It  taught  humili- 
ation to  the  proud  spirit ;  it  taught  the  exercise 
of  charity ;  and  it  may  often  have  produced  the 
genuine  fruits  of  repentance.  It  is  true  that, 
in  early  times,  some  discretion  had  commonly 
been  intrusted  to  the  bishop,  to  mitigate  and 
even,  within  certain  limits,  to  commute  the  or- 
dinary penalties  ;  and  it  was  not  later  than  the 
eighth  century,  that  even  pilgrimages  to  cer- 
tain specified  places  were  suhstituted  for  the 
appointed  penance.  But  before  the  times  of 
the  Crusades  there  was  no  mention  of  plenary 
indulgence.  It  had  not  hitherto  been  held 
out  to  the  sinner  that,  by  a  single  act,  he 
might  be  discharged  from  all  the  temporal 


374 


HISTORY   OF    THE    CHURCH. 


penalties  imposed  on  him  hy  the  Divine  Jus- 
tice. This  was  an  innovation  exceeding  the 
boldness  of  all  former  changes,  and  suited  to 
the  extraordinary  occasion  which  called  for 
it.  But  it  is  properly  observed,  that  those 
who  introduced  it  had  forgotten  the  legiti- 
mate object  of  canonical  penance;  that  it  was 
enjoined  to  the  sinner,  not  so  much  for  his 
chastisement,  as  for  the  discipline  and  purifi- 
cation *  of  his  soul.  But  what,  after  all,  were 
the  religious  duties  or  merits,  which  took  the 
place  of  the  original  system,  and  through 
which  this  full  indulgence  was  acquired  ?  To 
wear  those  arms,  of  which  it  had  been  pen- 
ance indeed  to  be  deprived ;  to  turn  them 
against  a  foreign,  instead  of  a  domestic  foe  ; 
to  engage  in  a  mighty  and  soul-inspiring  en- 
terprise, instead  of  contesting  the  boundaries 
of  a  manor,  or  the  fosse  of  a  fortress.  Such 
were  the  previous  habits  of  the  Crusaders ; 
and  a  system,  which  offered  pardon  on  such 
easy  terms,  must  have  acted  with  many  as 
a  positive  encouragement  to  sin. 

As  the  process  of  canonical  penance  was 
commuted  for  the  plenary  indulgence,  so  was 
the  indulgence  itself  directly  and  unreserved- 
ly f  commuted  for  money.  On  the  conse- 
quences of  this  second  corruption  we  shall 
not  further  dwell,  than  to  mention  it  among 
the  causes  which  finally  operated  to  quench 
the  crusading  ardor.  So  soon  as  absolutions 
were  made  matters  of  open  traffic,  the  motive 
became  too  manifest ;  and  thus  at  length  the 
preachers  of  Crusades  attracted  so  few  listen- 
ers, that  it  became  necessary  to  promise  tem- 
porary indulgences  —  of  days  or  even  years 
— to  any  who  would  consent  to  attend  their 
sermons.  J 

The  evil  did  not  expire  with  its  occasion ; 
and  after  the  Crusades  were  at  an  end,  the 
popes  discovered  for  it  a  new,  an  easier,  and 
perhaps  a  more  profitable  object.     By  the  in- 

*  Such  was  ihe  original  design  of  penance;  but  it 
is  also  true,  that  the  idea  of  expiation,  or  an  atone- 
ment for  sin  by  suffering,  very  soon  entered  into  the 
consideration,  and  very  commonly  took  place  of  the 
first  motive.  That  idea  is  at  variance  with  the  first 
principles  of  Christianity;  and  so  far  as  it  was  pre- 
valent, the  penitential  system  was  founded  on  a  false 
principle,  and  its  abolition  can  be  no  matter  of  regret 
to  any  true  Christian. 

t  Penances,  as  we  have  mentioned,  had  been  pre- 
viously commuted,  and  commuted  for  money  too, 
when  they  were  commuted  fur  alms:  only,  that  which 
had  hitherto  been  sparingly  and  decently  and  indi- 
rectly practised,  grew  into  an  avowed,  authorized, 
habitual  abuse. 

t  See  Fleury's  Discourse  on  the  Crusades. 


stitution  of  the  Jubilee  (in  the  year  1300,)  the 
place  of  pilgrimage  was  skilfully  changed 
from  Jerusalem  to  Rome  ;  and  the  Tombs 
of  the  Apostles  supplied,  in  the  popular  in- 
fatuation, the  Cross  and  the  Sepulchre  of  the 
Saviour.  A  consoling  compensation  was  thus 
made  both  to  the  avarice  of  the  Vatican  and 
the  superstition  of  the  people  ;  and  the  indul- 
gence was  not  abandoned,  nor  its  venality  at 
all  restrained,  until  the  insulted  sense  and 
piety  of  mankind  at  length  revolted  against 
the  enormous  abuse. 

If,  then,  we  are  obliged  to  admit  that  the 
effects  of  the  Crusades  were  generally  per- 
nicious ;  if  it  is  true  that  they  caused  an  use- 
less waste  of  human  life,  that  they  increased 
the  ferocity  of  war,  that  they  gave  a  deadlier 
form  to  religious  persecution,  that  they  de- 
pressed the  level  of  morality,  that  they  intro- 
duced into  the  discipline  of  the  church  its 
mortal  corruption, — their  good  effects  will  be 
found  insignificant  in  the  comparison,  even 
though  we  should  account  among  them  the 
aggrandizement  of  the  sacred  order  ;  for  one 
of  their  effects  certainly  was  the  immediate 
increase  of  the  ecclesiastical  revenues.  The 
property  of  the  Crusaders  was  commonly 
placed,  during  the  expedition,  under  the 
bishop's  protection  ;  and  in  case  of  his  death, 
it  often  fell,  without  supposing  any  direct 
fraud,  into  the  possession  of  the  church. 
Again,  —  though  there  were  wanting  neither 
priests  nor  monks  who  assumed  the  cross  in 
person,  yet  the  number  of  those  was  by  no 
means  proportionate  to  the  wealth  and  mul- 
titude of  the  holy  community ;  so  that  they 
suffered  less  severely  than  any  other  class  the 
immediate  evils  of  the  conflict.  But  the  tax 
which  was  imposed  on  them  by  Innocent, 
did  in  effect  much  more  than  counterbalance 
those  temporary  gains  ;  and  even  in  the  most 
sordid  calculation  of  the  sacerdotal  interests, 
we  may  safely  pronounce  that  they  did  not 
permanently  profit  by  that  commotion,  which 
overthrew  for  a  season  the  general  welfare  of 
society. 


NOTE    (a)    ON    PAPAL    DECRETALS. 

In  the  first  ages  of  Christianity  the  letters 
written  by  the  leading  Fathers  of  the  Church 
for  the  regulation  of  doctrine  and  discipline 
were  called  Decretals  (Epistolse  Decretales.) 
As  the  authority  of  the  bishop  of  Rome  grad- 
ually rose  above  that  of  other  bishops  and 
patriarchs,  he  also  claimed  an  especial  defer- 


PAPAL  DECRETALS. 


375 


ence  for  his  epistles  ;  and  in  a  synod  held  at 
Rome,  in  494,  under  Pope  Gelasins,  the  de- 
cretals of  the  Roman  prelate  were  invested 
with  the  same  authority  as  the  canons  of 
councils. 

Collection  of  Gratian. —  After  the  time  of 
Charlemagne,  the  Popes,  as  they  felt  their 
growing  power,  proceeded  not  only  to  deny 
the  necessity  of  any  confirmation  of  their  de- 
cretals, hut  to  distinguish  and  exalt  them,  so 
as  to  supersede  the  canons  of  the  church. 
As  they  increased  in  weight,  they  multiplied 
in  number.  Gratian,  a  native  of  Chiusi  in 
Tuscany,  a  monk  of  St.  Felix  of  Bologna, 
published  his  celebrated  collection  in  1151. 
Many  had  been  previously  put  forth,  but 
without  obtaining  any  public  authority.  But 
that  of  Gratian  was  more  favorably  received, 
and  was  made  the  subject  of  the  public  lec- 
tures of  the  canonists.  It  was  entitled  the 
Book  of  Decrees,  or  simply  The  Decretal  — 
Decretum,*  and  was  divided  into  three  parts. 
The  first  of  these,  called  The  Distinction, 
comprised  one  hundred  and  one  articles,  re- 
garding chiefly  the  different  descriptions  of 
laws,  ecclesiastical  and  civil ;  the  authority  of 
the  canons  and  decretals ;  the  ceremonies  of 
ordination  ;  the  duties  of  the  clergy;  the  power 
of  the  pope.  The  second — The  Causes — con- 
tained thirty-six  sections,  relating  to  various 
matters  of  church  discipline  and  jurisdiction  ; 
—  simony,  appeals,  evidence,  elections,  cen- 
sures, testaments,  sepultures,  usury;  of  the 
rights  of  monks  and  abbots ;  of  commendams, 
oaths,  war,  heresies,  sorcery,  &c  The  third 
part  —  On  the  Consecration  —  treated  of  the 
consecration  of  churches ;  of  the  celebration 
of  mass  and  the  divine  offices;  of  the  eucha- 
rist  and  other  sacraments  ;  of  fasts  and  festi- 
vals, and  some  other  subjects.  The  work 
abounded  in  errors,  not  only  as  it  attributed 
to  the  false  decretals  and  other  fabrications 
the  authority  of  genuine  compositions,  but 
also  as  it  falsified  many  of  the  passages  cited 
from  unsuspected  monuments.  Nevertheless, 
it  was  received  without  hesitation  ;  and,  after 
furnishing  alone  the  materials  of  canonical 
learning  to  the -schools  of  Europe,  it  became 
a  sort  of  basis  on  which  new  and  additional 
decrees  and  commentaries  were  fixed  and 
long  supported.  Another  collection  was  made 
by  Bernardo  Circa,  Bishop  of  Faenza,  in  the 
year  1191.  This  work  was  intended  as  a 
supplement  to  the  Decretals  of  Gratian,  and 


*  The  author  admitted  the  object  and  difficulty  of 
his  work,  when  he  called  it  Concordia  Discordantium 
Canonum. 


was  therefore  called  the  Book  of  Extrava- 
gants,  i.  e.  of  matters  not  comprised  in  the 
Decretals.  But  as  this  was  a  private  compi- 
lation, it  obtained  no  force ;  and  accordingly, 
about  the  year  1210,  Innocent  III.  caused  a 
more  perfect  collection  to  be  made,  and  gave 
it  the  seal  of  public  authority.  This  was  called 
the  Roman  Collection. 

As  circumstances  changed,  and  edicts  in 
creased  in  multitude,  fresh  compilations  were 
thought  necessary ;  and  Gregory  IX.  *  avail 
etl  himself  of  so  favorable  an  occasion  for  es- 
tablishing and  extending  the  monarchy  of  his 
see.  In  that,  which  was  published  under  his 
auspices,  and  which  affected  to  be  modelled 
on  the  code  of  Justinian,  f  such  former  con- 
stitutions, as  seemed  to  him  unsuitable  to  the 
character  of  his  own  times,  were  fearlessly 
cut  away,  and  others  inserted,  on  the  pleni- 
tude of  his  own  authority,  which  were  more 
congenial  to  the  age  and  more  favorable  to 
pontifical  usurpation.  As  the  compilation 
of  Tribonianus  had  been  divided  into  five 
books,  so  was  that  of  Gregory.  This  work 
was  immediately  published  throughout  all 
the  schools  and  universities  of  Europe;  aud 
as  it  was  composed  with  great  diligence  and 
enforced  by  the  highest  authority,  it  was  very 
generally  and  even  eagerly  received. 

To  this  collection  Boniface  VIII.  added, 
about  the  year  1299,  an  additional  book, 
commonly  known  as  the  Sixth  (Liber  Sex- 
tus,)  and  containing  all  the  constitutions  pos- 
terior to  the  pontificate  of  Gregory  IX.  This 
too  was  universally  acknowledged,  excepting 
perhaps  in  France.  It  was  further  augment- 
ed, in  the  following  age,  by  the  Clementines ;  t 


*  It  is  usual  to  reckon  five  different  compilations 
of  Decretals  between  Gratian  and  Gregory  IX. — that 
of  the  Bishop  of  Faenza,  three  during  the  pontificate 
of  Innocent  III.,  and  a  fifth  containing  the  Letters 
ofHonorius  III.  — Dupin,  Bibl.  Nouv.,  S.  XII.  ch. 
iii.  and  x.  Raimond  de  Pennafort  was  the  person  to 
whom  Gregory  committed  the  labor  of  his  compila- 
tion. The  effect  of  these  successive  collections  (as 
even  the  moderate  Roman  Catholic  Historians  avow) 
was  to  complete  the  overthrow  of  the  ancient  law,  to 
establish  I  he  absolute  and  unbounded  power  of  the 
pope,  and  to  create  an  infinity  of  suits  and  processes, 
to  be  decided  by  the  venal  justice  of  the  court  of  ,» 
Rome.  They  were  extensions  of  the  principles  of 
Gratian,  as  Gratian  had  enlarged  upon  those  of  the 
false  Decretals,  in  at  least  two  important  points — in 
exempting  the  pope  from  the  authority  of  the  canons, 
and  the  clergy  universally  from  every  sort  of  lay  juris- 
diction.    See  Fleury's  Seventh  Discourse. 

f  The  MS.  of  the  Pandect  was  discovered  among 
the  ruins  of  Amalfi,  in  1137. 

|  John  XXII.  published,  in  1317,  the  Constitutions 


376 


HISTORY    OF    THE    CHURCH. 


and  they  were  succeeded  by  the  Extrava- 
gants — a  name  adopted,  probably,  from  tlie 
work  of  the  Bishop  of  Faenza.  These  were 
the  labors  of  the  popes  of  Avignon ;  and 
as  the  Decretum  was  intended  to  correspond 
with  the  Pandects,  and  the  Decretals  with 
the  Code,  so  the  Extravagauts  had  their  mo- 
del in  the  Novellas  of  the  imperial  legislator. 
Under  these  heads  the  different  branches  of 
pontifical  jurisprudence  were,  for  a  long  pe- 
riod, comprised,*  until  they  were  further  aug- 
mented by  the  much  more  modern  addition 
of  the  Institutions. 

NOTE    (b)    ON    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    PARIS. 

The  numerous  public  schools  or  academies 
which  had  previously  been  formed  in  various 
parts  of  Italy  and  France,  at  Salamanca,  at 
Cologne,  and  elsewhere,  assumed  the  form 
by  which  they  were  afterwards  characterised 
during  the  thirteenth  century.  The  most 
celebrated  was  that  of  Paris.  It  was  adorn- 
ed more  than  any  other  by  the  multitude,  the 
rank,  and  the  diligence  of  its  students,  and  by 
the  abilities  and  various  acquirements  of  its 
professors ;  and  since,  while  other  acade- 
mies confined  their  instructions  to  particular 
branches  of  science,  that  of  Paris  alone  pre- 
tended to  embrace  the  entire  range,  it  was 
the  first  which  took  the  title  of  University. 
In  its  origin,  f  in  the  century  preceding,  it 
had  been  composed  of  two  classes — of  artists, 
who  gave  instructions  in  the  arts  and  philos- 
ophy ;  and  of  theologians,  who  delivered  ex- 
positions and  commentaries,  some  of  them 
on  the  Holy  Scriptures  (they  were  afterwards 
called  Biblici ;)  others  (denominated  Senten- 
tiarii)  on  Peter  the  Lombard's  Book  of  the 
Sentences.  These  two  appear  to  have  been 
the  earliest  Faculties  ;  nor  is  mention  made 
of  any  others  J  in  the  Constitutions  delivered 


of  his  predecessor,  Clement  V.  They  were  divided, 
as  was  the  Liber  Sextus,  into  five  books,  and  recom- 
mended by  a  bull  to  the  most  eminent  universities. 

*  In  this  short  account  we  have  chiefly  followed 
Giannone,  Stor.  di  Nap.,  lib.  xix.  cap.  v.  s.  1.     See 
also  Dupin,  Nouv.  Biblioth.,  Siecle  XII.  chap.  xvii. 
%-  f  We  refer  not  to  its  antiquity, — since  it  boasts  to 

have  been  founded  by  Charlemagne,  and  augmented 
by  Lewis  the  Meek  and  Charles  the  Bald.  Its  com- 
pletion it  certainly  owed  to  the  kings  of  the  third 
race,  especially  Lewis  the  Young  and  his  son  Philippe 
Auguste.  It  had  some  celebrity  at  the  end  of  the 
tenth  century  ;  but  before  that  epoch,  the  academy  at 
Rheims  seems  to  have  been  in  greater  repute. 

X  Dupin,  Nouv.  Biblioth.,  Siec.  XIII.,  chap.  x. 
Mosheim,  Cent.  XIII.  p.  ii.  chap.  i. 


in  1215  by  the  legate  of  Innocent  III.  But 
the  other  two  —  law  and  medicine  —  were 
founded  immediately  afterwards;  and  in  a 
letter  addressed  by  the  university,  in  1253,  to 
all  the  prelates  of  the  kingdom,  the  four  fac- 
ulties are  boldly  compared  to  the  four  rivers 
of  the  terrestrial  paradise.  Over  each  of 
these  societies  a  doctor  was  chosen  to  pre- 
side, during  a  fixed  period,  by  the  suffrages 
of  his  colleagues,  under  the  title  of  doyen,  or 
dean. 

In  the  first  instance,  the  members  of  the 
academy  were  divided  into  two  classes  only 
— masters  and  scholars.  There  were  no  dis- 
tinctions in  grade  or  title  ;  no  previous  cer- 
emonies were  necessary  for  advancement  to 
any  office.  But  the  introduction  of  various 
degrees,  to  be  conferred  after  certain  fixed 
periods  of  study,  followed  very  soon  ;  and 
four  were  expressly  specified — those  of  bach- 
elor, licentiate,  master,  and  doctor — in  the 
reform  by  which  Gregory  IX.  gave  a  per- 
manent character  to  the  university.  While 
some  of  the  Italian  academies  may  have 
been  more  eminent  for  a  peculiar  proficiency 
in  the  science  of  law  or  of  medicine,  *  the 
palm  of  theological  superiority  was  conceded, 
without  any  dispute,  to  Paris.  To  afford  still 
greater  facilities  and  encouragement  to  this 
study,  Robert  de  Sorbonne,  a  man  abounding 
both  in  wealth  and  in  piety,  the  chaplain  and 
friend  of  St.  Lewis,  founded,  about  the  year 
1250,  that  very  renowned  institution,  which 
has  associated  his  name,  for  so  many  centu- 
ries, with  the  theological  labors,  glories,  and 
controversies  of  his  countrymen. 

These  few  sentences  may  be  sufficient  to 
call  the  reader's  attention  to  an  important  and 
attractive  subject,  and  even  to  render  intelligi- 
ble such  passing  mention,  as  will  be  made 
hereafter,  of  the  university  of  Paris.  But  as 
the  particulars  of  its  origin,  its  construction, 
its  growth,  and  its  prosperity,  do  not  strictly 
belong  to  ecclesiastical  history,  we  must  not 
permit  them  to  usurp  those  scanty  pages, 
which  may  be  more  appropriately,  if  not 
more  instructively,  occupied. 


*  As  was  Bologna,  for  instance,  for  the  former,  and 
Salerno  for  the  latter.  Gratian  published  his  Decre- 
tal at  Bologna ;  and  the  stimulus  thus  given  to  the 
study  of  canon  law  continued  long  to  produce  its  ef- 
fect. The  study  of  civil  law  in  the  same  school  is 
dated  from  about  twenty  years  earlier — i.  e.  from  the 
discovery  of  the  Pandect.  The  medical  precepts, 
which  issued  from  Salerno,  are  said  to  have  been  de- 
rived from  the  books  of  the  Arabians,  or  the  schools 
of  the  Saracens  in  Spain  and  Africa. 


THEOLOGICAL  WRITERS. 


377 


NOTE  (c)  ON  CERTAIN  THEOLOGICAL  WRITERS. 

The  fathers  of  the  early  Church  were  cau- 
tious in  provoking  subtle  speculations  on  the 
holy  mysteries,  and  seldom  engaged  in  that 
field  of  theology,  unless  to  repel  the  invasion 
of  some  popular  error.  And  even  then  they 
were  usually  contented  to  arm  themselves 
with  scripture  and  tradition  as  the  princi- 
ples of  their  defence,  reserving  the  resources 
of  reason  for  what  they  considered  its  le- 
gitimate object  in  theological  controversies, 
the  interpretation  of  the  sacred  writings. 
When  philosophy  was  at  length  admitted  to 
partake  in  these  debates,  the  method  first 
adopted,  as  most  congenial  to  the  sublime 
truths  of  religion,  was  that  of  Plato  ;  and  if 
they  were  sometimes  exalted  by  this  alliance 
into  fantastical  mysticism,  they  at  least  escap- 
ed the  degrading  torture  of  minute  and  pug- 
nacious sophistry.  But  the  rival  system  also 
found  some  early  advocates,  *  though  insuffi- 
cient to  give  it  general  prevalence.  Boethius 
applied  the  principles  of  Aristotle  to  the  mys- 
teries of  the  Trinity  and  the  Incarnation, 
thus  moving  many  abstruse  and  inexplicable 
questions  ;  and  John  Damascenus  afterwards 
published  a  methodical  exposition  of  all  the 
questions  or  difficulties  of  theology.  In  the 
West,  in  the  ninth  century,  John  Scotus 
Erigena  fell  into  the  same  snare ;  but  his 
method  of  subtilizing  was  not  suited  to  the 
genius  of  his  age  ;  and  during  that  which  fol- 
lowed, every  operation  of  the  human  mind 
was  suspended. 

But  when  reason  again  awoke,  she  was 
straightway  delivered  into  the  fetters  of  Aris- 
totle. Towards  the  middle  of  the  eleventh 
century,  his  philosophy  was  taught,  after  the 
Arabian  method,  in  the  public  schools ;  and 
though,  in  the  first  instance,  it  was  confined 
to   the   illustration   of  profane   subjects,  yet 


*  To  such,  and  to  the  errors  occasioned  by  them, 
is  the  allusion  of  Prudentius.  Pref.  secunda  in  Apo- 
theosim. 

Statum  lacessunt  omnipollentis  Dei 

Calumniosis  litibus: 
Fidem  minutis  dissecant  ambagibus, 

Ut  quisque  lingua  nequior: 
Solvunt  ligantque  qusestionum  vincula 

Per  syllogismos  plectiles. 
Vae  captiosis  sycophantarum  strophis, 

Vse  versipelli  astutise! 
Nodos  tenaces  recta  rumpit  regula, 
Infesta  dissertantibus. 
Prudentius  nourished  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury. 

48 


as  men  became  commonly  imbued  with  its 
principles,  and  as  the  whole  system,  political 
and  moral,  in  those  days,  was  interwoven 
with  religious,  or  at  least  with  ecclesiastical, 
considerations,  it  was  not  long  before  the 
prevalent  system  passed  obsequiously  into 
the  service  of  theology.*  John  the  Sophist, 
Rocellinus,  Berenger,  Lanfranc,  Anselm,  in- 
troduced that  method  :  it  was  improved  by 
Abelard  ;  it  was  rapidly  propagated  in  all  the 
schools  of  Europe  ;  \  and  its  immediate  and 
necessary  effect  was  to  multiply,  without  any 
limit,  the  difficulties  which  it  affected  to  re- 
solve. The  objects  of  the  investigation  were 
too  immense  for  human  comprehension,  yet 
they  were  sought  by  the  meanest  exercise  of 
human  ratiocination.  The  end  was  unattain- 
able ;  and,  had  it  not  been  so,  the  means  were 
those  least  likely  to  have  attained  it.  Never- 
theless, the  disputants  proceeded  with  eager- 
ness and  confidence  ;  and  thus  it  proved  that, 
in  this  boundless  field,  the  most  different  con- 
clusions were  reached  by  paths  nearly  simi- 
lar ;  and  that  out  of  every  question  which  it 
was  proposed  to  resolve,  a  thousand  other 
questions  started  forth,  more  abstruse,  more 
absurd,  more  immeasurably  remote  from  the 
precincts  of  reason  and  of  sense  {  than  the 
original. 

*  '  Fatendum  simul  est,  (says  Brticker,  Historia 
Critica  Philosophise,)  ex  quo  Philosophia  Saracenica 
seculi  xii  Occidentis  Christianis  innotuit,  plenis  eos 
amplexibus  inconditum  philosophiaa  genus  recepisse,et 
insanientium  more  in  Dialecticam  debaccliatos,  malum 
malo  augendo  ad  Theologian)  earn  transtulisse.'  (See 
Per.  ii.,  par.  ii.,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  ii.  and  iii.)  That  author 
shows,  that,  from  the  seventh  until  nearly  the  twelfth 
age,  philosophy  was  confined  to  the  possession  of  ec- 
clesiastics, and  to  the  limits  of  the  Trivium  and 
Quadrivium.  The  system  which  succeeded  was  call- 
ed scholastic,  as  emerging  from  the  schools  of  the 
monasteries.  After  the  time  of  Gratian,  the  study 
of  canon  law  was  very  commonly  mixed  up  with  it; 
and  the  combination  of  the  three  incongruities,  Canon 
Law,  Scholastic  Philosophy,  and  Theology,  formed 
what  Brucker  aptly  denominates  a  Triplex  Mon- 
strum. 

f  Otho  Frisingensis  introduced  the  scholastic  sys- 
tem into  Germany.  That  prelate,  the  son  of  Leopold, 
marquis  of  Austria,  and  Agnes,  daughter  of  Henry 
IV.,  was  made  bishop  of  Frisingen,  in  Bavaria,  in 
the  year  1138.  He  attended  Conrad  to  the  Holy 
Land  in  1147,  and  died  nine  years  afterwards.  He 
wrote  (in  seven  books)  a  Chronological  History  of 
the  World,  from  the  Creation  to  his  own  time,  which 
is  frequently  cited  by  the  ecclesiastical  annalists. 

4  Among  the  multitude  of  these  questions,  there 
were  some  which  ended,  and  after  no  very  long  inves- 
tigation, in  absolute  infidelity.  The  Latin  writers  of 
the  thirteenth  age  abound  with  complaints  (exagger- 


378 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


Peter  the  Lombard.  To  impose  some  re- 
straint on  this  great  intellectual  licentiousness, 
— to  revive  some  respect  for  ancient  authori- 
ties,— to  erect  some  barrier,  or  at  least  some 
landmark,  for  the  guidance  of  his  contempo- 
raries, Peter  the  Lombard  published,  about 
the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  his  cele- 
brated '  Book  of  the  Sentences.'  Born  in  the 
country  whence  he  derived  his  surname,  and 
educated  at  Bologna,  then  more  famous  as  a 
school  for  law  than  divinity,  he  proceeded  to 
Paris  for  the  prosecution  of  the  latter  study. 
He  was  recommended  to  the  patronage  of  St. 
Bernard;  and. presently  attained  such  emi- 
nence in  academical  erudition,  that  he  was 
raised,  in  the  year  1.150,  to  the  See  of  Paris. 
The  Book  of  the  Sentences  is  a  collection  of 
passages  of  the  Fathers,  especially  of  St.  Hila- 
rs7, St.  Ambrose,  St.  Jerome,  and  St.  Augustin, 
explaining  and  illustrating  the  principal  ques- 
tions, which  then  so  violently  agitated  the 
scholastic  doctors.  The  author  was  cautious 
in  intermixing  original  observation  with  the 
venerable  oracles  of  the  early  Church  ;  and 
he  trusted,  by  the  ancient  simplicity  of  his 
work,  and  his  contempt  of  the  fashionable 
subtleties,  to  restore  some  respect  for  the  less 
vicious  system  of  older  times.  The  intrinsic 
merit  of  this  production,  the  talents  and  ex- 
tensive learning  which  it  exhibited,  recom- 
mended it  to  universal  attention ;  and  the 
'Master  of  the  Sentences'  long  retained  an 
undisputed  supremacy  in  the  theological 
schools.  But  the  effect  of  his  work  was  not 
that  which  he  had  warmly  and,  perhaps,  rea- 
sonably anticipated.  The  schoolmen  made 
use  of  his  text,  principally  that  they  might 
hang  on  it  their  futile  disceptations  and  com- 
mentaries ;  and  so  fruitful  was  that  elaborate 
book  in  matter  for  ingenious  disputation,  that 
Peter  the  Lombard,  so  far  from  having  arrest- 
ed the  current,  is  usually  ranked  among  the 
chiefs  or  fathers  of  the  scholastic  *  theology. 

ated,  no  doubt,  but  not  unfounded)  of  the  progress  of 
unchristian  opinions,  directly  deduced  from  Aristote- 
lian principles — that  the  soul  perished  with  the  body 
— that  the  world  had  had  no  beginning,  and  would 
have  no  end — that  there  was  only  one  intellect  among 
all  the  human  lace — that  all  things  were  subject  to 
absolute  late  or  necessity — that  the  universe  was  not 
governed  by  Divine  Providence,  &c,  &c.  We  should 
observe,  that  the  Aristotelians  declined  what  might 
have  been  the  personal  consequences  of  these  opinions 
by  a  subtile  distinction.  These  matters  (they  said) 
are  philosophically  true  —  but  they  are  theologically 
false — Vera  sunt  secundum  Philosophiam,  non  secun- 
dum Fidem  Catholicam.  See  Mosheim,  Cent.  XIII. 
p.  i.  chap,  ii.,  and  p.  ii.  chap.  v. 

*  See  Dupin,  Nouv.  Biblioth.,  Cent.  XII.  chap.xv. 


St.  Thomas  Aquinas.  If  the  dominion  ol 
Aristotle  was  for  a  moment  suspended  by  the 
decree  of  the  council  of  Paris,*  (in  1209)  which 
condemned  to  the  flames  his  metaphysical 
works,  it  was  effectually  restored  by  the  pa- 
tronage of  Frederic  II.  That  emperor  caused 
numerous  translations  to  be  made  from  his 
most  celebrated  compositions,  and  diffused 
through  Italy,  and  especially  at  Bologna,  the 
genius  which  had  hitherto  ruled  with  peculiar 
prevalence  in  France.  At  the  same  time,  a 
new  description  of  disputants  had  grown  up, 
for  whose  character  and  offices  the  scholastic 
method  was  admirably  calculated,  and  who 
carried    it  to  its  most  pernicious  perfection.f 


Neanmoins  on  peut  le  considerer  comme  le  chef  de 
tous  les  scholastiques;  car  quoiqu'il  ait  suivi  dans 
son  ouvrage  une  methode  bien  diffe rente  des  autres, 
quant  a  la  maniere  de  trailer  les  questions  de  Theo- 
logie ;  son  livre  leur  a  tontefois  servi  de  fondement 
et  de  base,  et  ils  n'ont  fait  en  apparence  que  de  com- 
menter. 

*  The  reason  assigned  for  the  condemnation  of 
Aristotle  on  this  celebrated  occasion  was,  that  his 
works  had  given  occasion  to  the  errors  of  Amalric, 
and  might  probably  do  so  to  many  others.  (See 
Brucker,  Loc.  cit.)  And  they  did  so;  but  the  errors 
which  scholastic  subtlety  raised,  were  as  easily  laid 
by  a  different  formula  of  the  same  incantation — they 
appeared  and  disappeared,  fleeting,  impalpable,  un- 
substantial. The  permanent  heresies  of  the  age 
stood  on  firmer  ground.  The  grievances  of  the  Wal- 
denses  and  the  Wicliffites  were  not  the  creations  of 
sophistry;  so  neither  could  sophistry,  though  back- 
ed by  persecution,  silence  the  murmurs  which  they 
caused. 

f  We  should  here  observe  that  the  popes,  however 
they  profited  by  the  influence  of  the  mendicants,  were 
by  no  means  decided  advocates  of  the  scholastic  the- 
ology. The  celebrated  Epistle  of  Gregory  IX.  to 
the  doctors  of  Paris,  contains  (for  instance)  these 
words — Mandamus  et  stride  prcecipimus,  quatenus, 
sine  fermento  mundanaj  sciential,  doceatis  theologi- 
cam  puritatem,  non  adulterantes  verbum  Dei  philoso- 
phorum  figmentis  .  .  .  sed  contenti  terminis  a 
patribus  institutis,  mentes  auditorum  vestrorum  fructu 
coelestis  eloquii  saginetis,  ut  hauriant  a  fontibus  Sal- 
vatoris.  The  passage  is  cited  by  Mosheim.  Cent. 
XIII.  p.  ii.  chap.  iii.  Brucker  (Hist.  Ciit.  Piiilo- 
soph.  p.  ii.  Pars.  ii.  lib.  ii.  c.  iii.)  cites  the  follow- 
ing passage  from  a  bull  of  the  same  pope  published  in 
1231. — '  Magistri  vero  et  Scholares  Theologia?  .  . 
nee  philosophos  se  ostentent,  sed  satagant  fieri  Theo- 
didacti  —  nee  loquantur  in  lingua  populi  linguam 
Hebrream  cum  asotica  confundentes,  sed  de  illis  tan- 
tmn  in  scholis  qunestionibus  disputent,  qua?  per  libros 
theologicos  et  sanctorum  patrum  tractatus  valeant  ter- 
minari.'  But  the  system  was  extremely  popular  with 
the  students;  their  ardor  was  aided  by  the  edicts  of 
Frederic  II.;  and  the  system  of  Aristotle,  superior 
to  all  edicts,  was  destined  to  yield  only  to  the  pre- 
dominance of  another  system,  that  of  polite  litera- 
ture and  natural  reason.     See  Petrarch's  complaints 


ST.  BONAVENTURA. 


379 


The  mendicants  now  gave  laws  to  the  acade- 
mies of  Europe ;  and  the  rules  which  they 
imposed  were  drawn  from  the  code  of  Aris- 
totle. At  this  time  arose  Thomas  Aquinas, 
the  'angelic  doctor,'  the  Coryphaeus  of  the 
disciples  of  the  Stagyrite.  He  was  descended 
from  an  illustrious  family  and  born  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Naples,  in  the  year  1224. 
He  entered  very  young  into  the  Dominican 
Order,  and  studied  at  Paris  and  at  Cologne, 
under  Albert  the  Great,  a  German  scholastic, 
the  dictator  of  his  day.*  St.  Thomas  (he  was 
indue  season  canonized  by  John  XXII.)  died 
at  the  early  age  of  fifty;  but  the  writings  which 
he  has  left  behind  him  compose  seventeen 
folio  volumes.  The  most  important  among 
them  are  his  Commentaries  on  Aristotle,  and 
his  Sum  of  Theology.  But  they  likewise  con- 
tain most  voluminous  observations  on  various 
books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  and 
investigations  of  many  theological,  metaphy- 
sical, and  moral  questions.  They  were 
studied  in  those  days  with  insatiable  avidity. 
They  are  now  confined  to  the  shelves  of  a  few 
profound  students,  whence  they  will  never 
again  descend.  It  might  seem  harsh  indeed 
to  say  of  them,  '  that  they  are  of  less  account 
in  the  eyes  of  a  sage,  than  the  toil  of  a  single 
husbandman,  who  multiplies  the  gifts  of  the 
Creator  and  supplies  the  food  of  his  breth- 
ren. '  f  But  there  is  room  for  doubt  whether 
any  important  practical  benefits  were  ever 
derived  from  them  ;  whether  the  reflections 
which  they  awakened  were  generally  profit- 
able either  to  the  present  condition  of  man, 
or  to  his  future  prospects.  And  we  certainly 
cannot  question,  that  the  spirit  of  contentious 
disceptation,  which  they  nourished  and  pro- 
pagated, was  injurious  to  one  of  the  best 
principles  of  religion,  religious  forbearance 
and  universal  charity  4 

of  the  dishonor  brought  on  theology,  by  '  the  profane 
and  loquacious  dialecticians  '  of  bjsday.  De  Remed. 
Utriusq.  Fortun.  and  Tiraboschi,  vol.  v.  p.  i.  lib.  ii. 

*  This  honor  was,  however,  contested  by  our 
countryman,  Alexander  Hales,  a  Franciscan,  who 
taught  philosophy  at  Paris,  and  acquired  the  formid- 
able title  of  '  The  Irrefragable  Doctor.'  Another 
and  more  attractive  appellation  was  '  The  Fountain 
of  Life.'  He  entered  into  the  Franciscan  Order  in 
1222,  and  died  at  Paris  twenty-three  years  after- 
wards. His  most  important  work  was  a  Commen- 
tary on  the  '  Book  of  l  he  Sentences,'  composed  by 
the  order  of  Innocent  IV. 

t  The  words  are  Gibbon's — applied  to  a  different 
subject. 

X  Fontenelle,  we  believe,  (see  Tiraboschi,  Stor. 
Lett.  Ital.,  vol.  iv.  p.  i.  lib.  ii.)  has  somewhere  said 
of  St.   Thomas  Aquinas,  '  that  in  another  age  and 


St.  Bonaventura.  Contemporary  with  St. 
Thomas  Aquinas  was  another  celebrated  or- 
nament of  the  church,  St.  Bonaventura.  He 
was  a  native  of  Tuscany,  *  and  entered  in  the 
year  1243  into  the  Order  of  the  Franciscans. 
He  likewise  completed  his  studies  at  Paris, 
and  with  such  success,  as  to  acquire  the  title  of 
the  Seraphic  Doctor.  In  the  year  1256  he  was 
appointed  General  of  his  Order,  and  died  at 
no  very  advanced  age.  His  works  are  less 
voluminous  than  those  of  Aquinas,  and  bear 
the  stamp  of  a  very  different  character.!  The 
tendency  of  his  mind  was  rather  towards  the 
extreme  of  mysticism,  than  that  of  minute  and 
frivolous  disputation.  It  rose  into  the  regions 
of  spiritual  aspiration  ;  it  courted  no  intellect- 
ual triumphs  and  despised  the  abuse  of  rea- 
son. By  this  quality  he  has  obtained,  and  in 
a  great  degree  merited,  the  eulogies  of  Ger- 
son  ;  J  who  has  pronounced  (and  the  authority 
is  respectable)  that  his  works  surpass  in  use- 
fulness all  those  of  his  age,  in  regard  to  the 
spirit  of  the  love  of  God  and  Christian  de- 
votion which  speaks  in  him  ;  that  he  is  pro- 
found without  being  prolix,  subtle  without 
being  curious,  eloquent  without  vanity,  ardent 
without  inflation.  There  are  many  (says  the 
critic)  who  teach  the  accuracy  of  doctrine; 
there  are  others  who  preach  devotion  ;  there 
are  few  who  in  their  writings  combine  both 
these  objects.  But  they  are  united  by  St. 
Bonaventura,  whose  devotion  is  instructive, 
and  whose  doctrine  inspires  devotion. 

The  celebrated  controversy  between  the 
Realists  and  the  Nominalists,  §  of  which  the 

under  other  circumstances  he  would  have  been  Des 
Carles.'  No  one  ever  questioned  his  genius  and  im- 
mense erudition  ;  or  that  he  has  intermixed  some  sen- 
sible remarks  with  the  fashionable  sophistry,  —  only 
we  should  not  value  him  too  highly  for  this.  A  great 
mind  should  oppose  the  evil  principles  of  the  time — 
at  least  it  should  lend  no  aid  to  them.  Roger  Bacon 
in  the  same  age  acted  a  nobler  part. 

*  The  Italians  are  justly  proud  of  the  success  of 
their  countrymen  in  the  schools  of  Paris.  Besides 
the  three  eminent  ecclesiastics  mentioned  in  the  text, 
they  enumerate,  among  the  Parisian  Professors  of  the 
same  age,  John  of  Parma,  a  Franciscan;  Egidio  da 
Roma,  an  Augustinian;  AgostinoTrionfo  of  Ancona  ; 
and  Jacopo  da  Viterbo.  Through  the  following  cen- 
tury the  series  continued,  though  with  diminished 
brilliancy — and  then  it  ceased. 

f  Both  these  doctors  are  praised  for  professional 
disinterestedness.  Bonaventura  is  related  to  have 
refused  the  archbishoprick  of  York;  Aquinas  that  of 
Naples,  as  well  as  other  dignities. 

%  See  Dupin.  Nouv.  Biblioth.  Cent.  XIII.,  chap, 
iv. 

§  Roscellinus,  a  native  of  Brittany,  has  the  repute 
|  of  having  invented  these  opinions.     He  was  opposed 


380 


HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


origin  was  not  long  posterior  to  the  general 
study  of  Aristotle,  was  continued  with  no  great 
intermission  till  the  days  of  Luther.  The 
fourteenth  century  was  particularly  disturbed 
by  its  violence.  Two  of  the  leading  champions 
of  that  age  were  John  Duns  Scotus,  *  and  his 
disciple  William  of  Occam.  The  former  had 
ventured  boldly  to  impugn  some  of  the  posi- 
tions and  conclusions  of  St.  Thomas  Aquinas, 
and  his  opinions  found  many  advocates.  These 
formed  the  party  of  the  Nominalists;  and 
since,  in  the  political  disputes  of  the  day,  they 
favored  the  cause  of  the  emperor,  they  fell 
under  the  spiritual  denunciations  of  the  Vati- 
can. Again,  the  Dominicans  for  the  most 
part  rallied  round  the  banners  of  Aquinas  and 
the  pope,  while  the  Franciscans  commonly 
defended  the  tenets  of  Scotus,  a  member  of 
their  own  order.     Thus  the  controversy  as- 

by  Anselm,  and  compelled  to  abjure  before  a  Council 
at  Soissons,  in  1092.  He  seems  also  to  have  incurred 
some  danger  from  a  popular  tumult.  He  was  exiled 
from  France,  and  then  passed  a  short  time  in  Eng- 
land, where  he  gave  great  offence  by  censuring  the 
concubinage  of  the  clergy,  attested  bv  iheir  numerous 
illegitimate  children,  and  by  calumniating  (as  is  said) 
Archbishop  Anselm.  The  writers  of  the  Hist.  Litt. 
de  la  France  treat  him  throughout  as  a  heretic — but 
none  of  his  writings  (if  any  ever  existed)  now  re- 
main. 

*  This — the  subtle — doctor  died  in  the  year  1308. 
He  was  a  native  of  Dunse,  in  Scotland,  and  a  Fran- 
ciscan. 


sumed  a  new  name,  as  its  character  becamo 
more  rancorous ;  and  the  ambitious  polem 
ics  of  that  and  of  succeeding  ages  severally 
enlisted  among  the  conflicting  ranks  of  the 
Thomisls  and  the  Scotists.  The  principal 
points  *  of  theological  difference  between 
these  renowned  adversaries,  were  'the  nature 
of  the  divine  co-operation  with  the  human 
will,'  and  '  the  measure  of  divine  grace'  neces- 
sary for  salvation.  These  were  subjects  which 
have  employed  the  devout  in  every  age,  and 
provoked  the  perpetual  exercise  of  reason. 
But  the  production,  which  was  more  effect- 
ual, perhaps,  than  any  other,  in  exalting  the 
reputation  of  Scotus,  was  his  demonstration 
of  the  immaculate  conception  of  the  Virgin 
Mary.  The  Dominicans  maintained  that  the 
holy  Virgin  was  not  exempt  from  the  stain  of 
original  sin  ;  the  deeper  devotion,  or  the  bold- 
er hypocrisy  of  the  Franciscan  supported  the 
contrary  opinion.  That  either  party  was 
right,  it  is  beyond  the  capacity  of  man  to 
ascertain ;  and  it  is  clear,  that  both  were 
equally  absurd,  in  as  far  as  both  were  equally 
positive.  Yet,  will  it  be  believed  that  this 
inscrutable  and  most  frivolous  question  form- 
ed an  important  subject  of  difference  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  church — a  subject  deemed 
not  unworthy  of  the  cognizance  of  popes  and 
of  councils — for  the  space  of  more  than  two 
hundred  years? 


*  See  Mosheim,  Cent.  XIV.,  p.  ii.,  chap.  iii. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


381 


PART   V. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

Residence  of  the  Popes  at  Avignon. 

(I.)  History  of  the  Popes.  —  Clement  V.  —  conditions  im- 
posed on  him  by  Philip  —  he  fixes  his  residence  in 
France— Charges  against  the  Templars— their  seizure 
— Council  General  of  Vienne— its  three  professed  ob- 
jects— Condemnation  and  punishment  of  the  Templars 
—  Remarks  —  Questions  on  the  orthodoxy  of  Boniface 
VIII.— Ecclesiastical  abuses — Attempt  at  Reform — Ele- 
vation and  character  of  John  XXII. — his  avarice — the 
apostolical  chancery — his  contest  with  Lewis  of  Bavaria 
— the  Emperor  advances  to  Rome — creates  a  rival  Pope 
— fruitless  issue  of  the  struggle— appeals  from  Pope  to 
a  General  Council — charges  of  heresy  against  John — 
his  opinion  respecting  the  intermediate  State — commo- 
tion in  the  Church — his  dying  confession — Remarks — 
Benedict  XII. — his  virtues  and  endeavors  to  reform  the 
Church  — Clement  VI.  —  Deputation  from  Rome  —  its 
three  objects— the  Jubilee  —  multitude  of  pilgrims  — 
conduct  of  the  Romans  —  Temporal  prerogatives  exer- 
cised by  this  Pope —  Restrictions  imposed  in  conclave 
on  the  future  Pope — Innocent  VI.— and  instantly  broken 
by  him— his  character  and  objects — disputes  with  the 
German  Church — Urban  V. — passed  some  time  at  Rome 
— but  returned  to  Avignon — Gregory  XI. — deputation 
from  Rome— Catharine  of  Sienna— her  pretensions- 
Embassy  to  Avignon— interview  with  the  Pope  —  he 
goes  to  Rome  and  dies  there — Observations — (II.)  Oe- 
neral  history  of  the  Church,  its  heresies,  Sfc, — (1.)  Decline 
of  the  papal  power  —  Intestine  convulsions  of  the  Ec- 
clesiastical States— consequent  deficiencies  in  pap.il 
revenues — means  employed  to  replenish  them — profli- 
gacy of  the  Court  of  Avignon — surpassing  that  of  Rome 
— Temporal  weakness  and  dependence  of  the  Avignon 
Popes — Growing  contempt  for  spiritual  censures — Ap- 
peals to  General  Council— Disputes  between  the  Pope 
and  the  Franciscans  — Diffusion  of  knowledge  among 
the  laity. — (2.)  Attempts  at  Reform  feeble  and  ineffect- 
ual.—  (3.)  The  character  of  the  rigid  Franciscans- 
Schism  in  that  Order — The  Spirituals  and  Brethren  of 
the  Community — Their  treatment  by  Clement  V. — By 
John  XXII.  —  The  Bull  Gloriosam  Ecclesiam  — Some 
Spirituals  burnt  for  heresy — their  consequent  increase 
— they  unite  with  Lewis  of  Bavaria — The  Pope  aided 
by  the  Dominicans— Remarks — Charles  IV. — Change 
in  the  Imperial  policy — Triumph  of  the  Pope  and  In- 
quisitors— Final  division  of  the  Franciscans — The  Beg- 
hards — The  Lollards — their  origin  and  character — their 
alleged  opinions  and  mysticism  —Some  contemporary 
institutions  of  the  Church — Heresy  and  persecution  of 
Dulcinus  —  The  Flagellants  —  their  origin  —  progress — 
practice  and  sufferings — Concluding  observations. 

Section  I. 

History  of  the  Popes. 

When  Philip  undertook  to  raise  the  arch- 
bishop of  Bourdeaux  to  the  pontifical  chair,  six 
conditions  are  believed  to  have  been  imposed 
by  the  monarch,  and  accepted  by  the  subject. 
Five  of  them  stipulated  for  the  entire  forgive- 
ness of  all  the  insults  which  had  been  offered 
to  Boniface,  and  the  Roman  See  ;  for  the  res- 
toration of  the  friends  of  Philip  to  communion 
and  favor;  for  the  power  of  exacting  tenths 


for  the  five  following  years  ;  for  the  condem- 
nation of  the  memory  of  Boniface  ;  for  resti- 
tution of  dignity  to  two  degraded  cardinals, 
and  the  creation  of  some  others,  friends  of 
the  king.  The  sixth  was  not  then  specified; 
the  mention  of  it  was  reserved  for  a  more 
convenient  season  ;  *  and  we  may  remark, 
that  the  others  were  obviously  not  suggested 
by  any  long-sighted  policy  aiming  at  the  per- 
manent humiliation  of  the  Roman  See,  but 
rather  by  passion  and  temporary  expediency. 
If  we  except  the  nomination  of  new  cardinals, 
who  would  probably  be  French,  there  is  not 
one  among  the  conditions  dictated,  under  the 
most  favorable  circumstances,  by  the  great 
enemy  of  the  See,  which  tended  in  effect  to 
reduce  it  to  dependence  on  his  own  throne, 
or  even  materially  to  weaken  any  one  of  the 
foundations  of  its  power.  Nor  should  this 
surprise  us  ;  since  the  violence  which  Philip 
exhibited  throughout  the  contest,  and  the 
provocations  which  he  received,  make  it  pro- 
bable, that  his  animosity  was  rather  personal 
against  Boniface,  than  political  against  the 
Church,  or  even  Court,  of  Rome. 

The  Secession  to  Avignon. — The  first  act  of 
the  Pope  elect  was  to  assemble  his  reluctant 
cardinals  at  Lyons,  to  officiate  at  his  corona- 
tion ;  f  and  his  reign,  which  began  in  1305  and 
lasted  for  nine  years,  was  entirely  passed  in 
the  country  where  it  commenced.  Clement 
V.  was  alternately  resident  at  Bourdeaux, 
Lyons,  and  Avignon  ;  and  he  was  the  first 
among  the  spiritual  descendants  of  St.  Peter, 
who  insulted  the  chair  and  tomb  of  the  apostle 
by  continual  and  voluntary  absence:  his  ex- 
ample was  followed  by  his  successors  until 
the  year  1376.  Thus  for  a  period  of  about 
seventy  years,  the  mighty  pontifical  authority, 


*  Bzovius,  Contin.  of  Baron.  Annul.  Ann.  1305,  i. 
Fleury,  liv.  xc.  s.  xlix.  Giannone,  Lib.  xxii.  cap. 
viii.  Historians  are  not  agreed  what  the  sixth  con- 
dition was — some  assert  that  it  was  to  heap  additional 
anathemas  on  Boniface,  and  burn  his  bones;  others 
suppose  it  to  have  been  fulfilled  by  the  condemnation 
of  the  Templars,  others  by  the  transfer  of  the  papal 
residence  to  France.  The  violence  of  Philip's  cha- 
racter, and  the  mere  temporary  character  of  most  of 
his  other  stipulations,  make  the  first,  perhaps,  the 
most  probable  conjecture. 

f  King  Philip  officiated  also,  and  condescended 
to  lead  the  Pope's  horse  by  llie  bridle,  according  to 
the  ancient  fashion  of  Imperial  humiliation.  Lyons 
boasted  to  be  a  free  city,  and  the  bishop  had,  in  fact, 
gained  the  principal  authority  there,  to  the  exclusion 
of  that  of  the  king  of  France. 


382 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


which  was  united  by  so  many  ties  to  the  name 
of  Rome,  which  in  its  nature  was  essentially 
Italian,  and  which  claimed  a  boundless  extent 
of  despotism,  was  exercised  by  foreigners,  in 
a  foreign  land,  under  the  sceptre  of  a  foreign 
prince.  This  humiliation,  and,  as  it  were, 
exile  of  the  Holy  See,*  has  been  compared  by 
Italian  writers  to  the  Babylonian  captivity ; 
and  a  notion,  which  may  have  originated  in 
the  accidental  time  of  its  duration,  has  been 
recommended  by  other  points  of  similarity. 
French  authors  have  regarded  the  secession 
to  Avignon  in  a  very  different  light — but  we 
shall  venture  no  remarks  on  the  general  char- 
acter of  this  singular  period,  until  we  have 
described  the  leading  occurrences  which  dis- 
tinguished it. 

Clement  V.  immediately  fulfilled  most  of 
the  stipulated  conditions — he  restored  the  par- 
tisans of  the  French  king  to  their  honors  ;  he 
created  several  new  cardinals,  Gascons  or 
Frenchmen;  he  revoked  the  various  decrees 
made  by  Boniface  VIII.  against  France,  even 
to  the  Bull  Unam  Sanctam  —  at  least  he  so 
qualified  its  operation,  as  not  to  extend  it  to  a 
country  which  had  merited  that  exception  by 
its  faithful  attachment  to  the  Roman  See  ; — 
hut  when  called  upon  to  publish  a  formal  con- 
demnation of  the  memory  of  that  pontiff,  he 
receded  from  his  engagement  with  the  direct 
avowal,  that  such  an  act  exceeded  the  limits 
of  his  authority,  unless  fortified  by  the  sanction 
of  a  General  Council. 

Very  soon  afterwards,  rumors  were  propa- 
gated respecting  various  abominations,  both 
religious  and  moral,  perpetrated  by  the  Order 
of  the  Knights  Templars — not  in  occasional 
licentiousness,  but  by  the  rule  and  practice  of 
the  society.  Information  of  these  offences  was 
first  communicated  to  Philip,  afterwards  to 
the  pope  ;  both  parties  attached,  or  affected  to 
attach,  infinite  importance  to  it ;  and  at  length 
it  was  determined  to  refer  that  question  also 
to  a  General  Council.  The  Pope  issued  or- 
ders for  such  an  assembly,  and  appointed 
Vienne,  in  Dauphiny,  as  the  place  of  its  meet- 
ing. In  the  meantime,  Philip  caused  all  the 
Templars  in  his  dominions  to  be  seized  in  one 
day  (October  30,  1307 ;)  and  Clement  exerted 
himself  with  various,  but  very  general,  suc- 
cess to  engage  the  other  sovereigns  of  Europe 
to  the  same  measure. 

Council  of  Vienne.  —  On  October  1,  1311, 
the  Council  assembled.     Its  professed  objects 


*  The  Popes  who  reigned  at  Avignon,  and  who 
were  all  French,  were — Clement  V. — John  XXII. — 
Benedict  XII. — Clement  VI. — Innocent  VI.— Urban 
V.— Gregory  XI. 


were  three:  — 1.  To  examine  the  charges 
against  the  Templars  and  secure  the  purity 
of  the  Catholic  Faith.  2.  To  consult  for  the 
relief  of  the  Holy  Land.  3.  To  reform  the 
manners  of  the  clergy  and  the  system  of  the 
Church.  *  The  first  of  these  terminated  in 
the  entire  suppression  of  the  Order ;  then- 
property  f  was  transferred  to  the  Knights  of 
the  Hospital,  who  were  considered  a  more 
faithful  bulwark  against  the  progress  of  the 
Infidel — (it  was  thus  that  the  second  purpose 
of  the  assembly  was  also  supposed  to  be  ef- 
fected ;)  while  their  persons  were  consigned 
to  the  justice  of  provincial  Councils,  to  be 
guided  by  the  character,  confession,  or  con- 
tumacy of  the  individual  accused.  By  these 
means  the  greater  part  unquestionably  escaped 
with  their  lives ;  but  several  were  executed, 
and  among  these  the  Grand  Master  and  the 
Commander  of  Normandy  suffered  under 
singular  circumstances.  They  had  confessed 
their  guilt,  and  were  consequently  condemn- 
ed by  the  bishops,  to  whom  that  office  had 
been  assigned  by  the  Pope,  to  the  mitigated 
punishment  of  perpetual  imprisonment.  On 
hearing  this  sentence,  they  retracted  their  con- 
fession and  inflexibly  protested  their  entire  in- 
nocence. The  cardinals  remanded  them  for 
further  trial  on  the  morrow,  but  in  the  mean- 
time, Philip,  having  learnt  what  had  passed, 
and  not  brooking  even  so  trifling  a  delay  in 
the  chastisement  of  an  enemy,  caused  them  to 
be  burnt  alive  in  a  small  island  in  the  Seine, 
on  the  same  evening.  They  endured  their 
torments  with  great  constancy ;  and  the  as 
sembled  crowd,  as  it  believed  their  guilt,  was 
astounded  by  their  firmness. 

Probable  Innocence  of  the  Templars.  —  On 
the  reality  of  their  guilt  or  innocence  depends 
the  character  of  Clement  V.;  for  it  is  not  pro- 
bable that  he  was  deceived  in  a  matter  so  im- 
portant, involving  the  lives  and  property  of  so 
numerous  and  powerful  a  body,  and  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  the  interests  and  honor  of  so  many 
kings  and  nations.  It  is  true,  that  it  was  by 
Philip  that  the  first  attack  was  made  both  up- 
on their  character  and  their  persons  ;  but  the 


*  Bzov.  Contin.  Baron.  Ann.,  311,  s.  i.  Fleury, 
1.  xci.  sect.  xxvi. 

f  Excepting  that  in  Spain  and  Portugal,  which 
was  consecrated  to  the  formation  of  a  new  order, 
with  the  prospect  of  a  Moorish  Crusade,  under  the 
especial  superintendence  of  the  pope.  We  find  it, 
moreover,  affirmed  by  Dupin,  Nouv.  Bibliotli.  Cent. 
XIV.  chap.  ii.  that  the  publication  of  the  Bull  for 
the  dissolution  of  the  order  was  prevented  in  Ger- 
many, and  that  the  Templars  were  there  acquitted  by 
a  Provincial  Council. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


383 


blast  which  he  sounded  was  presently  repeated 
by  the  Pope,  and  reiterated  in  every  quarter 
of  Europe.     Again,  the  Templars  were  rich  ; 
and  notwithstanding  the  nominal  disposal  of 
their  property  which  was   made  at  Vienne, 
there  were  few  princes  who  entirely  lost  so 
favorable  an  opportunity  for  spoliation.*    It  is 
admitted,  indeed,  that  Philip  continually  dis- 
claimed any  avaricious  motive  for  his  aggres- 
sion ;  and  that  he  does  not  appear  in  fact  to 
have  turned  his  success  to  those  ends ;  but  he 
was  irritated  by  their  opposition  to  some  for- 
mer schemes,  and  against  the  Grand  Master, 
in  particular,  he  was  known  to  entertain  a 
personal  and  implacable  animosity.  ...     As 
to  the  proofs  of  their  guilt  —  the  confessions, 
which  several  are  affirmed  to  have  made,  do 
not  rest  on  any  satisfactory  evidence,  though 
it  seems  probable,  that  some  did  really  ac- 
knowledge  all   that  was    imputed   to   them. 
But  of  these,  some  may  have  been  driven  into 
weakness  by  torment  or  terror ;  while  others, 
individually  guilty,  may  have  imputed  to  the 
society  their  private  crimes.      At  any  rate, 
their  confessions  are  confronted  by  the  firm- 
ness of  many  others,  who  repelled,  under 
every  risk  and  torture,  the  detestable  accusa- 
tions.    Indeed  many  of  the  charges  were  of 
a  nature  so  very  monstrous,  \  so  very  remote 
from  reason  or  nature,  as  almost  to  carry  with 
thern  their  own  confutation — at  least,  the  most 
explicit  and  unsuspicious  evidence  was  neces- 
sary to  establish  their  truth ;  and  none  such 
was  offered. 

Philip  was  more  successful  in  his  efforts 
to  destroy  an  ancient  and  powerful  Military 
Order,  than  to  disgrace  the  memory  of  an 
insolent  pontiff;  and  the  Council,  which  sup- 
pressed the  Templars  with  such  little  show 
of  justice  or  humanity,  contended  with  in- 
vincible eagerness  for  the  reputation  of  Bo- 


*  As  the  princes  enjoyed  the  rents  of  the  landed 
estates,  until  the  commissioners  of  the  Knights  of 
Rhodes  had  made  out  their  claims,  there  arose  great 
delays  in  resigning  them.  Philip  himself  retained  a 
certain  sum  for  the  expenses  of  the  prosecution;  but 
not  sufficient  to  justify  any  suspicion  of  rapacity. 

f  They  are  contained  (see  Bzovius,  Ann.  1308,  s. 
iii.)  in  six  charges  and  fourteen  questions — involving 
infidelity,  blasphemy,  and  the  most  abominable  ini- 
pniities.  That  which  the  sufferers  appear  most  gen- 
erally to  have  confessed  under  the  torture,  was  the 
public  denial  of  Christ,  as  a  condition  of  admission 
into  the  Order,  attended  with  insults  to  the  cross. 
We  need  scarcely  refer  the  reader  to  the  excellent  re- 
marks of  Voltaire  and  Sisinondion  this  subject.  The 
latter  especially  confirms  his  opinion,  that  the  Temp- 
lars were  sacrificed,  by  contemporary  authority  and 
substantial  reasons.     Ital.  Rep.,  ch.  xix. 


niface.  It  was  perseveringly  attempted  to 
attach  the  stain  of  heresy  to  his  name ;  but 
though  the  king  pursued  this  design  with  all 
the  vehemence  of  malignity  and  revenge,  the 
prelates  assembled  at  Vienne,  three  hundred 
in.  number,*  unanimously  proclaimed  his 
spotless  orthodoxy — that  he  died,  as  he  had 
lived,  in  the  bosom  of  the  Catholic  faith. 
Disappointed  in  this  favorite  hope,  the  king 
was  compelled  to  seek  consolation  in  an  edict 
published  at  the  same  time  by  the  pope,  which 
accorded  a  gracious  pardon  to  the  enemies 
and  calumniators  of  Boniface. 

The  abuses  of  the  Church.  —  For  the  third 
and  worthiest  object  of  the  labor  of  the  Coun- 
cil, an  abundant  harvest  was  provided  by  the 
multiplied  abuses  of  the  Church.  It  was 
complained  that  (in  France  at  least)  the  Lord's 
day  was  more  generally  devoted  to  business 
or  to  pleasure  than  to  divine  worship;  that 
the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  was  frequently 
delegated  to  improper  persons,  and  by  them 
so  scandalously  perverted,  that  the  censures 
of  the  Church  had  lost  their  power  and  their 
terrors  ;  that  many  contemptible  individuals, 
defective  alike  in  learning  and  in  morals,  were 
admitted  to  the  priesthood  ;  that  prebends  and 
other  dignities,  being  now  in  most  cases  filled 
by  the  pope,  seldom  by  the  bishop,  were 
usually  presented  to  strangers  and  even  for- 
eigners, men  of  dissolute  morals,  elevated  by 
successful  intrigues  at  the  Court  of  Rome ; 
and  that  thus  the  young  and  deserving  as- 
pirants for  ecclesiastical  promotion  were  fre- 
quently compelled  to  abandon  the  profession 
with  disgust,  and  invariably  became  the  bit- 
terest and  most  dangerous  enemies  of  the 
Church.  Another  abuse  was,  the  immoderate 
indulgence  of  pluralities  ;  many  held  at  the 
same  time  four  or  five,  some  not  fewer  than 
a  dozen  benefices.  Another  evil  mentioned, 
is  the  non-residence  of  many  of  the  higher 
clergy,  occasioned  by  the  necessity  of  person- 
ally watching  their  interests  at  the  Vatican. 
The  sumptuous  luxury  in  which  they  lived, 
and  the  negligence  and  indecency  with  which 
the  divine  services  were  performed,  consti- 
tuted another  charge  against  the  beneficed 
clergy.     The  profligacy  and  simony,  publicly 


*  B/.ov.  ad  ami.  1312.  i.  A  very  tedious  process 
against  the  orthodoxy  of  Boniface  had  been  carried 
on  in  1310,  before  the  pope  at  Avignon,  where  No- 
garct  appeared  as  his  principal  accuser,  and  the  agent 
of  Philip.  But  Clement,  unwilling  on  the  one  hand 
to  offend  the  King,  and  not  daring  on  the  other  to 
scandalize  the  Church,  interposed  so  many  delays, 
that  Philip  at  length  decided  to  await  the  decision 
of  the  General  Council.     See  Fleury,  I.  xci.  s.  xliii. 


384 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


practised  at  the  Roman  Court,  swelled  the 
long  list  of  its  acknowledged  deformities.  * 
On  the  dissolution  of  the  Council,  Clement 
published,  in  1313,  its  canons,  which  were 
fifty-six  in  number.  Most  of  these  were,  in- 
deed, nominally  directed  to  the  reformation 
of  the  Church;  the  progress  of  heresy  was 
vigorously  opposed  ;  and  attempts  were  made 
to  prevent  or  heal  some  divisions  now  begin- 
ning to  spring  up  within  the  Church  :  sub- 
jects to  which  we  shall  presently  recur. 
Some  constitutions  likewise  regulated  the  re- 
lation of  the  bishops  to  the  Monastic  Orders ; 
and  others  imposed  greater  decency  on  the 
lower  f  orders  of  the  clergy ;  but  the  grand 
and  vital  disorders  of  the  Church,  those  from 
which  its  real  danger  proceeded,  and  which 
were  in  fact  the  roots  whence  the  others 
started  into  life  and  notice,  these  were  left  to 
flourish  un violated,  and  to  spread  more  and 
more  deeply  into  the  bosom  of  the  commun- 
ion. 

Election  of  John  XXIL— Clement  V.  died  \ 
very  soon  afterwards,  and  his  death  was  fol- 

*  The  pope  ordered  all  the  bishops  to  bring  with 
them  to  the  Council  expositions  of  all  which  seemed 
to  demand  correction.  Two  of  these  memoirs  are 
still  extant,  and  from  them  the  abuses  here  briefly 
enumerated  are  taken.  See  Fleury,  liv.  cxi.  s.  li., 
lii.  Seinler,  sec.  xiv.  cap.  ii.  *  Infinila  fere  sunt 
quae  reformari  deberent;  ignorantur  quasi  totaliter  a 
Christianis  articuli  fidei  et  alia  quae  ad  religionem  et 
salutem  animarum  pertinent  .  .  .  Monachi  non 
vivunt  in  suo  monasterio ;  sicut  equus  eflrenis  discur- 
runt,  mercantur,  et  alia  enormia  faciunt,  de  quibus 
loqui  verecundum  est  vt  turpe  .  .  praelati  non  possunt 
bonis  personis  hodie  providere  obstante  muhitudine 
Clericorum  apud  Curiam  Romanam  impetrantium, 
qui  quidem  nunquam  Ecdesiam  intrarunt  .  .  etiam 
pueri  obtinent  dignitates  .  .  Utinam  Cardinales,  qui 
sunt  animalia  pennata,  plena  oculis  ante  et  retro, 
talia  perspiciant  .  .  similes  sibi  similes  eligunt  .  . 
bene  diro  opus  esse  in  Capite  etiam  et  in  membris 
reformat ione. '  The  author  of  this  bold  appeal  to  the 
Head,  which  was  not  itself  excepted  from  the  general 
censure,  is  not  known  to  posterity — the  document  is 
given  by  Raynaldus  e  Cod.  Vaticano.  Bzovius  (ami. 
1310,  sec.  vi.)  enumerates,  at  great  length,  fifteen 
of  the  principal  abuses  with  which  the  Church  was 
charged  on  this  occasion. 

f  The  following  is  the  Twenty-second  Canon. 
*  Clerici  eonjugati  carnificum  seu  macellariorum  aut 
tabernariorum  oflficium  publice  et  personaliter  exer- 
centes,  vestes  virgatas,  partitas,  neque  statui  suo  con- 
ducentes,  portantes  severius  puniantur.  See  Bzovius, 
Contin.  Ann.  Baron.,  aim.  1313,  sec.  i. 

$  He  died  immensely  rich,  through  the  sale  of 
benefices  and  other  such  traffic ;  and  the  moment  that 
lie  was  known  to  have  expired,  all  the  inmates  of  his 
Dalace  are  stated  to  have  rushed  with  one  consent  to 
his  treasury:  not  a  single  servant  remained  to  watch 


lowed  by  an  obstinate  difference  between 
the  French  and  Italian  cardinals  respecting 
the  nation  of  his  successor.  This  was  pro- 
longed by  the  impatient  interference  of  the 
populace,  *  excited,  as  it  would  seem,  by 
some  Gascon  soldiers,  who  proposed  to  ter- 
minate the  dispute  by  seizing  the  persons  of 
the  Italians.  Accordingly,  they  set  fire  to  the 
conclave  ;  but  the  terrified  cardinals  escaped 
by  another  exit,  and  immediately  dispersed 
and  concealed  themselves  in  various  places 
of  refuge.  Such,  indeed,  was  their  panic,  or 
at  least  their  disinclination,  that  two  years 
elapsed  before  they  could  be  reassembled. 
At  length,  after  a  second  deliberation,  which 
lasted  forty  days,  they  elected  James  of  Euse, 
a  native  of  Cahors,  cardinal  bishop  of  Porto 
— such  long  delay  and  repeated  consultation 
did  it  require,  to  add  to  the  list  of  pontifical 
delinquents  the  name  of  John  XXIL  !  That 
Pope  was  of  very  low  origin,  the  son  of  a 
shoemaker  or  a  tapster;  f  but  he  had  natural 
talents  and  a  taste  for  letters,  which  were 
early  discovered  and  encouraged,  and  his 
gradual  rise  to  dignity  in  the  Church  was  not 
disgraced  by  any  notorious  scandals.  \  But 
he  had  not  long  been  in  possession  of  the 
highest  eminence,  before  he  abandoned  him- 


the  body  of  his  master,  insomuch  that  the  lights  which 
were  blazing  round  fell  down  and  set  fire  to  the  bed. 
The  flames  were  extinguished;  but  not  till  they  had 
consumed  half  the  body  of  the  richest  Pope  who  had 
yet  governed  the  Church.  Sismondi  believes  this 
anecdote. 

*  The  conclave  was  held  at  Carpentras,  a  place  on 
the  banks  of  the  Rhone,  not  far  from  Avignon.  It 
happened  that  the  Court  was  assembled  there  when 
the  Pope  died  ;  it  therefore  became  the  legal  place  for 
the  new  election. 

f  Giovanni  Villani,  lib.  ix.  c.  lxxix.  Giannone, 
lib.  xxii.  cap.  viii. 

X  The  violent  party-writers  of  the  day,  Francis- 
cans and  Ghibelines,  who  heaped  every  epithet  of 
abuse  upon  the  hostile  name  of  John  XXII.,  have 
been  too  hastily  credited  by  some  modern  writers. 
Giovanni  Villani  admits  that  he  was  modest  in  his 
manner  of  life,  sober,  not  luxurious,  nor  profuse  in 
his  personal  expenditure.  In  the  course  of  almost 
every  night,  he  rose  to  say  his  office  and  to  study;  he 
celebrated  mass  almost  every  day  ;  was  easy  of  access 
and  rapid  in  the  performance  of  business.  He  was 
hasty  in  temper,  of  an  informed  and  penetrating  un- 
derstanding, and  magnanimous  in  affairs  of  import- 
ance. (See  Fleury,  1.  xciv.  s.  xxxix.)  These 
qualities  and  habits  at  least  repel  the  charge  of  uni- 
versal profligacy  which  has  been  brought  against  him. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  the  opinion  of  Sismondi  (chap, 
xxix.)  that  his  elevation  was  not  less  ascribable  to 
his  intrigues  and  effrontery  than  to  his  talents;  and 
the  public  aels  of  his  pontificate  require  no  comment 


HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


385 


self,  without  scruple  or  shame,  to  his  predom- 
inant passion,  avarice.  He  was  not,  indeed, 
exempt  from  the  amhitious  arrogance  with- 
out the  Church,  and  the  vexatious  intolerance 
within  it,  which  seem  at  this  time  to  have 
been  communicated  by  the  chair  of  St.  Peter 
to  its  successive  possessors — in  a  greater  or 
less  degree  to  each,  according  to  his  previous 
disposition  to  those  qualities;  but  avarice 
was  the  vice  by  which  John  was  individual- 
ly and  peculiarly  characterized,  and  to  which 
he  gave,  during  his  long  pontificate,  the  most 
intemperate  indulgence. 

The  Apostolical  Chancery. — Not  contented 
with  the  usual  methods  of  papal  extortion,  he 
displayed  his  ingenuity  in  the  invention  of 
others  more  effectual ;  he  enlarged  and  ex- 
tended the  Rule  of  the  Apostolical  Chance- 
ry ;  *  he  imposed  the  payment  of  annates  on 
Ecclesiastical  Benefices ;  he  multiplied  the 
profitable  abuse  of  dispensations;  he  increas- 
ed in  France  the  number  of  bishoprics  ;  and 
commonly  took  advantage  of  the  vacancy  of 
a  rich  See,  in  order  to  make  five  or  six  trans- 
lations, promoting  each  prelate  to  a  dignity, 
somewhat  wealthier  than  that,  which  he  had 
before  held :  so  that  all  were  contented,  (says 
Giannone)  f  while  all  paid  their  fees.  In  a 
word,  he  considered  kingdoms,  cities,  castles 
and  territories  to  be  the  real  patrimony  of 
Christ,  and  held  the  true  virtue  of  the  Church 
to  consist,  not  in  contempt  of  the  world  and 
zeal  for  the  faith  and  evangelical  doctrine,  but 
in  oblations  and  tithes,  and  taxes,  and  collec- 
tions, and  purple,  and  gold  and  silver.  Such 
is  the  language  of  the  Italian  historians,  and  if 
it  be  somewhat  exaggerated  by  their  general 
prejudices  against  the  popes  of  Avignon,  the 
immense  \  treasures  which  were  unquestion- 
ably amassed  by  John ;  prepare  us  to  believe 

*  He  reduced  the  system  of  Apostolical  taxation 
to  a  code  of  canon  law.  A  deacon  or  sub-deacon 
might  be  absolved  for  murder,  for  about  twenty 
crowns ;  a  bishop  for  about  three  hundred  livres  : 
every  crime  had  its  price.     See  Denina,  14,  vi. 

f  We  might  be  disposed  to  receive  this  with  some 
little  suspicion,  even  from  Giannone — since  he  was 
not  only  an  Italian,  but  a  decided  anti-Gallican  also 
—  were  not  the  facts  directly  derived  from  Giovanni 
Villani. 

X  Giov.  Villani  (lib.  xi.  cap.  xx.)  asserts  (on  the 
authority  of  his  own  brother,  resident  at  Avignon, 
who  received  his  information  from  the  treasurers  of 
the  pope)  that  the  treasure  found  on  the  death  of  John 
XXII.  amounted  to  more  than  eighteen  millions  of 
florins  in  gold  coin;  while  that  in  services  of  the 
table,  crosses,  crowns,  mitres  and  other  trinkets  of 
gold  and  precious  stones,  rose  to  about  seven  millions 
more — total,  twenty-five  millions  of  golden  florins. 
49 


'  much  that  is  asserted  respecting  the  methods 
of  his  exaction. 

Contest  loith  Louis  of  Bavaria. — But  the 
circumstance,  by  which  this  pontificate  was 
most  distinguished,  and  which  for  a  moment 
raises  us  from  the  sordid  details  of  fraud  and 
extortion  to  the  recollection  of  the  loftier  vices 
of  the  Gregories  and  the  Innocents,  was  a 
contest  which  the  Pope  perseveringly  main- 
tained with  the  Emperor,  Louis  of  Bavaria. 
Having  entered  at  greater  length,  perhaps, 
than  was  necessary  into  the  description  of  the 
two  former  conflicts  between  the  empire  and 
the  holy  See,  and  of  that  also  between  Philip 
and  Boniface,  we  shall  not  pursue  the  partic- 
ulars of  this  last  and  feeblest  effort  of  declin- 
ing papacy.  The  leading  events  are  briefly 
these.  The  Electors  assembled  at  Frankfort 
in  1314  were  divided;  and  while  some  chose 
Louis  for  successor  to  the  throne,  others  sup- 
ported Frederic,  Archduke  of  Austria.  John  * 
refused  to  confirm  either  of  the  Pretenders, 
and  they  continued  to  dispute  the  empire  with 
the  sword  till  the  year  1323,  when  Frederic 
was  defeated  and  taken  prisoner.  The  Duke 
of  Bavaria  then  took  upon  himself  the  impe- 
rial administration,  without  at  all  soliciting 
the  sanction  of  the  Pope.  Thereupon  the 
latter  pronounced  sentence  against  him,  and 
prepared  to  support  Leopold,  the  brother  of 
Frederic.    Louis  boldly  appealed  to  a  General 

The  greater  part  of  this  was  amassed  by  John,  and 
chiefly  by  his  reservations  of  all  the  benefices  of  all 
the  collegiate  Churches  of  Christendom.  His  ordi- 
nary pretext  was  the  liberation  of  the  Holy  Land. 

The  '  Storia  or  Nuova  Cronica,'  of  Giovanni 
Villani,  a  citizen  of  Florence,  begins  at  the  earliest 
age  and  continues  to  the  year  of  his  death,  1348.  It 
chiefly  relates  to  the  afi'airs  of  Florence,  and  is  most 
instructive  during  the  last  century.  His  brother 
Matteo  continued  the  History  (with  an  addition  by 
his  own  son  Philip)  as  far  as  the  year  1364. 

*  In  a  bull  published  in  1317,  John  maintained 
that  all  imperial  vicars  lost  their  authority  at  the 
death  of  the  Emperor,  and  that  it  devolved  on  the 
Pope.  '  God  himself,'  he  continued,  •  has  confided 
the  empire  of  the  earth,  as  well  as  that  of  heaven,  to 
the  sovereign  pontiff.  During  the  interregnum,  all 
the  rights  of  the  empire  devolve  upon  the  church; 
and  he  who,  without  the  permission  of  the  apostolic 
see,  continues  to  exercise  the  functions  intrusted  to 
him  by  the  Emperor  in  his  lifetime,  offends  against 
religion,  plunges  into  crime,  and  attacks  the  divine 
Majesty  itself.'  See  Sismondi,  Rep.  It.,  cli.  xxix. 
This  claim  was  pressed  more  than  once  by  the  Avig- 
non Popes — the  more  eagerly  because  the  legitimacy 
of  '  the  King  of  the  Romans'  was  involved  in  that 
of  the  Emperor;  and  the  Pope,  who  pretended  to 
the  prerogatives  of  the  one,  had  a  nearer  interest  in 
usurping  the  functions  of  the  other. 


386 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


Council,  and  to  a  future  and  legitimate  Pope, 
and  he  received  in  return  an  ineffectual  sen- 
tence of  excommunication  and  deposition.  In 
the  meantime,  the  war  between  the  opposite 
parties  had  been  maintained  with  great  fury 
in  Italy,  and  upon  the  whole  to  the  advantage 
of  the  Guelphs,  through  the  powerful  aid  of  the 
King  of  Naples,  still  faithful  to  the  Roman 
See.  Consequently  Louis  was  pressed  to 
cross  the  Alps.  He  assembled  a  parliament 
at  Milan,  and  assumed  with  great  solemnity 
the  iron  crown.  From  Milan  he  advanced  to 
Rome  :  the  celerity  of  his  march  anticipated 
all  opposition,  and  the  ceremony  of  his  coro- 
nation was  there  performed,  with  abundant 
pomp  and  acclamation,  in  January,  1328. 
Vigorous  measures  of  hostility  were  at  the 
same  time  adopted — a  sentence  of  degradation 
against  John  XXII.,  and  the  appointment  of 
a  new  and  imperial  Pope,  who  assumed  the 
name  of  Nicholas  V.  But  though  an  empe- 
ror might  at  this  time  be  sufficiently  powerful 
to  repel  with  impunity  the  pontifical  censures, 
his  aggressive  attempts  were  at  least  as  futile 
as  those  of  his  adversary.  Nicholas  was  re- 
jected by  the  Catholic  world  ;  and,  after  two 
years  of  vain  pretension,  surrendered  his  title 
and  his  person*  to  John.  The  Emperor  had 
been  previously  compelled  to  retire  from 
Rome.  So  that,  after  a  fruitless  contest  of 
about  seven  years,  the  relative  situation  of  the 
combatants  was  little  altered  ;  and  the  senten- 
ces of  degradation  and  deposition,  mutually 
reiterated,  had  no  other  effect  than  to  prove 
to  the  world  (though  not  so  to  the  individuals 
engaged)  that  there  was  something  in  the 
claims  of  both  parties  extravagant  and  un- 
founded ;  and  that  the  temporal  authority  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  spiritual  on  the  other, 
though  occasionally  confounded  by  the  abuse 
of  both,  were  in  fact,  as  they  were  in  essence 
and  origin,  independent. 

We  observe  that,  in  one  respect  at  least, 
Louis  deviated  during  this  contest  from  the 
tactics  of  his  two  predecessors,  and  adopted 
those  of  the  French  King.  The  appeal  from 
the  authority  of  the  Pope  to  that  of  a  General 
Council  was  the  severest  wound  which  could 
be  inflicted  on  papal  arrogance.     It  was  more 


*  According  to  the  account  of  Giovanni  Villani 
(lib.  x.  cap.  clxiv,)  he  was  delivered  up  by  the 
Pisans,  and  sent  to  Avignon.  He  threw  himself  at 
the  feet  of  the  Pope,  and  prayed  for  mercy :  e  cod  bel 
6ermone  e  antorita  se  confessd  peccatore  eretico  col 
Bavero  insieme,  die  fatto  1'  havea.  It  should  be  ad- 
ded, that  John  treated  him  extremely  well,  and  that 
he  died  a  natural  death  at  Avignon  three  years  after- 
wards. 


than  that, — since  it  led  almost  necessarily  to 
the  limitation  of  papal  power.  In  an  age  of 
darkness,  such  an  appeal  might  have  been 
treated  as  a  wanton,  though  bitter  insult.  But 
reason  was  at  length  awakened,  and  men  were 
beginning  to  consider  what  ought  to  be,  as 
well  as  what  had  been.  The  promulgation 
of  a  new  and  grand  ecclesiastical  principle, 
on  <the  authority  of  a  king  and  an  emperor, 
would  excite  some  consideration  even  among 
the  most  bigoted ;  and  there  would  be  few 
who  did  not  begin  to  entertain  a  question  res- 
pecting the  spiritual  omnipotence  of  the  Pope. 

Charges  of  Heresy  against  John  XXII. — 
Another  measure  was  taken  by  the  Emperor, 
also  after  the  example  of  Philip,  which  tended 
more  directly  to  the  same  end.  In  the  Assem- 
bly held  at  Milan,  at  which  several  prelates 
attended,  John  XXII.  was  formally  impeach- 
ed on  the  charge  of  heresy.  Sixteen  articles 
were  specified,  in  which  he  erred  against  the 
constitutions  of  the  General  Councils  ;  and  he 
was  pronounced  to  have  virtually  forfeited 
the  pontifical  dignity.  It  was  a  bold  proceed- 
ing in  Louis  on  the  judgment  of  a  provincial 
meeting  of  his  own  partisans,  to  convict  the 
Vicar  of  Christ  of  heretical  depravity.*  It 
was  indeed  to  repel  usurpation  by  usurpation, 
and  to  seize  the  spiritual  sword  in  his  strife  to 
recover  the  material.  The  accusations  were 
probably  false,  and  certainly  fruitless:  they 
acquired  no  general  credit  at  the  time,  nor 
have  they  adhered  to  the  memory  of  the  ac- 
cused. Nevertheless,  the  mere  assumption 
of  papal  falibility  in  matters  of  faith  by  two 
powerful  monarchs,  and  the  vigor  of  the  mea- 
sures taken  on  that  assumption,  naturally  con- 
firmed the  confidence  of  those  whom  reason 
had  already  led  to  the  same  conclusion. 

The  Beatific  Vision. — But  it  also  happened 
very  strangely,  that  the  same  extraordinary 
charge  was  again  incurred  by  John  XXII. 
towards  the  end  of  his  life,  and  with  much 
greater  appearance  of  reason.  In  some  public 
discourses  delivered  in  the  course  of  the  years 
1331  and  1332,  he  had  rashly  declared  his 
opinion,  that  the  souls  of  the  faithful,  in  their 
intermediate  state,  were  indeed  permitted  to 
behold  Christ  as  a  man  ;  but  that  the  face  of 
God,  or  the  Divine  Nature,  was  veiled  from 
their  sight  until  their  reunion  with  the  body 


*  The  Pope's  disputes  with  the  Spiritual  Francis- 
cans had  raised  a  considerable  party,  even  in  the 
church,  against  him.  Besides,  all  the  theologians 
and  sectarians,  who  were  discontented  with  papal 
government,  declared  in  favor  of  Louis.  See  the 
latter  part  of  this  chapter. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


387 


at  the  last  day.*  The  publication  of  this  new 
doctrine  produced  a  deep  sensation  through- 
out Christendom.    The  immediate  admission 

to  the  beatific  Vision,  a  received  and  popular 
tenet,  had  been  openly  impugned  by  the  high- 
est spiritual  authority:  it  became  necessa- 
ry either  to  resign  the  tenet  or  to  condemn 
the  Pope.  Robert,  King  of  Sicily,  warmly 
exhorted  John,  whom  he  had  attached  by  a 
long  and  useful  alliance,  to  retract  the  offen- 
sive declaration.  Philip  VI.  of  France  united 
with  equal  ardor  in  the  same  solicitation. 
The  most  learned  Dominicans,  together  with 
all  the  doctors  and  divines  of  Paris,  humbly 
urged  the  same  entreaty.  Laymen  joined 
with  churchmen,  the  friends  of  the  Pontiff 
with  his  bitterest  enemies,  in  rejecting  and 
denouncing  his  error.  The  Pope  was  so  far 
moved  by  such  general  and  powerful  interfer- 
ence, that  he  assembled,  at  the  close  of  1333, 
his  Cardinals  in  public  consistory  ;  and  after 
having  caused  to  be  read  in  their  presence  all 
the  passages  of  all  writers  who  had  treated 
the  subject,  (the  labor  of  five  days,)  he  protest- 
ed that  he  had  not  designed  to  publish  a  de- 
cision contrary  to  Scripture  or  the  orthodox 
faith  ;  and  that,  if  he  had  so  erred,  he  express- 
ly revoked  his  error.  This  explanation  may 
possibly  have  been  considered  somewhat  equi- 
vocal ;  at  least  it  had  not  the  effect  of  allaying 
the  irritation  which  prevailed,  and  a  second 
consistory  was  appointed  for  the  same  purpose 
in  the  December  following.  But  on  the  even- 
ing preceding  its  assembly,  John  was  seized 
by  a  mortal  malady.  Nevertheless,  he  sum- 
moned his  Cardinals  around  him,  and  one  of 
the  last  acts  of  his  long  life  (he  died  at  90)  was 
to  read  in  their  presence  a  bull,  containing  the 
following  declaration :  '  We  confess  and  be- 
lieve that  souls  purified  and  separated  from 
their  bodies  are  assembled  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  in  paradise,  and  behold  God  and  the 
Divine  Essence  face  to  face  clearly,  in  as  far 
as  is  consistent  with  the  condition  of  a  sepa- 
rated soul.  Any  thing  which  we  may  have 
preached,   said,  or  written   contrary  to  this 


*  Mosh.,  Cent.  XIV.,  p.  ii.,  ch.  ii.  'The  recom- 
pense of  the  saints,  before  the  coming  of  Jesus  Christ, 
was  the  bosom  of  Abraham ;  after  his  coming,  his 
passion,  and  ascension,  their  recompense,  till  the  day 
of  judgment,  is  to  be  under  the  altar  of  God,  that  is, 
under  the  protection  and  consolation  of  the  humanity 
of  Jesus  Christ.  But  after  the  judgment  they  shall  be 
on  the  altar,  that  is,  on  the  humanity  of  Jesus  Christ, 
because  then  they  shall  behold  not  only  his  humanity, 
but  also  his  divinity  as  it  is  in  itself;  for  they  shall 
see  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost.'  These 
are  the  expressions  of  John,  as  given  by  Fleury,  liv. 
xciv.,  sect.  xxi. 


opinion,  we  recall  and  cancel.'  *  Still  even 
the  expiring  confession  of  the  Pontiff  was  not 
considered  sufficiently  explicit  to  satisfy  the 
measure  of  orthodoxy  ;  and  thus  it  came  to 
pass  that  John  XXII.,  after  having  ruled  the 
apostolical  church  for  above  eighteen  years, 
which  he  passed  for  the  most  part  in  amassing 
treasures,f  in  fomenting  warlike  tumults,  and 
in  chastising  heretics,  died  himself  under  the 
general  imputation  of  heresy.  But  the  error 
of  the  pontifical  delinquent  was  discreetly 
veiled  by  the  church  which  it  scandalized  ; 
and  when  Benedict  XII.,  his  successor,  hast- 
ened, in  the  year  following,  to  restore  the  una- 
nimity of  the  faithful  respecting  the  Beatific 
Vision,  he  described  it  as  a  question  which 
John  was  preparing  to  decide,  when  he  was 
prevented  by  death.J 

The  reasons  which  gave  such  popularity 
to  the  orthodox  opinion  on  this  subject,  and 
excited  such  very  general  opposition  to  the 
other,  were  chiefly  these : — If  the  Virgin,  the 
Saints,  and  Martyrs,  were  not  yet  admitted  to 
the  Divine  presence  ;  if  they  were  only  in 
distant  and  imperfect  communication  with 
the  Deity,  it  was  absurd  to  uphold  their  medi- 
atorial office ;  it  was  vain  to  supplicate  the 
intercession  of  beings  who  had  no  access  to 
the  judgment-seat  of  Christ.  Moreover,  the 
mere  insult  thus  offered  to  the  dignity  of  the 
saints,  and  the  disparagement  of  their  long- 
acknowledged  merits,  were  offences  very 
sensibly  felt  and  resented  throughout  the 
Catholic  world.  Another  reason  is  likewise 
mentioned ;  and  it  may,  in  fact,  have  been 
the  most  powerful  motive  of  dissatisfaction — 
if  the  dangerous  opinion  were  once  establish- 
ed, that  the  souls  of  the  just,  when  liberated 
from  purgatory,  must  still  await  the  day  of 
judgment  for  their  recompense,  the  indulgen- 
ces granted  by  the  Church  would  be  of  no 
avail ;  '  and  this  (as  the  King  of  France  very 
zealously  proclaimed)  would  be  effectually  to 
vitiate  the  Catlrolic  faith  ! '  § 

*  Bzov.,  Ann.  1334.  i.  Fleury,  liv.  xciv.,  sect, 
xxxviii. 

t  In  the  histories  of  his  life  we  find  many  edicts 
directed  against  alchymists  and  the  adulterers  of  coin, 
—  proving  at  least  how  much  of  his  attention  was 
turned  in  that  direction.  He  issued  money  from  the 
pontifical  mint,  and  counterfeited,  with  some  loss  of 
reputation,  the  florins  of  Florence.  Giov.  Villani, 
lib.  ix.,  cap.  clxx. 

%  In  the  bull  Benedictus  Deus,  of  which  the  sub- 
stance is  given  by  Fleury,  liv.  xciv.,  sect.  xliv. 

§  See  the  end  of  the  Tenth  Book  of  Giovanni 
Villani.  In  the  course  of  the  controversy,  excited 
solely  by  his  own  vanity,  John  professed  the  most  im- 


388 


HISTORY   OF   THE   CHURCH. 


Benedict  XII. —  Benedict  XII.  was  born  at 
Saverdun,  in  the  county  of  Foix,  and  was  the 
son  of  a  baker.  He  possessed  considerable 
theological  learning,  but  such  little  talent  for 
the  management  of  an  intriguing  court,  that 
he  suspected  and  proclaimed  his  own  inca- 
pacity* for  the  pontifical  functions.  But  it 
proved  otherwise;  for  he  brought  to  that 
office  a  mind  sensible  of  the  corruption  which 
surrounded  him,  and  of  the  abuses  which  dis- 
figured his  Church,  and  he  employed  his  use- 
ful administration  in  endeavors  to  remedy 
such  of  them  as  were  placed  within  his  reach. 
In  the  first  exercise  of  his  power,  he  dismiss- 
ed to  their  benefices  a  vast  number  of  courtly 
ecclesiastics,  who  preferred  the  splendor,  and 
perhaps  the  vices,  of  Avignon,  to  the  dis- 
charge of  their  pastoral  duties.  A  large  body 
of  cavaliers  had  been  maintained  by  the  pomp 
of  his  predecessor,  with  whose  services  Ben- 
edict immediately  dispensed.  He  was  spar- 
ing in  the  promotion  of  his  own  relatives,  lest 
the  king  should  make  them  the  means  of 
exerting  influence  over  himself.  He  under- 
took the  serious  reform  of  the  Monastic  Or- 
ders— not  confining  his  view  to  the  less  pow- 
erful communities,  but  purifying,  with  indis- 
criminate severity,  the  poor  and  the  opulent, 
the  Mendicants,  Benedictines,  f  and  Augusti- 


partial  desire  for  truth ;  but  it  was  observed  that  he 
showered  his  benefices  most  liberally  upon  those  who 
supported  the  new  opinion.  Philip  of  France  came 
boldly  forward  as  the  champion  of  orthodoxy,  and  the 
inviolable  unity  of  the  Church  —  '  dicendo  laicamente 
come  fidel  Christiano,  che  invano  si  pregherebbero  i 
Santi,  6  harebbesi  sperenza  di  salute  per  li  loro  meriti, 
se  Nostra  Donna  Santa  Maria,  e  Santo  Giovanni,  e 
Santo  Piero,  e  Santo  Paolo  e  li  altri  Santi  non  po- 
tessero  vedere  la  Deitade  al  fino  al  di  del  Giudizio,  e 
havere  perfetta  beatitudine  in  vita  etcrna;  e  che  per 
quella  opinione  ogni  indulgenza  e  perdonanza  data 
per  anlico  per  Santa  Chiesa,  6  che  si  desse,  era  vana. 
Laqual  cosa  sarebbe  grande  errore  e  guastamento 
della  Fede  Catholica.' 

*  The  cardinals,  twenty-four  in  number,  agreed 
with  an  unusual  decision  and  unanimity,  ascribed  by 
some  to  divine  inspiration,  by  others  to  a  ridiculous 
mistake.  Jacques  Fournier  (such  was  his  name) 
being  also  a  cardinal,  was  present  at  his  own  election, 
and  when  he  heard  the  determination  of  his  brethren, 
he  reproached  them  with  having  elected  an  ass.  He 
was  certainly  the  least  eminent  member  of  the  Sacred 
College  ;  and  to  that  circumstance,  according  to  Gio- 
vanni Villani  (lib.  xi.  cap.  xxi.,)  he  was  indebted  for 
his  elevation.  The  cardinals,  intending  in  the  scru- 
tiny to  throw  away  their  vctes,  fatally  concurred  in 
heaping  them  upon  him — '  ch'  era  tenuto  il  piii  me- 
nomo  de'  Cardinal!. ' 

t  Vit.  Benedict.  XII.  ap.  Baluzium.  Benedict 
has  been  celebrated  by  the  pen  a  f  Petrarch — 


nians ;  and  the  Order  of  Citeaux,  to  which 
he  had  himself  belonged,  was  the  first  object 
of  his  correction.  He  established  numerous 
schools  within  the  monasteries,  and  also  com- 
pelled the  young  ecclesiastics  to  frequent  the 
universities  of  Paris,  Oxford,*  Toulouse,  and 
Montpellier.  In  the  education  of  the  clergy 
he  saw  the  only  reasonable  assurance  for  the 
stability  of  the  Church.  Lastly,  he  even  dis- 
played a  willingness  to  restore  the  papal  resi- 
dence to  Italy,  if  it  should  appear  that  his 
Italian  subjects  were  desirous  of  his  pres- 
ence ;  but  the  Imperialists  were  at  that  mo- 
ment so  powerful,  and  the  party  spirit  so 
highly  inflamed,  that  he  received  little  en- 
couragement in  that  design. 

ClemtJit  VI. — Clement  VI.,  who  succeeded 
Benedict,  in  the  year  1342,  did  not  imitate  his 
virtues;  but  while,  in  his  public  deportment, 
he  more  nearly  followed  the  footsteps  of  John 
XXII.,  he  appears  even  to  have  outstripped 
that  pontiff  in  the  license  of  his  private  life.  He 
was  scarcely  installed  in  his  dignity,  when  he 
was  addressed  by  a  solemn  deputation  from 
the  Roman  people.  It  consisted  of  eighteen 
members,  f  one  of  whom  was  Petrarch  ;  and 
it  was  charged  with  three  petitions.  The 
first  was,  that  Clement  would  accept,  per- 
sonally and  for  his  life  only,  the  offices  of 
Senator  and  Captain,  together  with  the  mu- 
nicipal charges ;  the  second,  that  he  would 
return  to  the  possession  of  his  proper  and 
peculiar  See ;  the  third,  that  he  would  anti- 
cipate the  Secular  Jubilee  ordained  by  Boni- 
face VIII.,  and  appoint  its  celebration  in  tbo 
fiftieth  year.  The  Pope  accepted  for  himself 
the  proffered  dignities,  but  without  prejudice 
to  the  rights  of  the  See  ;  to  the  second,  which 
was  an  important  and  wise  request,  he  return- 
ed a  friendly  but  decided  refusal ;   but   the 


Te  cui  Telluris  pariter  Pelagique  supremum 

Contulit  Imperium  virtus  meritumque  pudorque. 
Yet  we  observe  (in  Bzovius,  ann.  1339,  s.  1,)  that 
on  one  occasion  this  virtuous  pontiff  reserved  the 
appointment  to  all  the  prelacies  of  all  the  churches 
for  the  space  of  two  years.  Did  he  overlook  in  his 
reforming  zeal  the  abuses  by  which  he  profited1? 

*  About  twenty  years  later,  an  Archbishop  of  Ar- 
magh complained,  that  when  he  was  resident  at  Ox- 
ford, the  University  contained  thirty  thousand  stu- 
dents; whereas,  at  the  time  when  he  wrote  (in  1358) 
it  contained  only  six  thousand.  The  reason  given 
for  the  decrease  was,  that  the  Mendicants,  who  oc- 
cupied several  of  the  chairs,  had  seduced  so  many  of 
the  young  students  into  their  Order,  that  parents  were 
no  longer  willing  to  expose  their  children  to  that  risk. 

t  The  orator  on  this  occasion  was  Colas  di  Rienzo, 
afterwards  the  Tribune  of  the  Republic. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


389 


third,  which  only  tended  to  swell  the  profit- 
able abuses  of  religion,  he  accorded  without 
hesitation.  The  following  is  the  substance 
of  the  bull  which  he  issued  (in  1343)  for 
this  purpose — '  That  the  love  of  God  has  ac- 
quired for  us  an  infinite  treasure  of  merits,  to 
which  those  of  the  Virgin  and  all  the  Saints 
are  joined  ; — that  he  has  left  the  dispensation 
of  that  treasure  to  St.  Peter  and  his  succes- 
sors ; — and  consequently,  that  Pope  Boniface 
VIII.  had  rightfully  ordained,  that  all  those 
who  in  the  year  1300,  and  every  following 
centurial  year,  should  worship  for  a  specified 
number  of  days  in  the  churches  of  St.  Peter 
and  St.  Paul,  at  Rome,  should  obtain  full  in- 
dulgence for  aH  their  sins.  But  we  have 
considered  (he  continues)  that  in  the  Mosaic 
Law,  which  Christ  came  spiritually  to  ac- 
complish, the  fiftieth  year  was  the  jubilee  and 
remission  of  debts  ;  and  having  also  regard  to 
the  short  duration  of  human  life,  we  accord 
the  same  indulgence  to  all  henceforward  who 
shall  visit  the  said  churches,  and  that  of  St. 
John  Lateran,  on  the  fiftieth  year.  If  Ro- 
mans, they  must  attend  for  at  least  thirty  fol- 
lowing days  ;  if  foreigners,  for  at  least  fifteen.' 

Celebration  of  the  Jubilee. — This  proclama- 
tion was  diligently  published  in  every  part  of 
Christendom,  and  excited  an  incredible  ardor 
for  the  Pilgrimage.  During  a  winter  of  un- 
usual inclemency,  the  roads  were  thronged 
with  devout  travellers,  many  of  whom  were 
compelled  to  pass  the  night  without  shelter 
or  nourishment,  in  the  fear  of  robbery,  and 
the  certainty  of  extortion.  The  streets  of 
Rome  presented  for  some  months  the  specta- 
cle of  a  vast  moving  multitude,  continually 
flowing  through  them,  and  inexhaustibly  ren- 
ovated. The  three  appointed  churches  *  were 
thronged  with  successive  crowds,  eager  to 
throw  off  the  burden  of  their  sins,  and  also 
prepared  to  deposit  some  pious  offering  at 
every  visit. 

It  is  affirmed,  that  from  Christmas  till  Eas- 
ter, not  fewer  than  a  million,  or  even  twelve 


*  '  In  visiting  the  three  churches  (says  Matt.  Vil- 
lani,)  including  the  distance  from  his  lodging  and  the 
return  to  it,  each  pilgrim  performed  about  eleven 
miles.  The  streets  were  perpetually  full,  so  that  every 
one  was  obliged,  whether  on  foot  or  on  horseback,  to 
follow  the  crowd ;  and  this  made  the  progress  verv 
slow  and  disagreeable.  The  Holy  Napkin  of  Christ 
was  shown  at  St.  Peter's  every  Sunday  and  solemn 
festival,  for  the  consolation  of  the  pilgrims  (Romei.) 
The  press  then  was  great  and  indiscreet;  so  it  hap- 
pended  that  sometimes  two,  sometimes  four,  or  six, 
or  even  twelve,  were  found  there  crushed  or  trampled 
to  death.' 


hundred  thousand  strangers,  were  added  to 
the  population  of  the  pontifical  city ;  for  as 
many  as  returned  home  after  the  completion 
of  the  prescribed  ceremonies,  were  replaced 
by  fresh  bands  of  credulous  sinners,  —  and 
those  again  by  others,  in  such  perennial 
abundance,  that,  even  during  the  late  and 
unwholesome  season  of  the  year,  the  number 
was  never  reduced  below  two  hundred  thou- 
sand. Every  house  was  converted  into  an 
inn  ;  and  the  object  of  every  Roman  was  to 
extort  the  utmost  possible  profit  from  the  oc- 
casion :  neither  shame  nor  fear  restrained  the 
eagerness  of  their  avarice.  While  the  neigh- 
boring districts  abounded  with  provisions,  the 
citizens  refused  to  admit  a  greater  supply, 
than  was  scarcely  sufficient  to  satisfy,  at  the 
highest  expense,  the  simplest  demands  of  the 
pilgrims ;  and  thus  those  deluded  devotees, 
after  surmounting  all  other  difficulties  on 
their  errand  of  superstition,  were  at  lengdi 
delivered  up  to  be  starved,  as  well  as  plun- 
dered, by  the  inhabitants  of  the  Holy  City. 
Such  was  the  moral  effect  produced  upon 
the  Roman  people  by  a  festival,  which  was 
established  for  their  pecuniary  profit,  and 
which  disturbed  the  social  system  through 
every  rank  and  profession,  from  one  end  of 
Christendom  to  the  other.* 

Clement  renewed  with  Louis  of  Bavaru 
those  vexatious  disputes,  which  had  been 
begun  by  John  XXII.,  and  conducted  with 
so  little  advantage  or  honor  to  either  party. 
Neither  had  the  present  difference,  after 
many  haughty  words,  any  lasting  result  ; 
though  it  seems  probable,  that  the  Pope 
!  might  have  succeeded  in  exciting  a  civil 
war  in  the  dominions  of  his  adversary,  had 
not  the  latter  escaped  that  calamity  by  death. 
The  same  pontiff  defended  his  temporal  pre- 
rogatives in  a  correspondence  with  Edward 
III.  of  England.  At  another  time,  publicly  and 
in  full  consistory,  he  presented  to  Alphonso 
of  Spain  the  sceptre  of  the  Fortunate  Islands. 
Nor  was  this  right  contested  :  the  less  so, 
perhaps,  since  St.  Peter  had  claimed,  in  much 
earlier  ages,  the  peculiar  disposal  of  all  insu- 
lar f  domains.     Clement  also   made   an  im- 


*  This  account  is  abbreviated  from  Mattoo  Villani, 
lib.  i.  cap.  lvi.  It  is  to  be  observed,  that  the  Pope 
received  a  shire  of  the  oblations  left  by  the  pilgrims 
in  the  different  churches.  Clement  VI.  employed  the 
fruits  in  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  recover  the  prop- 
erty of  his  church  from  the  nobles,  who  had  usurped 
it. 

f  Urban  II.,  in  his  Bull  of  1091,  presented  the 
island  of  Corsica  to  the  Bishop  of  Pisa;  and  we  all 
recollect  that  our  Henry  II.  received  from  Adrian  IV. 


390 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH 


portant  acquisition  to  the  patrimony  of  the 
Apostle  by  the  purchase  of  the  city  of  Avig- 
non. The  jurisdiction  over  that  territory  be- 
longed to  the  Queen  of  Naples,  as  Countess 
of  Provence  ;  and  for  80,000  golden  florins 
she  consented,  in  a  moment  of  poverty,  to 
part  with  the  valuable  possession.  A  splen- 
did palace,  which  Benedict  XII.  had  begun, 
was  now  completed  and  amplified  by  Clem- 
ent ;  and  the  luxury  of  the  cardinals  follow- 
ed, at  no  very  humble  distance,  the  example 
of  the  popes.  These  circumstances  seemed 
to  remove  still  farther  the  prospect  of  the 
Pope's  restoration  to  his  legitimate  residence, 
and  thus  heightened  the  alarm,  which  some 
were  beginning  to  entertain  for  the  stability 
of  the  papal  power. 

Clement  VI.  died  five  years  afterwards,  in 
1352 — celebrated  for  the  splendor  of  his  es- 
tablishment, for  the  sumptuousness  of  his  ta- 
ble, and  for  his  magnificent  display  of  horses, 
squires,  and  pages;  for  the  scandalous  abuse 
of  his  patronage ;  for  manners  little  becom- 
ing the  sacred  profession,  and  for  the  most 
unrestrained  and  unmuffled  profligacy.* 

Oath  or  Capitulation  taken  in  Conclave. — 
During  the  vacancy  of  the  See,  the  cardinals, 
while  in  conclave,  passed  certain  resolutions 
for  the  limitation  of  the  pontifical  power  and 
the  extension  of  their  own  wealth  and  privi- 
leges ;  and  the  whole  body  bound  themselves 
by  oath  to  observe  them.  One  of  their  num- 
ber was  then  elected,  Etienne  Aubert,  bishop 
of  Ostia,  who  took  the  name  of  Innocent  VI. ; 
and  almost  his  earliest  act  was  to  annul,  as 
the  donation  of  Ireland.  En  quoi  (says  Fleury)  ce 
qui  me  parolt  le  plus  rensarquable  n'est  pas  la  pre- 
tention des  Papes,  mais  la  credulite  des  Princes.  But 
credulity,  like  many  other  weaknesses,  is  very  com- 
monly the  offspring  of  interest. 

*  See  Matt.  Villani,  lib.  iii.  cap.  43,  He  delight- 
ed to  aggrandize  his  relatives,  by  conferring  on  them 
baronies  in  France,  and  raising  them,  however  young 
and  abandoned,  to  the  highest  dignities.  '  At  that 
time  there  was  no  regard  to  learning  or  virtue;  it 
sufficed  to  satiate  cupidity  with  the  Red  Hat — Huomo 
fu  di  convenevole  scienzia,  molto  cavallaresco,  poco 
religioso.  Delle  femine  esseudo  Archivescovo  non  si 
guardo,  ma  trapassd  il  modo  de'  secolari  giovani 
Baroni:  e  nel  Papato  non  sene  seppe  contenere  ne 
occultare;  ma  alle  sue  camere  andavano  le  grandi 
dame,  come  i  prelati,  e  fra  1'  altre  una  Contessa  di 
Torenna  fu  tanto  in  suo  piacere,  che  per  lei  faoeva 
gran  parte  delle  grazie  sue.  Quando  era  infermo  le 
Dame  il  servivano,  e  governavono  come  congiunte 
parenti  gli  altri  secolari,  II  lesoro  della  Chiesa 
stribui  con  larga  mano.  Delle  Italiane  discordie 
poco  si  euro,  &c.'  We  observe,  that  some  of  the  car- 
dinals so  appointed  incurred  the  severe  reproach  of 
Innocent  VI.  by  their  undisguised  debaucheries.  Matt. 
Villau.  lib.  iv.  cap.  Ixxvii, 


pope,  what  he  had  subscribed  as  cardinal. 
We  must  detest  his  private  perjury ;  yet,  aa 
the  Sacred  College  had  no  power  of  legisla- 
tion, unless  under  the  presidency  of  the  pope, 
and  as  their  office  while  in  conclave  was  ex- 
pressly restricted  to  the  election  of  a  pope, 
their  constitutions  could  not  legally  be  bind- 
ing either  on  the  church  or  on  the  future  pon- 
tiff. The  attempt  of  the  cardinals  is  chiefly 
important,  as  it  shows  the  power  and  the 
arrogance  into  which  they  had  risen  during 
the  disorders  of  the  Church  ;  and  the  con- 
duct of  the  pope  is  remarkable,  as  having 
furnished  an  example  and  a  plea  to  several 
of  his  successors,  who  violated  similar  en- 
gagements in  after  times  with  the  same  per- 
fidy. In  every  instance  the  future  pope  was 
a  voluntary  party  to  the  compact  deliberately 
made  in  conclave ;  in  most  cases  he  confirm- 
ed it  after  his  election  ;  he  finally  broke  or 
evaded  it  in  all. 

Innocent  VI. — Yet  Innocent  VI.  was  a  man 
of  simple  manners  and  unblemished  moral 
reputation ;  and  having  found  the  Church 
nearly  in  the  same  condition  in  which  John 
XXIT.  bequeathed  it  to  Benedict,  he  imitated 
the  latter  in  his  judicious  efforts  to  reform  it. 
But,  though  he  held  the  See  for  more  than 
nine  years,  it  seems  doubtful  whether  his 
mild  and  perhaps  feebly  executed  measures 
were  effectual  in  removing  any  important 
abuse.  At  least,  in  the  year  1358  we  perceive 
him  engaged  in  a  dispute  with  his  German 
clergy,  not  respecting  the  relaxation  of  their 
discipline,  but  upon  a  subject  which  was 
usually  much  dearer  to  the  Popes  of  Avig- 
non. Innocent  demanded  an  extraordinary 
subsidy  of  the  tenth  of  all  ecclesiastical  rev- 
enues, for  the  use  of  the  apostolical  cham- 
ber. The  clergy  of  the  three  provinces  of 
Treves,  Mayence,  and  Cologne  boldly  refused 
payment ;  the  spirit  of  interested  opposition 
spread  rapidly ;  and  all  orders  of  ecclesiastics 
throughout  the  whole  empire  united  to  re- 
sist the  demand.  The  Pope  yielded  without 
struggle  or  remonstrance ;  but  he  immediate- 
ly sought  bis  consolation  in  the  exercise  of 
one  of  the  grossest  usurpations  of  his  See. 
He  sent  his  messengers  into  every  part  of 
Germany,  with  orders  to  collect  half  the  rev- 
enues of  all  vacant  benefices,  and  to  reserve  * 


*  Even  the  see  of  Avignon  was  left  without  a 
bishop  during  this  and  the  preceding  pontificate;  it 
was  reserved,  and  its  revenues  usurped  by  these  popes 
at  their  own  pleasure.  Thus  it  would  seem  that  the 
reforms  of  Innocent  VI.  were  not  more  disinterested 
than  those  of  Benedict.  See  Vita  Urbani  V.  ap 
Baluz.  and  Baluzius's  Notes. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  POPES. 


391 


them  for  the  use  of  the  Holy  See.  The  Em- 
peror (Charles  IV.)  approved  the  resistance 
of  his  bishops ;  •  but  on  the  one  hand  he 
denounced,  in  the  strongest  language,  their 
pride,  their  avarice,  and  luxurious  indul- 
gences ;  while,  on  the  other,  he  warmly  de- 
manded of  the  Nuncio  from  Avignon,  where- 
fore the  pontiff  was  so  forward  in  taxing  the 
property  of  the  clergy,  so  remiss  and  languid 
in  the  restoration  of  their  discipline  ?  We 
should  add,  however,  that  Innocent,  on  his 
side,  did  not  disregard  that  appeal,  but  turn- 
ed himself  to  restrain  the  vices  of  the  German 
prelates  ;  while  the  Emperor  exerted  his  au- 
thority to  protect  them  from  the  spoliations 
to  which  they  were  perpetually  liable  from 
powerful  laymen. 

Urban  V. — He  was  succeeded,  in  1362,  by 
Urban  V.,  whose  reign  was  distinguished  by 
the  first  serious  attempt  to  restore  the  pontifi- 
cal court  to  Rome.  On  the  solicitation  of 
his  Italian  subjects,  urged  by  the  eloquence 


*  In  an  assembly  of  the  princes  of  the  empire  held 
on  this  subject  in  1359,  Conrad  d'Alzeia,  Count  Pal- 
atine, who  was  charged  with  the  defence  of  the 
clergy,  addressed  the  meeting  to  this  effect:  — '  The 
Romans  have  always  considered  Germany  as  a  mine 
of  gold,  and  have  invented  various  methods  to  exhaust 
it.  And  what  does  the  pope  give  in  return,  but  epis- 
tles and  speeches'?  Let  him  be  master  of  all  the 
benefices  as  to  their  collation,  but  let  him  leave  the 
revenues  to  those  who  own  them.  We  send  abund- 
ance of  money  into  Italy  for  divers  manufactures, 
and  to  Avignon  for  our  children  who  study  there,  and 
who  there  solicit,  and  let  us  not  say  purchase,  bene- 
fices. No  one  is  ignorant  what  sums  are  every  year 
carried  from  Germany  to  the  court  of  Rome,  for  the 
confirmation  of  prelates,  the  obtaining  of  benefices, 
the  carrying  on  of  suits  and  appeals  before  the  Holy 
See  —  for  dispensations,  absolutions,  indulgences, 
privileges  and  other  favors.  In  all  former  days  the 
archbishops  used  to  confirm  the  elections  of  the  bish- 
ops their  suffragans ;  but  in  our  time  John  XXII. 
violently  usurped  that  right.  And  now  another  pope 
demands  from  his  clergy  a  new  and  unheard-of  sub- 
sidy, threatening  his  censures  on  all  who  shall  refuse 
or  oppose.  Resist  the  beginning  of  this  evil,  and 
permit  not  the  establishment  of  this  degrading  servi- 
tude.'— (Fleury,  1.  xcvi.  s.  xxxviii.)  It  was  in  the 
same  year  that  the  Emperor  addressed  to  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Mayence  the  following  complaints  respect- 
ing the  secular  habits  of  his  Clergy:  —  De  Christi 
Patrimonio  ludos,  hastiludia  et  torneamenta  exercent; 
habitum  militarem  cum  proetextis  aureis  et  argenteis 
gestant,  el  calceos  militares;  comam  et  barbam  nu- 
triunt,  et  nihil,  quod  ad  vitam  et  ordinem  Ecclesias- 
ticum  spectat,  ostendunt.  Militaribus  se  duntaxat  et 
secularibus  actibus,  vita  et  moribus,  in  sua?  salutis 
dispendium  et  generate  populi  scandalum,  immis- 
cent.  —  The  passage  is  cited  by  Robertson,  History 
Charles  V.,  B.  ii. 


of  Petrarch,  *  and  on  an  understanding  of 
perfect  friendship  and  mutual  co-operation 
with  the  emperor,  he  abandoned  the  splendid 
security  of  Avignon,  and  departed,  with  his 
reluctant  court,  for  Rome.  On  his  way,  a 
popular  tumult  at  Viterbo  dismayed  and  even 
endangered  some  of  the  cardinals;  but  no 
other  impediment  was  offered  ;  and  in  Octo- 
ber, 1367,  the  pope  once  more  occupied  the 
half-dismantled  palace  of  his  predecessors. 
He  divided  a  peaceful  residence  of  about 
three  years  between  Rome  f  and  Montefias- 
cone,  where  he  passed  the  summer  months  ; 
and  his  alliance  with  Charles  IV.  of  Germa- 
ny, whatever  may  have  been  the  dispositions 
of  his  subjects,  guaranteed  him  against  any 
political  outrage.  Nevertheless,  in  1370,  pro- 
bably on  the  persuasion  of  the  French  cardin- 
als, \  he  returned  to  Avignon,  where  he  died 
immediately  afterwards. 

Gregory  XL  —  Again  was  a  Frenchman, 
Gregory  XL,  elected  to  the  chair,  and  he  pro- 
fessed his  inclination  to  repeat  the  experiment 
which  had  been  made  by  his  predecessor ; 
but  his  resolution  was  weakened  and  retarded 
by  the  intrigues  of  his  countrymen.  He  list- 
ened, indeed,  with  attention  to  the  prayer  of 
a  solemn  deputation  from  the  Roman  people, 
in  1374  ;  but  he  took  no  immediate  steps  to 
grant  it. 

Catharine  of  Sienna. — Two  years  afterwards 
he  was  still  at  Avignon,  when  lie  was  again 
importuned  on  the  same  subject  by  a  very  dif- 
ferent instrument  of  solicitation.  There  was 
one  Catharine,  the  daughter  of  a  citizen  at  Si- 
enna, who  had  embraced  the  monastic  life,  and 
acquired  extraordinary  reputation  for  sancti- 
ty. In  the  rigor  of  her  fastings  and  watch- 
ings,  in  the  duties  of  seriousness  and  silence, 
in  the  fervency  and  continuance  of  her  pray- 
ers, she  far  surpassed  the  merit  of  her  holy 


*  '  Cogita  tecum '  (says  Petrarch)  '  in  die  ultimi 
judicii  an  resurgere  amas  inter  Avinionicos  peccato- 
res  famosissimos  nunc  omnium  qui  sub  ccelo  sunt,  an 
inter  Petrum  et  Paulum,  Stephanum  et  Laurentium, 
&c.  &c.'  The  same  argument,  which  is  the  con- 
cluding one,  may  probably  have  been  adopted  a  few 
years  afterwards  by  Catharine  of  Sienna.  Petrarch 
became  a  very  ardent  eulogist  of  this  Pope. 

t  The  Pope  had  the  honor,  during  this  period,  of 
entertaining  both  the  Emperors  as  his  guests.  Charles 
IV.  visited  him  at  Montefiascone  in  1368;  John 
Palaeologus  in  the  year  following  at  Rome. 

%  Spondanus,  Ann.  1370,  s.  iv.  St.  Brigida,who 
was  at  that  time  in  Italy,  is  related  to  have  assured 
the  Pope,  on  the  authority  of  an  express  revelation 
from  the  holy  Virgin,  that  his  return  to  Avignon 
would  be  immediately  followed  by  his  death — abiit 
nihilo-minus.  Peter  of  Arragon  likewise  prophesiea 
the  Grand  Schism  from  the  same  event. 


392 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


sisters ;  and  the  austerities  which  she  prac- 
tised  prepared  people  to  believe  the  fables 
which  she  related :  *  for  she  professed  to  have 
derived  her  spiritual  knowledge  from  no  hu- 
man instructer  —  from  no  humbler  source, 
than  the  direct  and  personal  communication 
of  Christ  himself.  On  one  occasion  especial- 
ly she  had  been  blessed  by  a  vision,  in  which 
the  Saviour  appeared  to  her,  accompanied  by 
the  Holy  Mother  and  a  numerous  host  of 
saints,  and  in  their  presence  he  solemnly  es- 
poused her,  placing  on  her  finger  a  golden 
ring,  adorned  with  four  pearls  and  a  diamond. 
After  the  vision  had  vanished,  the  ring  still 
remained,  sensible  and  palpable  to  herself, 
though  invisible  to  eveiy  other  eye.  Nor 
was  this  the  only  favor  which  she  boasted  to 
have  received  from  the  Lord  Jesus :  she  had 
sucked  the  blood  from  the  wound  in  His  side  ; 
she  had  received  His  heart  in  exchange  for 
her  own ;  she  bore  on  her  body  the  marks  of 
His  wounds— though  these  too  were  imper- 
ceptible by  any  sight  except  her  own.  f 

We  do  not  relate  such  disgusting  impiety, 
either  because  it  was  uncommon  in  those 
days,  or  because  it  was  crowned  by  the  sol- 
emn approbation  of  the  Roman  Church  ;  for 
the  wretched  fanatic  was  canonized,  and 
occupies  no  despicable  station  in  the  Holy 
Calendar:  but  it  is  a  more  ex<raordinary  cir- 
cumstance, awakening  a  deeper  astonishment, 
that  Catharine  of  Sienna  was  invited  from 
her  cell  by  the  messengers  of  the  Florentine 
people,  and  officially  charged,  by  the  compat- 
riots of  Dante  aud  the  contemporaries  of  Pe- 
trarch, with  an  important  commission  at  the 
Court  of  Rome;  the  office  of  mitigating  the 
papal  displeasure,  and  reconciling  the  Church 
with  the  Republic  was  confided  to  her  en- 
thusiasm. She  was  admitted  to  an  early 
audience.  Her  arguments,  which  she  deliv- 
ered in  the  vulgar  Tuscan,  were  explained  by 
the  interpreter  who  attended  her ;  and  in 
conclusion,  the  Pope  (assured,  no  doubt,  of 
her  devoted  attachment  to  the  Church)  ex- 
pressed his  willingness  to  leave  the  differences 
entirely  to  her  decision.  J     But  the  embassy 

*  Fleury  thinks  that  she  believed  them  herself,  and 
he  may  be  right:  —  Une  imagination  vive,  echauffee 
par  les  jeunes  et  les  veilles,  pouvoit  y  avoir  grande 
part:  d'autant  plus,  qu'aucune  occupation  exterieure 
ne  detournoijt  ces  pensees. — Liv.  xcvii.  s.  xl. 

t  On  the  body  of  St.  Francis  the  wounds  were 
visible  —  a  distinction  conferred,  as  his  disciples  as- 
sert, on  him  alone.     See  Spondanus,  ann.  1376.  s.  iv. 

i  Spondanus,  ann.  1376,  s.  ii.  It  does  not  ap- 
pear, by  the  way,  that  the  Florentines  were  ready  to 
extend  the  same  deference  to  her  judgment.  See 
Sismondi,  chap.  xlix. 


of  Catharine  was  not  confined  to  that  object 
only ;  for,  whether  in  obedience  to  the  wish 
of  the  Florentines  or  to  the  suggestions  of  her 
own  spirit,  she  urged  at  the  same  time  the 
duties,  which  the  poutiff*  owed  to  his  Italian 
subjects,  to  the  tombs  of  the  Apostles,  to  the 
chair  of  his  mighty  predecessors ;  and  her 
reasons  are  said  to  have  influenced  a  mind 
already  predisposed  to  listen  to  them. 

Respecting  the  motives  which  created  that 
disposition,  it  must  be  mentioned  that  the 
residence  at  Avignon  was  no  longer  recom- 
mended by  that  careless  security  which  at 
first  distinguished  it  from  Rome.  The  open 
country  had  been  invaded  and  the  city  men- 
aced by  one  of  those  Companies  of  associated 
brigands  who  were  the  terror  of  the  fourteenth 
centuty.  During  the  pontificate  of  Innocent 
VI.  the  inhabitants  and  the  court  had  been 
compelled  to  seek  for  safety  sometimes  in 
their  arms,*  sometimes  in  then-  riches ;  and 
though  the  danger  might  not  be  very  pressing, 
yet  being  near  at  hand  and  fresh  in  recollec- 
tion, it  perhaps  influenced  beyond  its  impor- 
tance the  Councils  of  Avignon.  The  Pope's 
resolution,  however,  still  wavered  ;  and  was 
at  length  decided  by  a  second  embassy  from 
Rome,  which  arrived  about  two  months  after 
the  visit  of  St.  Catharine.  The  envoys  ex- 
pressly assured  him,  that  unless  he  returned 
to  his  See,  the  Romans  would  provide  a  Pope 
for  themselves,  who  would  reside  among 
them ;  his  cardinal  legate  at  the  city  gave  him 
the  same  assurance  ;  and  it  afterwards  ap- 
peared, that  overtures  had  already  been  made 
to  the  Abbot  of  Monte  Cassino  to  that  effect. 
This  was  no  moment  for  delay.  Gregory 
immediately  departed  for  his  capital ;  and 
thence,  whatever  may  have  been  his  private 
intentions,  he  was  not  destined  to  return. 

The  place  of  the  death  of  a  pope  was  at 
that  time  of  more  lasting  importance  to  the 
Church  than  his  living  residence,  because  the 
election  of  a  successor  could  scarcely  fail  to 
be  affected  by  the  local  circumstances  under 
which  he  might  be  chosen.  There  could  be 
no  security  for  the  continuance  of  the  papal 
residence  at  Rome,  until  the  crown  should 
be  again  placed  upon  the  head  of  an  Italian. 
At  Avignon,  the  French  cardinals,  who 
were  more  numerous,  were  certain  to  elect 
a  French  pope ;  but  the  accident  which 
should  oblige  the  Conclave  to  assemble  in  an 
Italian  city,  might  probably  lead,  through  the 
operation  of  external  influences,  to  the  choice 
of  an  Italian.     That  accident  at  length  occur- 


*  Matt.  Villan.,  lib.  vii.  cap.  xcvi 


ITS  HERESIES  AND  DIVISIONS. 


393 


red,  and  its  consequences  will  be  pursued  in 
the  following  chapter. 

Section  II. 

General  History  of  the  Church,  its  Heresies,  fyc. 

In  the  meantime,  the  account  which,  has  been 
given  of  the  pontiffs  of  Avignon  is  sufficient 
to  throw  some  light  on  their  individual  mer- 
its, and,  what  is  of  much  more  consequence, 
on  the  general  character  and  principles  of 
their  government.  But  a  deeper  considera- 
tion of  this  important  period,  suggests  some 
reflections  which  it  is  proper  to  express ; 
while  there  are  some  facts,  less  closely  con- 
nected with  papal  biography,  but  not  less 
strictly  appertaining  to  the  history  of  the 
Church,  which  have  not  been  noticed,  but 
which  cannot  wholly  be  overlooked.  Ac- 
cordingly, we  shall  first  observe  the  decline 
which  took  place,  during  these  seventy  years, 
in  the  pontifical  power,  and  point  out  some 
of  its  most  efficient  causes.  We  shall  then 
inquire,  whether  any  attempts  were  made  to 
obviate  that  decay,  by  measures  of  reform  or 
renovation.  The  heresies  which  divided  the 
Church,  and  the  efforts  which  aimed  to  ex- 
tinguish them,  will  be  the  last,  and  not  the 
least  instructive,  subject  of  our  examination. 

I.  Decline  of  the  papal  power. — The  various 
and  desultory  warfare,  alike  savage  in  its  cir- 
cumstances and  fruitless  in  its  results,  which 
was  waged  in  Italy  by  the  legates  and  mer- 
cenaries of  the  Pope,  *  in  defence  of  the  pat- 
rimony of  St.  Peter,  is  described  by  the  civil 
historians  of  those  times ;  nor  shall  we  de- 
scend to  recouut  the  intrigues  which  were 
employed  in  the  same  contest,  or  the  bulls 
which  were  so  repeatedly  and  vainly  launch- 
ed from  Avignon.  But  the  evil,  which  these 
measures  were  intended  to  repress,  was  deep- 
ly felt  at  the  time,  and  was  fatally  pernicious 
in  its  consequences.  We  have  observed  that, 
even  during  his  residence  at  Rome  and  in  the 
fulness  of  his  power,  the  Pope  was  seldom  in 
undisputed  possession  of  the  apostolical  do- 


*  It  is  truly  remarked  by  Sisraondi,  that  the  Avig- 
non Popes  prosecuted  these  wars  with  greater  ardor, 
than  they  would  have  done,  had  they  been  resident  in 
Italy,  or  than  they  could,  had  they  drawn  their  re- 
sources only  from  Italy.  They  suffered  no  personal 
dangers,  they  saw  nothing  of  the  evils  which  they  in- 
flicted, and  they  derived  their  supplies  from  the  con- 
tributions of  the  whole  church.  The  complaints 
which  the  Florentines  had  against  the  papal  Guber- 
natores  are  enumerated  with  great  warmth  by  Leo- 
nardos Aretinus.  Hist.  Florent.,  lib.  viii.,  181,  2. 
50 


mains.  But,  in  the  season  of  his  emigration, 
he  could  place  little  reliance  on  the  friends 
whom  he  had  deserted,  while  the  license  of 
his  enemies  and  depredators  increased  with- 
out restraint.  Cities  and  populous  districts 
were  thus  separated  from  the  ecclesiastical 
states,  and  several  among  the  Roman  barons, 
who  were  his  feudatories,  usurped  in  perpe- 
tuity the  lands  of  the  Church.  The  deficiency 
thus  occasioned  in  the  pontifical  treasury  must 
needs  be  supplied  from  some  new  source ; 
since  the  change  in  nation  and  residence  had 
abated  nothing  of  the  pomp  and  prodigality 
of  the  Vicars  of  Christ.  The  funds  to  which 
they  had  chiefly  recourse  for  this  purpose 
were  twofold.  By  the  more  general  and 
easy  sale  of  indulgences,  they  levied  a  pro- 
ductive tax  upon  the  superstition  of  the  peo- 
ple ;  at  the  same  time  they  made  a  dangerous 
experiment  on  the  submission  of  the  clergy 
by  various  imposts  on  all  ecclesiastical  pro- 
perty.* The  right  of  presentation  to  all  vacant 
sees  appears  to  have  been  first  usurped  by  the 
Popes  of  Avignon.  It  was  abused  as  soon  as 
usurped  ;  and  the  system  of  reservation  de- 
prived the  diocese  of  its  pastor,  while  it  car- 
ried away  its  revenues  into  the  apostolical 
chancery.  At  the  same  time  the  frequent 
contribution  of  tenths  and  first-fruits,  raised 
under  crusading  or  other  pretences,  gave 
deeper  offence  to  the  sacred  order,  as  it 
touched  their  interests  more  directly  and 
personally.  It  was  vain  to  imagine,  that  the 
monstrous  system  of  papacy  could  long  sub- 
sist, unless  supported  by  the  attachment  and 
almost  unanimity  of  the  ecclesiastical  body ; 
nor  could  such  concord  easily  take  place,  un- 
less the  Pope  could  contrive  to  identify  his 


*  The  following  are  mentioned  as  the  sources  of 
the  papal  exactions  from  England  during  the  four- 
teenth century : — (1.)  Peter's  Pence;  for  the  supposed 
support  of  the  English  pilgrims  at  Rome:  it  scarcely 
exceeded  200/.  a-year.  (2.)  King  John's  census,  of 
1000  marks.  This  was  tolerably  well  paid,  till  the 
time  of  Urban  V.,  in  1366,  when  king,  clergy,  lords, 
and  commons,  proclaimed  the  payment  illegal,  and 
it  ceased.  (3.)  The  payment  of  First-fruits.  The 
origin  of  this  is  referred  to  the  presents  which,  in 
very  early  ages,  a  bishop  at  his  consecration,  or  a 
priest  at  his  ordination,  paid  to  the  officiating  prelate* 
It  was  abolished  by  Gregory  the  Great,  but  soon 
grew  up  again,  and  insensibly  came  to  be  rated  at  a 
year's  income.  Presently,  when  prelates  obtained 
their  sees  by  provisions,  those  first-fruits  flowed  into 
the  apostolical  treasury.  Those  of  smaller  benefices 
were  at  first  granted,  seemingly  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, to  bishops  and  archbishops.  At  length,  Clement 
V.  reserved  for  his  own  use  all  first-fruits,  and  John 
XXII.  imitated  his  example.     See  Lingard's  Hist. 


394 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


interests  with  those  of  the  clergy,  or  at  least 
to  persuade  the  clergy  of  such  identity.  But 
from  the  hour  that  his  exigencies  could  only 
be  supplied  at  their  expense, — that  his  dig- 
nity, his  luxuries,  his  very  vices,  tended  to 
impoverish,  and  no  longer  to  enrich,  them ; 
from  that  hour  a  very  powerful,  though  very 
sordid  instrument  of  connexion  began  to  give 
way,  and  the  discontent,  which  might  orig- 
inate in  pure  selfishness,  found  abundant  fuel, 
as  well  as  ample  justification,  in  the  manifold 
abuses  which  disgraced  the  papal  court. 

Rapacity  of  the  Popes,  and  profligacy  of  the 
Court. — Still  there  had  been  less  danger  from 
this  disaffection,  had  the  Popes  pressed  their 
impolitic  exactions  with  any  show  of  modera- 
tion ;  had  they  been  contented  to  satisfy  their 
necessities,  or  even  to  maintain  with  judicious 
liberality  the  ceremony  and  pomp  of  office. 
But  so  far  were  they  removed  from  any  such 
discretion,  that  it  rather  seemed  their  object  so 
to  reign,  as  to  unite  prodigality  with  avarice 
—  to  spend  profusely  and  hoard  insatiably. 
It  was  this  spirit  of  rapacity  which  presided 
over  the  councils  of  Avignon.  The  lofty  pre- 
tensions which  animated  and  even  dignified 
the  Pontiffs  of  former  days,  were  degraded 
into  mere  lifeless  instruments  to  the  lowest 
worldly  purposes.  We  seek  not  now  for 
the  deep  religious  enthusiasm  of  the  earliest 
Popes,  for  that  had  long  been  extinguished ; 
but  the  exalted  and  magnanimous  audacity 
of  the  Gregories  and  even  the  Innocents, — 
the  settled  ecclesiastical  fanaticism  (if  we  may 
use  the  expression,)  which  so  long  dazzled 
the  reason  of  man, — these  too  had  at  length 
given  place  to  baser  principles  and  passions. 
The  cloud  of  mystery,  which  had  so  long 
hung  over  the  chair  of  St.  Peter,  filling  the 
nations  with  awe  for  the  invisible  power  and 
majesty  residing  there,  was  at  length  dispersed 
and  broken  away,  and  in  its  place  was  dis- 
covered the  nakedness  of  human  turpitude. 
The  charm  of  opinion  began  gradually  to  dis- 
solve; and  whatsoever  prejudices  many  still 
retained  in  favor  of  the  papal  government, 
they  were  weakened  by  the  sordid  motives 
which  now  directed  it ;  and  an  unpopular 
vice  became  still  more  detested,  when  it  was 
found  engrafted  upon  the  ecclesiastical  char- 
acter. 

Another  cause,  which  materially  assisted, 
during  this  period,  in  hastening  the  decline 
of  papacy,  was  the  shameless  profligacy  of 
the  court  of  Avignon.  There  is  no  dispute  as 
to  this  fact ;  and  even  moderate  writers  have 
strained  their  language,  in  order  to  present  a 


just  picture  of  that  deformity.  We  refer  not 
to  the  partial  philippics  of  Petrarch ;  nor  to 
the  unholy  name  of  Babylon,  which  may  first 
have  been  affixed  to  the  city  of  the  Popes, 
from  a  similarity  in  crime.  But  when  Den- 
ina  assures  us,  that  the  licentiousness  of  the 
clergy  became  excessive  and  universal,  from 
the  time  that  the  scandals  of  Avignon  had  re- 
moved all  restraint  and  shame  ;  and  when  Sis- 
mondi*  declares,  that  that  people  and  that  court 
made  themselves  manners  out  of  the  vices  of 
all  other  nations,  those  historians  do  not  exceed 
the  testimony  of  contemporary  authorities. 
The  causes  and  sources  of  this  pestilence  are 
disputed:  it  is  ascribed  by  the  French  writers 
to  the  importation  of  Transalpine  fashions  and 
morals  into  their  less  corrupt  climate ;  while 
the  Italians  retort  the  charge  of  greater  im- 
purity, and  enlarge,  perhaps  with  more  jus- 
tice, on  the  temptations  which  may  ensnare 
a  bishop  who  resides  at  a  distance  from  his 
diocese,  who  is  surrounded  by  a  court  of  pre- 
lates also  non-resident,  without  any  spiritual 
care  or  any  restraint  from  the  observation  of 
the  people.  Howbeit,  this  argument  would 
have  had  more  weight,  had  the  court  of  Rome 
been  less  polluted:  but  whatever  may  have 
been  the  comparative  delinquencies  of  Rome 
and  Avignon,  it  is  at  least  certain,  that  the 
latter  were  more  indecent  and  more  notori- 
ous ;  that  offences,  which  (if  they  were  really 
practised)  had  been  heretofore  veiled  or  only 
partially  known,  were  now  exposed  and  stig- 
matized universally  ;  and  that  the  only  alter- 
native thenceforward  remaining  to  the  ponti- 
fical government  was  to  correct  those  flagrant 
abuses,  or  by  their  means  to  fall,  f 

The  publication  of  the  celebrated  bull,  call- 
ed Unam  Sanctam,  in  which  Boniface  VIII. 
asserted  the  extreme  pretensions  of  his  see  to 
both  descriptions  of  supremacy,  may  be  view- 
ed, perhaps,  as  the  great  Crisis  in  papal  his- 
tory. As  far  as  that  moment,  nothing  had 
been  ceded  in  the  pontifical  claims,  and  noth- 
ing abated  in  the  arrogance  with  which  they 
were  pressed.     It  may  be,  that  their  founda- 


*  Denina,  Delle  Rivoluz.  d'ltalia,  lib.  xv.,cap.  vi. 
Sismondi,  Rep.  Ital.,  chap,  xlviii.  SeeBaluz.,  Pref. 
in  Vitas  Pontif.  Avenionensium. 

f  During  the  pontificate  of  John  XXII.,  complaints 
against  the  clergy  began  to  break  out  very  commonly 
in  France,  occasioned  by  the  excess  to  which  they 
carried  their  jurisdiction,  as  well  as  other  offences. 
But  Philip  the  Regent  protected  them, — '  Jura  eccle- 
siiirum  auxcrim  potius  quam  iinminuta  velim.'  It  is 
remarkable,  that  it  was  to  this  declaration  that  the 
kings  of  France  are  indebted  for  the  title  of  Catholic, 
— so,  at  least,  says  Bzovius,  Ann.  1329,  s.  xxiii. 


ITS  HERESIES  AND  DIVISIONS. 


395 


tions  had  been  silently  crumbling  beneath 
them,  but  their  actual  instability  was  still 
concealed  by  outward  show  and  magnificent 
pretension.  But  from  this  point  the  descent 
was  perceptible,  and  it  soon  became  very 
rapid ;  and  Philip,  having  penetrated  the  se- 
cret of  the  real  weakness  of  the  See,  effectu- 
ally brought  about  its  humiliation.  His  attack 
on  the  personal  safety  of  Boniface,  though  in 
a  great  measure  defeated  by  the  undaunted 
constancy  of  that  Pontiff,  disclosed  to  the 
whole  world  the  domestic  insecurity  of  the 
Bishop  of  Rome. 

Still  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  a  Pope,  as 
long  as  the  seat  of  his  government  was  his  own 
capital,  could  not  ever  be  the  mere  depend- 
ent of  any  sovereign  ;  and  this  is  the  argument 
by  which  Roman  Catholic  writers  most  plau- 
sibly defend  the  temporal  power  of  the  Chief 
of  their  church.  But  no  sooner  had  he  cross- 
ed the  Alps  and  transferred  his  court  to 
France,  than  he  descended  to  the  condition 
of  a  subordinate  prince.  It  was  in  vain, 
that  the  formalities  of  respect,  and  even  the 
show  of  equality,  were  observed :  the  influ- 
ence of  the  King  of  France  predominated  in 
the  councils  of  Avignon  ;  and  the  sense  and 
the  notoriety  of  temporal  dependence  dis- 
couraged the  ghostly  pretensions  of  the  Pope, 
and  blunted  the  edge  of  his  weapons.  For 
this,  among  other  reasons,  we  are  not  sur- 
prised to  observe,  that  the  ecclesiastical  cen- 
sures lost  much  of  their  efficacy  during  this 
age  ;  that  they  were  z-eceived  in  various  coun- 
tries with  various  degrees  of  indifference, 
but  that  this  indifference  was  everywhere 
increasing.  Italy  herself  was  the  most  con- 
spicuous for  the  general  neglect  with  which 
she  treated  them ;  and  Italy,  in  her  spiritual 
rebellion,  did  no  more  than  imitate  the  pre- 
eminent obduracy  of  Rome.  For  Rome  was 
irritated  by  the  absence  of  her  prelate  ;  and  her 
habitual  contumacy  and  lawlessness  found 
great  pretence  and  some  justification,  when 
she  was  deprived  even  of  the  ordinary  ad- 
vantages of  an  episcopal  residence. 

Another  severe,  and  even  incurable,  wound, 
was  inflicted  on  papal  despotism  by  the  threat 
of  appeal  to  a  General  Council,  which  was 
first  urged  by  Philip,  and  eagerly  repeated  by 
Louis  of  Bavaria.  That  there  was  a  power 
superior  to  the  Pope  within  the  church  itself, 
was  a  principle  which  was  sure  to  find  many 
advocates  even  in  the  ecclesiastical  body. 
Once  broached,  and  on  such  high  authority, 
it  was  commonly  discussed,  and  by  discus- 
sion gained  ground  ;  and  though  the  progress 


of  reason  against  established  prejudice  is  usu- 
ally very  slow,  the  minds  of  many  were  pre- 
pared for  this  innovation  during  the  first  half 
of  the  fourteenth  century  ;  but  it  was  not 
carried  into  full  effect  till  somewhat  later. 

Of  the  dissensions  which  divided  the  church 
during  this  period,  and  which  we  shall  pres- 
ently notice,  none  probably  occasioned  so 
great  scandal  at  the  time,  as  the  disputes  car- 
ried on  by  the  more  rigid  Franciscans  against 
the  Pope  himself.  Between  the  higher  ranks 
of  the  secular  clergy  and  their  acknowledged 
head,  we  have  observed  differences  not  un- 
common respecting  their  authority,  their  rev- 
enues, or  the  removal  of  their  corruptions. 
But  the  regular  orders  had  hitherto  observed 
the  strictest  allegiance  to  a  president,  whose 
interests  were  inseparably  connected  with 
their  own  ;  and  this  was  the  first  occasion 
on  which  the  pontifical  court  was  disturbed 
by  the  sound  of  monastic  insubordination. 
There  was  danger  in  an  example,  which  might 
be  followed  by  any  discontented  branch  of  the 
priesthood  ;  but  the  consequence,  which  real- 
ly and  immediately  followed  it,  was  to  open 
the  eyes  of  the  laity  to  the  deformities  of 
the  system,  and  to  rouse  them  against  those 
abuses,  which  ecclesiastics  themselves  no 
longer  conspired  to  defend. 

But  another,  and  a  still  more  certain  instru- 
ment for  the  subversion  of  papacy  had  been 
now  for  some  time  in  operation,  and  it  ac- 
quired additional  power  during  the  fourteenth 
century  ;  an  instrument,  independent  of  the 
accidents  of  papal  '  captivity  '  or  ecclesiastical 
discord,  and  one  which,  however  aided  by 
such  circumstances,  would  surely  have  ac- 
complished its  task  without  them.  Human 
reason  had  at  length  been  awakened  from  its 
long  lethargy ;  and  though  its  first  flights 
were  wild  and  irregular,  it  was  beginning  to 
extend  its  influence  and  to  know  its  authori- 
ity.  The  means  of  education  were  multipli- 
ed, its  character  was  varied  and  exalted  ;  and 
what  was  most  important  to  all  purposes 
of  general  improvement,  its  advantages  were 
no  longer  confined  to  a  privileged  body,  but 
were  diffused  through  every  condition  of 
society.  The  subjects,  indeed,  which  still 
engrossed  the  greater  portion  of  the  learning 
of  those  days,  were  generally  connected  with 
theology,  or  with  the  constitution  and  disci- 
pline of  the  church.  Still  it  was  not  to 
churchmen  alone,  that  such  discussions  were 
confined.  Those  who  profited  by  the  ecclesi- 
astical system  were  no  longer  the  only  persons 
qualified  to  argue  respecting  it.    No  sooner 


396 


HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


were  the  gates  opened,  than  the  laity  rushed 
into  that  province  with  great  eagerness  ;  and 
the  seeds  of  the  Reformation  were  already 
scattered,  though  it  was  uncertain  when  they 
would  hreak  forth,  or  what  fruits  they  would 
bear  in  their  maturity. 

II.  Attempts  at  Reformation. — The  abuses 
which  gave  most  offence  at  the  commence- 
ment of  this  period,  so  as  to  excite  the  indig- 
nation of  the  better  portion  of  the  clergy,  and 
even  to  claim  the  attention  of  the  hierarchy, 
have  been  enumerated  in  a  former  page,  as 
they  were  presented  to  the  Council  of  Vienna. 
They  were  not  corrected  on  that  occasion,  and 
they  increased  in  consequence. 

We  must  not,  however,  suppose,  that  no 
regulations  were  enacted  under  the  Avignon 
Popes  for  the  amendment  of  the  ecclesiastical 
system  ;  they  were  very  numerous ;  #  but  the 
misfortune  was,  that  they  were  generally  mis- 
directed. They  descended  to  insignificant 
p  rticulars,  or  were  fabricated  by  one  portion 
of  the  clergy  against  another,  or  by  the  or- 
thodox against  the  heretics  ;  or  they  related 
to  the  imposts  of  the  Pope  and  the  means 
of  evading  them ;  they  never  reached  those 
grand  deformities  which  endangered  the 
church,  through  the  just  offence  which  they 
gave  to  the  laity.  It  is  true  that  some  papal 
constitutions  were  published  both  against  the 
non-residence  of  the  clergy  and  the  holding 
of  pleuralities.  But  the  first  could  not  be 
consistently  enforced  by  a  prelate  who  had 
never  visited  his  own  see ;  and  the  Popes, 
though   they  held  decisive   language,!  were 


*  A  number  of  the  Councils  assembled  for  this  pur- 
pose, and  the  principal  canons  enacted  by  them  are 
mentioned  by  Semler,  sec.  xiv.,  cap.  ii.  The  follow- 
ing are  specimens: — Concil.  Coloniense,  aim.  1313. 
Neclericis  publica  pcenitentia  imponatur,  cum  alii  in 
albis  procedunt,  alii  in  nigris  cappis,  in  facie  laico- 
rum.  Ne  fiant  itnprecationes  contra  aliquas  personas. 
Concil.  Trevirense,  ej.  ann.  Contra  gerentes  cu- 
cuteras,  seu  cucusas,  mitras,  virgatas,  scacatas  vestes. 
Contra  convivia  in  exequiis.  .  .  Ut  ante  vel  post  vel 
super  altare  sit  imago,  sculptura,  pictura,  in  cujus 
Sancti  meritum  constructum  sit.  .  .  Si  infans  caput 
ex  utero  emiserit  a  muliere  baptizetur ;  si  solum  caput 
vel  pars  corporis  major  appareat  nee  discerni  potest 
sexus:  dicat,  Creatura  Dei,  ego,  &c.  &c,  et  erit 
baptizatus. 

f  John  XXII.  in  1317  put  forth  a  constitution 
against  all  ambitious  and  avaricious  clergymen,  com- 
plaining of  their  non-residence,  neglect  of  hospitality, 
the  ruin  of  their  churches,  &c.  And  we  observe,  at 
the  same  time,  that  he  deposed  a  bishop;  not,  how- 
ever, on  any  of  these  grave  charges,  but  for  the  of- 
fence of  contumacy.  (Bzov.,  ann.  1317,  s.  xiii.) 
The  same  pontiff  also  published  an  edict  against  plu- 


manifestly  insincere  in  the  second.  Or,  if  we 
are  to  admit  that  one  or  two  among  them 
were  really  earnest  in  their  wishes  and  en- 
deavors, they  were  at  least  prevented  from 
taking  measures  to  effectuate  them  by  the 
fear  of  offending  the  most  powerful,  though 
perhaps  the  least  deserving,  part  of  the  sacred 
body. 

III.  Divisions  and  Heresies. — When  Fran- 
cis of  Umbria  first  established  his  rigid  Order, 
his  rule  was  celebrated  by  the  applause  of 
successive  popes.  The  impious  fables  which 
he  propagated,  respecting  the  miraculous  im- 
pression of  the  Saviour's  wounds  on  his  body, 
and  other  such  matters,  were  countenanced 
and  dignified  by  the  authority  of  the  Church  ; 
he  was  adopted  with  eagerness  into  the  fami- 
ly of  the  Saints  ;  *  and  the  extreme  austerity 
of  the  institution  seemed  in  some  fashion  to 
be  sanctified  by  the  superstitious  reverence, 
thus  studiously  thrown  around  the  name  of 
the  Founder.  We  are  not,  then,  to  be  aston- 
ished when  we  observe,  that  several  among 
his  followers  adhered  to  the  very  letter  of  his 
instructions  with  unprecedented  pertinacity, 
and  scorned  the  vulgar  temptations  to  soften 
their  severity.  The  example  of  relaxation 
set  to  them  by  almost  every  other  Order,  the 
desertion  of  the  more  numerous  part  even  of 
their  own  brethren,  the  moderate  indulgence 
enjoined  by  the  Pope  himself,  were  insuffi- 
cient to  seduce  those  honest  fanatics  from 
strict  obedience  to  their  law,  or  to  abate  the 


ralities,  beginning  '  Execrabilis  quorundam,'  &c, 
and  continued  in  a  strain  of  emphatic  abuse.  (See 
Vit.,  (3tia.)  Joh.  XXII.  ap.  Baluzium.)  Similar 
laws  were  launched,  with  the  same  inefficiency,  by 
Benedict  XII.,  and  afterwards  by  Innocent  VI.  A 
curious  story  is  told  to  prove  the  zeal  of  this  last. 
Innocent,  before  his  elevation,  had  a  favorite  chap- 
lain, on  vvhom  had  been  conferred  seven  benefices. 
As  soon  as  he  became  Pope,  the  chaplain  again  pre- 
sented himself,  bringing  with  him  a  little  godson,  for 
whom  he  wished  also  to  procure  a  benefice.  But  the 
Pope,  like  a  just  man,  answered  him:  'You  have 
seven  good  benefices ;  resign  the  best  of  them  to  that 
boy.'  On  which,  when  Innocent  saw  that  the  pe- 
titioner was  discontented,  he  again  said,  '  You  have 
still  six  benefices,  and  fewer  would  suffice  for  your 
necessities:  choose,  then,  for  yourself  the  three  best 
of  them,  and  resign  the  others,  that  I  may  bestow 
them,  for  the  honor  of  God,  on  three  poor  clergymen.' 
The  Popo  was  highly  applauded  for  that  act,  as  hav- 
ing therein  followed  the  path  of  spiritual,  rather  than 
carnal  affection.  See  Vita  (4ta)  Innocent.  VI.,apud 
Baluzium. 

*  Both  Francis  and  Dominic  were  canonized  by 
the  same  pope,  Gregory  IX.  (about  1235;)  so  like- 
wise was  Anthony  of  Padua,  and  other  less  consider- 
able personages. 


ITS  HERESIES  AND  DIVISIONS. 


397 


vivid  faith  which  they  placed  in  their  master. 
For  indeed  it  was  to  faith  that  their  feelings 
amounted,  when  they  maintained  that  St. 
Francis  was  a  second  Christ — nothing  inferior 
or  dissimilar  to  the  first ;  and  that  the  institu- 
tion which  he  left  behind  him  was  the  true 
gospel  of  salvation. 

Entire  and  absolute  poverty,  the  complete 
renunciation  of  all  property,  whether  common 
or  personal,  was  the  fundamental  principle  of 
the  society,  the  only  principle  of  Christian 
obedience — the  only  rule  of  evangelical  per- 
fection. In  defence  of  that  position,  it  be- 
came them  at  the  same  time  to  profess  and 
argue,  that  the  practice  of  Christ  and  his 
Apostles  had  been  rigidly  formed  upon  the 
same  rule  ;  and  this  became  accordingly  the 
question  in  dispute  with  their  theological  ad- 
versaries. Those  adversaries,  as  we  may  well 
suppose,  were  neither  few  nor  of  humble 
rank.  A  courtly  and  luxurious  hierarchy 
were  scandalized  by  that  unqualified  asser- 
tion of  the  necessity  of  poverty  ;  and  Christ's 
imperious  vicegerent  upon  earth  was  shocked 
by  so  homely  a  picture  of  the  humility  of  his 
heavenly  Lord. 

Some  unsuccessful  endeavors  were  made 
in  the  preceding  century  to  bring  the  Fratri- 
celli,  or  Minorites  (so  they  were  denominated) 
to  a  more  reasonable  view  of  the  gospel  in- 
stitution, and  of  the  spirit  of  their  own  rule  : 
but  it  does  not  appear  that  any  personal  out- 
rage was  offered  them  until  the  year  1306 ; 
and  even  then  it  proceeded,  as  was  naturally 
to  be  expected,  from  the  more  worldly  mem- 
bers of  their  own  fraternity.  From  Italy, 
many  then  fled  into  Provence,  and  were  scat- 
tered over  the  south  of  France ;  and  at  this 
time  they  are  represented  to  have  united  with 
the  Spirituals,  and  the  Beghards  and  Be- 
guines.  The  name  Spiritual  is  said  to  have 
been  first  assumed  by  the  followers  of  a  schis- 
matic of  that  age,  named  Pierre  d'Olive  ;  the 
others  were  the  Tertiarii,  or  third  order  of 
Franciscans.  All  were  equally  opposed  to 
the  existing  system  of  papal  government. 
As  their  principles  were  henceforward  iden- 
tified, so  also  was  their  history  ;  and  the  term 
spiritual  is  that  by  which  the  observers  of  the 
rule  of  absolute  poverty  were  commonly  dis- 
tinguished from  their  less  austere  Brethren  of 
the  Community. 

Disputes  letween  the  Popes  and  the  Francis- 
cans,— Clement  V.  interposed  his  mediation 
between  these  contentious  mendicants;  and 
at  the  Council  of  Vienna  he  issued  the  Bull 
Exivi  de  Paradiso,  with  the  design  of  bring- 
ing them  to  concord  by  mutual  concession. 


He  permitted  to  the  Spirituals  the  enjoyment 
of  the  most  abject  poverty ;  while  at  the  same 
lime,  to  such  Franciscans  as  resided  in  barren 
countries,  where  the  resources  of  mendicity 
were  precarious,  he  allowed  the  use  of  gran- 
aries and  store-houses,  as  places  of  deposit  for 
their  common  alms.  Nevertheless,  though  all 
acts  of  violence  were  for  the  moment  sus- 
pended, the  division  of  the  Order  continued 
as  before,  and  the  mutual  animosity  was  in 
no  degree  abated  ;  and  a  distinction  in  dress 
at  this  time  introduced  by  the  Minorites, 
who  adopted  a  meaner  and  coarser  habit, 
contributed  no  little  to  inflame  the  contro- 
versy. 

Matters  stood  thus,  when  John  XXII.  was 
raised  to  the  pontificate  ;  and  since  the  mod- 
eration of  his  predecessors  had  not  availed  to 
heal  the  schism,  he  entered  without  any  delay 
into  the  opposite  system.  We  observe  that 
the  Fratricelli  are  enumerated  among  the 
heretics  condemned  in  an  edict  which  he 
published  in  1317  ;  and  in  the  year  following 
he  made  them  the  object  of  a  memorable  bull : 
— "  The  glorious  Church  which  has  neither 
stain  nor  wrinkle,  which  Christ  loved,  and  for 
which  he  delivered  himself  to  death,  that  he 
might  sanctify  it  by  washing  it  with  water  in 
the  Word  of  Life — this  Church  the  Prophet 
knew  by  the  revelation  of  the  Spirit  to  be 
placed  before  all  nations ;  and  admiring  the 
splendor  of  so  much  dignity,  he  exhibited  it 
under  the  similitude  of  royalty,  saying — A 
queen  stood  on  thy  right  hand,  in  gilded 
garments,  &c.  &c."  *  After  describing  the 
nature  of  the  union  between  Christ  and  his 
spouse  the  Church,  and  especially  eulogizing 


*  '  Gloriosam  Ecclesiam,  non  habentem  maculam 
ant  rugam,  quam  Christus  dilexit,  pro  qua  semet 
ipsum  tradidit,  &c.  Nimirum  ipsa  Christi  Sponsa 
Virgo  Mater  Ecelesia,  quia  inclylo  Capiti  suo  Domino 
Jesu  Christo  inviolabilis  fidei  ghitino  copulatur,  et 
ejus  impeiio  prona  obedientia  substernitur,  cum  Illo 
ununi  effeeta,  lam  incomparabilis  unionis  nierito  rebus 
omnibus,  more  regio,  principatur.  Quae  dum  pia  et 
devota  religione  terrena  despicit,  cajleslia  petit,  omne 
sinistium  premens,  a  dextris  Sponsi  gloiiosaconsistit. 
Et  quia  gemince  charitatis  splendore  omni  ex  parte 
rutilat,  in  vestitu  aureo  etiam  angelicis  spiritibus 
admiranda  coruscat.  Cujus  inaestimabilis  decor, 
quia  vario  vivendi  genere  in  una  tamed  charitate  per- 
ficitur,  quasi  de  vestis  pulcherrima  variolate  keta- 
tur.  .  .  '  Such  were  the  senseless  and  even  impious 
rhapsodies,  with  which  a  very  bad  pope  celebrated 
the  corrupt  church,  which  he  still  further  corrupted 
by  his  acts  and  his  eulogies; — not  that  he  was  x-eally 
blind  to  ils  deformities,  but  because  he  was  too  timid 
or  too  wicked  to  correct  them,  and  because  he  be- 
lieved that  the  system,  with  all  its  vices  upon  its  head, 
would  still  last  and  be  profitable  for  his  own  time. 


398 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


the  charity  of  the  latter,  the  Pope  proceeded 
to  expose  the  errors  of  the  Minorites.  He 
classed  them  under  five  heads,  and  showed 
how  they  combined  the  various  enormities 
of  the  Donatists,  of  the  Waldenses,  and  the 
Manicheans,  while  they  also  followed  the 
'  foul  traces '  of  Montauus  *  and  Priscilla. 
The  burden  of  their  offence  was  contempt 
of  the  '  bonds  of  the  Church,'  and  disrespect 
for  its  ministers ;  howbeit,  being  convicted  by 
the  edict  of  John  of  certain  condemned  and 
stigmatized  heresies,  they  were  consigned  by 
the  same  act  to  inquisitorial  authority.  The 
agents  of  oppression  executed  their  part  with 
no  delay ;  and  the  very  same  year  four  of  the 
Fratricelli  were  seized  at  Marseilles,  and  burnt 
to  death. 

From  this  moment  the  contest  assumed  a 
much  more  serious  character.  The  devotion 
of  the  Spirituals  was  now  sealed,  and  their 
resistance  sanctified,  by  the  blood  of  their 
martyrs ;  their  zeal,  their  activity,  their  num- 
bers everywhere  increased ;  and  the  more 
violent  were  the  proceedings  of  the  inquisi- 
tors, the  more  advocates  did  the  persecuted 
acquire,  the  more  generally  they  rose  into 
respect  and  consideration.  Their  great  prin- 
ciple respecting  the  poverty  of  Christ  was  now 
made  the  subject  of  solemn  deliberation;  and 
the  most  celebrated  divines  of  the  age,  espe- 
cially those  of  Paris,  were  officially  consulted 
on  the  question,  and  finally  the  Pope  himself 
descended  into  the  field  of  controversy — and 
happier  had  been  his  fortunes,  and  his  memo- 
ry more  honored,  had  he  confined  his  hostility 
to  that  bloodless  warfare.  At  the  end  of  1322 
he  published  a  Constitution,  in  which  he  con- 
futed the  arguments  of  the  Franciscans,  and 
asserted  for  the  monastic  orders  the  right  of 
property,  instead  of  the  simple  use  of  their 
immediate   necessaries.      The  Spirituals  re- 


*  In  the  account  of  Montanus  (given  in  Chap.  V. 
p.  78.)  it  is  too  confidently  asserted  that  he  professed 
to  be  the  Paraclete  or  Comforter.  It  is  indeed 
the  deliberate  opinion  of  Mosheim  that  he  professed 
to  be  the  Paraclete,  sent  down  to  complete  the 
Christian  system;  but  that  writer  supposes  the  fanatic 
to  have  distinguished  between  the  Paraclete  and  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  not  to  have  proceeded  so  far  as  to 
assert  his  identity  with  the  latter.  Bishop  Kaye  is 
of  opinion  that  Montanus  only  laid  claims  to  inspi- 
ration by  the  Holy  Ghost;  and  he  certainly  shows 
that  the  distinction,  supposed  to  have  been  made  be- 
tween the  Holy  Ghost  and  the  Paraclete,  lias  no 
foundation.  It  seems  probable  that  the  bishop's 
opinion  is  correct.  At  least  the  only  alternative  is 
to  believe,  that  Montanus  pretended  to  be  the  Holy 
Ghost — an  absurdity  by  no  means  unparalleled  in  the 
history  of  heresy. 


jected  the  right  with  the  same  obstinacy, 
with  which  it  was  dictated  by  the  Pope  ;  and 
it  was  at  least  a  singular  contest,  and  worthy 
of  a  more  religious  age  and  more  reasonable 
motives,  where  the  one  party  indignantly  re- 
pudiated the  worldly  possessions,  which  the 
other  imperiously  obtruded  —  where  a  body 
of  beggars  preferred  the  endurance  of  a  dead- 
ly persecution  to  the  sacrifice  of  the  duty  of 
poverty. 

In  this  manner  the  dispute  proceeded,  until 
the  rupture  between  John  and  Louis  of  Ba- 
varia became  open  and  decided.  Then  the 
Emperor,  as  if  to  turn  against  the  Church  the 
old  ecclesiastical  policy,  hastened  to  profit  by 
the  divisions  of  his  adversary,  and  to  foment 
the  spiritual  rebellion.  The  provinces  of  the 
empire  were  thrown  open  to  all  the  denom- 
inations of  schism  and  heresy;  and  the  multi- 
form enemies  of  papacy  found  refuge  in  the 
dominions  of  Louis,  and  honor  at  his  court. 
Marsilius  of  Padua,  Csesenas,  Bonagratia,  and 
William  Occam,  were  the  most  illustrious 
among  those  exiles.  They  directed  their  elo- 
quence, their  learning,  and  their  satire,  both 
personally  against  John,  and  generally  against 
the  system  of  the  Church  ;  and  their  writings, 
which  were  eagerly  read  even  by  that  genera- 
tion, were  transmitted  with  still  greater  profit 
to  a  less  prejudiced  posterity. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Pope  *  was  ardent- 
ly supported  by  his  Dominican  emissaries. 
Then*  thirst  for  heretical  blood  was  heated  by 
a  particular  jealousy  of  the  Franciscan  Order. 
Wherever  an  avenue  was  open  they  penetrat- 
ed. They  pursued  the  fugitives  even  into  the 
remote  plains  of  Poland  and  Hungary,  and 
introduced  into  those  ignorant  regions  the 
machinery  of  the  Inquisition.  But  France 
and  Italy  f  were  the  scene  of  their  most  suc- 
cessful exertions;  and  these  were  not  con- 
fined to  the  pontificate  of  John.    Even  the 


*  The  history  of  John  XXII.  abounds  with  edicts 
against  the  various  denominations  of  heresy.  We 
are  also  bound  to  mention  that  he  published  (in  1326) 
one  Constitution  to  repress  the  too  great  zeal  of 
certain  inquisitors  in  Sicily;  but  when  we  examine 
the  nature  of  that  zeal,  we  find  that  it  had  ventured 
to  attack  '  nostros  et  apostolicae  sedis  ofliciales  vel 
nuntios,  &c.'  John,  as  well  as  several  other  popes, 
extended  more  protection  to  the  Jews  than  they  en- 
joyed elsewhere. 

t  Vit.  John  XXII.  ap.  Baluz.  Mosheim  calcu- 
lates, from  various  records  published  and  unpublished, 
that  the  names  of  about  two  thousand  persons,  of 
both  sexes,  may  be  enumerated,  who  suffered  martyr- 
dom in  France  and  Italy  for  their  inflexible  attach- 
ment to  the  poverty  of  St.  Francis.  Cent.  xiv.  jw 
2.  ch.  ii. 


ITS  HERESIES  AND  DIVISIONS. 


399 


virtuous  Benedict  began  his  reign  by  an  ana- 
thema against  the  Fratricelli;  and  it  is  re- 
markable, that,  in  the  Constitution  which  he 
published  on  this  occasion,*  the  articles  of 
their  heresy  are  swelled  to  fifty- five.  Their 
denial  of  the  power  of  the  Pope  to  permit  them 
to  have  property  is  among  the  most  curious, 
and  not  the  least  grave,  of  their  offences  ; — 
some  very  gross  absurdities  were  also  imputed 
to  them,  which  may  have  been  calumniously, 
as  indeed  they  may  have  been  truly,  alleged. 
.  .  But  there  is  one  observation  here  neces- 
sary, which  will  tend  to  account  for  the  great 
multiplicity  and  vagueness  of  the  charges  ad- 
vanced. A  furious  war  was  at  that  time  rag- 
ing in  Italy  between  the  imperial  and  papal 
factions ;  and  it  was  a  part  of  the  crooked 
policy  of  the  churchmen  of  Rome  to  confound 
political  enmity  with  spiritual  perversity,  and 
to  brand  the  adversaries  of  the  visible  church 
with  the  crime  of  heretical  depravity.  Among 
the  adversaries  of  the  church  they  usually 
classed  its  reformers — those  who  were  indeed 
its  only  real  friends;  and  thus  it  happened, 
that  the  term  heresy  came  now  to  compre- 
hend every  opinion  unfavorable  to  the  eccle- 
siastical government  of  the  day,  and  the  gates 
of  the  Inquisition  received  without  distinction 
a  various  and  indiscriminate  multitude. 

Still,  as  long  as  the  reign  of  Louis  continu- 
ed, a  secure  asylum  was  offered  to  all  descrip- 
tions of  Dissenters ;  and  these,  being  already 
connected  by  one  common  principle  and  one 
common  wrong,  may  have  adopted  from  each 
other  the  absurd  opinions,  which  some  of 
them  certainly  held.  But  the  spirit  which 
united  them  was  deep  animosity  against  the 
Pope,  whom  they  accused  in  their  turn  of 
impiety  and  usurpation.  In  the  year  1345,  f 
Louis  was  succeeded  by  Charles  IV. ;  and  as 
that  Prince  was  chiefly  obliged  for  his  eleva- 
tion to  pontifical  influence,  so  his  policy  fol- 
lowed the  interests  of  the  Court  of  Avignon. 
If  the  principles  of  the  Bavarian  had  con- 
tinued to  govern  his  dominions  for  another 
generation,  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  em- 
pire  would   have   wholly   freed   itself   from 


*  Bzov.  ad  ann.  1335,  s.  ii. 

t  About  the  same  time  died  William  Occham, 
*  pestilentissimusHaeresiarcha.' — Bzovins  (ann.  1347, 
p.  xxxvi.j)  though  he  designates  this  Englishman  to 
have  been  '  omnium  incentor  malorum,  auctor  scelc- 
rum,  cultor  tenebrarum,  &c.  &c.,'  still  does  not  at- 
tribute his  death  to  divine  interposition;  —  which  is 
the  more  surprising,  because  he  had  not  hesitated  to 
pronounce  somewhat  earlier  (ann.  1321,  s.  xxi.)  that 
Dante  died  through  the  peculiar  vengeance  of  Hea- 
ven, which  visited  his  calumnies  against  the  popes. 


papal  supremacy,  and  raised  the  banners  of 
Reformation  in  the  fourteenth  century  with 
no  inconsiderable  advantage  to  religion.  But 
such  anticipation  of  the  more  perfect  triumph 
of  a  more  enlightened  age  was  cut  short  by 
the  perfidy  *  of  the  Imperial  counsels.  The 
numerous  insurgents  against  the  despotism 
of  Rome,  whom  Louis  had  encouraged  and 
protected  and  created,  were  betrayed  by  his 
successor  into  the  hands  of  the  avenger.  The 
peaceful  provinces  of  the  empire,  hitherto 
sacred  from  the  inroads  of  persecution,  were 
now  thrown  open  to  the  Dominicans.  Their 
irruption  was  supported  by  secular  edicts  and 
arms ;  and  the  extirpation  of  the  '  Voluntary 
beggars' — the  enemies  of  the  Church  and  the 
'  Roman  empire?  —  was  pressed  with  equal 
ardor  by  the  pope  and  the  emperor.  The 
houses  of  the  offenders  were  given  to  the  tri- 
bunal of  the  Inquisition,  to  be  converted  into 
prisons  for  heretics  ;f  and  their  effects  were 
publicly  sold,  for  the  equal  profit  of  the  in- 
quisitors who  ordered,  of  the  magistrates  who 
enforced,  and  of  the  poor  who  witnessed,  their 
execution.  The  survivors  fled  towards  the 
banks  of  the  Rhine,  to  Switzerland,  Brabant 
and  Pomerania  ;  but  they  were  followed  by  a 
tempest  of  mandates  and  bulls,  and  hunted 
by  the  keen  Dominicans  even  into  their  most 
distant  retreats;  till  at  length  it  is  admitted, 
that  the  greater  part  of  Germany  was  restor 
ed,  after  this  sanguinary  purification,  to  the 
peaceful  embrace  of  the  Church. 

But  neither  edicts,  nor  bulls,  nor  inquisitors, 
could  suppress  the  spirit  of  the  schism,  though 
they  might  extinguish  its  name  ;  and  those 
who  preserved  their  obedience  to  the  more 
rigid  rule,  were  still  found  to  be  so  numerous, 
and  the  love  of  that  discipline  was  still  in 
some  provinces  so  prevalent,  that  the  popes 
at  length  thought  proper  to  sanction  the  in- 
stitution. Accordingly,  the  Franciscan  Order 
was   by  authority  divided  into   two   bodies, 


*  This  is  no  ground  perhaps  for  imputing  to  Charles 
personally,  that  his  intolerance  was  aggravated  by 
treachery.  The  individual  stands  convicted  of  per- 
secution only.  But  the  circumstance  of  this  change 
adds  one  to  the  many  instances,  in  which  the  steady, 
consistent  perseverance  of  the  Vatican  has  carried 
its  point,  through  the  fluctuations  of  the  Imperial 
policy. 

t  See  Mosheim,  Cent.  xiv.  p.  ii.  ch.  ii.  Their 
crime  is  mentioned  in  the  edict  (published  at  Lucca  in 
1369)  which  condemns  them.  '  They  are  a  pernicious 
sect,  who  pretend  to  a  sacrilegious  and  heretical 
poverty,  and  who  are  under  a  vow  that  they  neither 
ought  to  have,  nor  will  have,  any  property,  whether 
special  or  common,  in  the  goods  they  use  —  which 
they  extend  even  to  their  wretched  habits.' 


400 


HISTORY   OF   THE   CHURCH. 


which  subsist  to  this  day  —  the  more  indul- 
gent were  called  the  Conventual  Brethren 
—  the  more  austere,  the  Brethren  of  Ob- 
servance. The  disputes  which  afterwards 
disturbed  this  arrangement  were  partial  and 
insignificant ;  and  the  historian  may  express 
his  astonishment  mixed  with  sorrow,  that  so 
simple  a  method  of  reconciliation  could  only 
be  reached  through  the  paths  of  intolerance 
and  oppression. 

Beghards  and  Lollards. — The  term  Beg- 
hard  was  in  this  age  commonly  applied  to 
the  Tertiaries  of  St.  Francis ;  and,  though  in 
its  origin  probably  innocent  of  such  princi- 
ples, it  was  now  involved  in  the  guilt  and  fate 
of  the  anti-papal  heresies.  The  '  Brethren 
of  the  free  spirit,'  the  harmless  mystics  of  the 
last  century,*  had  been  some  time  known  by 
that  appellation  ;  and  sometimes  they  are  de- 
signated as  Lollards,  in  the  records  of  the 
following  age.  The  reason  of  their  confu- 
sion is,  that  both  names  were  indiscriminately 
used  by  the  Church  to  stigmatize  those  who 
dissented  from  it,  without  any  new  inquiry 
as  to  the  grounds  and  points  of  their  dissent. 
Mosheim,  who  has  investigated  this  subject 
with  great  diligence,  considers  the  Lollards  f 
to  have  been  a  society  of  pious  laymen,  form- 
ed in  the  first  instance  at  Antwerp,  for  the 
purpose  of  visiting  the  sick  and  burying  the 
dead  during  a  season  of  pestilence  ;  for  the 
clergy  are  affirmed  to  have  deserted  their 
official  duties,  as  soon  as  they  became  attend- 
ed with  peril.  The  humane  motives  and  re- 
ligious practice  of  the  new  society  caused  it 
to  spread  throughout  Flanders  and  many 
parts  of  Germany,  and  it  was  encouraged  by 
the  respect  of  the  magistrates  and  the  love  of 
the  inhabitants.  Its  success  excited  the  jeal- 
ousy, as  indeed  it  reflected  on  the  reputation, 
of  all  the  clergy;  but  the  Mendicants  had  per- 
haps a  deeper  motive  for  animosity  against  it, 
when  they  found  that  their  own  profits  suffer- 
ed through  its  gratuitous  charity.  Accord- 
ingly, they  raised  the  customary  clamors  of 
impiety  and  heresy:  under  the  mask  of  ex- 
traordinary holiness,  the  Lollards  concealed 
forsooth  the  blackest  errors  and  the  most 
enormous  vices !  they  were  denounced  at  the 
pontifical  throne,  and  their  name  has  passed 

*  See  Mosheim,  Cent.  xm.  p.  ii.  ch.  v. 

t  Mosheim,  Cent.  xiv.  p.  ii.  eh.  ii.  The  word 
Lolhard  means  a  singer — as  Beghard  means  one  who 
prays.  The  former  were  also  called  the  '  Cellite 
brethren  and  sisters  —  the  Alexian  brethren'  —  from 
the  cells  in  which  they  lived,  and  the  saint  who  was 
their  patron.     See  Semler,  Secul.  xiv.  cap.  i. 


into  the  language  of  the  Church  to  designate 
a  misbelieving  and  sanctified  hypocrite. 

They  may  have  held  some  foolish  opinions 
— among  those  generally  attributed  to  them 
the  following  are  the  most  peculiar :  that  the 
mind  ought  to  be  called  away  from  the  ex- 
ternal and  sensible  parts  of  religion,  and  fixed 
on  inward  and  spiritual  worship ;  that  the 
soul  which  is  wholly  absorbed  in  the  love  of 
God  is  free  from  the  restraint  of  every  law, 
and  may  gratify  its  natural  appetites  without 
sin  ;  that  perfect  virtue  and  perfect  beatitude 
may  be  obtained  in  this  world  ;  and  that  per- 
sons so  circumstanced  are  removed  above 
every  worldly  consideration ;  so  that  the 
moral  virtues,  as  well  as  the  religious  cer- 
emonies, might  be  neglected  without  offence. 
Moreover  they  pretended  that  there  were  two 
Churches,  the  carnal  Church,  which  was 
that  of  Rome  ;  the  spiritual,  which  wa3  con- 
fined to  their  own  society*  .  .  .  Such 
were  the  crimes  imputed  to  them  by  the 
Churchmen  ;  and  this  last  may  really  have 
been  the  secret  of  their  offence.  Yet,  though 
we  should  believe  them  to  have  held  almost 
every  tenet  with  which  they  are  charged, 
(for  the  contempt  of  moral  duties  was  clearly 
not  a  tenet,  but  a  consequence  calumniously 
drawn  by  their  enemies,)  may  we  not  discern, 
that  the  principle  from  which  they  departed 
was  excellent  and  holy  ?  It  led  them  into 
some  extravagances;  but  were  those  so  gross, 
or  nearly  so  detestable,  as  the  deliberate  absur- 
dities which  were  committed  by  the  Church 
itself  during  the  same  period  ? — the  insertion 
into  the  Liturgy  of  '  the  words  in  which  the 
angel  Gabriel  saluted  the  Virgin  Mary' — the 


*  Other  charges  are  instanced  by  Bzovius  (ami. 
1307,  s.  ix.)  They  held  that  the  Mass,  Baptism  and 
Extreme  Unction  were  useless  ceremonies;  that  Lu- 
cifer was  an  injured  being,  and  that  the  angels,  as 
well  as  all  the  enemies  of  their  own  sect,  would  be 
finally  condemned  ;  that  Mary  did  not  continue  a  vir- 
gin after  the  nativity;  that  the  body  of  the  Lord  in 
the  Eucharist  was  not  real ;  that  marriage  was  only 
sanctified  whoredom;  that  God  neither  punished  nor 
regarded  human  sins.  Besides  this,  they  lay  together 
promiscuously  under  the  pretence  of  charity;  they 
ate  flesh  when  they  would  ;  they  observed  no  festivals 
and  derided  the  merits  and  intercession  of  the  saints; 
and  finally  they  were  so  obstinate  under  persecution, 
that  whatever  might  be  their  sex  or  age,  they  unani- 
mously preferred  death  to  conversion.  ...  In  this 
strange  and  calumnious  catalogue  we  may  observe  the 
malignity,  with  which  some  tenets,  merely  rejecting 
the  innovations  of  Rome,  are  mixed  up  with  the  most 
horrible  crimes  and  blasphemies.  Yet  this  was  one 
of  the  most  vulgar  among  the  artifices  of  the  Church 
men  of  those  days. 


ITS  HERESIES  AND  DIVISIONS. 


401 


institution  of  festivals  in  honor  of  the  lance, 
the  nails,  the  crown  of  Christ  * — the  appoint- 
ment of  a  holy  day  for  the  solemn  celebration 
of  the  wounds  of  Christ,  miraculously  im- 
pressed upon  the  body  of  St.  Francis !  .  .  .  . 
If  we  should  believe  all  the  calumnies  that 
churchmen  have  ever  fabricated  in  vilifica- 
tion of  the  Mystics,  we  shall  find  among  them 
nothing  so  irrational,  nothing  nearly  so  impi- 
ous, as  those  authorized  ecclesiastical  mum- 
meries. 

The  Lollards  suffered  some  oppression  in 
Austria  and  other  countries;  but  a  war  of 
extermination  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
formally  proclaimed  against  them.  No  doubt, 
they  were  confounded  by  the  inquisitors, 
sometimes  erroneously  and  sometimes  wil- 
fully, with  the  more  avowed  enemies  of  the 
papal  government;  and  thus  they  shared  that 
vengeance,  which  was  chiefly  intended  for 
the  Spirituals  and  Beghards.  But  whether 
through  their  greater  obscurity  or  more  man- 
ifest harmlessness,  they  escaped  in  compara- 
tive safety,  without  any  direct  attack, — and  to 
this  tolerance  it  may  perhaps  be  attributed, 
that  the  sect  of  the  Lollards  f  (properly  so 
called)  never  rose  into  great  power  and  never 
became  dangerous  to  the  Catholic  Church. 

Dulcinus. — During  the  reign  of  Clement 
V.,  a  preacher  named  Dulcinus,  attended  by  a 
woman  called  Margaret,  his  wife  or  his  mis- 
tress, presented  himself  in  Lombardy,  and 
erected  in  the  neighboring  mountains  the 
standard  of  heresy.  He  was  charged  with 
contempt  of  the  Catholic  hierarchy,  and  with 
censuring  the  abuses  of  their  immoderate 
wealth ;  also  with  asserting  a  succession  of 
three  theocracies — that  those  under  the  Fa- 
ther and  the  Son  were  already  passed  ;  that 
the  third,  under  the  Holy  Spirit,  was  then  in 
operation.  I  Lastly,  to  consummate  his  odium, 

*  Others  might  be  added.  For  instance,  John 
XXII.  re-established  with  fresh  indulgences  the  festi- 
val of  '  the  body  of  Christ '  —  granting  to  all  Christ- 
ians a  general  pardon  of  forty  days  for  every  reverence 
made,  on  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  being  pronounced 
by  the  priest.     Giovanni  Villani,  lib.  ii.  cap.  lxxix. 

■f  The  name  Lollard,  as  is  well  known,  was  after- 
wards generally  applied  to  various  adversaries  of  the 
popish  establishment;  but  the  real  origin  both  of  the 
name  and  sect  was  probably  such  as  has  been  here 
described. 

^  His  followers  called  themselves  '  the  Spiritual 
Congregation  and  the  Order  of  the  Apostles.'  •  We 
alone  (they  said)  are  in  the  perfection  in  which  the 
apostles  were,  and  in  the  liberty  which  proceeds 
immediately  from  Jesus  Christ.  Wherefore  we  ac- 
knowledge obedience  neither  to  the  pope  nor  any 
other  human  being:  nor  has  he  any  power  to  ex-com- 

51 


his  followers,  who  were  not  very  numerous, 
were  assailed  with  the  primitive  and  accus- 
tomed calumny  of  promiscuous  prostitution. 
A  crusade  was  preached  by  the  Church 
against  these  miserable  enthusiasts,  and  its 
armies  were  led  to  the  assault  by  a  zealous 
bishop.  Surrounded  and  pressed  among  the 
Alpine  passes,  many  had  already  perished 
from  cold  and  want,  before  the  sword  was 
drawn  to  complete  their  destruction.  It  did  so 
most  effectually ;  and  Roman  Catholic  writ- 
ers record  without  emotion,  that  the  heretic 
was  torn  in  pieces  limb  from  limb,  after  his 
'  Spiritual  Sister'  had  suffered  before  his 
eyes  by  the  same  torture.  As  the  massacre 
is  recorded  without  emotion,  so  its  conse- 
quence is  told  without  understanding  or  re- 
flection— that  the  disciples  of  the  martyr  were 
multiplied  by  the  deed,  and  increased  beyond 
number.  * 

The  history  and  heresies  \  of  Wiclif 
also  belong  to  this  period  ;  but  we  shall  at 
present  leave  them  unnoticed,  as  more  im- 
mediately appertaining  to  English  history, 
and  already  familiar  to  most  readers.  And 
if  we  pass  from  the  name  of  that  great  patri- 
arch of  the  Reformation  to  the  mention  of  a 
transient  sect  of  mere  fanatics,  we  shall  most 
faithfully  exhibit  the  character  of  an  age,  in 
which  the  long  reign  of  ignorance  and  error 
was  first  disturbed  by  the  irregular  struggles 
of  reviving  reason.  The  beginnings  of  those 
great  revolutions,  which  renovate  the  whole 
frame  of  society,  are  invariably  marked  by 
some  transient  excesses,  occasioned  by  the 
first  fermentation  of  new  and  active  princi- 
ples, in  a  body  not  yet  qualified  to  give  them 
full  efficacy.  And  so  it  befell  in  the  present 
instance — an  age,  in  which  the  true  principles 
of  Christianity  were  beginning  once  more 
to  glimmer  through  the  ecclesiastical  system 
which  had  so  long  obscured  them,  was  troubled 


municate  us  .  .  .  The  pope  can  give  no  absolution 
from  sins  unless  he  be  as  holy  as  St.  Peter,  living  in 
entire  poverty  and  humility  .  .  so  that  all  the  popes 
and  prelates,  since  St.  Sylvester,  having  deviated 
from  that  original  holiness,  are  prevaricators  and  se- 
ducers, with  the  single  exception  of  Pope  Celestine, 
Pietro  di  Morone,  &c.'  See  Fleury,  liv.  xci.  sec. 
xxiii. 

*  Supra  numerum.  See  Vita  (4ta)  Clementis  V. 
apud  Baluzium.     Bzovius,  ad  ann.  1310.  sec.  xiii. 

t  Wiclif's  Sixty-one  Heresies  are  carefully  enu- 
merated by  Bzovius,  (ann.  1352,  s.  xv.)  and  that  au- 
thor expresses  very  sincere  regret  at  his  escape  from 
the  bishops,  whom  the  pope  had  stirred  against  him. 
Indeed,  notwithstanding  his  great  protectors,  the  Re- 
former seems  not  to  have  been  secure  till  the  grand 
schism  frittered  away  the  power  of  papacy. 


402 


HISTORY   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


by  some  of  the  wildest  absurdities  of  super- 
stition. 

The  Flagellants— -The  sect  of  the  Flagellants 
first  betrayed  its  existence  about  the  middle  of 
the  thirteenth  century  ;  but  it  was  discouraged 
by  the  authorities  both  spiritual  and  secular,  and 
seemingly  repressed  :  nevertheless,  about  the 
year  1340,  it  broke  out  again  with  additional 
violence.  Its  first  re-appearance  was  in  Italy, 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Cremona:*  suddenly 
a  multitude,  amounting  to  ten  thousand  per- 
sons, issued  from  the  surrounding  cities  and 
villages,  and  paraded  the  country,  flogging 
themselves  and  (in  the  first  instance)  begging. 
The  contagion  spread  with  a  rapidity  which 
will  afflict,  but  cannot  surprise,  the  observer 
of  religious  absurdities  ;  and  in  the  course  of 
ten  years  scarcely  a  country  in  Europe  was 
exempt  from  its  visitation.  As  the  Flagellants 
increased  in  numbers,  they  adopted  some  sort 
of  system  and  method  in  their  fanaticism  ; 
which,  though  it  may  have  varied  under  dif- 
ferent circumstances,  possessed  the  same  gen- 
eral character.  Naked  from  the  loins  upwards, 
and  marked  on  their  front  and  back  with  red 
crosses,  they  spread  themselves  in  numerous 
bands  over  the  face  of  Europe.  Twice  every 
day,  in  the  most  public  places,  they  perform- 
ed their  discipline,  until  blood  flowed  from 
the  wounds  ;  and  they  completed  their  duties 
by  one  nocturnal  and  private  flagellation.  No 
one  among  them  begged.  No  one  was  admit- 
ted into  the  society  who  was  entirely  destitute  ; 
no  one,  unless  he  had  made  a  full  confession  of 
his  sins,  unless  he  had  received  the  consent  of 
his  wife,  unless  he  had  forgiven  his  enemies 
every  injury. f  Their  appearance  and  charac- 
ter chiefly  moved  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Ger- 
mans, who  opened  their  doors  and  entertained 
them  at  their  tables.  But  it  is  affirmed,  that 
they  could  never  be  persuaded  to  partake  twice 
of  the  same  hospitality,  nor  to  prolong  their 
visit  beyond  a  single  day  :  they  then  departed 
on  their  destination.  Women  were  confound- 
ed with  men  in  their  irregular  ranks  ;  and  as 
they  advanced  in  indiscriminate  procession, 
each  bearing  in  his  hand  a  wooden  cross,  they 
chanted  in  their  native  language  a  hymn  on 
the  Passion  of  Christ,  and  frequently  interrupt- 
ed their  song  by  prostration  and  prayer.  Their 
eyes  were  ever  downcast,  and  the  aspect  which 
they  wore  was  solemn  and  sorrowful. 


*  Bzov.  ami.  1340,  s.  xxiv. 

t  See  Bzov.  aim.  1349,  s.  ii.  It  is  the  testimony 
of  an  enemy.  Spondanus  (aim.  1349,  sect,  ii.)  who 
confirms  these  particulars,  also  mentions  that  the 
Flagellants  professed  the  authority  of  a  letter,  or 
writing,  sent  down  to  them  from  heaven. 


The  innocence  of  their  demeanor,  the  se- 
verity of  their  discipline,  the  very  singularity 
of  their  enthusiasm  attracted  a  multitude  of 
proselytes ;  but  as  their  numbers  increased, 
their  conduct  no  longer  escaped  reproach, 
and  the  offences  of  individuals  threw  suspic- 
ion and  obloquy  on  the  whole  body.  More- 
over, as  they  presently  began  to  preach  to  the 
people,  and  as  their  society  was  not  authorised 
by  the  pope,  many  Lollards  and  schismatics 
eagerly  mingled  in  their  companies,  and  car- 
ried into  them  the  name  of  heresy,  and  sub- 
jected them  to  that  fatal  charge.  Accord 
ingly,  we  read  in  the  Roman  Catholic  records, 
that  the  Flagellants  were  a  sect  who  slighted 
the  priesthood  and  the  Gospel — who  had  no 
reverence  for  the  holy  ceremonies,  or  even 
for  the  body  of  the  Lord  :  such  was  the  con- 
fidence (says  Spondanus)  which  they  placed 
in  their  own  madness.  By  thirty-three  con- 
secutive days  of  flagellation,  they  held  them- 
selves absolved  from  the  most  heinous  sins, 
to  the  disregard  of  the  salutary  penance  and 
indulgences  of  the  Church.  And  lastly,  they 
maintained,  that  stripes  were  more  honorable 
than  martyrdom ;  that  the  baptism  by  water 
had  passed  away,  and  given  place  to  the 
baptism  by  blood  ;  and  that  through  this  last 
alone  was  there  any  road  to  salvation.*  These 
charges  were  partly  fabricated,  and  no  doubt 
partly  true ;  and  even  the  limits  of  the  truth 
and  the  falsehood  are  not  difficult  to  discern ; 
but  the  agents  of  persecution,  who  were  pre- 
sently in  motion,  were  not  retarded  by  any 
such  considerations.  They  marched  onwards 
in  the  path  of  destruction  ;  and  the  Emperor 
Charles  IV.  encouraged  and  directed  their 
zeal.  It  appears  that,  in  the  year  1351,  a 
number  of  those  pitiable  enthusiasts  were 
collected  in  Lithuania,  in  the  exercise  of  their 
absurd  practices.  Pope  Clement  VI.  pro- 
claimed a  holy  war;f  the  Master  of  the  Teu- 
tonic order  marched  in  person  against  them  • 
and  after  a  solemn  fast  and  public  prayer,  that 
God  would  aid  him  in  the  extirpation  of  His 
enemies,  for  the  glory  of  His  Holy  Name,  he 
assaulted  them,  and  massacred  eight  thous- 
and :  the  remainder,  about  two  thousand 
more,  were  carried  away  captive  into  Prussia, 
that  they  might  be  restored,  by  a  second  bap- 
tism, to  the  bosom  of  the  Church. 


*  See  Mosheim,  Cent.  xm.  p.  ii.  chap,  iii.,  and 
Cent.  xiv.  p.  ii.  ch.  v. 

t  Bzov.,  ann.  1351,  s.  viii.  The  pretext  alleged 
for  this  expedition  was,  that  when  two  Mendicants, 
on  some  occasion,  interrupted  the  devotion  of  the 
Flagellants,  these  had  stoned  one  of  them  to  death. 
It  does  not  appear  that  they  were  armed 


FRANCISCANS  AND  OTHER  MENDICANTS. 


403 


General  Character  of  these  Heresies. — When 
we  examine  the  various  denominations  of 
heresy  which  appeared  in  the  thirteenth  and 
fourteenth  centuries,  and  in  the  fourteenth 
most  especially  we  observe  that  almost  all 
were  directed,  wholly  or  in  part,  openly  or 
covertly,  in  tenet  or  in  practice,  against  the 
sacerdotal  government  and  the  system  of  the 
Roman  Church.  It  was  not  so  with  those 
of  earlier  ages.  Among  the  numerous  sects 
which  divided  the  ante-Nicene  Christians,  it 
has  been  already  remarked,  that  not  one  orig- 
inated in  any  disaffection  for  the  ministers  of 
religion,  or  the  ecclesiastical  polity.  In  the 
times  which  followed,  the  Ariau  and  Incarna- 
tion controversies,  with  their  numerous  names 
and  progeny,  were  confined  to  matters  of 
faith.  During  the  prolonged  disputes  which 
succeeded  about  the  worship  of  images,  no 
clamor  was  raised  against  the  corruptions  or 
undue  aggrandizement  of  the  hierarchy.  The 
dissensions  of  the  ninth  century  regarded  the 
nature  of  the  Eucharist  and  the  doctrine  of 
Fatalism,  and  the  former  of  those  subjects 
was  revived  in  the  eleventh  ;  but  no  sect  had 
hitherto  risen  in  revolt  against  the  abuses  and 
tyranny  of  the  Church.  The  standard  was 
first  erected  in  the  twelfth  age ;  and  from  that 
moment  there  was  never  wanting  a  succes- 
sion of  bold  and  righteous  spirits  who  rallied 
round  it.  The  depravity  of  the  church  sys- 
tem was  indeed,  in  some  respects,  more  scan- 
dalous in  the  fourteenth,  than  in  any  preced- 
ing century :  yet  was  there  no  lack,  even  in 
much  earlier  ages,  of  such  enormities,  as  might 
well  have  offended  the  reason  and  provoked 
the  indignation  of  an  evangelical  Christian. 
But  the  fact  was,  that  the  civil  institutions 
were  at  the  same  time  so  defective,  and  the 
dearth  of  knowledge  so  general,  that  the  sins 
of  the  Church  were  overshadowed  or  kept  in 
countenance  by  the  secular  depravity  that 
surrounded  them.  Presently,  as  the  social 
condition  improved,  the  ecclesiastical  abuses 
excited  remonstrance  and  clamor ;  the  foun- 
dations were  shaken,  and  the  edifice  itself  as- 
sailed ;  but  the  clamor  was  still  the  clamor  of 
the  few — the  voice  of  enlightened  individuals 
or  of  scattered  sects  :  it  did  not  yet  endanger 
the  established  hierarchy,  because  it  was  not 
yet  supported  by  the  general  prevalence  of 
rational  principles.  The  political  system  of 
the  age  still  abounded  with  vices,  and  the 
learning  in  fashion  was  still  perplexed  with 
prejudice  and  fallacy.  It  is  always  with  re- 
ference to  such  considerations  as  these,  that 
we  are  to  estimate  the  danger  of  ecclesiastical 
abuses  and  the  necessity  of  reformation.     It  is 


not  sufficient  to  compare  existing  defects  with 
those  which  have  been  tolerated  in  the  same 
church,  or  in  a  different  church,  in  a  different 
age.  Such  a  comparison  would  only  tend  to 
blind  and  mislead  us.  They  must  be  exam- 
ined in  relation  to  the  measure  of  civilization 
actually  abroad — to  the  prevalence  of  know- 
ledge, to  the  authority  of  reason,  to  the  gen- 
eral principles  of  human  conduct.  Thus  it 
will  happen,  that  a  much  slighter  defect,  in 
days  of  improvement  and  inquiry,  may  prove 
more  perilous  to  the  system  in  which  it  is 
suffered  to  remain,  than  a  much  grosser  de- 
formity in  a  darker  age  :• — it  is  the  access  of 
light  which  renders  the  stain  conspicuous  and 
offensive.  And  therefore  it  has  ever  been 
among  the  foremost  duties  of  churchmen,  and 
their  surest  wisdom,  to  detect  the  blemishes 
in  their  institution,  and  having  detected,  to 
remove  them :  since  it  avails  them  little  to  be 
free  from  the  vices  of  preceding  generations, 
unless  they  share  the  spirit,  and  adopt,  to  a 
great  extent,  the  character  and  principles  of 
their  own. 


NOTE  ON  THE  FRANCISCANS  AND  OTHER 
MENDICANTS. 

(I.)  As  something  has  been  said  in  this 
chapter  respecting  the  intestine  divisions  of 
the  Franciscans,  it  is  proper  here  to  mention 
the  sect  of  the  Fratricelli,  or  Ultra-Spirituals, 
who  made  some  figure  in  the  dissensions  of 
the  fourteenth  age.  They  arose,  in  that  which 
preceded,  from  the  stock  of  St.  Francis  ;  and 
as  they  disclaimed  any  right  even  to  the  use  * 
of  property,  in  which  they  surpassed  the  self- 
denial  of  the  Spirituals,  they  may  have  de- 
served the  praise  which  they  arrogated,  of 
being  the  genuine  disciples  of  their  Master. 
They  professed  great  personal  respect  for 
Celestine  V.,  who  had  been  in  some  measure 
the  founder  of  their  Order ;  but  they  hesitated 
to  acknowledge  the  legitimacy  of  his  succes- 
sors :  they  proclaimed  the  deep  corruption  of 
the  Church,  and  they  looked  with  ardent  and 
almost  pious  enthusiasm  for  its  Immediate 
reformation. 

The  Eternal  Gospel. — This  notion  —  that  a 
thorough  regeneration  of  the  Church  was  near 
at  hand,  and  that  the  reign  of  the  true  gospel 

*  In  1279,  Nicholas  III.  published  a  celebrated 
Constitution  known  as  the  Bull  Exiit,  in  which  he  so 
interpreted  the  Franciscan  Rule,  as  to  prohibit  to  its 
observers  every  possession;  but  to  permit  them  the 
temporary  use  of  houses,  books,  &c.  of  which  the 
property,  in  conformity  with  the  edict  of  Innocent  IV., 
was  to  reside  in  the  Church  of  Rome. 


404 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


was  to  be  restored  by  the  followers  of  St. 
Francis — was  not  the  creation  of  the  Fratri- 
celli,  nor  was  it  indeed  of  very  recent  origin. 
As  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  a  work  was  circulated,  abounding 
with  such  like  prophecies,  under  the  name  of 
the  Eternal  Gospel.  It  was  founded  on  the 
text* — '  I  saw  another  angel  fly  in  the  rnidst 
of  heaven,  having  the  Everlasting  Gospel  to 
preach  unto  them  that  dwell  on  the  earth  ; ' 
and  it  was  such,  as  Mosheim  has  designated 
it,  the  senseless  production  of  an  obscure,  silly 
and  visionary  writer.  The  perfect  scheme  of 
revelation  which  it  propounded  was  this — as 
there  were  three  persons  in  the  godhead,  so 
was  it  necessary  that  there  should  be  three 
dispensations.  The  first  was  that  of  the  Fa- 
ther, which  ended  at  the  coming  of  Christ — 
the  second  was  that  of  the  Son,  which  was 
now  on  the  point  of  concluding,  to  give  place 
to  the  third,  and  last.  This  rhapsody  was  as- 
oribed,  but  not  with  sufficient  foundation,  to 
Joachim,  abbot  of  Flora  in  Calabria,  who 
flourished  about  the  year  1200 ;  who  had  de- 
claimed against  the  abuses  of  the  Church,  and 
predicted  their  extirpation.  But  in  spite  of 
the  respectable  name,  under  which  it  had 
sought  protection,  the  Eternal  Gospel  would 
not  perhaps  have  attracted  any  general  notice, 
had  it  not  been  adopted  by  the  Franciscans, 
who  eagerly  appropriated  the  prophecies. 
Accordingly,  about  the  year  1250,  it  was  again 
published,  with  an  elaborate  Introduction,  in 
which  the  assertion  was  advanced,  that  St. 
Francis  was  the  angel  mentioned  in  the  Rev- 
elations ;  that  the  gospel  of  Christ  was  imme- 
diately to  give  place  to  this  new  and  everlast- 
ing scripture  ;  and  that  the  ministers  of  this 
great  Reformation  were  to  be  humble  and 
barefooted  friars,  destitute  of  all  earthly  pos- 
sessions.f 

The  Gospel  might  have  passed  unnoticed 
and  despised  ;  but  the  introduction  contained 
a  doctrine  too  daring,  if  not  dangerous,  to  es- 
cape ecclesiastical  reprehension ;  and  in  the 
very  year  following  its  publication  at  Paris, 
the  book  was  suppressed  by  Alexander  IV. 
Yet  such  was  the  tenderness  of  a  Pope  for  the 
reputation  of  the  Mendicants,  that  the  censures 
were  lenient,  and  the  edict  was  issued  with 
reluctance. 

The  introduction  has  been  commonly  as- 
cribed to  no  less  distinguished  an  ecclesiastic 
than  John  of  Parma,  General  of  the  Francis- 

*  Revelations  xiv.  6. 

t  This  account  is  chiefly  taken  from  Mosheim 
(Cent.  XIII.  p.  ii.  ch.  ii.)  who  has  investigated  the 
subject  with  great  diligence. 


cans ;  though  the  opinion  is  more  probable 
that  it  was  composed  by  one  Gerard,  his  friend. 
It  is  true,  indeed,  that  writers  of  that  order 
have  entirely  disclaimed  the  work,  and  imput- 
ed it  to  their  rivals,  the  Dominicans,  but  with- 
out any  plausible  reason.  And  as  the  intro- 
duction was  manifestly  a  Franciscan  fabri- 
cation, so  is  it  extremely  probable  that  the 
Eternal  Gospel  also  proceeded  from  the  same 
forge. 

Pierre  d?  Olive. — We  should  also  mention 
one  Pierre  Jean  d'Olive,  a  native  of  Serignan, 
in  Languedoc,  who  acquired  some  reputation 
towards  the  end  of  the  same  century,  by  a 
similar  description  of  merit.  He,  likewise, 
was  a  leader  of  the  Spirituals,  a  disciple  of  the 
Abbot  Joachim,  and  a  reformer  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal iniquities.  He  published  a  work  called 
Postilla,  a  commentary  on  the  Revelations, 
in  which  he  boldly  denounced  the  Roman 
Church  as  the  '  Mystery,  Babylon  the  Great, 
the  Mistress  of  Harlots,  and  abominations  of 
the  Earth.'*  But  he  mixed  so  much  wild  and 
senseless  superstition  with  his  reforming  zeal, 
that  his  labors  were  neither  profitable  to  the 
Church,  nor  dangerous  to  the  despotism  of 
the  Pope. 

(II.)  Contest  between  the  Mendicants  and 
Cures  about  Confession. — We  read  from  time 
to  time  of  disputes,  which  arose  in  various 
countries  between  the  Mendicants  and  the 
secular  clergy,  respecting  the  administration 
of  several  Church  ceremonies,  but  most  espe- 
cially of  the  rite  of  Confession.  It  may,  there- 
fore, be  useful  to  trace  very  concisely  the  his- 
tory of  that  contest.  A  canon  of  the  Fourth 
Lateran  Council  (commonly  known  as  Omnis 
utriusque  Serus)  gave  the  entire  power  of  re- 
ceiving confessions  to  the  priest ;  but  Gregory 
IX.,  by  a  bull  of  Sept.  26,  1227,  opened  that 
privilege  also  to  the  Preachers.  The  Cures  re- 
sisted ;  and  in  1250  the  Faculty  of  Paris  loudly 
declared  in  their  favor :  so  that  Innocent  IV., 
who  in  1244  had  shown  every  disposition  to 
favor  the  Mendicants,  prohibited  them,  in  1254, 
from  hearing  confessions  without  the  permis 
sion  of  the  priest.  But  Alexander  IV.  imme- 
diately revoked  this  bull,  and  presently  after- 
wards issued  others,  to  the  interest  of  the 
Mendicants.  Great  heats  were  thus  excited, 
and  in  the  hope  to  allay  them,  Martin  IV. 
published,  in  1282,  a  sort  of  edict  of  compro- 
mise, by  which  the  Mendicants  were  permit- 
ted to  receive  confessions,  yet  so  that  the  same 
persons  were  still  obliged  to  confess  once  a 

*  Revelations  xvii.  5. 


THE  GRAND  SCHISM. 


405 


year  to  their  own  priest,  according  to  the  canon 
of  the  Lateran. 

Thereon  arose  a  fresh  question — whether 
the  people  were  obliged  again  to  confess  to 
their  cures  the  same  sins  which  they  had 
before  confided  to  the  Mendicants,  and  for 
which  they  had  received  absolution  ;  and  va- 
rious appeals  were  made  to  the  Popes  on  this 
point.  Nicholas  IV.  delivered  no  express  res- 
ponse ;  but  Boniface  VIII.  published  a  decre- 
tal called  Supra  Cathedram,  in  which  he  en- 
gaged to  grant  the  privilege  to  the  Mendicants 
by  his  own  plenitude,  in  case  they  had  previ- 
ously asked  the  favor  of  the  Bishops,  and  it  had 
been  refused.  Benedict  XI.  was  still  more 
decided ;  for  he  gave  the  Mendicants  direct 
permission  to  hear  confessions,  and  also  deci- 
ded that  the  people  were  not  obliged  to  recon- 
fess  the  same  sins.  This  decretal,  again,  was 
revoked  in  the  Council  of  Vienne,  and  re- 
placed by  the  Clementine  Dudum,  which  re- 
vived the  Constitution  of  Boniface. 

The  above  account,  which  is  the  bare  out- 
line of  a  tedious  and  angry  controversy,  is 
nevertheless  sufficient  to  exhibit,  not  only  the 
obstinacy  with  which  the  contending  parties 
advanced  or  defended  their  privileges — not 
only  the  value  which  both  of  them  affixed  to 
the  possession  of  that  particular  privilege, 
which  contained  indeed  the  grand  secret  of 
ecclesiastical  influence,  but  also  the  vacillating 
policy  of  the  Vatican,  and  the  little  consistency 
with  each  other  or  with  themselves,  which 
directed,  in  their  councils,  the  chiefs  of  an  in- 
fallible Church. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

The  Grand  Schism  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church. 

Remonstrance  of  the  Romans  to  the  College — its  reply — 
The  Conclave — Probable  extent  of  popular  intimidation 
— Constitution  of  the  Conclave — various  designs  of  the 
parties — violence  of  the  people — Election  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Bari,  Urban  VI.  —  his  character,  and  general 
reception — his  first  acts  of  harshness,  and  their  effect — 
The  Cardinals  retire  to  Anagni,  and  annul  the  election 
of  Urban  —  they  choose  Robert,  Cardinal  of  Geneva, 
Clement  VII. — his  character — real  merits  of  the  ques- 
tion— Retreat  of  Clement  to  Avignon — Division  of  Eu- 
rope— St.  Catharine  and  other  enthusiasts— Conduct  of 
Urban  to  six  Cardinals  accused  of  conspiracy — Death 
of  Urban,  and  election  of  Boniface  IX. — The  Jubilee — 
its  extension — Sale  of  indulgences— Privileges  granted 
to  some  German  towns  —  Exertions  of  the  University 
of  Paris  for  the  extinction  of  the  Schism  —  Address  to 
the  King — three  methods  proposed  in  it — favorable  cir- 
cumstances—  Death  of  Clement  VII.  —  Election  of 
Pietro  di  Luna,  Benedict  XIII. — Grand  embassy  of  the 
King  to  Benedict — its  failure — Continued  exertions  of 


the  King  and  the  University — attempts  to  influence 
Boniface — his  assurance  to  the  Roman  deputies — The 
French  withdraw  their  obedience  from  Benedict  — 
Blockade  of  the  palace  at  Avignon — Benedict  restored 
to  liberty  and  office  —  simoniacal  rapacity  of  Boniface 
— The  Jubilee  of  1400 — Boniface  succeeded  by  Innocent 
VII. — Death  of  Innocent — Solemn  engagement  of  the 
Conclave — Election  of  Angelo  Corrario,  Gregory  XII. — 
Attempt  at  a  conference — Perjury  of  Gregory — Retire- 
ment of  Benedict  to  Perpignan  —  Convocation  of  the 
Council  of  Pisa — proceedings  of  that  council — deposi- 
tion of  the  two  competitors — and  election  of  Alexander 
V. — his  birth  and  character — Conduct  of  the  Antipopes 
— Intercourse  of  Alexander  with  the  Roman  people — 
— his  death — Election  of  Baltazar  Cossa,  John  XXIII. 
— Sigismond  emperor — Convocation  of  the  Council  of 
Constance — choice  of  the  place — its  advantages — num- 
ber of  members — its  objects — Proposition  of  John  XXII. 
— Two  opinions  respecting  the  course  to  be  followed — 
Arrival  of  Sigismond — Question  as  to  the  power  of  the 
Council  over  the  Pope — division  of  the  Council — it  de- 
cides on  the  method  of  cession — cession  of  the  Pope — 
suspicions  of  the  Council — Escape  of  John  from  Con- 
stance— Question  de  avfcribilitate  Papa — the  Pope  be- 
trayed to  Sigismond  —  his  deposition,  and  the  charges 
against  him — his  sentence — conduct  and  imprisonment 
— opinions  of  the  justice  of  the  sentence  —  Sigismond 
goes  to  Perpignan — Conference  there  —  Union  of  all 
parties — Obstinacy  of  Benedict — he  retires  to  Peniscola 
— is  deposed  by  the  Council  of  Constance — his  conduct 
— the  Council  proceeds  to  the  election  of  a  new  pope — 
—  Otho  Colonna,  Martin  V.  chosen  —  Observations  — 
Death  of  Angelo  Corrario — Pertinacity,  death,  and  cha- 
racter of  Pietro  di  Luna  —  Fate  of  John  XXIII.  —  his 
liberation — return  to  Italy — counsels  of  his  friends — he 
goes  to  Florence,  and  makes  his  submission  to  Martin 
— his  treatment,  conduct,  and  character. 

The  number  of  Cardinals  at  the  death  of 
Gregory  XL  was  twenty-three,  of  whom  six 
were  absent  at  Avignon,  and  one  was  legate 
in  Tuscany.  The  remaining  sixteen,  after 
celebrating  the  funeral  ceremonies  of  the  de- 
ceased, and  appointing  certain  officers  to  se- 
cure their  deliberations  from  violence,  pre- 
pared to  enter  into  conclave.  But  the  rites 
of  sepulture  were  scarcely  performed,  when 
the  leading  magistrates  of  Rome  presented 
to  them  a  remonstrance  to  this  effect :  —  On 
behalf  of  the  Roman  senate  and  people,  they 
ventured  to  represent,  that  the  Roman  Church 
had  suffered  for  seventy  years  a  deplorable 
captivity  by  the  translation  of  the  Holy  See 
to  Avignon  ;  that  during  that  period  the  cap- 
ital of  the  Christian  world  had  suffered  more, 
both  in  its  spiritual  and  temporal  interests, 
than  when  it  was  subject  to  the  cruel  domina- 
tion of  the  barbarians  ;  that  tumults,  seditions, 
revolts,  and  sanguinary  wars,  had  desolated, 
without  interruption,  the  ecclesiastical  states ; 
that  its  cities  and  its  provinces  were  in  part 
usurped  by  domestic  tyrants,  and  occupied  in 
part  by  the  neighboring  republics,  or  by  the 
Lombard  princes  ;  that  fire  and  sword  were 
carried  even  to  the  gates  of  Rome,  which  had 
neither  power  nor  authority  to  repress  such 
fury ; — so  that  the  aspect  of  the  Holy  City, 


406 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


the  head  of  religion,  formerly  venerable 
throughout  the  whole  earth,  was  no  longer  to 
be  recognised  through  its  strange  and  foul 
disfigurements.  That  the  sacred  edifices, 
those  august  monuments  of  ancient  piety, 
were  left  without  honor,  or  ornament,  or  rep- 
aration, nodding  to  their  ruin  ;  that  even  the 
Titles  of  the  cardinals,  abandoned  by  those 
who  derived  their  dignities  from  them,  were 
left  without  roof,  or  gates,  or  walls,  the  abode 
of  beasts,  which  cropped  the  grass  on  their 
very  altars.  That  the  Faithful  were  no  long- 
er attracted  to  Rome,  either  by  devotion, 
which  the  profanation  of  the  churches  pre- 
cluded, or  by  interest ;  since  the  Pope,  the 
source  of  patronage,  had  scandalously  desert- 
ed his  church — so  that  there  was  danger,  lest 
that  unfortunate  city  should  be  reduced  to  a 
vast  and  frightful  solitude,  and  become  an 
outcast  from  the  world,  of  which  it  was  still 
the  spiritual  empress,  as  it  once  had  been  the 
temporal.  Lastly,  that,  as  the  only  remedy 
for  these  evils,  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to 
elect  a  Roman,  or  at  least  an  Italian  Pope — 
especially  as  there  was  every  appearance  that 
the  people,  if  disappointed  in  their  just  ex- 
pectation, would  have  recourse  to  compul- 
sion. .  .  .  The  Cardinals  replied,  that  as 
soon  as  they  should  be  in  conclave  they  would 
give  to  those  subjects  their  solemn  delibera- 
tion, and  direct  their  choice  according  to  the 
inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  They  repell- 
ed the  notion,  that  they  could  be  influenced 
by  any  popular  menace  ;  and  pronounced 
(according  to  one  account)  an  express  warn- 
ing, that  if  they  should  be  compelled  to  elect 
under  such  circumstances,  the  elected  would 
not  be  a  pope,  but  an  intruder.*  They  then 
immediately  entered  into  conclave. 

The  Conclave  at  Rome. — In  the  meantime 
the  populace,  who  had  already  exhibited  proofs 
of  impatience,  and  whom  the  answer  of  the 
cardinals  was  not  well  calculated  to  satisfy, 
assembled  in  great  crowds  about  the  place  of 
assembly.  It  may  be  true  (though  the  cir- 
cumstances rest  for  the  most  part  on  French 
and  partial  authority,)  that  the  civil  magis- 
trates had  previously  possessed  themselves 
of  the  keys  of  the  gates,  which  were  usually 
confided  to  ecclesiastical  officers,  in  order  to 
preclude  the  escape  of  the  cardinals  to  a  more 
secure  place  of  deliberation  ;  that  in  the  room 
of  the  ordinary  police  they  introduced  a  num- 


*  '  Quaiii  si  facerent,  eos  ex  nunc  avisaverunt, 
quod  si  ex  ejus  occasione  aliquem  eligerent  ille  non 
esset  papa  sed  intrusus.  ' — Aut.  Vit.  Greg.  XI.  ap. 
Bosquet.     Maimb.,  Hist,  du  Grand  Schisme,  liv.  i. 


ber  of  Montanarii,  the  wild  and  lawless  inha- 
bitants of  the  adjacent  mountains,  who  para- 
ded the  streets  in  arms  by  day  and  by  night ; 
that  a  quantity  of  dry  reeds  and  other  com- 
bustibles was  heaped  together  under  the  win- 
dows of  the  conclave,  with  threats  of  confla- 
gration ;  that,  at  the  moment  when  the  Col- 
lege was  proceeding  to  election,  the  bells  of 
the  Capitol  and  St.  Peter's  were  sounded  to 
arms  :  * — these,  and  other  circumstances  of 
direct  constraint  and  intimidation,  are  assert- 
ed by  some  writers,  and  though  probably  ex- 
aggerated, have  undoubtedly  some  foundation 
in  truth.  But  it  is  without  any  dispute,  that 
a  vast  crowd  of  people  continued  in  tumult- 
uous assemblage  during  the  whole  delibera- 
tion of  the  conclave,f  and  that  the  debates  of 
the  Sacred  College  were  incessantly  interrupt- 
ed by  one  loud  and  unanimous  shout — '  Ro- 
mano lo  volemo  lo  Papa — Romano  lo  volemo 
— o  almanco  almanco  Italiano ! ' — '  We  will 
have  a  Roman  for  Pope — a  Roman,  or  at 
least,  at  the  very  least,  an  Italian  ! ' 

Let  us  now  inquire,  whether  the  College 
was  then  so  constituted,  as  to  make  it  likely 
that  its  free  choice  would  have  fallen  upon  a 
Roman,  or  even  an  Italian.  Of  the  sixteen 
cardinals  in  conclave,  eleven  were  French, 
one,  Pietro  di  Luna,  a  Spaniard,  and  four 
Italians.  The  unanimity  of  the  French 
would,  of  course,  at  once  have  decided  the 
question  ;  but  it  happened  that  they  were  di- 
vided into  two  parties.  Seven  amongst  them 
were  Limousins,  natives  of  the  same  prov- 
ince; and  having  succeeded  during  the  last 
twenty-nine  years,  in  electing  four  successive 
popes  from  their  own  country,  they  were  nat- 
urally eager  to  keep  possession  of  so  profita- 
ble a  distinction.  But  the  other  four,  unwil- 
ling to  appropriate  the  pontificate  to  a  single 
district,  even  though  that  district  was  French, 
designed  that  the  choice  should  fall  on  one 
of  themselves.  The  Limousins  found  in  their 
superior  numbers  their  hope  of  success  and 
their  excuse  for  perseverance ;  and  at  length 
the  others,  being  more  keenly  excited  by  pro- 
vincial than  by  national  jealousy,  began  to 
turn  their  thoughts  to  a  coalition  with  the 
Italians.  These  last  were  equally  bent  on  the 
election  of  one  of  their  own  party ;  and  as 
their  only  chance  of  success  arose  from  the 
division  of  the  French,  they  very  readily  join- 
ed their  forces  against  the  exclusive  ambition 
of  the  Limousins.     Such  were  the  intrigues 


*  Ad  slurnum,  according  to  the  Roman  expression 
of  that  time. 

t  Spondanus,  ann.  1378,  s.  viii.  et.  seq. 


THE  GRAND  SCHISM. 


407 


wnich  commenced  immediately  after  the  death 
of  Gregory,  and  ripened  during  the  eleven  * 
days  which  followed  ;  and  such  was  proba- 
bly f  the  state  of  parties  when  the  cardinals 
entered  the  conclave.  There  were  materials 
in  abundance  for  long  and  angry  dissensions  ; 
and  though  the  indignation  of  the  Limousins 
against  their  compatriots  might  finally  have 
forced  their  consent  to  the  election  of  an  Ital- 
ian, rather  than  a  native  of  any  other  French 
province,  still  it  was  not  without  a  struggle, 
that  they  were  likely  to  forego  the  courtly 
magnificence  of  Avignon,  to  which  a  French 
pontiff"  would  surely  have  restored  them,  for 
a  remote  and  tumultuous  residence  among 
the  citizens  of  Rome. 

But  the  internal  disputes  of  the  College 
were  speedily  silenced  by  the  tempest  from 
without.  Even  after  the  sacred  body  had 
been  shut  up  in  deliberation,  the  Bannerets, 
or  heads  of  the  twelve  regions  of  the  city, 
forced  themselves,  together  with  their  disor- 
derly followers,  in  contempt  of  custom  and 
decency,  into  the  recesses  of  the  conclave. 
Here  they  repeated  their  demands  with  re- 
doubled insolence,  and  direct  menaces.  The 
cardinals  are  recorded  to  have  returned  their 
former  reply,  with  the  additional  declaration, 
that  in  case  any  violence  were  used,  he,  whom 
they  should  so  elect,  and  whom  the  people 
would  take  for  a  real  pope,  would  in  fact  be 
no  pope  at  all.J  The  people  received  this  an- 
swer with  indignant  clamors  ;  §   the  disorder 

*  Gregory  XI.  died  on  the  27th  of  March,  and 
the  cardinals  entered  into  conclave  on  the  7th  of 
April. 

f  Fleury  (liv.  xcvii.  s.  xlviii.)  seems  persuaded 
that  there  was  some  secret  understanding  in  favor  of 
the  Archbishop  of  Bari  (who  was  afterwards  elected) 
even  before  the  cardinals  entered  into  conclave.  But 
the  view  of  Maimbourg  is  more  probable,  that  so 
wide  a  division,  with  so  many  opposite  interests  and 
passions,  was  not  so  easilv  reconciled. 

%  '  Ista  verba  manifeste  sonant  minas  ;  et  ideo  ex- 
presse  nos  dicimus,  quod,  si  per  vos  aut  ipsos  aliqua 
contra  nos  attententur,  et  contingat  nos  talium  occa- 
6ione  et  timorc  aliquemeligere,  credetis  habere  papain 
et  non  habebitis,  quia  non  erit.' — Vita  Greg.  XI.  ap. 
Baluzium. 

§  One  of  the  cardinals  addressed  them  from  the 
window : — '  State  a  pace — perche  i  Signori  Cardinali 
dicono  cosi,  che  doinani  faranno  dire  una  messa  dello 
Spirilo  Santo,  e  poi  faranno  che  voi  sarete  contenti.' 
Qui  vero  Romani  maledicti  tunc  responderunt  sic — 
'  No — mo  lo  volemo,  mo.'  Et  interim  ridebant  inter 
se,  et  unus  faciebat  alteri  signum,  ut  plus  clamarent 
lit  supra.  In  circuitu  item  Conclavi  erat  maxima 
multitudo  cum  caboris  et  flautis,  et  eodem  modo  clam- 
abant  fortiter  juxta  posse.'  —  Vita  (secunda)  Greg. 
XI.  apud  Baluzium.  We  should  observe,  however, 
that  this  is  not  the  description  of  a  sanguinary  mob. 


round  the  chapel  augmented  ;  the  most  fright- 
ful threats  were  uttered  in  case  of  hesitation 
or  disobedience  ;  and  the  same  shout,  which 
was  indeed  the  burden  of  the  uproar,  contin- 
ued to  penetrate  the  conclave —  '  A  Roman 
for  our  pope !  a  Roman — or  at  least,  at  the 
very  least,  an  Italian  ! ' 

Election  of  Urban  VI. — These  were  not 
circumstances  for  delay  or  deliberation.  If 
any  inclination  towards  the  choice  of  an  Ital- 
ian had  previously  existed  in  the  college,  it 
was  now  confirmed  into  necessity  ;  and  on 
the  very  day  following  their  retirement  the 
cardinals  were  agreed  in  their  election.  How- 
beit,  they  studiously  passed  over  the  four  Ital 
ian  members  of  their  own  body,  and  casting 
their  eyes  beyond  the  conclave,  selected  a 
Neapolitan  named  Bartolomeo  Prignano,  the 
Archbishop  of  Bari.  The  announcement  was 
not  immediately  published,  probably  through 
the  fear  of  popular  dissatisfaction,  because  a 
Roman  had  not  been  created  ;  and  presently, 
when  the  impatience  of  the  people  still  further 
increased,  the  Bishop  of  Marseilles  went  to 
the  window,  and  said  to  them,  '  Go  to  St.  Pe- 
ter's, and  you  shall  learn  the  decision.'  Where- 
upon some  who  heard  him,  understanding 
that  the  Cardinal  of  St.  Peter's,  a  Roman, 
had  been  indeed  chosen,  rushed  to  the  palace 
of  that  prelate,  and  plundered  it — for  such 
was  the  custom  then  invariably  observed  on 
the  election  of  a  pope.  Others  thronged  in 
great  multitudes  to  offer  him  their  salutations  ; 
and  then  they  bore  him  away  to  St.  Peter's, 
and  placed  him,  according  to  ancient  usage, 
upon  the  altar.  It  was  in  vain  that  the  good 
cardinal,  enfeebled  by  extreme  old  age  and 
painful  disease, disclaimed  the  title,  and  trem- 
bled at  the  honors  that  were  forced  on  him. 
'  I  am  not  pope,'  said  he  ;  '  and  I  will  not  be 
antipope.  The  Archbishop  of  Bari,  who  is 
really  chosen,  is  worthier  than  I.'  They  as- 
cribed his  resistance  to  modesty  or  decent  dis- 
simulation, and  continued  through  the  whole 
day  to  overwhelm  him  with  the  most  painful 
proofs  of  their  joy.  In  the  meantime  the 
other  cardinals  escaped  from  the  conclave  in 
great  disorder  and  trepidation,  without  digni- 
ty or  attendants,  or  even  their  ordinary  habili- 
ments *  of  office,  and  sought  safety,  some  in 
their  respective  palaces,  and  others  in  the 
Castle  of  St.  Angelo,  or  even  beyond  the  walls 
of  the  city.  On  the  following  day,  the  people 
were  undeceived ;  and  as  they  showed  no 
strong  disinclination  for  the  master  who  had 


*  Recesserunt  pedes,  unus  sine  Capa,  alter  cum 
Capa,  alter  sine  Capucio,  soli,  sine  sociis  6cutiferis 
— Vit.  Greg.  XI.  ap.  Baluz. 


408 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


been  really  chosen  for  them,  the  Archbishop 
of  Bari  was  solemnly  enthroned,  and  the  scat- 
tered cardinals  reappeared,  and  rallied  round 
him  in  confidence  and  security. 

The  archbishop's  exalted  reputation  justifi- 
ed the  choice  of  the  college,  and  secured  the 
obedience  of  the  people.  Through  a  long 
life,  devoted  to  the  service  of  the  Church,  he 
had  reconciled  the  most  ardent  disposition 
with  the  most  devout  humility,  and  improved 
by  assiduous  study  a  powerful  comprehension. 
He  submitted  to  the  utmost  severity  of  eccle- 
siastical discipline  ;  yet  his  deep  and  danger- 
ous enthusiasm  did  not  close  his  mind  against 
the  liberal  pursuit  of  learning,  and  the  patro- 
nage of  learned  men.  His  zeal  for  the  Church 
was  not  stained  by  the  suspicion  of  bigotry, 
nor  inconsistent  with  a  stern  opposition  to  its 
abuses  ;  and  among  many  other  virtues,  he 
was  perhaps  chiefly  famed  for  the  rigorous 
exercise  of  justice.  Such  was  the  character 
to  which  Rome  looked  with  sanguine  hope 
for  the  repair  of  her  declining  fortunes  ;  nor 
was  it,  indeed,  without  the  general  approba- 
tion of  Christendom,  that  Urban  VI.  ascended 
the  apostolical  chair.  The  cardinals  sent  the 
customary  communications  to  the  courts  of 
Europe  of  the  free  and  canonical  election 
which  they  had  made,*  and  peaceably  as- 
sumed their  official  stations  about  the  person 
of  the  pontiff. 

His  harshness. — The  ceremony  of  corona- 
tion was  duly  performed,  and  several  bishops 
were  assembled  on  the  very  following  day  at 
vespers  in  the  pontifical  chapel,  when  the 
Pope  unexpectedly  addressed  them  in  the 
bitterest  language  of  reprobation.  He  accus- 
ed them  of  having  deserted  and  betrayed  the 
flocks  which  God  had  confided  to  them,  in 
order  to  revel  in  luxury  at  the  court  of  Rome  ; 
and  he  applied  to  their  offence  the  harsh  re- 
proach of  perjury.  One  of  them  (the  Bishop 
of  Pampeluna)  repelled  the  charge,  as  far  as 
himself  was  concerned,  by  reference  to  the 
duties  which  he  performed  at  Rome ;  the 
others  suppressed  in  silence  their  anger  and 
confusion.  A  few  days  afterwards,  at  a  pub- 
lic consistory,  Urban  repeated  his  complaints 
and  denunciations,  and  urged  them  still  more 
generally  in  the  presence  of  his  whole  court. 
In  a  long  and  intemperate  harangue,  he  ar- 
raigned the  various  vices  of  the  prelates — their 
simony,  their  injustice,  their  exactions,  their 
scandalous  luxury,  with  a  number  of  other 


*  A  similar  announcement  was  made  to  the  six 
cardinals  remaining  at  Avignon,  who  immediately 
recognised  the  new  pope. 


offences  —  in  unmeasured*  and  uncompro- 
mising expressions ;  and  while  he  spared  no 
menace  to  give  weight  to  his  censure,  he 
directed  the  sharpest  of  his  shafts  against  the 
cardinals  themselves.  .  .  .  There  is  not  any 
dispute,  that  his  violence  proceeded  from  an 
honest  zeal  for  the  reformation  of  the  Church ; 
but  the  end  was  marred  by  the  passionate  in- 
discretion, with  which  he  pursued  it.  The 
consistory  broke  up ;  and  the  members  car- 
ried away  with  them  no  sense  of  the  iniqui- 
ties imputed,  no  disposition  to  correct  their 
habits  or  their  principles,  but  only  indigna- 
tion, mixed  with  some  degree  of  fear,  against 
a  severe  and  discourteous  censor,  f 

The  cardinals  continued,  notwithstanding, 
their  attendance  at  the  Vatican  for  a  few 
weeks  longer,  and  then,  as  was  usual  on  the 
approach  of  the  summer  heats,  they  withdrew 
from  the  city,  with  the  pope's  permission,  and 
retired  to  Anagni.  The  four  Italians  alone 
remained  at  Rome.  The  others  were  no 
sooner  removed  from  the  immediate  inspec- 
tion of  Urban,  than  they  commenced,  or  at 
least  more  boldly  pursued,  their  measures  to 
overthrow  him.  On  the  one  hand,  they 
opened  a  direct  correspondence  with  the 
court  of  France  and  university  of  Paris ;  J  on 
the  other,  they  took  into  their  service  a  body 
of  mercenaries,  commanded  by  one  Bernard 
de  la  Sale,  a  Gascon  ;  and  then  they  no  longer 
hesitated  to  treat  the  election  of  Urban  as  null, 
through  the  violence  which  had  attended  it.  § 


*  "  Nullo  reprehensionibus  modo  imposito.  " — 
Ciacconius. 

t  "  Hunc  et  posteris  diebus,  cessante  jam  metu, 
venerari  ut  pontificem  perseverarunt.  Sed  fuk  in  illo 
homine  natura  inquieta  et  dura;  et  tunc  prater spem 
ad  tanta?  dignitatis  fastigium  sublevatus  intolerabilis 
videbatur.  Nulla  patribus  gratia,  quod  se  potissi- 
mum  delegissent,  nulla  humanitas,  nulla  conciliatio 
animorum.  Contumax,  et  minabundus,  et  asper  raa- 
lebat  videri,  et  mehii  potius  quam  diligi.  Ea  per- 
versilas  Patres  coegit  metu  et  indignatione  aliorsum 
respicere.  Itaque  clam  inter  se  de  electione  con- 
questi,"  &c. — Leonardus  Aretinus,  Histor.  Florent., 
lib.  viii.  ad  finem.  Leonardus  was  himself  person- 
ally attached  to  the  popes  of  that  succession.  By 
some  the  character  of  Urban  is  compared  to  that  of 
Boniface  VIII.  Baluzius,  the  organ  of  the  French 
opinion,  represents  him  as  a  very  monster  —  "  Cujus 
electio  facta  arte  diabolica." 

$  This  learned  and  now  influential  body  was  court- 
ed with  equal  assiduity  by  Urban.  In  a  letter  ad- 
dressed to  it  on  this  same  occasion,  that  pontiff  com- 
pared it  to  a  constellation  irradiating  every  other 
academy ;  to  a  fountain  whence  the  purest  doctrine 
perennially  flowed;  to  a  tree  bearing  excellent  fruit. 
See  Spondanus,  Ann.  1378,  s.  xviii. 

§  There  exists  a  letter  written  during  that  crisis 


THE  GRAND  SCHISM. 


409 


Clement  VII.  elected  at  Fondi.  —  To  give 
consequence  to  this  decision,  they  assembled 
with  great  solemnity  in  the  principal  church, 
and  promulgated,  on  the  9th  of  August,  a 
public  declaration,  in  the  presence  of  many 
prelates  and  other  ecclesiastics,  by  which  the 
Archbishop  of  Bari  was  denounced  an  in- 
truder into  the  pontificate,  and  his  election 
formally  cancelled.  *  They  then  retired,  for 
greater  security,  to  Fondi,  in  the  kingdom  of 
Naples.  Still  they  did  not  venture  to  proceed 
to  a  new  election  in  the  absence,  and  it  might 
be  against  the  consent,  of  their  Italian  breth- 
ren. A  negotiation  was  accordingly  opened; 
and  these  last  immediately  fell  into  the  snare, 
which  treachery  had  prepared  for  ambition. 
To  each  of  them  separately  a  secret  promise 
was  made  in  writing,  by  the  whole  of  their 
colleagues,  that  himself  should  be  the  object 
of  their  choice.  Each  of  them  believed  what 
he  wished ;  and  concealing  from  each  other 
their  private  expectations,  theyf  pressed  to 
Fondi  with  joy  and  confidence.  The  College 
immediately  entered  into  conclave  ;  and,  as 
the  French  had,  in  the  meantime,  reconciled 
their  provincial  jealousies,  Robert,  the  Car- 
dinal of  Geneva,  was  chosen  by  their  unani- 
mous vote.  This  event  took  place  on  the  20th 
of  September  (1378) ;  the  new  pope  assumed 
the  name  of  Clement  VII.,  and  was  installed 
with  the  customary  ceremonies. 

Robert  of  Geneva  was  of  noble  birth,  and 
even  allied  to  several  of  the  sovereigns  of 
Europe.  He  possessed  talents  and  eloquence, 
a  courage  which  was  never  daunted,  and  a  re- 
solution which  was  never  diverted  or  wearied. 
Little  scrupulous  as  to  means,  in  his  habits 
sumptuous  and  prodigal,  he  seemed  the  man 
most  likely  to  establish  his  claims  to  a  disput- 
ed crown,  and  to  unite  the  courts  of  Christ- 

by  Marsilius  d'Inghen,  ancient  Rector  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Paris,  who  happened  to  be  residing  with  Ur- 
ban at  that  time.  His  description  of  affairs  is  such 
as  we  have  given.     See  Fleury,  1.  97,  s.  52. 

*  In  this  document,  the  cardinals,  after  describing 
the  tumults  of  the  Romans,  declared,  that  they  elected 
the  Archbishop  of  Bari  in  the  persuasion  that,  seeing 
the  circumstances  under  which  he  was  chosen,  he 
would  in  conscience  have  refused  the  pontificate;  that 
on  the  contrary,  forgetful  of  his  salvation,  and  burn- 
ing with  ambition,  he  consented  to  the  choice;  that 
under  the  effect  of  the  same  intimidation,  he  was 
enthroned  and  crowned,  and  assumed  the  name  of 
pope,  though  he  rather  merited  that  of  apostate  and 
Antichrist.  They  then  anathematized  him  as  an 
usurper,  and  invoked  against  him  all  aids  and  suc- 
cors, divine  and  human. 

+  They  were  now  reduced  to  three,  by  the  death 
of  the  Cardinal  of  St.  Peter's. 
52 


endom  in  his  favor.  His  age,  besides,  which 
did  not  exceed  thirty-six,  gave  promise  of  a 
vigorous  and  decisive  policy. 

Nevertheless,  his  first  endeavors  had  very 
little  success.  It  was  in  vain,  that  the  sacred 
college  sent  forth  its  addresses  to  princes  and 
their  subjects,  detailing  all  that  had  occurred 
at  Rome,  Auagni,  and  Fondi,  and  protesting 
against  the  violence,  which  occasioned  the 
illegal  election  of  Urban.  It  was  argued,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  the  Cardinals  had  assisted 
at  the  subsequent  ceremonies  of  enthronement 
and  coronation ;  that  they  had  announced 
their  choice  in  the  usual  language  to  all  the 
courts  of  Europe  ;  that  they  had  continued 
their  personal  attendance  on  the  Pope  for 
some  weeks  afterwards,  and  had  even  allow 
ed  four  months  to  elapse,  before  they  with- 
drew their  obedience.  Besides  which,  many, 
no  doubt,  were  well  pleased  to  see  the  chief 
of  their  church  restored  to  his  legitimate  re- 
sidence ;  they  disliked  the  irregular  influence 
of  the  French,  and  were  glad  to  shake  off 
their  spiritual  usurpation.  In  truth,  the  rea- 
sons, which  were  advanced  with  such  ardor 
and  obstinacy  on  both  sides,  were  not  per- 
fectly conclusive  for  either ;  and  though  it  is 
certain  that  the  election  was  conducted  under 
some  degree  of  intimidation,*  the  subsequent 
acquiescence  of  the  Cardinals  makes  it  highly 
probable,  that  the  legitimacy  of  Urban  would 
never  have  been  questioned,  had  he  followed 
the  usual  course  of  pontifical  misgovernment, 
or  even  published  his  schemes  of  reformation 
with  less  earnestness,  or  more  discretion. 
The  severity  of  his  rebukes  rankled  in   the 

*  Sismondi  (Repub.  Ital.,  ch.  1.)  does  not  con- 
sider the  choice  of  the  Cardinals  to  have  been  decid- 
ed by  the  tumult  of  the  people,  because  after  all  they 
did  not  elect  a  Roman,  and  therefore  incurred  some 
danger  even  by  that  compromise  with  their  indepen- 
dence. However,  the  real  object  of  the  populace  was 
effected,  if  they  obtained  a  Pope  who  would  probably 
reside  at  Rome:  this,  and  not  the  place  of  his  na- 
tivity, was  the  point  which  touched  their  interests, 
— and  the  election  of  a  Neapolitan  secured  it  almost 
as  certainly,  as  that  of  a  Roman.  Upon  the  whole, 
it  seems  most  probable  (and  the  result  of  the  second 
election  confirms  this)  that,  had  no  external  influence 
been  exercised,  the  Cardinals  would  have  chosen  an 
Ultramontane,  or,  at  any  rate,  not  the  Archbishop 
of  Ban.  Sismondi's  eloquent  description  of  this 
affair  is  chiefly  drawn  from  the  contemporary  account 
of  Thomas  d'Acerno,  Bishop  of  Lucera,  who  was 
present.  On  the  other  hand,  Baldus,  a  celebrated 
lawyer  and  adherent  of  Urban,  does  not  dispute  the 
influence  of  the  popular  uproar,  but  rests  the  legiti- 
macy of  that  Pope  on  the  subsequent  confirmation 
and  obedience  of  the  sacred  college. 


410 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


conscience  of  those  who  deserved  them  ;  and 
his  menaces  persuaded  the  court,  that,  to  pre- 
serve its  beloved  impurities,  it  must  depose 
a  master  who  presumed  to  arraign  them.  A 
Pope,  so  dangerous  to  the  vices  *  of  the  pow- 
erful clergy,  could  not  hope  to  maintain  with- 
out dispute  an  ambiguous  right. 

Such  was  the  origin  of  the  schism  which 
divided  the  Roman  Church  for  about  forty 
years,  and  accelerated  more  than  any  other 
event  the  decline  of  papal  authority,  f  We 
have  related  the  particulars  with  some  minute- 
ness, not  only  in  justice  to  the  importance  of 
the  subject,  but  also  to  show,  that  the  great 
difficulties,  which  were  soon  afterwards  found, 
even  by  impartial  judges,  in  determining  the 
rights  of  the  competitors,  were  not  without 
foundation  ;  but  that  both  parties  had  a  plausi- 
ble plea  for  their  respective  obedience,  though 
the  true  policy  and  interests  of  the  church 
clearly  recommended  an  undivided  adherence 
to  the  cause  of  Urban. 

France  declares  for  Clement.  —  The  hopes 
of  Clement  were  fixed  on  the  court  of  France; 
he  knew  that  prejudices  in  his  favor  naturally 
existed  in  that  kingdom,  and  he  knew,  too, 
that  the  first  steps  towards  his  general  ac- 
knowledgment must  be  taken  there.  Charles 
V.,  affecting  great  impartiality,  and  admitting 
the  deliberation  due  to  so  grave  a  question, 
convoked  at  Vincennes  a  grand  Assembly  of 
his  clergy,  nobles,  and  council.  This  august 
body,  after  individually  abjuring  the  influence 
of  all  personal  considerations,  expressed  an 


*  He  strictly  forbade  the  Cardinals,  on  pain  of 
excommunication,  to  accept  any  presents.  He  en- 
deavored to  restrain  the  luxury  of  all  his  prelates, 
and  even  to  reduce  their  tables  to  a  single  dish,  —  a 
laudable  moderation,  of  which  he  set  the  example 
himself.  Again,  he  threatened  the  French,  that  he 
would  create  so  many  Cardinals  as  to  place  them  in  a 
minority  in  the  college.  "  Item  Cardinali  de  Ursinis 
dixit  quod  erat  unus  Sotus."  (Thomas  d'Acerno,  p. 
725.)  His  harsh  and  offensive  manner  increased  the 
unpopularity  of  his  proposed  reforms. 

t  The  entire  number  of  the  schisms,  which  have 
disturbed  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  is  variously 
estimated  by  its  historians.  Johannes  Marius,  a 
Belgian,  historian  of  Louis  XII.,  (a  Latin  translation 
of  whose  work  is  published,  together  with  that  of 
Theodoric  of  Niem,)  makes  the  fated  number  to  be 
twenty-four, — the  last  of  which,  the  Schism  of  Anti- 
Christ,  the  most  deadly  of  all,  had  not  yet  in  his  time 
befallen.  The  first  in  his  catalogue  is  that  of  the 
Novatians ;  the  sixteenth  was  that  occasioned  by 
Gregory  VII. ;  the  twentieth  by  Frederic  Barbarossa ; 
the  twenty-second  was  that,  which  we  are  now  des- 
cribing. His  Book  is  divided  into  three  parts,  of 
which  the  second,  "  De  Conciliis  Ecclesiae  Galli- 
canae,"  contains  some  useful  information. 


unanimous  *  conviction  of  the  legitimacy  of 
Clement.  The  king  was  guided  by  their  voice, 
and  declared  on  the  13th  of  November  in  his 
favor.  The  Queen  of  Naples,  the  city  of 
Avignon,  and  the  six  Cardinals  who  resided 
there,  had  already  come  to  the  same  deter- 
mination. In  the  meantime,  a  passionate  war- 
fare of  bulls  and  anathemas  commenced  on 
both  sides;  but  happily  the  thunders  must 
on  this  occasion  have  fallen  harmless,  even 
in  the  judgment  of  a  moderate  Catholic,  since 
it  was  impossible  certainly  to  decide  which 
were  the  genuine  bolts ;  and  the  ambiguous 
election  of  the  rivals  placed  them  both  in  the 
situation  of  Antipopes,  rather  than  of  Popes. 

But  they  were  not  contented  with  those 
innocuous  conflicts;  the  rights  which  were 
ineffectually  asserted  by  ecclesiastical  cen- 
sures, appealed  for  protection  to  the  sword : 
a  succession  of  combats  desolated  the  South 
of  Italy,  and  ended  in  the  discomfiture  of 
Clement.  His  first  refuge  was  Naples;  but 
at  length,  finding  it  impossible  to  maintain 
himself  in  Italy  against  an  Italian  rival,  he  re- 
tired to  the  residence  most  suited  to  his  for- 
tunes and  his  prospects,  Avignon.  From  a 
city  which  was  already  consecrated  by  the 
tombs  of  so  many  Popes,  supported  by  the 
court  and  nourished  by  the  clergy  of  France, 
he  bade  defiance  to  his  Transalpine  adversa- 
ry ;  and  since  he  could  not  command,  he  was 
contented  to  divide,  the  spiritual  obedience  of 
Europe. 

Division  of  Europe. — It  does  not  enter  into 
the  plan  of  this  History  to  pursue  the  affairs 
of  the  Church  into  all  their  connexions  with 
political  matters  ;  to  attend  the  march  of  pa- 
pal armies,  hateful  alike  in  their  reverses  and 
their  triumphs  ;  or  to  trace  the  flimsy  threads 
of  intrigue,  by  which  the  momentary  interests 
of  Popes  and  kings  have  been  suspended.  It 
is  enough  to  say,  that,  notwithstanding  an  in- 
temperate ambition  and  some  acts  of  singular 
imprudence,  Urban  continued  to  retain  the 
greater  part  of  his  adherents.  The  Kings  of 
Scotland  and  Cyprus,  the  Counts  of  Savoy 
and  Geneva,  the  Duke  of  Austria,  and  some 
other  German  princes,  and  even  the  Kings 
of  Castille  and  Arragon,  were  finally  united 
with  France  in  allegiance  to  Clement.     But 


*  In  a  Council  previously  held  (on  Sept.  8),  to 
examine  the  rights  of  the  dispute  between  Urban  and 
the  French  Cardinals,  before  the  election  of  Robert 
of  Geneva,  the  majority  declared  for  the  Cardinals, 
though  they  advised  the  king  still  to  suspend  his  de- 
cision. Gibbon  remarks,  that  it  was  the  vanity, 
rather  than  the  interest  of  the  nation,  which  deter- 
mined the  court  and  clergy  of  France. 


THE  GRAND  SCHISM. 


411 


the  other  states  of  Europe  remained  faithful 
to  the  vows,  which  they  had  earliest  taken  ; 
and  it  was  no  unreasonable  reply  to  the  Anti- 
pope,  Robert  of  Avignon,  that  he  should  be 
the  last  to  reject  that  Pontiff,  whom  the  Car- 
dinal, Robert  of  Geneva,  had  officially  recom- 
mended to  universal  obedience.  The  doctors 
and  learned  men  of  the  age  were  similarly 
divided,  and  their  division  produced  the  most 
voluminous  controversies.  And  lastly,  as  is 
observed  by  some  Roman  Catholic  writers, 
many  pious  and  gifted  persons,  who  are  now 
numbered  among  the  saints  of  the  Church, 
were  to  be  found  indifferently  in  either  obe- 
dience ;  which  sufficiently  proved  (they  assert) 
that  the  eternal  salvation  of  the  faithful  was 
not  in  this  case  endangered  by  their  error. 
In  this  holy  society,  Catharine  of  Sienna  was 
again  conspicuous,  as  the  advocate  and  adviser 
of  the  Roman  Pope.  She  declared  herself 
(says  Maimbourg)  loudly  for  Urban,  and  em- 
ployed whatever  talents,  and  eloquence,  and 
force  she  possessed,  in  writing  and  exhorting 
all  the  world  to  acknowledge  him.  At  the 
same  time,  in  six  epistles,  which  she  addressed 
to  himself,  she  discreetly  recommended  him 
to  relax  somewhat  from  that  extreme  auster- 
ity, which  had  made  him  so  many  enemies. 
To  what  extent  Urban  profited  by  that  coun- 
sel we  are  scarcely  able  to  decide,  though 
some  assert,  that  he  held  his  holy  monitress 
in  much  veneration.  But  we  are  credibly  in- 
formed, that  his  predecessor,  who  had  cer- 
tainly been  influenced  by  her  persuasions, 
when  at  length,  on  his  death-bed,  his  stronger 
reason  prevailed,  called  around  him  his  friends 
and  assistants,  and  solemnly  cautioned  them 
against  all  pretenders  of  either  sex,  who  should 
propound  their  private  revelations  as  rules  of 
conduct  and  policy.  '  Since  I,  (he  said,)  hav- 
ing been  seduced  by  such  as  these,  and  having 
rejected  the  rational  counsel  of  my  friends, 
have  dragged  myself  and  the  Church  into  the 
perils  of  a  schism,  which  is  now  near  at  hand, 
unless  Jesus,  her  Spouse,  shall  interpose  in 
his  mercy  to  avert  it.'  * 

Such  persons,  notwithstanding,  were  found 
in  abundance  on  both  sides ;  and  their  wild 
visions  were  interpreted  by  the  devotees  of 

*  "  Ille  positus  in  extremis,  habens  in  manibus 
sacrum  Christi  Corpus,  protestatus  est  coram  omnibus, 
ut  caverent  ab  homiuibus,  sive  viiis  sive  mulieribus 
sub  specie  religionis  loquentibus  visiones  sui  capitis; 
quia  per  tales  ipse  seductus,  dimisso  suorum  rationa- 
bili  consilio,  se  traxerat  et  ecclesiam  in  discrimen 
schismatis  imminentis,  nisi  misericors  provideret 
sponsus  Jesus."  See  Gerson,  De  Examinatione 
Doctrinarum,  Pars  ii.,  consid.  iii. 


the  day,  and  recorded  by  the  grave  historians 
of  after  times  ;  and  it  was  this,  among  other 
circumstances,  which  has  seduced  Roman 
Catholic  writers  to  the  very  consoling  conclu- 
sion, that,  though  a  schism  did  unquestion- 
ably exist,  yet  there  were  none  who  could 
properly  be  termed  schismatics  ;  that  the  ad- 
herents of  Urban  and  of  Clement  were  equal- 
ly the  children  of  the  church  ;  and  that,  while 
the  faithful  differed  as  to  the  name  of  the  bish- 
op, they  were  united  in  unshaken  allegiance 
and  attachment  to  the  See.* 

Certainly  the  character  of  Urban  was  not 
permanently  softened  by  the  admonitions  of 
his  inspired  instructress ;  and  to  many  reported 
acts  of  harshness  and  rigor  he  presently  added 
one  of  positive  barbarity.  The  following 
story  rests  on  satisfactory  evidence.  A  plot 
for  his  deposition  had  been  set  on  foot,  origi- 
nating, as  it  would  seem,  with  the  King  of 
Naples ;  and  a  paper,  which  had  been  circu- 
lated with  that  object,  was  placed  in  the  hands 
of  some  of  his  Cardinals — for  Urban  had  im- 
mediately supplied  the  defection  of  his  original 
court  by  a  large  and,  for  the  most  part,  re- 
spectable creation.  How  far  they  counte- 
nanced the  propositions  contained  in  it  does 
not  certainly  appear  ;f  but  as  by  one  of  those 
the  provisional  government  of  the  church 
was  vested  in  the  hands  of  the  sacred  college, 
it  is  not  improbable  that  some  may  have  as- 
sented to  them.  Urban  discovered  the  con- 
spiracy ;  he  immediately  seized  six,  the  most 
suspected  of  the  body,  and  after  subjecting 
them  to  the  utmost  severity  of  torture,  cast 
them  into  a  narrow  and  noisome   dungeon. 


*  Never,  says  Maimbourg,  was  the  unity  of  the 
See  better  preserved,  than  during  this  schism. 

•f  Respecting  some  of  the  particulars  of  this  affair 
we  have  the  directly  opposite  evidence  of  two  con- 
temporaries, who  had  both  excellent  means  of  infor- 
mation. Gobellinus  was  attached  to  the  house  of 
Urban,  and  he  relates,  as  the  report  which  had 
reached  him,  that  the  Cardinals  not  only  assented  to 
the  plan  proposed  to  them,  but  actually  suborned 
false  witnesses  to  convict  the  Pope  of  heresy,  and  in- 
tended to  burn  him  on  the  day  of  his  condemnation, 
— and  that  this  appeared  from  their  own  confessions. 
Tlieodoric  of  Niem,  who  was  on  the  spot,  and  one 
of  the  judges  appointed  by  the  Pope  to  try  the  Car- 
dinals, attests  that  all  of  them  constantly  asserted 
their  innocence,  excepting  one  only,  who  confessed, 
in  the  agony  of  (he  torture,  any  thing  that  was  asked 
him.  Though  neither  author  is  free  from  the  charge 
of  partiality,  we  must  here  give  our  credence  to  the 
latter  account,  recollecting,  that  even  that  does  not 
necessarily  acquit  the  accused.  Fleury  (1.  xcviii., 
s.  xx.,  xxi.,  &c),  who  relates  the  particulars  of  the 
torture  from  Theod.  de  Niem  with  painful  minuteness, 
certainly  believes  the  conspiracy. 


412 


HISTORY   OF   THE   CHURCH. 


This  affair  took  place  at  Nocera,  in  the  king- 
dom of  Naples ;  but  some  reverses  presently 
obliged  the  Pope  to  take  refuge  at  Genoa. 
He  carried  his  prisoners  along  with  him  in 
chains,  and  afflicted  with  severe  hardships ; 
and,  during  a  year  of  sojourn  in  that  civilized 
city,  he  could  never  be  moved  by  the  counsels 
of  his  friends,  or  the  prayers  of  the  republic 
Avhich  protected  him,  to  release  his  captives. 
At  length,  when  on  the  point  of  departure,  as 
he  feared  the  inconvenience  or  the  scandal  of 
dragging  them  after  him  through  a  second 
journey,  and  as  he  could  not  exalt  his  resolu- 
tion to  the  performance  of  an  act  of  clemen- 
cy, if,  indeed,  it  were  not  justice,  he  consigned 
five  of  them  to  sudden  and  secret  *  execution. 
The  other,  an  Englishman  named  Adam  Es- 
ton,  Bishop  of  London,  owed  his  preservation 
only  to  the  frequent  and  pressing  remonstran- 
ces of  the  English  King.  This  affair  took 
place  in  the  December  of  1386. 

Election  and  character  of  Boniface  IX. — 
In  the  October  of  1389,  Urban  died  at  Rome ; 
and  as  soon  as  the  glad  intelligence  reached 
Avignon  and  Paris,  great  wishes  were  express- 
ed and  some  hopes  entertaiued  in  both  places, 
that  the  schism  would  thus  terminate ;  that 
the  Cardinals  of  Rome,  wearied  by  the  labors, 
the  vicissitudes,  and  the  dangers  of  the  con- 
flict, would  voluntarily  unite  themselves  with 
the  College  at  Avignon,  and  acknowledge 
Clement  for  Pope,  on  the  condition  of  his  res- 
idence at  Rome.  In  the  university  especially 
the  public  lectures  were  suspended,  and  no 
subject  was  discussed,  except  the  probable 
determination  of  the  Roman  Cardinals.  In 
the  meantime,  that  body,  on  whose  resolution 
at  that  moment  so  much  depended,  appear 
not  to  have  been  embarrassed  by  any  hesi- 
tation as  to  the  course  before  them.  The 
members  immediately  assembled,  to  the  num- 
ber of  fourteen  ;  they  entered  into  conclave, 
and  elected,  within  a  fortnight  from  Urban's 
decease,  another  Neapolitan  for  his  successor. 

The  Jubilee. — Pietro  or  Perrino  Tomacelli, 
Cardinal  of  Naples,  assumed,  on  the  second 
of  November,  the  name  of  Boniface  IX.,  and 
was  placed  on  the  throne  for  which  his  igno- 
rance f  alone  was  sufficient  to  disqualify  him. 

*  Most  assert  that  he  threw  them  into  the  sea  in 
sacks ;  others  affirm  that  they  were  strangled  in  pri- 
son, and  their  bodies  consumed  by  quick-lime.  It  is 
certain  that  they  disappeared. 

t  Theodoric  of  Niem,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  vi.,  'scribendi 
atque  canendi  imperitus.  .  .  Nemo  prosperatur  in 
illo  quod  ignorat;  unde  inscitia  fere  venalis  facta 
fuit  in  ipsa  Curia,  tempore  suo.  Fuit  tamen  satis 
edoctus  grammatical  ac  disertus,  sed  non  habuit  in 
aliqua  scientia  preeminent iam  sive  gradum.' 


But  the  scandal  of  his  ignorance  was  enhanc- 
ed by  his  avarice.  On  the  year  following  his 
accession,  a  Jubilee*  was  held  at  Rome,  and 
the  devout  were  exhorted  to  present  them- 
selves from  every  quarter.  Unmoved  by  dis- 
tance and  expense,  and  even  by  the  personal 
dangers  which  awaited  them  from  the  parti- 
sans of  Clement  or  the  neutral  bandits  of  the 
mountains,  great  multitudes  undertook,  and 
many  accomplished,  the  pilgrimage.  The 
altars  of  the  Roman  churches  were  again  en- 
riched by  the  contributions  of  superstition  ; 
and  if  some  part  of  the  offerings  was  expend- 
ed in  the  repair  of  the  sacred  edifices,  by  far 
the  larger  proportion  flowed  directly  into  the 
coffers  of  the  Pope.  But  Boniface  was  not 
contented  with  that  partial  stream,  which  had 
found  its  way  to  his  capital ;  and  being  desir- 
ous, no  doubt,  that  even  those  of  his  children, 
who  had  not  listened  to  his  call,  should  still 
participate  in  the  spiritual  consolation,  he  sent 
his  emissaries  among  all  the  nations  by  whom 
he  was  acknowledged,  with  commissions  to 
sell  the  plenary  indulgence  to  all  indiscrimi- 
nately, for  the  same  sum  which  the  journey 
to  Rome  would  have  cost  them.  This  abso- 
lution extended  to  every  sort  of  offence,  and 
appears  not  to  have  been  preceded  even  by 
the  ordinary  formalities  of  confession  or  pen- 
ance,— it  was  purely  and  undisguisedly  venal. 
The  necessary  consequences  of  this  measure 
were  sufficiently  demoralizing ;  but  the  evil 
was  multiplied  by  the  impostures  of  certain 
mendicants  and  others,  who  traversed  the 
country  with  forged  indulgences,  which  they 
bartered  for  their  private  profit. 

Still  dissatisfied,  and  determined  to  carry 
this  lucrative  mummery  of  the  jubilee  to  its 
utmost  depth,  and,  as  it  were,  to  fathom  the 
superstition  of  his  age,  Boniface  communicat- 
ed the  privileges  of  the  holy  city  to  two  towns 
of  Germany — Cologne  and  Madgebourg;  and 
permitted  them  also  to  hold  their  year  of  Ju- 
bilee, after  the  fashion  and  example  of  Rome. 
By  this  rash  act  he  disparaged  the  superemi- 
nent  sanctity  of  the  see  of  St.  Peter,  of  the 
tombs  of  the  apostles,  and  the  relics  of  so  many 
martyrs !     He  called  in  question  the  exclu- 


*  The  indication  of  this  jubilee  was  the  act  of 
his  predecessor.  Urban  VI.,  moved  by  the  gradual 
abbreviation  of  human  life,  determined  to  reduce  the 
interval  (already  reduced  from  100  to  50)  from  50  to 
33  years, — this  last  space  being  the  probable  duration 
of  Christ's  sojourn  on  earth.  See  Spondanus,  ann. 
1389,  s.  ii.  and  iii.  The  new  institution  was  to  be- 
gin afresh  from  the  year  1390;  but  it  was  not  intend- 
ed, as  we  shall  presently  observe,  to  supersede  the 
Becular  celebration 


THE  GRAND  SCHISM. 


413 


Biveness  of  that  glory,  which  was  thought  to 
encircle  the  throne  of  the  Vicars  of  Christ ! 
He  sacrificed — that  which  he  least  intended 
to  sacrifice — even  the  temporal  interests, 
even  the  pecuniary  profits,  which  were  ever 
closely  connected  with  the  peculiar  holiness  of 
the  apostolical  city.  But  his  immediate  gree- 
diness was  gratified  ;  his  collectors  were  pre- 
sent in  both  places  to  share  the  offerings  of 
the  faithful ;  and  when  he  perceived  that  their 
fatuity  was  not  yet  exhausted,  he  extended  the 
license  still  further,  and  accorded  it  to  several 
insignificant  places.  At  length,  says  Fleury, 
that  Pope  became  so  prodigal  of  his  indulgen- 
ces, that  he  refused  them  to  no  one,  provided 
he  was  paid  for  them  ;  the  effect  of  which  was, 
that  they  grew  into  contempt.* 

Projects  of  the  University  of  Paris. — In  the 
meantime,  the  necessity  of  restoring  the  union 
of  the  church  became  more  evident,  and  the 
expressions  of  that  opinion  more  loud  and 
general.  Boniface  himself  professed  an  ar- 
dent, though,  as  it  proved,  an  insincere  desire 
for  the  same  consummation, and  even  address- 
ed a  letter  to  Charles  of  France  (in  April, 
1393,)  in  which  he  exhorted  him  seriously  to 
undertake  the  sacred  office  of  conciliation/) 
The  king  consented ;  the  University  of  Paris 
eagerly  caught  at  any  hope  of  removing  the 
scandal  and  the  daily  growing  evils  which 
attended  it,  aud  applied  itself  to  discover  the 
most  efficient  means.  After  mature  delibera- 
tion, a  public  harangue  was  delivered  before 
that  body  (in  the  June  of  1394,)  by  a  doc- 
tor}: appointed  to  the  office,  and  after  receiv- 
ing their  approbation,  was  presented  to  the 
king.  It  contained  in  substance,  that  there 
were  three  methods  of  healing  the  schism,  any 
one  of  which  might  be  adopted  with  reasona- 
ble hope  of  success: — the  method  of  cession, 
— the  method  of  compromise, — the  method  of 

*  The  indulgence-mongers  of  Boniface  IX.,  when 
they  arrived  in  any  city,  suspended  at  their  windows 
a  flag,  with  the  arms  of  the  Pope  and  the  keys  of  the 
Church.  Then  they  prepared  tables  in  the  cathedral 
church,  l>y  the  side  of  the  altar,  covered  with  rich 
cloths,  like  bankers',  to  receive  the  purchase-money. 
They  then  informed  the  people  of  the  absolute  power, 
with  which  the  Pope  had  invested  them,  to  deliver 
souls  from  purgatory,  and  give  complete  remission  to 
all  who  bought  their  wares.  If  the  German  clergy 
exclaimed  against  this  base  traffic  of  spiritual  favors, 
they  were  excommunicated.  See  Sismondi,  Repub. 
Ital.,  ch.  lxii. 

t  It  appeared,  on  subsequent  explanation,  that. 
Boniface  saw  only  one  solution  of  the  difficulty, — the 
expulsion  of  his  rival,  and  the  universal  acknowledg- 
ment of  himself. 

%  Nicholas  de  Clemangis. 


a  General  Council.  By  the  first  the  voluntary 
resignation  of  both  competitors  was  recom- 
mended, in  the  presence  of  both  colleges; 
these  were  then  to  proceed  in  conjunction  to 
another  election.  By  the  second,  the  opposite 
claims  might  be  referred  to  certain  arbitrators 
appointed  by  both  parties,  with  the  power  of 
final  decision.  As  to  the  third,  it  was  sug- 
gested, in  case  of  its  adoption,  that  the  As- 
sembly should  no  longer  consist  of  prelates 
only,  many  of  whom  were  ignorant  or  pas- 
sionately partial,  but  also  of  several  doctors 
in  theology  and  law,  members  of  the  most 
celebrated  universities.  Of  the  above  methods, 
the  University  pronounced  its  own  decided 
opinion  in  favor  of  the  first, — as  being  the 
most  prompt  and  expedient,  the  most  proper 
to  prevent  expense  and  other  difficulties,  the 
most  agreeable  to  the  consciences  of  the  faith- 
ful in  both  obediences,  the  most  respectful  to 
the  honor  of  the  princes,  who  had  declared  for 
the  opposite  parties.  Yet  was  there  an  objec- 
tion to  this  method,  which,  to  mauy,  as  hu- 
man nature  is  constituted,  might  have  seemed 
at  once  conclusive  against  it: — was  it  probable, 
that,  for  the  attainment  of  a  public  good,  two 
men,  in  the  enjoyment  of  very  great  power, 
dignity,  and  wealth,  could  both  be  persuaded 
to  make  a  voluntary  cession  of  those  personal 
advantages,  and  to  withdraw  to  a  private,  and 
perhaps  insecure,  retirement,  from  the  loftiest 
eminence  of  ambition?  Yet  this  difficulty 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  much  considered 
in  the  outset,  though  it  became  manifest,  even 
to  the  most  sanguine,  long  before  the  termina- 
tion of  the  contest. 

In  the  same  exposition,  in  which  the  reme- 
dies were  thus  pointed  out,  some  of  the  mon- 
strous evils  which  then  afflicted  the  church 
were  exhibited  with  little  exaggeration  ;  while 
all  were  naturally  ascribed  to  the  prevalent 
disease  of  the  moment — the  schism.  It  was 
forgotten  that  the  greater  number  were  rooted 
in  the  system  itself,  and  only  flourished  some- 
what more  rankly  on  account  of  its  accidental 
derangement.  The  church,  it  was  declared, 
had  fallen  into  servitude,  poverty,  and  con- 
tempt. Unworthy  and  corrupt  men,  without 
the  sense  of  justice  or  honesty,  the  servants  of 
their  intemperate  passions,  were  commonly 
exalted  to  the  prelacy  ;  these  plundered  indif- 
ferently churches  and  monasteries,  whatever 
was  profane  and  whatever  was  sacred ;  and 
oppressed  the  inferior  ministers  of  religion 
with  intolerable  exactions.  The  dominion  of 
simony  was  universal ;  benefices  and  cures 
were  conferred  only  on  those,  who  had  means 
fto  buy  them  ;  while  the  poor  and  learned  can- 


414 


HISTORY   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


didate  was  hated  the  more  for  that  very  learn- 
ing, which  made  him  dangerous  to  corruption. 
And  not  only  were  the  dignities  of  the  church 
publicly  bartered ;  not  only  were  relics  and 
crosses  and  the  sacred  vessels  commonly  ex- 
posed to  sale  ;  but  the  very  sacraments  them- 
selves, those  especially  of  ordination  and  pen- 
ance, had  their  price  in  gold. 

A  political  circumstance  occurred  at  this 
moment  which  was  favorable  to  the  hopes  of 
union.  A  truce  for  four  years  was  signed 
between  the  kings  of  England  and  France — 
the  most  zealous  supporters  of  the  opposite 
parties.  At  the  same  time,  the  University  of 
Cologne,  though  it  acknowledged  Boniface, 
and  had  probably  profited  by  his  patronage, 
entered  into  correspondence  with  that  of  Paris 
for  the  extinction  of  the  schism  ; — and  lastly, 
as  if  to  place  the  result  within  the  immediate 
reach  of  the  pacificators,  Clement  VII.  was  so 
violently*  affected  by  the  proceedings  at  Paris, 
that  he  was  struck  with  apoplexy,  and  died. 

As  soon  as  this  intelligence  reached  Paris, 
the  deputation  from  the  university  instantly 
petitioned  the  king,  that  he  would  cause  the 
cardinals  to  suspend  the  election,  until  some 
general  measures  should  be  taken  to  ensure 
the  union ;  also,  that  he  would  assemble  his 
prelates  and  nobles,  and  order  processions  and 
public  prayers  to  the  same  end  throughout 
his  kingdom.  Accordingly,  a  royal  messen- 
ger was  despatched  to  Avignon,  to  prevent  the 
meeting  of  the  College,  and  prepare  it  for  a 
special  embassy  ;  and  on  the  success  of  this 
mission  hung  the  hopes  of  Christendom.  The 
envoy  arrived  at  Avignon  only  ten  days  after 
the  decease  of  Clement ;  but  he  found  the 
cardinals  already  in  conclave !  Still,  as  the 
election  was  not  yet  made,  he  transmitted  to 
them  the  letter  of  the  king  ;  but  the  College, 
suspecting  its  contents,  and  determined  at  any 
risk  to  have  a  pope  of  their  own  creation,  de- 
ferred the  opening  of  the  letter,  till  then-  actual 
business  should  be  completed.  They  then 
hastened  to  a  decision  ;  and  Peter  of  Luna, 
Cardinal  of  Arragon,  was  raised  by  their 
unanimous  voice  to  the  divided  throne. 

Election  of  Peter  of  Luna,  Benedict  XIII. — 
Howbeit,  they  previously  took  a  precaution, 
which  was  certainly  necessary  for  their  own 


*  When  the  earnest  and  reasonable  exhortations 
of  the  University  were  pressed  upon  him — when  he 
was  a«ured  that  the  evil  had  gone  so  far,  that  some 
began  almost  to  advocate  a  plurality  of  popes,  and 
the  appointment  of  one  to  every  kingdom  —  the  in- 
fatuate] bigot  only  started  from  his  seat  in  anger, 
and  declared  that  *  the  letters  were  poisoned,  and 
tended  to  bring  the  Holy  See  into  discredit  ' 


credit,  though  there  were  few,  probably,  who 
expected  any  real  advantage  from  it.  Before 
the  election  they  drew  up  an  act,  by  which 
they  solemnly  engaged  to  labor  for  the  ex- 
tinction of  the  schism,  and  to  give  every  aid 
to  the  future  pope  for  that  purpose.  It  was 
moreover  specified,  that  if  any  one  among 
themselves  should  be  raised  to  the  pontificate, 
this  act  should  be  equally  binding  upon  him ; 
and  that  he  should  even  be  prepared  to  cede 
his  dignity,  if  his  cardinals  should  judge  it 
expedient  for  the  concord  of  the  Church. 
They  then  took  oaths  on  the  altar  to  observe 
this  engagement. 

Peter  of  Luna  had  long  been  distinguished 
for  ability  and  address;  he  had  discharged 
with  vigor  the  offices  intrusted  to  him ;  but 
there  was  also  an  opinion  respecting  him, 
which  seems  more  than  any  other  to  have 
procured  his  elevation,  and  even  at  first  to 
have  reconciled  all  parties  to  it,  —  this  was, 
that  he  ardently  desired  the  union  of  the 
Church.  This  zeal  he  had  been  forward, 
while  cardinal,  to  proclaim  upon  all  occasions 
— even  so  far  as  to  censure  Clement  for  the 
want  of  it ;  and  many  hoped  that  it  would 
burn  with  equal  fervor  under  the  pontifical 
robes.  The  University  addressed  to  him  con- 
gratulations, which  were  seemingly  sincere, 
and  Benedict  XIII.  (the  name  assumed  by 
him)  repaid  them  with  the  strongest  protesta- 
tions of  good  intention. 

A  grand  council  was  then  held  at  Paris,  in 
which  the  method  of  cession  again  received 
the  approbation  of  the  great  majority  ;  and  it 
was  agreed,  that  an  embassy  should  be  sent 
to  Avignon  to  treat  with  the  Pope.  The  king 
added  his  authority,  to  give  weight  to  this 
measure  ;  and  the  more  certainly  to  secure 
its  success,  he  sent  his  brother  and  both  his 
uncles  (the  Dukes  of  Burgundy  and  Berri)  to 
conduct  the  negotiation.  Benedict  received 
them  with  respect  and  deference ;  but  when 
they  opened  the  subject  of  their  mission,  and 
pressed  the  necessity  of  the  cession,  as  the 
only  road  to  concord,  he  found  many  reasons 
to  urge  against  that  particular  method,  as  in- 
deed against  the  other  two,  which  had  also 
occurred  to  the  university.  In  the  place  of 
them,  he  proposed  a  conference  with  his  rivaL 
at  which  he  affected  to  believe  that  matters 
might  be  accommodated.  The  ambassadors 
persevered  in  their  proposal ;  and  even  the 
cardinals,  on  their  strong  solicitation,  de- 
clared, with  one  exception,  *  for  the  method 


*  The  Cardinal  Bishop  of  Pampeluna,  a  Spaniard 
and  compatriot  of  the  Pope. 


THE  GRAND  SCHISM. 


415 


of  cession.  Nevertheless  Benedict,  during 
several  weeks  of  repeated  conferences  and 
debates,  inflexibly  persisted  in  his  refusal. 
At  length  the  illustrious  mission  returned  to 
Paris,  without  any  other  result  than  the  dis- 
covery of  Benedict's  insincerity. 

Notwithstanding  this  failure,  the  king  ad- 
dressed himself  veiy  warmly,  to  unite  the  dif- 
ferent courts  and  learned  bodies  of  Europe  in 
favor  of  the  method,  which  still  seemed  to 
promise  the  greatest  hopes.  Messengers  tra- 
versed the  country  in  all  directions,  and  every 
state  and  every  city  in  Europe  was  agitated 
by  the  same  momentous  question.  The  spec- 
ulations of  the  learned  and  the  projects  of  the 
powerful  were  equally  engrossed  by  it ;  and 
it  seemed  as  if  the  fate  of  all  governments, 
and  the  welfare  of  all  subjects,  depended  on 
its  solution.  At  this  time  the  University  of 
Paris,  which  took  the  foremost  part  in  these 
discussions,  and  possessed  much  more  in- 
fluence than  any  other  learned  body,  openly 
expressed  dissatisfaction  with  Benedict,  and 
even  threw  out  some  menaces  of  a  general 
council,  in  case  of  his  further  contumacy. 

Benedict  watched  these  proceedings  with 
anxiety;  but  the  variety  and  discordance  of 
the  materials,  which  it  was  necessary  to  com- 
bine for  his  destruction,  gave  him  the  confi- 
dence to  persist ; — upon  which  the  Doctors 
of  Paris  advanced  one  degree  towards  more 
efficient  measures.  And  as  Luna  had  unre- 
servedly sworn  to  adopt  the  method  of  cession, 
in  case  his  cardinals  should  hereafter  recom- 
mend it,  and  as  his  cardinals  had  strongly  re- 
commended it,  and  as  he  had  then  unequi- 
vocally rejected  it,  little  sympathy  could  be 
expected  from  any  quarter  with  a  prelate, 
whose  selfish  opposition  to  the  interests  of 
religion  was  made  more  detestable  by  an  act 
of  deliberate  perjury.  The  measure  was,  to 
draw  up  a  strong  exposition  of  Benedict's 
general  delinquency,  and  of  the  particular 
grievances  of  the  complainants,  and  to  appeal 
from  his  censures,  whether  past  or  future,  to 
the  future  pope :  *  a  step  which  very  tem- 
perately opened  the  path  for  more  vigorous 
proceedings. 

Conduct  of  Boniface.  —  In  the  meantime, 
the  courts  which  acknowledged  the  rival 
pope  made  great  exertions  to  bring  him  to 
the  arrangement — which  to  them  seemed  so 
reasonable,  and  to  him  so  unjust  and  extrava- 
gant.    From  Sicily  to  the  extremities  of  Ger- 


*  On  tliis  occasion  numbers  of  polemical  tracts 
and  pamphlets  were  published  on  both  sides,  con- 
taining, as  Fleury  has  observed,  many  words  but  few 
reasons. 


many  assemblies  were  held  and  resolutions 
adopted  ;  and  the  vows,  and  talents,  and  en- 
ergies of  all  men  were  directed  to  the  same 
object ;  consequently,  deputations  and  em- 
bassies were  sent  to  Rome  from  all  quarters. 
Boniface  at  first  was  contented  to  reply,  that 
he  was  the  true  and  only  Pope,  and  that  uni- 
versal obedience  was  due  to  him ;  but  pre- 
sently, in  the  year  1398,  when  the  emperor 
at  length  interfered  more  directly,  and  press- 
ed the  method  of  cession,  he  found  it  expedi- 
ent to  dissemble ;  and,  by  the  advice  of  his 
cardinals,  he  promised  submission,  provided 
(a  very  safe  proviso)  that  the  Antipope  of 
Avignon  should  also  resign  his  claims.*  Yet, 
even  so  guarded  a  concession  alarmed  the 
avaricious  fears  of  the  citizens  of  Rome. 
They  trembled  lest  their  bishop  ahd  his  pro- 
digal court,  and  the  tram  of  his  dependents, 
and  expectants,  and  sycophants,  should  again 
be  seduced  to  some  foreign  residence.  That 
event,  too,  at  that  moment,  would  have  been 
peculiarly  afflicting,  since  in  two  years  (in 
1400)  the  second  grand  and  general  Jubilee 
was  to  take  place;  and  the  inhabitants  had 
already  begun  to  make  provision  for  the 
season  of  spoliation.  Accordingly,  a  body 
of  the  notables  of  the  city  waited  upon  the 
Pope,  and  professed  towards  him  the  most 
sincere  and  unprecedented  f  affection  :  they 
declared  that  they  would  never  desert  hin , 
but  sustain,  with  their  very  lives  and  proper- 
ty, his  just  and  holy  cause.  '  My  children,' 
replied  Boniface,  'take  courage  !  rest  assured 
that  I  will  continue  to  be  pope ;  and  whatever 
I  may  say,  or  however  I  may  play  off  the 
King  of  France  and  the  Emperor  against 
each  other,  I  will  never  submit  to  their  will.' 
Subtraction  of  obedience. — While  such  was 
the  disposition  of  the  Roman  competitor,  dur- 
ing the  July  of  the  same  year  the  Court  and 
University  of  Paris  at  length  perceiving  that 
a  mere  contest  of  acts  and  declarations  would 
never  weary  the  Pontiff*  of  Avignon,  proceed- 
ed to  a  measure  of  greater  efficacy — one  which 
no  Catholic  nation  had  hitherto,  on  any  occa- 
sion, dared  to  adopt  against  any  pope  :  — '  By 
the  aid  and  advice  of  the  princes  and  other 
nobles,  and  of  the  Church  of  our  kingdom, 
as  well  clergy  as  people,  we  entirely  withdraw 
our  obedience  from  Pope  Benedict  XIII.,  as 

*  Spondanus,  ann.  1398,  s.  ii. 

t  Fleury,  liv.  xcix.  s.  18.  Boniface  artfully  avail- 
ed himself  of  this  unusual  display  of  loyalty  on  the 
part  of  his  subjects  to  secure  an  extent  of  temporal 
authority  over  them,  such  as  no  former  pope  is  said 
to  have  possessed.  See  ^Egidius  Card.  Viterb,  apud 
Ta'i.     Vit.  Bonif.  IX.  s.  xliii. 


416 


HISTORY   OF   THE   CHURCH. 


well  as  from  his  adversary,  whom  indeed  we 
have  never  acknowledged.  And  we  ordain, 
that  no  one  henceforward  make  any  payment 
to  Pope  Benedict,  his  collectors,  or  agents, 
from  the  ecclesiastical  revenues  or  emolu- 
ments. We  also  strictly  prohibit  all  our  sub- 
jects from  offering  to  him  any  manner  of 
obedience.'  Such  was  the  substance  of  the 
royal  proclamation  ;  and  arrangements  were 
at  the  same  time  made  to  deprive  the  pope 
of  the  presentation  to  all  benefices,  for  as  long 
a  time  as  it  should  remain  in  force.  This  edict 
was  received  with  such  general  respect  and 
submission,  that  the  very  domestics  and  chap- 
lains of  Benedict  retired  from  their  offices ; 
and  what  was  still  more  important,  the  cardi- 
nals themselves  withdrew  in  a  body  from  his 
court.  But  he,  nothing  moved  by  that  una- 
nimity, was  the  more  forward  on  repeated 
occasions  to  assert,  that  he  was  the  true  and 
genuine  pope ;  that  he  would  remain  so,  in 
despite  of  king,  duke,  or  count — and  that  he 
was  prepared  to  renounce  his  life,  rather  than 
his  dignity. 

Recourse  was  then  had  to  the  only  method 
which  gave  any  just  hope  of  success.  A  mil- 
itary force  was  sent  against  Avignon  ;  and  as 
the  inhabitants  of  that  city  also  declared  their 
adhesion  to  the  king  and  the  cardinals,  noth- 
ing now  remained  in  opposition  to  the  royal 
will  and  the  force  of  the  nation,  except  the 
pontifical  palace.  But  Benedict  had  secured 
some  faithful  mercenaries  for  its  defence  ;  and 
an  effective  blockade  was  thought  sufficient 
for  the  objects  of  his  enemies.  Thus  for  the 
space  of  four  years  he  continued  a  close  pris- 
oner in  his  own  residence,  without  any  strength 
to  resist  the  means  employed  against  him,  or 
any  disposition  to  yield  to  them.  But  at  length, 
the  vigor  of  that  powerful  confederacy  was 
dissipated  by  the  persevering  intrigues  of  one 
feeble  individual,  and  the  variety  of  interests 
and  principles  in  the  mass  opposed  to  Bene- 
dict led  by  slow  degrees  to  a  disunion,  which 
preserved  him.  The  first,  who  betrayed  his 
party,  was  a  Norman  officer,  Robinet  de 
Braquemont, — who,  through  the  confidence 
reposed  in  him,  and  his  constant  access  to  the 
palace,  found  easy  means  of  liberating  the 
pope.  It  was  on  March  12,  1403,  that  the 
successor  of  St.  Peter  concealed  his  apostoli- 
cal sanctity  under  the  disguise  of  a  menial ; 
and,  having  thus  eluded  the  penetration  of  his 
guards,  took  refuge  in  a  small  town  near 
Avignon.  As  a  pope  was  never  wont  to  tra- 
vel, unless  preceded  by  the  Holy  Sacrament, 
Benedict  carried  out  with  him  a  little  box, 


containing  the  consecrated  element ;  and  even, 
for  the  literal  observance  of  that  custom,  he 
placed  the  box  upon  his  breast 

As  soon  as  he  found  himself  in  safety,  he 
caused  his  beard,  which  he  had  nourished 
during  the  persecution  of  his  captivity,  to  be 
shaved  off;  and  recovering  with  his  freedom 
the  consciousness  of  his  dignity,  he  resumed 
the  habits  and  authority  of  a  pope.  No  soon- 
er was  the  circumstance  of  his  liberation  made 
known,  than  several  noble  individuals  render- 
ed to  him  the  accustomed  homage.  Imme- 
diately the  College  of  Cardinals  passed  over 
to  him  and  sought  a  reconciliation.  The  cit- 
izens of  Avignon  eagerly  tendered  their  offers 
of  service.  Benedict  forgave  the  truancy, 
and  accepted  the  repentance  of  all.  At  the 
same  time,  the  party  in  France,  which  for 
some  time  had  been  opposed  to  the  subtrac- 
tion *  of  obedience,  and  which  had  lately 
gained  strength,  now  boldly  declared  its  ad- 
hesion. The  king  was  privately  induced  to 
join  it ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  resistance 
of  the  more  consistent  promoters  of  ecclesi- 
astical concord,  it  prevailed.  By  an  edict  of 
May  30,  an  entire  and  unequivocal  restitution 
of  obedience  was  enjoined  :  thus  after  a  par- 
tial interruption  of  about  five  years,  the  tide 
of  papacy  resumed  for  a  season,  even  in 
France  itself,  its  prescribed  and  customary  f 
course. 

Government  of  Boniface. — The  reason  which 
was  advanced  by  the  king,  to  justify  so  com- 
plete a  change  in  his  policy,  was,  that  the  ex- 
ample of  France  had  not  been  followed  by 
other  nations  ;  J  and  that,  while  the  pontiff  of 

*  It  is  the  word  used  by  ecclesiastical  writers — 
Subtractio,  soustraction. 

t  The  first  proof  of  moderation  and  gratitude 
which  Benedict  gave  after  the  Act  of  Restitution 
was,  to  appoint  afresh  to  certain  benefices,  which 
had  been  filled  up  during  the  subtraction.  The  king 
then  sent  an  ambassy  to  pray  him  to  confirm  such 
provisions,  as  had  been  then  made.  He  returned  a 
direct  refusal.  On  this,  Charles  published  his  com- 
mands, that  those  who  had  been  so  appointed  should, 
at  any  rate  and  without  any  fees  to  the  Pope,  remain 
in  possession.     This  was  conclusive. 

|  In  1399,  King  Richard  expressly  consulted  the 
University  of  Oxford  on  the  grand  question  of  the 
age.  The  answer  of  that  body  was  very  decided 
against  any  refusal  of  obedience  to  Boniface,  because 
he  was  indeed  the  true  Pope.  On  the  same  ground, 
they  objected  to  the  method  of  cession,  and  insisted 
in  preference  on  that  of  a  General  Council  —  to  be 
convoked  of  course  by  their  own  genuine  Pope. 
Thus  they  assumed  at  once  the  point  at  issue — if 
Boniface  had  power  to  convoke  a  council  of  universal 
authority,  Boniface  was  truly  Pope — and  the  schism 
was  at  an  end. 


THE  GRAND  SCHISM. 


417 


Avignon  was  confined  to  his  palace  walls,  the 
intruder  at  Rome  was  acquiring  new  strength 
and  confidence.  We  shall,  therefore,  now 
recur  very  briefly  to  the  system  of  govern- 
ment which  Boniface  had  adopted.  It  ap- 
pears to  have  been  directed  by  one  principle 
only  —  to  extract  the  largest  possible  sums 
from  the  superstition  of  the  people  and  the 
ambition  of  the  clergy,  and  the  folly  and 
credulity  of  both.  During  the  first  seven 
years  of  his  pontificate,  his  proceedings  were 
veiled  by  some  show  of  decency,  through  a 
reluctant  respect  which  he  paid  to  the  virtues 
of  some  of  the  ancient  cardinals.  But  as 
these  successively  died,  and  were  replaced  by 
others  of  his  own  creation  and  character,  he 
broke  out  into  the  undisguised  practice  of 
simony.*  This  was  the  most  copious  and 
constant  source  of  his  gains ;  but  when  the 
simple  and  honest  sale  of  benefices  proved 
insufficient  for  his  demands,  he  had  recourse, 
besides,  to  direct  acts  of  fraud  and  robbery. 
In  the  distribution  of  graces  and  expectatives, 
the  poorest  candidates  were  invariably  placed 
at  the  bottom  of  the  list ;  but  this  was  not 
sufficient — even  the  promises,  that  had  been 
made  them,  were  frequently  cancelled  in 
favor  of  some  wealthier  competitor,  to  whose 
more  recent  patent  an  earlier  date  was  affixed, 
with  a  clause  of  preference.  The  fluctuating 
health  and  approaching  decease  of  an  opu- 
lent incumbent  were  watched  with  impatient 
anxiety,  and  appointed  couriers  hurried  to 
Rome  with  the  welcome  intelligence.  Im- 
mediately the  benefice  was  in  the  market ; 
and  it  not  uncommonly  happened,  that  the 
same  was  sold  as  %'acant  to  several  rivals, 
even  under  the  same  date.  The  ravages  of 
a  frightful  pestilence  only  contributed  to  fill 
the  pontifical  coffers:  and  a  benefice  was 
sometimes  sold  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks 
to  several  successive  candidates,  of  whom 
none  survived  to  take  possession.    At  length, 


*  See  Theodoric  of  Niem,  De  Schisniat.,  lib.  ii., 
cap.  vii.,  viii.,  ix.,  x.,  xi.,  xii.,  &c.  This  author,  a 
native  of  Westphalia,  was  attached  as  Secretary  to 
the  Roman  Court  during  the  whole  of  the  Schism; 
and  besides  the  History  of  this  Event,  in  four  books, 
(the  last  of  which  is  entitled  Nemus  Unionis)  he 
composed  the  Life  of  John  XXIII.  He  exposed 
pontifical  depravity  with  freedom,  it  may  be  with 
rancor.  Spondanus  (ann.  1404,  s.  xvi.)  especially 
ascribes  his  account  of  the  simony  of  Boniface  to  an 
ulcerosus  stomachus,  and  of  course  other  Roman 
Catholic  writers  are  scandalized  by  his  little  reserve. 
But  we  doubt  not,  that  his  narrative  is  essentially 
true.  Spondanus  excuses  the  rapacity  of  Boniface 
by  his  necessities,  and  brings  some  authority  for  the 
assertion,  that  he  died  poor. 
53 


in  the  year  1401,  the  pontiff  proceeded  so  far 
as  to  cancel  by  a  single  act  nearly  all  the 
graces,  dispensations  and  expectatives  which 
he  had  previously  granted,  and  to  declare 
them  wholly  void — that  he  might  enter  afresh 
and  without  any  restraints  upon  the  task, 
which  seemed  almost  to  be  terminated,  and 
reap  from  the  same  exhausted  soil  a  second 
harvest  of  shame  and  iniquity.  By  such 
methods  *  Boniface  enriched  himself,  and 
impoverished  his  clergy ;  and  however  we 
may  abominate  his  rapacity,  we  have  little 
cause  to  feel  any  compassion  for  the  suffer- 
ers ;  who  were  possibly  influenced  by  the 
same  passion,  and  who  were  certainly  in- 
volved in  the  same  simoniacal  scandal  with 
himself. 

The  superstition  of  the  laity  was  also  taxed 
to  the  utmost  point  of  endurance ;  the  exces- 
sive abuse  of  the  Jubilee  has  been  mentioned 
as  the  favorite  resource  of  Boniface,  and  the 
circumstances  of  the  time  combined  to  sharp- 
en his  appetite  for  that  feast.  The  year  1400 
was  that  destined,  according  to  the  original 
institution  of  Boniface  VIII.,  for  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  secular  solemnity  ;  and  it  appears 
that,  though  the  innovations  of  later  popes 
had  met  with  very  general  reverence,  there 
were  still  several  rigid  devotees  who,  holding 
them  in  inferior  estimation,  looked  forward 
with  pious  impatience  to  the  approach  of  the 
legitimate  festival.  Neither  was  this  impres- 
sion confined  to  the  nations  in  the  obedience 
of  the  Roman  competitor ;  the  followers  of 
Benedict  acknowledged  by  their  respect  for 
the  apostolical  city  the  authority  of  the  See, 
though  they  rejected  the  usurper  who  occu- 
pied it ;  and  the  French  especially  pressed  in 
great  multitudes  to  obtain  the  plenary  indul- 
gence at  Rome.  Charles  published  an  or- 
donnance  to  restrain  the  emigration  of  his 
subjects ;  he  saw  with  sorrow,  not  perhaps 
their  slavish  superstition,  but  the  exportation 
of  their  wealth  to  a  foreign  and  even  hostile 
treasury.      Still  in  many,  the  religious  zeal 


*  The  system  of  Annates,  or  the  payment  of  a 
year's  first  fruits  to  die  Apostolical  Chamber,  was 
brought  to  perfection  by  Boniface  IX.  It  did  not, 
however,  originate  with  him;  Clement  V.  having 
learnt  that  some  bishops  in  England  exacted  such 
claims  from  their  diocesan  clergy,  felt  justified  in 
transferring  the  right  to  the  See  of  Rome.  This 
took  place  in  1306;  thirteen  years  afterwards,  John 
XXII.,  when  he  reserved  for  three  years  the  first 
fruits  of  all  vacant  benefices,  excepted  the  bishoprics 
and  abbeys.  Boniface  IX.  extended  the  usurpation 
to  the  prelacies,  and  made  it  perpetual.  Fleury,  1. 
cxix.  s.  xxvii.    Spondanus,  ann.  1339,  s.  ii. 


418 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


overpowered  the  sense  of  civil  duty,  and  these 
proceeded  on  their  pilgrimage.  But  several 
were  intercepted  and  pillaged  on  their  road 
by  partisans  at  enmity  with  the  Pope ;  and 
those,  who  escaped  this  danger,  were  exposed, 
on  the  termination  of  their  journey,  to  the 
pestilence  which  was  laying  waste  the  holy 
city.  Some  perished  miserably  ;  and  others, 
whose  resources  were  exhausted  through 
their  devotion  and  their  sufferings,  when 
they  applied  for  aid  to  the  apostolical  coffers, 
were  dismissed  with  a  cold  and  contemptuous 
refusal. 

Innocent  VII.  succeeds  Boniface.  —  Four 
years  afterwards  Boniface  died  ;  his  cardinals 
immediately  entered  into  conclave,  and  elect- 
ed a  successor,  nearly  under  the  same  con- 
ditions which  had  been  accepted  and  violated 
by  Benedict.  He  assumed  the  name  of  In- 
nocent VII. ;  but  the  two  years  of  his  imbe- 
cile government  produced  no  other  change, 
than  the  secession  of  Genoa  and  Pisa  to  the 
obedience  of  his  rival.  Both  parties  expressed 
equal  desire  for  the  extinction  of  the  schism ; 
both  were  equally  insincere  ;  and  the  attention 
of  the  courts  of  Christendom  and  the  feelings 
of  the  pious  friends  of  the  Church,  were  in- 
sulted by  the  verbose  correspondence  and  re- 
criminations of  two  aged  hypocrites.  Inno- 
cent died  in  1406 ;  and  the  Roman  cardinals 
then  seriously  deliberated  on  the  expediency 
of  deferring  the  new  election,  until  some 
measures  could  be  taken  in  concert  with  the 
college  at  Avignon. 

Election  of  Angelo  Corrario,  or  Gregory 
XII. — But  their  fears  of  an  interested  popu- 
lace contended  with  their  wisdom  and  their 
virtue ;  they  likewise  dreaded  the  risks,  which 
the  temporal  sovereignty  of  the  See  must  in- 
cur during  the  interregnum — their  indecision 
terminated  in  a  half-measure.  They  bound 
themselves  by  oath,  that  whichsoever  of  them 
should  be  chosen,  should  hold  himself  in  per- 
petual readiness  to  resign,  in  case  the  concord 
of  the  Church  and  the  union  of  the  two  Col- 
leges should  require  it ;  and  that  he  should 
immediately  make  public,  that  such  was  the 
condition  of  his  election.  This  act  having 
been  assented  to  with  great  solemnity,  they 
threw  their  eyes  upon  a  prelate,  wiiose  ad- 
vanced age,  whose  holy  reputation,  *  whose 
habitual  integrity,  whose  ardent  love  of  the 


*  They  sought  not  (says  Aretinus)  for  a  man  of 
business  or  address,  but  for  one  of  honor  and  integ- 
rity; and  at  length  they  unanimously  fixed  their  choice 
upon  Angelo  Corrario,  "  virum  prisca  severitate  et 
sanctimonia  reverendum." 


Church  and  regard  for  its  best  interests,  placed 
him  beyond  all  suspicion,  almost  beyond  the 
possibility,  of  perfidy.  Angelo  Corrario,  a 
Venetian,  the  titular  patriarch  of  Constanti- 
nople, was  the  character  which  they  sought. 
Seventy  years  of  immaculate  piety,  by  which 
he  was  endeared  to  the  whole  Church,  were 
a  pledge  for  the  extinction  of  any  selfish  pas- 
sions, which  at  any  tune  might  have  lurked 
in  his  bosom  ;  and  the  austerity  of  his  devo- 
tion, which  emulated  the  holiness  of  the  an- 
cient pontiffs,  guaranteed  the  strict  observance 
of  his  engagement.  Accordingly,  on  the  in- 
stant of  his  election,  he  eagerly  ratified  his 
covenant,  *  and  proclaimed  his  intention  to 
restore  union  to  the  Church  by  any  risk  or 
sacrifice.  Should  it  be  necessary  to  perform 
the  journey  on  foot  with  his  staff  in  his  hand, 
or  to  encounter  the  sea  in  the  most  wretched 
bark,  he  vowed  that  he  would  still  present 
himself  at  the  place  of  conference.  His  de- 
clarations were  received  with  joy  and  confi- 


*  The  short  account  of  Leonardus  Aretinus,  the 
attendant  and  faithful  adherent  of  Angelo,  should  be 
cited.  "  Is  conclavi  egressus  promissionem,  votum, 
et  juramentum,  quae  privatus  fecerat,  tunc  in  potes- 
tateconstitutus  iterato  novavit.  Atque  ita  loquebatur 
de  Unione  primo  illo  tempore,  ut,  si  caetera  deessent, 
pedibus  et  baculo  se  iturum  ad  earn  conficiendam 
asseveraret.  Statimque  adversario  scripsit  benigne 
ilium  ad  pacem  invitans  et  abdicationem  mutuam 
offerens.  Adversarius  autem  tantisdem  ferme  syl- 
labis  ad  eum  rescripsit;  eadem  invitatio  fuit,  eadem- 
que  cohortatio  .  .  Locus  deinde  necessarius  visus  est 
in  quo  et  Pontifices  ipsi  et  collegia  convenirent.  Ad 
hoc  Savona  pari  consensu  recepta  est.  .  .  .  Prosper^ 
hue  usque  et  plane  ex  sententia.  Deinde  paulatim  res 
labascere  ccepit  et  cuncta  indies  deteriora  fieri.  Vo- 
luntas autem  ilia  Pontificis  recta  nequaquani  satis 
habere  firmitatis  reperta  est  ad  pontificatum  deponen- 
dum;  cujus  rei  culpam  multi  in  propinquos  ejus  re- 
ferebant,  &c.  .  .  Erat  in  altero  Pontifice  non  melior 
sane  mens,  sed  occulebat  callidius  malam  voluntatern, 
et  quia  noster  fugiebat,  ipse  obviam  ire  videbatur.  .  .  . 
Sed  cum  de  congressu  eorum  per  internuntios  agere- 
tur,  noster  tanquam  terrestre  animal  ad  littus  accedere, 
ille  tanquam  aquaticum  a  maridiscedere  recusabat  .  . 
Cum  per  hunc  modum  desideria  Christianorum  qui 
pacem  unitatemque  optabant  in  longum  ducerentur, 
non  tulerunt  Cardinales  nostri,  sed  deserto  Pontifice 
Pisas  abiere,"  &c.  Leonard  Aretin.  in  Rer.  Italicar. 
Historia.  "  Ego  (the  historian  presently  continues) 
Pontificem  secutus  sum  polius  familiaritatis  gratia, 
quam  quod  ejus  causam  probarem.  Quanquam  fuit 
in  Gregorio  permagna  vitae  morumque  honestas  et 
prisca  quondam,  ut  ita  dixerim,  bonitas,  scriptura- 
rum  quoque  scientiaet  indagatio  subtiliset  recta"  .  .  - 
Denique  in  cunctis  ferme  rebus  mini  satisfaciebat, 
praeterquam  in  Unionis  negotio  .  .  .  Id.  loc.  cit. 
Gibbon  has  referred  to  this  passage  in  his  70th  Chap- 
ter. 


THE  GRAND  SCHISM. 


419 


dence,  and  it  was  thought  that  the  flock  of 
Christ  had  at  length  obtained  a  faithful  shep- 
herd. 

After  his  restoration  to  liberty,  the  policy 
of  Benedict  had  entirely  changed — all  his 
original  desire  for  the  extinction  of  the  schism 
appeared  to  be  revived ;  he  had  made  over- 
tures to  that  effect  both  to  Boniface  and  In- 
nocent ;  and  when  the  new  Pope  (Gregory 
XII.)  addressed  him  on  the  subject,  he  re- 
newed his  usual  protestations.  But  they  were 
no  longer  able  to  deceive  either  the  court  or 
the  doctors  of  Paris:  it  was  found  that,  how- 
ever profuse  in  general  professions,  he  inva- 
riably evaded  the  cession,  whenever  it  was 
strongly  recommended  to  him ;  and  he  was 
not  the  better  loved  for  the  frequent  exactions 
of  tenths  and  annates,  to  which  his  necessi- 
ties even  more  than  his  avarice  obliged  him. 

At  length  it  was  arranged,  at  a  meeting  of 
certain  deputies  of  both  parties,  that  the  long- 
promised  conference  should  be  brought  about ; 
and  the  place  selected  for  the  purpose  was 
Savona.  Some  hopes  were  entertained  from 
this  project,  and  it  was  pressed  with  earnest- 
ness both  at  Rome  and  Avignon.  The  time 
was  fixed  for  the  Michaelmas  of  1407  ;  and 
when  it  arrived,  Benedict  was  found  at  the 
appointed  city,  full  of  his  customary  declara- 
tions. But  where  was  Angelo  Corrario,  the 
sworn  advocate  of  concord,  the  model  of  an- 
cient holiness  ?  Every  solicitation,  to  observe 
the  direct  obligation  of  his  oath,  had  been 
urged  upon  him  in  vain.  To  the  most  over- 
powering arguments  he  opposed  the  most 
contemptible  pretexts.  He  was  secretly  de- 
termined to  evade  the  conference  ;  and  he  did 
finally  absent  himself.  Then  followed  anoth- 
er interchange  of  accusations  and  protesta- 
tions, which  had  no  other  effect  than  to  per- 
suade men,  that  an  understanding  secretly 
subsisted  between  the  two  Pretenders,  and 
that  they  had  conspired  to  cajole  the  world 
and  retain  their  offices  by  their  common  per- 
jury.* 

We  shall  not  pursue  the  tedious  details  of 
their  elaborate  duplicity  ;  nor  is  it  important 
to  notice  the  multifarious  correspondence 
which  perplexed  the  dispute,  nor  even  closely 
to  trace  the  circumstances,  which  led  to  its 
conclusion.f  It  is  enough  to  mention  the 
leading  facts.  In  the  first  place,  in  contempt 
of  one  importaut  clause  J  of  the  oath  taken 


*  Spondanus,  ann.  1408,  s.  v. 

f  The  celebrated  embassy  sent  from  France  both 
to  Rome  and  Avignon,  just  before  the  Council  of  Pisa, 
is  described  by  Gibbon,  chap.  lxx. 

J  "  That  both  parties  shall  promise  to  make  no 


in  conclave,  Gregory  created  four  new  cardi 
nals  ;  on  which  the  others,  in  just  indignation, 
deserted  his  court  and  retired  to  Pisa,  where 
they  fixed  their  residence.  Presently  after- 
wards (in  1408)  the  King  of  France  took 
measures  to  seize  the  person  of  Benedict; 
but  that  accomplished  politician,  having  con- 
stantly retained  a  small  fleet  in  his  service  on 
the  plea  of  personal  security,  set  sail  on  the 
rumor  of  this  danger,  and,  after  a  short  cruise 
on  the  coast  of  Italy,  found  a  safer  refuge  at 
Perpignan  in  Spain, — for  the  Spaniards  con- 
tinued to  adhere  to  their  countryman  through 
all  his  vicissitudes,  and  through  all  his  perfi- 
dy. At  Perpignan  he  assembled  his  bishops, 
and  held  his  councils,  and  awaited  the  termi- 
nation of  the  tempest. 

Tlie  Cardinals  convoke  the  Council  of  Pisa. — 
But  his  cardinals  remained  in  France  ;  and 
now  perceiving  that  they  were  abandoned  by 
their  master,  they  turned  their  attention  more 
zealously  than  before  to  the  extinction  of  the 
schism.  To  that  end,  they  negotiated  in  per- 
fect sincerity  with  the  rival  college  at  Pisa ; 
and  the  consequence  was  an  immediate  co- 
alition. By  this  event,  the  first  substantial 
ground  towards  the  closing  of  the  schism 
was  gained.  It  was  now  clearly  ascertained, 
that  the  voluntary  cession  of  the  pretenders, 
under  any  conceivable  circumstances,  was 
hopeless.  The  latest  proof  of  that  truth  was 
the  strongest ;  since  Angelo  di  Corrario,  the 
most  unblemished  of  mankind,  had  chosen 
to  stain  his  gray  hairs  with  deliberate  perjury, 
rather  than  resign  the  possession — the  very 
short  possession — of  a  disturbed  and  disputed 
dignity.  No  resource  henceforward  remain- 
ed, except  compulsion  ;  and  the  union  of  the 
colleges  afforded  the  only  prospect  of  that 
result.  Some  difficulties  were  still  to  be 
overcome,  but  the  convocation  of  a  General 
Council  promised  to  remove  them.  Accord- 
ingly the  Council  was  summoned  to  assemble 
at  Pisa  in  the  March  of  1409. 

The  Council  of  Pisa  met  under  circum- 
stances wholly  different  from  any  other  simi- 
lar assembly.  In  the  division  of  churchmen 
it  represented  the  unity  of  the  Church.  Dis- 
regarding the  opposite  pretensions  to  indi- 
vidual legitimacy,  it  asserted  the  undivided 

new  cardinals  during  the  treaty  of  union."  Gregory 
probably  considered  this  part  of  the  obligation  as 
conditional.  And,  as  it  is  not  likely  that  Benedict 
should  have  made  any  such  promise,  he  might  feel 

that  the  engagement  was  not  binding  upon  himself. 

Had  he  beea  more  scrupulous,  when  the  obligation 
was  direct  and  unequivocal,  we  might  have  given  him 
the  benefit  of  this  supposition. 


420 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


authority  of  the  See ;  and  thus,  since  there 
might  be  many  antipopes,  but  not  possibly 
more  than  one  pope,  the  object  to  which  its 
proceedings  necessarily  tended,  was  to  reject 
the  two  actual  claimants,  and  substitute  one 
true  and  catholic  pontiff.  It  was  summoned 
by  the  cardinals,  twenty-four  of  whom  were 
present,  and  it  was  attended  by  a  great  num- 
ber of  prelates,*  as  well  as  by  the  generals 
of  the  Mendicant  orders,  and  the  deputies  of 
several  universities.  Ambassadors  from  the 
courts  of  Germany,  France,  England,  and 
others,  were  likewise  present;  though  the 
object  of  the  first  was  rather  to  question  the 
legitimacy,  than  to  sanction  the  deliberations, 
of  the  council.  The  scruples  of  these  en- 
voys gave  rise  to  an  important  discussion, 
which  was  occasionally  renewed  afterwards ; 
and  which,  as  far  as  the  principles  of  the  dis- 
putants were  concerned,  divided  the  High 
Papist  party  from  the  moderate  Catholics. 
It  was  argued  on  the  one  side,  from  the  lan- 
guage of  the  canons  and  the  unvarying  prac- 
tice of  the  Church,  that  a  general  Council 
could  not  legally  assemble,  unless  by  the  au- 
thority and  express  summons  of  the  Pope, 
whereas  the  meeting  at  Pisa  had  received  the 
sanction  of  no  pontiff.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  was  maintained,  that  no  pope  did  then  in 
fact  exist ;  that  both  pretenders,  by  their  long- 
continued  perfidy  and  contumacy,  had  in- 
volved themselves  in  the  guilt  of  schism  and 
heresy  ;f  and  that,  under  such  circumstan- 
ces, if  the  necessities  of  the  Church  demand- 
ed it,  the  cardinals  had  full  power  to  call  a 
council.!  Recollecting,  as  we  do,  the  false 
foundation  on  which  the  claims  of  the  pope 
really  rested,  we  can  scarcely  pretend  to  doubt 
on  which  side  the  reason  lay.  But  among 
the  controversialists  of  that  time,  the  spuri- 
ousness  of  the  Decretals  was  still  unknown, 
and  almost  unsuspected ;  and  pretensions 
directly  derived  from  them  were  acknow- 
ledged with  respectful  acquiescence. 

Alexander  V. — The  Council  then  proceeded 
to  fulfil  its  object.     The  first  step  was,  to 


*  Besides  the  three  patriarchs,  180  archbishops 
and  bishops,  and  about  300  abbots,  were  present  in 
person  or  by  representatives,  and  282  doctors  in  the- 
ology.— Spondanus,  ann.  1409,  s.  ii. 

t  This  last  assertion  does  not  appear,  at  first  sight, 
so  obvious  —  but  the  word  heresy  was  now  used  in  a 
much  more  comprehensive  sense,  than  in  the  early 
church:  —  perseverance  in  schism  was  at  this  time 
sufficient  to  constitute  heresy. 

%  That  there  were  cases,  in  which  they  possessed 
that  right,  does  not  appear  to  have  been  disputed  — 
that,  for  instance,  of  the  insanity  of  a  pope. 


summon  the  pretenders  to  appear  in  person 
or  by  deputy,  and  on  their  non-appearance, 
to  pronounce  them  contumacious.  The  next, 
to  trace  the  proofs  of  their  insincerity  and 
collusion,  and  to  expose  their  perjury.  The 
next,  to  command  the  Christian  world  to 
withdraw  its  obedience  from  the  one  and 
from  the  other.  Then  followed  the  sentence 
of  condemnation  ; — and  here  we  may  pause 
to  remark,  that  the  prelate,  who  pronounced 
it,  was  the  titular  Patriarch  of  Alexandria, 
supported  on  either  hand  by  those  of  Anti- 
och  and  Jerusalem.  The  two  schismatics, 
after  a  long  enumeration  of  their  crimes, 
were  cut  off  from  the  Church  ;  and  the  Holy 
See  was  declared  vacant.  Then  the  cardi- 
nals, after  binding  themselves  by  oath  to  con- 
tinue the  Council  after  the  election,  for  the 
general  purposes  of  church  reform,  entered 
into  conclave.  They  remained  six  days  in 
deliberation  ;  and  their  choice  fell  upon  the 
Cardinal  of  Milan,  Peter  of  Candia,  who  took 
the  name  of  Alexander  V. 

Peter,  native  of  Candia,  a  Venetian  subject, 
had  risen  from  so  low  an  origin,  that  he  pro- 
fessed to  retain  no  recollection  of  his  parent- 
age— a  circumstance  (he  boasted)  which  gave 
him  a  great  advantage  over  his  predecessors, 
since  it  exempted  him  from  all  temptation  to 
nepotism.  *  One  day,  as  he  was  begging 
alms,  while  yet  extremely  young,  an  Italian 
monk  took  compassion  on  him,  and  intro- 
duced him  into  his  convent.  From  Candia, 
as  he  gave  great  promise  of  intellectual  at- 
tainment, be  was  carried  into  Italy;  and 
thence,  for  the  gradual  completion  of  his 
studies,  to  the  universities,  first  of  Oxford, 
and  afterwards  of  Paris.  There  he  acquired 
great  theological  reputation,  and  retained 
along  with  it  a  mild,  liberal,  and  convivial 
disposition.  He  was  already  advanced  in 
age  when  raised  to  the  pontificate.  .  .  . 
After  a  few  more  sessions,  in  which  a  com- 
mission was  appointed  for  the  investigation 
of  ecclesiastical  abuses,  and  some  unimpor- 
tant regulations  enacted,  the  Council  was  ad- 
journed for  an  interval  of  three  years,  till  the 
April  of  1412. 

The  authority  of  the  Council  of  Pisa  was 
recognised  by  all  the  national  churches  of 
Europe,  excepting  Arragon,  Castille,  Bavaria, 
and  Scotland ;  and  Rome  itself,  by  placing 
Alexander  in  the  list  of  its  genuine  bishops, 
has  offered  it  the  same  acknowledgment.    Its 

*  It  was  the  boast  of  his  friends,  that,  from  being 
a  rich  archbishop,  he  had  become  a  poor  cardinal; 
and  that  the  popedom  had  reduced  him  to  beggary. 


THE  GRAND  SCHISM. 


46^1 


proceedings  were  conducted  without  any 
reproach  of  irregularity  or  dissension,  and  it 
dispersed  under  the  auspices  of  a  legitimate 
pope.  It  remains  to  inquire,  what  was  the 
effect  produced  upon  the  antipopes  by  de- 
cisions so  solemnly  delivered.  On  the  de- 
termination of  an  assembly,  which  expressed 
the  power  and  united  the  vows  of  almost 
every  nation  of  Europe,  what  course  did  the 
repudiated  schismatics  adopt?  Did  they  en- 
deavor to  conciliate  the  party,  which  they 
were  too  weak  to  resist,  aud  too  infamous 
longer  to  cajole  ?  Did  they  resign  those 
claims,  by  which  they  might  still  indeed  dis- 
turb the  peace  of  Christendom,  but  which 
could  scarcely  promise  any  substantial  dig- 
nity to  themselves  ? — No  ; — they  clung  to  the 
fragments  of  their  fortunes  with  the  same 
attachment,  which  had  bound  them  to  pros- 
perity ;  and  the  more  generally  it  was  ad- 
mitted, that  both  were  pretenders  and  anti- 
popes,  the  more  violently  each  proclaimed 
himself  to  be  the  genuine  pope.  Benedict 
could  still  boast  of  the  obedience  of  Spain  ; 
but  this  was  a  narrow  field  to  content  the 
ambition  of  the  successor  of  the  Gregories 
and  the  Innocents.  But  the  reverses  of  his 
rival  were  even  more  remarkable.  He  only 
escaped  captivity  by  traversing  the  ambush 
of  his  enemies  in  the  disguise  of  a  merchant ; 
while  his  chamberlain,  who  resembled  him 
in  person,  and  had  assumed  his  robes,  was 
taken  in  his  place,  and  subjected  to  some  se- 
verity of  treatment.  Having  in  such  guise 
escaped  to  two  galleys  which  awaited  him, 
and  which  conveyed  him  to  Gaieta,  he  then 
reclaimed  his  dignity,  and  imitated,  with  his 
scanty  train  of  courtiers,  the  pomp  of  the 
imperial  city.  He  was  protected,  indeed,  by 
Ladislaus,  and  neither  Germany  nor  Hungary 
had  yet  nominally  withdrawn  from  his  obedi- 
ence. But  he  was  poor,  and  as  he  had  no 
patronage,  he  had  no  resources  ;  and  his  few 
followers  continued  to  adhere  to  him  through 
fear  of  the  King  of  Naples,  rather  than  from 
any  attachment  either  to  his  person,  or  his 
cause. 

Alexander  V.,  the  feebleness  of  whose  cha- 
racter made  him  liable  to  the  influence  of 
any  more  vigorous  spirit,  fell  almost  entirely 
under  the  guidance  of  a  Neapolitan,  named 
Baltazar  Cossa,  Legate  at  Bologna.  This  ex- 
traordinary person,  by  birth  a  nobleman,  by 
habit  and  inclination  a  soldier,  by  profession 
a  churchman,  and  in  rank  a  cardinal,  was  one 
of  the  boldest  champions  of  the  Council  of 
Pisa.  And  when  it  appeared  that  the  pos- 
session of  Rome  could  only  be  recovered 


from  Ladislaus  by  military  measures,  Baltazar 
undertook  to  couduct  an  expedition  for  that 
purpose.  The  Roman  people  acknowledged 
the  authority  of  Alexander,  and  sent  to  him  a 
deputation  with  the  keys  of  the  city.  The 
Pope  was  then  at  Bologna.  He  received  the 
envoys  with  magnificence  ;  he  expressed  his 
pleasure  at  their  emancipation  from  the  se- 
ductions of  Angelo  Corrario  ;  and  in  respect 
to  the  desire,  which  they  testified,  to  have 
their  Pope  among  them,  and  to  receive  the 
Jubilee,  *  (for  these  vows  were  united  in 
their  petition,)  he  appointed  the  year  ]413 
for  that  solemnity.  This  circumstance  is 
worthy  of  thus  much  attention,  as  it  shows 
how  unblushingly  the  Romans  at  that  time 
avowed  the  real  motive  of  their  attachment 
to  the  Vicar  of  Christ ;  and  also,  how  basely 
a  Pope,  who  could  not  plead  either  weakness 
or  poverty,  pandered  to  their  cupidity.  But 
Alexander  V.  was  not  destined  to  witness  the 
execution  of  his  decree,  nor  even  to  receive 
the  venal  applauses  of  his  people.  He  died 
at  Bologna  the  year  after  his  election  (May 
3d,  1410,)  and  the  cardinals,  after  a  very  short 
deliberation,  appointed  Baltazar  Cossa  in  his 
place. 

Elevation  of  John  XXIII.  to  the  See. — The 
world  was  surprised  at  this  election ;  for 
though  he  possessed  good  natural  talents, 
and  a  rapid  decision  in  matters  of  business 
and  other  temporal  concerns,  Baltazar  was 
of  a  violent  temper,  and  remarkable  for  the 
licentiousness  of  his  morals  ;  his  demeanor 
and  manners  corresponded  with  his  repu- 
tation ;  aud  the  military  air,  which  so  little 
became  the  habit  of  the  cardinal,  seemed 
wholly  to  disqualify  him  for  the  chair  of  St. 
Peter.  On  the  other  hand,  his  fearless  cha- 
racter gave  promise  of  that  vigor,  which 
Avas  now  required  for  the  restoration  of  the 
Church ;  and  it  was  hoped,  that,  if  he  did 
not  awaken  to  the  spiritual  duties  of  his  sta- 
tion, he  would  at  least  consent  to  observe  its 
decencies. 

John  XXIII.  (Baltazar  assumed  that  name) 
did  not  at  first  deceive  either  of  those  expec- 
tations ;  his  manners  were  softened  on  his 
elevation,  and  his  morals  ostensibly  amended ; 
and  he  framed  his  political  arrangements  so 
well,  that  the  king  of  Naples  declared  in  his 
favor.  Then  Gregory,  for  the  second  time 
an  exile,  embarked  his  person  and  his  suite  in 
two  trading  vessels,  and  sought  almost  the 
only  spot  in  Europe  which  continued  to  obey 
him.  Charles  Malatesta  opened  to  him  the 
gates  of  Rimini;   and   there,  together   with 


*  Flemy,  1.  c.  sec.  xliii. 


422 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


three  cardinals  who  still  followed  him,  he 
had  space  to  deplore  the  passion  or  the  weak- 
ness, through  which  he  had  exchanged  a  holy 
reputation  and  dignified  independence  for 
banishment,  insecurity,  and  infamy. 

Elevation  of  Sigismond  to  the  Empire. — 
The  death  of  the  emperor  at  this  moment 
opened  an  occasion  to  the  Pope  to  recom- 
mend Sigismond  as  successor ;  and  as  Sigis- 
mond was  actually  chosen,  a  friendly  inter- 
course was  immediately  established  between 
the  two  parties.  The  still  disturbed  condition 
of  the  Church,  and  the  abuses  which  univer- 
sally prevailed,  demanded  indeed  their  cordial 
and  honest  co-operation  ;  and  in  this  at  least 
they  agreed,  that  a  General  Council  was  the 
only  remaining  remedy,  and  that  no  time 
should  be  lost  in  convoking  it.  On  the  dis- 
solution of  that  of  Pisa,  it  had  been  arranged 
that  another  should  be  called  after  three  years- 
Accordingly,  John  had  summoned  the  pre- 
lates to  Rome  at  the  appointed  time  ;  but  so 
few  presented  themselves,  that  it  was  not 
judged  expedient  to  proceed  to  any  important 
enactments. 

Convocation  of  the  Council  of  Constance. — 
The  place,  which  was  now  selected  for  a 
more  efficient  meeting,  was  the  city  of  Con- 
stance, in  Switzerland.  Much  depended  on 
that  selection.  Much  depended  on  the  local 
influence  which  might  probably  be  exercised, 
and  which  would  certainly  affect  the  deliber- 
ations of  the  body.  Constance  was  under  the 
direct  control  of  Sigismond  ;  and  it  is  well 
known  *  that  the  Pope  foresaw  some  of  the 


*  Leonardus  Aretinus  relates  a  curious  anecdote 
on  this  subject,  which  throws  light  on  the  still  dis- 
puted character  of  John.  "  The  pontiff  privately 
communicated  to  me  his  design.  The  whole  matter 
(said  he)  depends  on  the  place  of  the  council,  and  I 
will  not  have  it  where  the  emperor  is  the  stronger. 
I  shall  therefore  give  to  the  legates,  whom  I  send  to 
decide  this  matter,  credentials  of  full  power  and  dis- 
cretion for  public  appearance's  sake,  but  I  shall  pri- 
vately restrict  them  to  certain  specified  places  —  and 
then  he  mentioned  those  places.  Afterwards,  when 
the  legates  came  to  take  leave,  having  dismissed  all 
excepting  myself,  he  secretly  addressed  them  and 
showed  of  what  weight  the  matter  was,  on  which 
they  were  sent.  Then,  speaking  kindly  to  them,  he 
praised  their  prudence  and  fidelity,  and  said  that  they 
knew  what  ought  to  be  done  better  than  himself. 
While  he  was  thus  talking  and  repeating  those  civil 
things  to  them,  he  was  himself  overpowered  by  a 
feeling  of  kindness,  and  in  an  instant  changed  the 
design  so  long  determined  by  him.  I  had  meant,  he 
said,  to  give  you  a  list  of  certain  places,  from  which 
list  you  should  on  no  account  depart;  but  at  this  very 
instant  1  change  my  mind,  and  commit  every  thing  to 


consequences  of  that  arrangement,  and  con- 
sented to  it  with  extreme  reluctance.  It  is 
known  too,  that  he  felt  a  much  stronger  incli- 
nation to  march  in  arms  for  the  recovery  of 
his  capital,  which  the  death  of  Ladislaus  had 
again  opened  to  him,  than  to  conduct  the 
peaceful  procession  of  his  cardinals  towards 
the  appointed  city.  Nevertheless,  his  out- 
ward conduct  betrayed  no  disposition  to  re- 
cede, whatever  may  have  been  his  private 
wishes  or  his  secret  intrigues ;  and  having 
fixed  the  first  of  November,  1414,  for  the 
opening  of  the  Council,  he  was  present  for 
the  performance  of  his  duties  on  that  day. 

The  situation  of  Constance  in  many  par- 
ticulars justified  the  preference,  which  the 
emperor  had  obtained  for  it.  Its  pleasant  and 
healthful  situation  on  the  shores  of  an  exten- 
sive lake  ;  its  central  position  with  respect  to 
France,  Germany  and  Italy;  and  not  least, 
the  circumstance,  that  it  was  at  that  time  the 
grand  depot  of  all  commercial  intercourse 
between  the  two  last  countries,  made  it  fav- 
orable for  the  access  and  accommodation  of 
a  numerous  and  opulent  assembly.  As  the 
council  lasted  for  nearly  four  years,  the  num- 
ber of  its  members  and  their  attendants  must 
have  greatly  fluctuated  ;  but  if  it  be  true,  that 
at  certain  times  not  less  than  thirty  thousand 
horses  *  were  maintained  for  its  use,  we  may 
conceive  the  splendor  as  well  as  the  multitude 
of  the  assemblage.  It  was  divided  into  four 
sections,  following  the  grand  national  division 
of  Europe  ;  and  all  the  members  were  ar- 
ranged under  the  banners  of  Italy,  of  France, 
of  Germany,  or  of  England.  Most  of  tlie 
leading  ecclesiasticsf  of  Europe  were  present; 
but  the  greater  proportion  of  eminent  laymen, 
who  thronged  to  Constance,  distinguished  that 


your  prudence.  It  is  for  you  to  think,  what  may  be 
safe  and  what  dangerous  for  me.  And  thus  he  tore 
in  pieces  the  paper,  on  which  he  had  written  the 
names  of  the  places.  The  legates  therefore  going  to 
Sigismond  chose  Constance  —  a  transalpine  city  and 
subject  to  the  emperor.  When  John  heard  this,  he 
was  incredibly  afflicted,  and  lamented  his  evil  stars, 
that  he  had  so  lightly  deviated  from  his  former  mind 
and  counsel."  Leonard.  Aretin.,  In  Rerum  Italic. 
Historia. 

*  Apprehensions  being  entertained  about  the  means 
of  providing  for  so  many  quadrupeds,  it  was  ordered, 
that  the  Pope  should  be  limited  to  twenty  horses,  the 
cardinals  and  princes  to  ten  each,  the  bishops  to  five, 
and  the  abbots  to  four  only.  Raynald.  ann.  1414,  s. 
xiii. 

f  Nine  and  twenty  cardinals  and  three  hundred 
bishops  and  archbishops  were  present  at  the  second 
session,  on  March  2,  when  the  Pope  made  his  abdi- 
cation. 


THE  GRAND  SCHISM. 


423 


council,  more  than  any  other  circumstance, 
from  all  that  had  preceded  it. 

Its  professed  objects  were  the  extinction 
of  the  schism  and  the  Reformation  of  the 
Church.  The  persecutions  of  John  Huss 
and  Jerome  of  Prague,  which  formed  a  part 
of  its  labors,  will  be  described  and  traced  to 
their  true  motives  in  a  following  chapter. 
Even  the  subject  of  the  Reformation  must 
for  the  moment  be  deferred  ;  since  we  must 
confine  our  present  attention  to  the  thread 
which  we  have  pursued  through  so  many 
windings,  and  trace  the  history  of  the  Schism 
to  its  conclusion.  And  to  some  indeed  it 
might  appear,  and  not  without  specious  rea- 
son, that  the  schism  was  virtually  extinct 
already ;  and  that  the  feeble  anti-popes  of 
Perpignan  and  of  Rimini  might  have  been 
safely  left  to  waste  their  complaints  and  ana- 
themas unnoticed.  And  so  it  might  possibly 
have  proved.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
politics  of  Europe  were  at  that  time  so  fluc- 
tuating and  faithless,  that  the  slightest  cir- 
cumstance of  national  interest,  or  even  of 
personal  caprice  or  jealousy,  might  at  any 
moment  have  transferred  the  obedience  of  a 
kingdom,  and  restored  to  Gregory  or  to  Be- 
nedict the  adhesion  of  a  powerful  party.  So 
that  there  seemed  no  positive  security  for  the 
concord  of  the  Church,  until  the  two  schis- 
matics should  be  deprived  of  the  faintest 
shadow  of  authority.  Hence  it  was,  that  all 
parties  were  chiefly  anxious  to  attend  to  this 
subject,  and  to  complete  the  work  which  had 
been  so  far  advanced  at  Pisa.  * 

But  here,  at  the  very  outset,  a  difference 
arose  of  the  most  essential  importance,  as  to 
the  manner  of  attaining  that  end.  It  will  be 
observed,  that  the  present  assembly  approach- 
ed that  question  under  circumstances  dissimi- 
lar from  those  which  guided  the  former.  At 
Pisa,  the  impossibility  of  deciding  between 
the  two  claimants  having  been  admitted,  nei- 
ther of  them  was  recognised  by  the  council. 
The  fathers  were  indeed  personally  divided 
in  their  obedience  ;  but  as  a  single  legislative 


*  The  bare  circumstance,  that  there  were  three 
competitors  for  the  chair  after  the  council  of  Pisa, 
and  only  two  before  it,  has  led  many  historians  to 
consider  that  assembly  as  having  increased  the  schism. 
But  to  us  it  seems  otherwise.  It  reduced  the  anti- 
popes  to  an  insignificance,  from  which  they  never 
recovered,  and  it  united  the  great  body  of  Christen- 
dom in  the  same  views,  and  with  a  common  principle. 
If  it  was  not  immediately  successful,  neither  was  the 
council  of  Constance  perfectly  so.  But  the  proceed- 
ings of  Pisa  were  the  foundation  of  the  re-union,  and 
it  was  by  building  on  them,  that  the  work  was  finally 
completed. 


body  they  acknowledged  neither  Peter  of 
Luna  nor  Angelo  Corrario.  Thus  their  course 
was  obvious — to  declare  the  See  vacaut,  and 
to  proceed  to  a  canonical  election.  But  the 
council  of  Constance,  being  held  in  continu- 
ation of  that  of  Pisa,  being  bound  by  its  de- 
cisions and  resting  on  its  validity,  admitted 
of  necessity  the  rights  of  John  XXIII.  And 
thus,  whatsoever  course,  its  deliberations  might 
take,  it  had  to  deal  with  a  Pope  of  undisput- 
ed legitimacy.  For  though  some  feeble  mur- 
murs would  be  raised  at  Rimini  and  Perpig- 
nan, Constance  at  least  was  not  the  place 
where  they  could  find  an  echo. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  council  met 
together,  and  soon  afterwards  John  caused 
his  own  proposition  to  be  laid  before  it.  It 
was  simply  this — that  the  fathers  should  first 
of  all  things  confirm  all  the  acts  of  the  coun- 
cil of  Pisa ;  that  they  should  next  deliberate 
on  the  best  means  of  carrying  them  into  ef- 
fect ;  and  lastly  enter  upon  their  labors  for 
the  Reformation  of  the  Church.  In  this  pa- 
per the  pope  merely  called  upon  the  fathers 
publicly  to  declare,  what  they  never  for  a  mo- 
ment disputed,  the  legality  of  that  council, 
from  which  he  derived  his  authority;  and  if 
that  declaration  were  once  made,  he  felt  as- 
sured, that  there  could  be  no  other  method 
of  proceeding  against  two  denounced  anti- 
popes,  than  by  arming  the  real  pope  with  ad- 
ditional authority  to  crush  them.  It  was  very 
natural,  that  John  should  take  this  view  of  the 
subject ;  indeed,  as  far  as  the  strict  justice  of 
the  question  was  concerned,  it  was  the  cor- 
rect view ;  and  assuredly  the  distinction  be- 
tween a  pope  and  a  schismatic  was  sufficient- 
ly broad,  to  be  made  ground  for  decided  ac- 
tion with  an  assembly  of  Roman  Catholic 
ecclesiastics. 

Nevertheless  there  were  many,  and  some 
of  the  most  celebrated  doctors  of  the  age 
were  among  them,  who  considered  the  sub- 
ject in  a  widely  different  light.  These  loud- 
ly maintained,  that  as  the  council  of  Constance 
was  a  continuation  of  that  of  Pisa,  it  was 
bound  steadily  to  pursue  the  same  object; 
that  this  object  had  been  the  extinction  of  the 
schism,  and  that  it  was  still  so  ;  and  that  a 
solemn  obligation  rested  on  all  the  prelates 
present,  even  on  the  pope  himself,  to  adopt 
whatsoever  means  should  appear  most  effica- 
cious for  that  purpose.  It  was  immediately 
obvious  to  what  end  this  opinion  tended — that 
the  method  of  cession,  which  had  been  at- 
tempted with  such  imperfect  success  at  Pisa, 
would  be  again  brought  forward  as  the  only 
healing  measure ;  and  that  the  true  and  re- 


424 


HISTORY   OF   THE   CHURCH. 


cognised  Pope  would  be  called  upon  for  the 
same  humiliation,  and  probably  subjected  to 
the  same  compulsion,  with  two  anathematiz- 
ed pretenders. 

The  subject  was  warmly  debated ;  but  with- 
out any  approach  to  a  decision,  because  the 
emperor  was  not  yet  arrived  ;  and  as  much 
certainly  depended  on  his  views,  so  the  atten- 
tion and  even  the  hopes  of  both  parties  were 
earnestly  fixed  upon  him.  Sigismond  pos- 
sessed considerable  talents  and  accomplish- 
ments ;  he  spoke  several  languages  with  flu- 
ency and  even  eloquence,  and  was  the  patron 
of  learning,  in  an  age  when  it  still  needed 
powerful  protection.  The  dignity  of  his  per- 
sonal appearance  has  attracted  the  commen- 
dations of  history  ;  *  and  if  his  moral  char- 
acter was  not  free  from  stain,  and  if  his  mil- 
itary enterprises  generally  ended  in  disgrace, 
he  has  been  abundantly  honored  for  his  zeal 
in  the  service  of  the  Church,  and  his  exer- 
tions against  heresy  and  schism. 

His  previous  intercourse  with  John,  and 
the  obligations  which  he  certainly  owed  to 
him,  led  many  to  believe,  that  he  would  throw 
his  weight  into  the  pontifical  scale — nor  was 
reason  wanting  to  incline  him  to  that  side. 
But  it  proved  otherwise.  He  probably  re- 
flected, that,  should  he  determine  unequivo- 
cally to  support  and  enforce  the  rights  of  John, 
no  other  method  remained  to  reduce  the  an- 
tipopes,  except  violence — the  princes  of  Ar- 
ragon  and  Rimini  would  not  otherwise  re- 
nounce their  obedience.  The  disposition  of 
Sigismond  was  known  ;  but  matters  had  not 
yet  proceeded  to  any  determination,  when 
legates  presented  themselves  both  from  Greg- 
ory and  Benedict.  The  latter,  indeed,  merely 
insulted  the  council  by  the  usual  vague  and 
faithless  offers  of  conference  and  compro- 
mise. But  the  former  declared  their  author- 
ity to  make  a  formal  cession  on  behalf  of  their 
master,  in  case  that  both  his  rivals  should  ab- 
dicate also.  From  that  moment  the  exertions 
of  the  great  majority  of  the  fathers  were  di- 
rected to  one  object — to  accomplish  by  some 
means  or  other  the  abdication  of  John. 

Now,  as  they  never  affected  on  any  occa- 
sion to  throw  the  slightest  doubts  on  his  le- 
gitimacy, it  became  them  to  take  their  mea- 
sures with  deference  and  caution  ;  and  when 

*  Leonardus  Aretinus  (Rer.  Italicar.  Historia) 
epeaks  of  him  thus: — "  Fuit  procultlubio  vir  inclytus, 
prseclara  facie,  corpore  turn  specioso,  turn  robusto; 
magnitudine  animi  sive  pace  sive  bello  eximia;  lib- 
eralitate  vero  tanta,  ut  hoc  unum  illi  vitio  daretur, 
quod  largiendo  et  erogaudo  sibi  ipsi  facultates  detra- 
heret  ad  negotia  bellaque  obeunda." 


they  pressed  upon  him  the  general  obligations 
of  his  office,  and  argued,  that  he  was  bound, 
as  chief  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  willingly 
to  lay  down,  not  his  dignity  only,  but  life  it- 
self, if  the  interests  of  that  Church  required 
it,  we  shall  not  wonder,  that  the  Pope  was 
unmoved  by  so  indeterminate  an  appeal.  But 
the  council  felt  its  strength;  and  the  above 
appeal  was  accompanied  by  the  new  and  bold 
proposition,  that  a  General  Council  possessed 
the  power,  in  a  peculiar  exigency,  to  compel 
the  Pope  to  abdication.  This  assertion  gave 
rise  to  long  and  warm  discussions  ;  the  Italian 
prelates  maintained  the  papal  cause,  but  with 
less  vigor  and  ability,  than  the  circumstances 
required,  and  even  than  the  merits  of  the 
question  admitted.  The  superiority  of  learn- 
ing and  genius  was  on  the  side  of  the  French  ; 
and  the  powerful  harangues  of  Pierre  d'Ailly 
and  the  celebrated  Gerson,  Chancellor  of  the 
University,  added  weight  to  a  doubtful  cause. 
It  seemed  clear  that  the  party  of  John  must 
yield. 

The  Council  declares  for  the  cession. — In  the 
meantime,  the  Archbishop  of  Mayence,  the 
Primate  of  the  German  Church  and  Elector 
of  the  empire,  arrived  with  great  pomp  at 
Constance,  and  immediately  declared  his  ad- 
herence to  the  cause  of  the  Pope.  Frederic 
of  Austria  and  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  were 
likewise  enlisted  on  the  same  side.  But  Si- 
gismond had  now  decidedly  espoused  the  op- 
posite principles  ;  and  thus  the  Fmich  and 
Italian,  which  first  divided  the  Council,  now 
really  became  the  imperial  and  papal  parties. 
This  was  the  crisis  of  the  contest;  and  the 
great  majority  of  three  of  the  nations  was 
manifestly  on  the  side  of  the  Emperor.  Still, 
before  they  proceeded  to  the  question,  it  was 
feared  that,  as  the  Italian  prelates  were  the 
most  numerous  and  under  the  most  direct  in- 
fluence, and  would,  probably,  be  unanimous 
for  the  Pope,  they  might  be  able  to  outvote 
the  majorities  of  the  other  nations.  It  was, 
therefore,  advanced  as  a  fair  proposal,  and 
finally  arranged,  that  each  nation  should  sep- 
arately ascertain  its  own  sense,  and  that  then, 
on  the  general  meeting,  the  majority  of  na- 
tions, not  the  numerical  majority  of  votes, 
should  prevail.  On  the  day  appointed,  they 
met  together,  and  it  then  appeared  that  the 
decision  in  favor  of  the  method  of  cession 
was  unanimous — to  the  astonishment  of  the 
whole  council,  the  greater  portion  even  of  the 
Italians  themselves  had  adopted  that  opinion. 

The  Pope  abdicates. — During  the  progress 
of  these  deliberations,  there  were  some  who 
judged,  from  the  customary  tenacity  of  other 


THE  GRAND  SCHISM. 


425 


Popes,  that  still  further  measures  might  after- 
wards be  called  for.  And  in  that  apprehen- 
sion, a  long  list  of  personal  charges  against 
John  XXIII.,  some  of  which  involved  the 
most  abominable  offences,  was  handed  about 
among  the  fathers ;  and  a  copy  came  under 
the  inspection  of  the  Pope  himself.  John 
then  saw  the  real  nature  of  the  tempest  that 
was  hanging  over  him,  and  immediately  de- 
termined to  avert  it  by  timely  submission. 
He  expressed  that  intention  amidst  the  ac- 
clamations of  the  whole  assembly  ;  and  after 
some  unimportant  disputes  respecting  the 
formula  of  cession,  he  publicly  pronounced 
(on  the  2d  of  March)  his  solemn  and  volun- 
tary abdication.* 

Flight  of  John  XXIIL  —  The  cession  of 
John  was,  of  course,  conditional  on  that  of 
the  autipopes ;  and  as  no  difficulties  were 
any  longer  offered  by  Gregory,  the  accom- 
plishment of  the  union  rested  wholly  with 
Peter  of  Luna.  To  this  end  a  conference 
was  proposed  at  Nice,  between  Sigismond 
and  the  King  of  Arragon  ;  and  as  it  seemed 
that  Benedict  was  to  be  one  of  the  parties, 
John  claimed  his  right  to  be  also  present  on 
the  occasion.  This  demand  excited  some 
suspicions  of  his  sincerity ;  and  these  were 
confirmed  by  a  proposal,  which  he  soon 
afterwards  made,  to  transfer  the  Council  from 
Constance  to  Nice.  It  was  difficult,  after 
the  instances  of  pontifical  duplicity  which 
had  disgraced  the  last  forty  years,  to  put  trust 
in  the  honesty  of  any  Pope  ;  and  the  charac- 
ter of  John  was  not  such  as  to  command 
any  peculiar  confidence.  Consequently,  the 
Council  required  of  him  a  formal  deed  or 
procuration  of  cession  ;  and  he,  without  hesi- 
tation, refused  it.  Guards  were  then  placed 
about  the  gates  of  the  city ;  but,  on  the  urgent 
remonstrance  of  the  Pope,  removed.  How- 
beit,  whether  he  had  previously  meditated  an 
escape  from  the  power  of  the  Council,  as 


*  The  formula  finally  agreed  on  was  to  the  follow- 
ing effect:  "  We,  John  XXIIL,  for  the  repose  of  the 
people  of  Christ,  profess,  promise,  vow,  and  swear, 
beforeGod,  the  Church,  and  this  sacred  Council,  freely 
and  with  our  entire  good  will,  to  give  peace  to  the 
Church  by  the  method  of  a  simple  and  pure  cession 
to  be  made  by  us  the  Sovereign  Pontificate,  and  to 
accomplish  it  effectually  through  the  wisdom  of  the 
present  Council,  —  whensoever  Peter  of  Luna  and 
Angelo  Corrario  shall  similarly  renounce,  in  person 
or  by  their  delegates,  the  Popedom  to  which  they 
pretend.  And  we  also  promise  to  do  the  same  thing, 
howsoever  that  may  occur,  whether  by  cession  or  by 
death,  or  by  any  other  way,  so  that  it  shall  become 
possible  to  unite  the  Church  of  God  through  our  ces- 
sion, and  thus  to  extirpate  the  present  schism." 
54 


soon  as  it  proved  too  great  for  him,  or  whether 
he  was  driven  to  that  resolution  (as  may  also 
have  been)  by  the  distrust  and  even  harsh- 
ness with  which  he  was  treated  ;  it  is  certain 
that,  on  the  morning  of  March  21,  the  Em- 
peror and  the  Fathers  learnt  with  dismay  and 
astonishment,  that  the  Pope  was  no  longer  at 
Constance.  He  had  quitted  the  city,  in  the 
night,  in  a  military  disguise  ;  and,  having  in- 
stantly embarked,  had  descended  the  Rhine 
as  far  as  Schaffhausen,  a  city  of  his  pro- 
tector, Frederic. 

The  consternation  of  the  Council  was 
somewhat  abated  by  a  communication  re- 
ceived from  John  on  the  following  day,  in 
which  he  renewed  his  assurances  of  sin- 
cerity, and  justified  his  retreat  from  Con- 
stance by  the  argument,  that  his  personal 
security  was  necessary  to  give  obligation  to 
the  promise  of  cession  ;  and  hereupon  he 
was  joined  by  several  Cardinals  and  other 
prelates.  But  the  great  majority  remained 
behind,  in  close  co-operation  with  the  Em- 
peror; and  both  they  and  he  immediately 
engaged  in  the  most  vigorous  measures.  For, 
on  the  one  hand,  Sigismond  put  in  motion 
the  temporal  forces  of  the  Assembly,  and  di- 
rected a  powerful  army  against  the  States  of 
Frederic  ;  and  on  the  other,  the  Fathers  of 
the  Council  and  the  doctors  of  Paris,  with 
Gerson  at  their  head,  advanced  in  mighty 
spiritual  array  against  the  pontifical  deserter. 
And  while  the  imperial  soldiers  approached 
the  walls  of  Schaffhausen,  the  bulwarks  of 
Popery  were  assaulted  from  the  pulpits  of 
Constance. 

The  momentous  question  was  now  public- 
ly argued,  whether  a  Council  General  of  the 
Church  did  not  possess  an  authority  superior 
to  the  Pope.  The  rights  of  the  Council 
were  advocated  by  the  eloquence  of  Gerson,* 
and  asserted  by  the  general  consent  of  the 
Fathers  of  Constance.  The  opposite  opinion 
was  maintained  by  the  seceders  at  Schaff- 
hausen ;  and  these  even  ventured  to  assert, 
that  the  Council  itself  was  virtually  dissolved 
by  the  absence  of  the  Pope.  It  has  generally 
been  the  error  of  high  churchmen  to  advance 
the  loftiest  pretensions  at  the  most  unseason- 
able moments  ;  and  instead  of  receding  at  a 
crisis  of  violence  and  danger,  to  rush  with  a 
sort  of  effeminate  rashness  into  perils,  which 
would  not  otherwise  have  reached  them.  A 
decided  breach  now  took  place  between  the 
two  parties ;  but  after  some  vain  replications 
and  negotiations,  it  became  perfectly  clear  on 


*  De  Auferibilitate  Papae  ab  Ecclesia. 


426 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


which  side  the  real  strength  lay.  The  Court 
of  Schaffhausen  daily  diminished,  and  the 
Council  proceeded  by  vigorous  acts  to  give 
efficacy  to  the  principle  of  its  own  superi- 
ority. Nevertheless,  the  Pope  would  not  ac- 
knowledge his  defeat,  but  rather  determined 
to  risk  the  experiment  by  a  second  flight ; 
intending,  as  it  would  seem,  to  throw  himself 
on  the  protection  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
and  establish  his  residence  at  Avignon.  He 
halted  at  Brisac,  and  a  deputation  from  the 
Council  found  him  there  ;  he  fixed  the  fol- 
lowing morning  to  give  them  audience,  but 
on  the  following  morning  John  XXIII.  was 
no  longer  at  Brisac.  We  shall  not  trace  the 
fruitless  negotiations  which  followed:  it  is 
sufficient  to  add,  that  during  their  progress 
the  Duke  of  Austria  prevailed  upon  the  Pope 
to  take  refuge  at  Fribourg,  under  his  own 
sacred  protection — for  the  Duke,  being  se- 
verely pressed  in  his  contest  with  the  Em- 
peror, and  foreseeing  his  entire  discomfiture, 
was  desirous  to  possess  the  means  of  recon- 
ciliation. Having  succeeded  in  this  desire, 
he  hastened  to  violate  his  vows,  and  to  sacri- 
fice his  virtue  and  reputation,  by  surrendering 
the  person  of  his  guest.  And  thus,  says 
Maimbourg,  the  unfortunate  Pope,  who,  dis- 
orderly and  licentious  as  he  was,  failed  not 
to  be  an  object  of  great  compassion  through 
the  treachery  practised  against  him  by  his 
protector,  was  betrayed;  and  found  himself 
a  prisoner  in  the  Castle  of  Fribourg,  the 
very  place  where  he  had  thought  to  find  an 
asylum. 

The  Council  then  turned  to  the  affair  of  his 
deposition,  observing  in  this  matter  the  same 
forms  which  had  been  followed  at  Pisa  in  the 
process  against  Gregory  and  Benedict.  The 
list  of  accusations  presented  against  John 
XXIII.  consisted  of  fifty  articles ;  but  the 
whole  weight  of  his  offences  might  be  com- 
prised under  five  or  six  heads.  He  was 
charged  with  all  the  various  modifications  of 
simony  ;  with  squandering  and  alienating  the 
property  of  the  Church  ;  and  with  oppres- 
sing the  people  by  unjust  acts  and  exorbitant 
imposts.  His  escape  from  Constance,  and  his 
subsequent  endeavors  to  elude  the  demands 
of  the  Council,  were  urged  against  him  with 
the  greater  minuteness,  as  they  were  the  most 
ecent  and  the  least  pardonable  of  his  offen- 
ces. Another  class  of  charges  related  to  his 
official,  another  to  his  private  delinquencies. 
It  was  asserted  that,  as  Pope,  he  had  disre- 
garded the  divine  offices,  neglected  to  repeat 
his  breviary,  and  rarely  assisted  at  the  cele- 
bration of  mass  ;  and  that,  even  when  he  did 


so,  he  recited  the  service  rapidly  and  careless- 
ly, like  a  sportsman  or  a  soldier.*  It  was 
added,  that  he  had  wholly  disregarded  the 
fasts  and  abstinences  of  the  Church.  As  to 
the  scandals  of  his  private  life,  they  were 
traced  with  minute  diligence,  even  from  his 
childhood  to  his  flight  from  Constance.  In 
his  earliest  youth  the  intemperance  of  his  dis- 
position betrayed  itself:  his  most  innocent 
years  were  charged  with  falsehood,  impu- 
dence, disobedience  to  his  parents,  a  tenden- 
cy to  every  vice.  His  progress  in  life  was  a 
progress  in  iniquity.  Murder  by  violence 
and  by  poison,  adultery,  incest,  the  most 
abominable  impurities  were  imputed  to  him, 
as  unquestioned  and  notorious.  Such  is  the 
substance  of  the  allegations  recorded  by  Ro- 
man Catholic  writers  against  their  spiritual 
Father ;  but  it  must  not  be  forgotten,  that,  in 
the  list  formally  presented  to  the  Council  and 
to  the  Pope,  these  last  charges  were  suppress- 
ed. This  might  be  with  a  view  to  spare  the 
Catholic  Church  so  monstrous  a  scandal ;  or 
through  consideration  to  the  conscience  and 
character  of  the  Cardinals,  who  had  so  lately 
elected  such  a  Pope ;  but  it  might  also  be, 
because  they  rested  on  slight  foundations,  and 
proceeded  from  that  popular  license,  which 
so  eagerly  calumniates  the  fallen  fortunes  of 
the  great. 

John  XXIII.  accused  and  deposed. — It  is  not 
disputed,  that  the  paper,  which  Received  the 
approbation  of  the  Council,  contained  many 
heinous  charges,  expressed  in  very  unequiv- 
ocal language,  and  confirmed  by  numerous 
testimonies.  But  the  Pope,  when  it  was  pre- 
sented to  him  for  inspection  and  refutation, 
calmly  replied,  with  the  most  submissive  re- 
spect for  the  Council,  that  he  had  little  curi- 
osity to  read  either  the  charges  or  the  deposi- 
tions ;  but  that  of  this  the  Fathers  might  rest 
assured,  that  he  should  receive  their  decision, 
whatever  it  might  be,  with  perfect  deference ; 
in  the  meantime,  that  his  best  defence  was  in 
their  justice.  This  was  politic,  for  from  the 
moment  in  which  the  Council  determined 
upon  the  method  of  cession,  John  very  clear- 
ly perceived  that  the  Pontificate  had  passed 
from  his  hands.  For  a  time,  indeed,  he  pro- 
bably hoped,  through  the  support  of  the 
Dukes  of  Austria  and  Burgundy,  to  retain  a 
partial  obedience  and  wear  a  divided  mitre  ; 
but  no  sooner  did  he  become  the  prisoner  of 
the  Council,  than  even  that  hope  abandoned 
him ;  and  his  only  remaining  object  was  to 
secure,  in  a  private  station,  his  personal  free- 


*  Et  si  aliquoties  celebravit,  hoc  fuit  currenter, 
more  venatoruni  et  armigerorum.    Act.  Concil.  Const. 


THE  GRAND  SCHISM. 


427 


dom  and  security.  Accordingly,  he  addres- 
sed a  respectful  and  even  pathetic  letter  to 
Sigismond,  in  which  he  reminded  him  of  ser- 
vices formerly  conferred,  and  supplicated  in 
return  his  friendship,  or  at  least  his  clemency. 
This  appeal  was  written  in  a  tone  of  deep 
humiliation,  and  with  an  affectation  of  attach- 
ment, which  could  scarcely  be  sincere.  But 
neither  Emperor  nor  Council  was  softened 
by  this  tardy  display  of  obsequiousness.  At 
a  full  Session,  held  on  the  29th  of  May,  John 
XXIII.  was  solemnly  deposed  from  the  Pon- 
tificate. By  the  same  sentence  he  was  con- 
demned to  imprisonment  during  the  pleasure 
of  the  Council,  which  reserved  to  itself  the 
power  of  imposing  such  other  penalties  as 
should,  in  due  season,  be  declared. 

This  sentence  was  communicated  to  John 
in  his  confinement  at  Cell ;  he  perused  it 
without  any  emotion,  and  requested  a  short 
interval  of  solitude.  After  two  hours,  he  or- 
dered the  deputies  again  into  his  presence  ; 
and  then,  after  reading  all  the  articles  in  suc- 
cession, with  a  firm  voice  and  unruffled  man- 
ner, he  declared  to  them  that  there  was  no 
particular,  which  did  not  receive  his  complete 
approbation ;  and  that,  as  far  as  in  him  lay, 
he  cordially  confirmed  and  ratified  the  sen- 
tence. To  this  assurance  he  added  a  volun- 
tary vow,  that  he  would  never  at  any  time 
protest  against  that  sentence,  nor  make  any 
attempt  to  recover  the  Pontificate — that,  on 
the  contrary,  he  renounced  purely  and  sim- 
ply, and  from  the  bottom  of  his  heart,  any 
right  which  he  ever  had,  or  might  still  have, 
to  that  dignity  ;  that,  in  proof  of  this,  he  had 
already  removed  from  his  chamber  the  pon- 
tifical cross,  and  would  throw  off  the  pontifi- 
cal garments  as  willingly,  if  he  had  any  oth- 
ers to  put  on  in  their  place  ;  that  he  wished 
with  all  his  soul,  that  he  had  never  been  Pope 
at  all,  since  he  had  not  enjoyed  one  single 
happy  day  since  his  exaltation ;  and  so  far 
was  he  from  wishing  to  be  restored  to  that 
dignity,  that  should  any  desire  his  re-election, 
he  would  never  at  any  time  consent  to  it.  He 
then  threw  himself,  with  his  former  humility, 
on  the  mercy  of  the  Council  and  the  Emper- 
or— not,  however,  without  reminding  them, 
that  he  possessed  legitimate  means  of  defence, 
of  which  he  had  not  yet  availed  himself,  but 
to  which  he  should  certainly  appeal,  should 
they  drive  him,  by  more  rigorous  measures, 
to  further  extremities. 

This  conduct,  which  was  not  only  politic, 
but  generous,  succeeded  not  in  obtaining  for 
him  any  mitigation  of  his  sentence.  He  was 
led  away  in  close  confinement,  first  to  Heidel- 


berg, and  afterwards  to  Manheim,  where  he 
was  imprisoned  for  three  years.  Neither  did 
it  avail  him  any  thing  to  have  once  possessed 
the  friendship  of  Sigismond.  Nay,  so  far 
was  the  severity  of  the  sentence  enforced, 
that  he  was  deprived  of  the  services  of  his 
Italian  attendants,  and  surrounded  by  Ger- 
mans, with  whom  his  ignorance  of  the  lan- 
guage permitted  no  other  intercourse,  than 
by  signs.*  Such  rigor,  exercised  against  a 
fallen  Pope,  awakened  sympathy  and  swelled 
the  ranks  of  his  advocates ;  and  there  were 
many  who  maintained,  both  then  and  after- 
wards, that  his  deposition  was  illegal  and 
compulsory,  since  the  charge  of  heresy,  on 
which  alone  a  Pope  could  be  canonically  de- 
posed, was  not  that,  which  occasioned  the 
degradation  of  John  XXIII.  The  Court  of 
France  openly  professed  this  opinion ;  and 
the  offence,  which  Charles  VI.  on  that  occa- 
sion took  at  the  exceeding  zeal  of  the  Uni- 
versity, repressed  the  ardor  and  diminished 
the  credit  of  that  illustrious  body. 

In  the  meantime,  the  Council  advanced 
onwards  in  the  course  which  it  had  chosen. 
It  had  now  assumed  the  despotic  f  control  of 
the  Church  ;  and  in  its  first  exercise  of  that 
power,  it  published  a  declaration  that  the 
Cardinals  could  not  proceed  to  a  new  elec- 
tion without  its  consent.  By  its  next  deci- 
sion the  formalities  attending  the  cession  of 
Gregory  were  duly  completed,  and  the  old 
man  was  permitted  to  resign  that  which  no 
one  acknowledged  that  he  possessed.  The 
attention  of  the  Council  and  the  whole  Cath- 
olic world  was  then  turned  entirely  towards 
the  determination  of  Peter  of  Luna. 

Conduct  of  Benedict.  —  His  determination 


*  Platina  and  Nauclerus  assert  the  severity  with 
which  John  was  treated.  Theodoric  of  Niem  gives 
a  different  account,  on  the  authority,  as  he  says,  of 
well-informed  persons.  There  are  differences,  too, 
on  some  other  particulars,  which  we  have  not  thought 
it  necessary  to  specify.  The  historians  who  have 
been  principally  consulted  for  the  contents  of  this 
chapter  (besides  the  original  authorities)  are  Maim- 
bourg,  the  Continuator  of  Fleury,  Lenfant  (Hist,  du 
Cone,  de  Constance,)  Pagi  (Breviar.  Gest.  Pontif. 
Roman.,)  and  Spondanus. 

f  Hence  it  proceeded,  papaliter,  to  interfere  with 
the  State  also.  Previously  to  Sigismond's  departure 
for  Perpignan,  through  France,  it  published  an  edict 
—  "Quicunque,  cujuscunque  status  aut  conditionis 
existat,  etiamsi  regalis  .  .  .  euntes  aut  redeuntes 
impediverit,  perturbaverit — sententia  excommunica- 
tionis  percellitur — et  ulterius  omni  honoreet  dignitate 
ipso  facto  est  privatus."  Act.  Concil.  Constan., 
Sess.  xvii.  This  sudden  assumption  of  the  power 
of  deposition  astonished  all  sovereigns,  but  especially 
insulted  the  King  of  France. 


428 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


was  simply  this, — to  cling  to  the  ruins  of  his 
fortunes — to  clasp  the  name  and  shadow  of 
the  Pontificate — to  persevere  in  his  preten- 
sions and  his  perjury  to  the  end  of  his  life. 
Nevertheless,  it  was  necessary  to  treat  him 
with  temper  and  deference,  as  long  as  he 
was  supported  even  hy  a  single  Prince.  The 
method  of  conference  was  that  which  he  still 
proposed,  and  the  Council  now  assented  to 
it ;  and  as  the  King  of  Arragon  was  prevent- 
ed by  sickness  from  travelling  to  Nice,  Sigis- 
mond  professed  his  willingness  to  undertake 
in  person  the  journey  to  Perpiguan.  It  was 
in  vain,  that  Benedict  exhausted  the  resources 
of  his  ingenuity  to  retard,  at  least,  if  he  could 
not  impede,  the  advance  of  the  Emperor :  his 
artifices  were  foiled  by  the  firmness  of  a  can- 
did mind  resolutely  bent  on  a  noble  object ; 
and  on  the  18th  of  September  Sigismond  ar- 
rived, with  a  small  number  of  attendants,  at 
the  place  of  conference. 

An  extraordinary  scene  was  then  enacted. 
Ferdinand  of  Arragon  siucerely  desired  the 
extinction  of  the  schism  ;  ambassadors  from 
the  courts  of  Castille  and  Navarre,  and  others  \ 
who  were  present,  united  their  vows  for  the  ' 
same  object.  The  Emperor  pressed  it  with  j 
all  his  talents  and  all  his  power — Benedict 
alone  opposed  himself  to  the  unanimity  of 
Christendom.  Whatever  was  most  convin- 
cing in  argument  or  persuasive  in  rhetoric 
was  repeatedly  urged  upon  him  by  the  Princes 
and  their  deputies.  If  any  pretext  for  his  re- 
sistance had  hitherto  been  furnished  by  the 
pertinacity  of  his  competitors,  this,  they  main- 
tained, was  now  removed  by  the  cession  and 
deposition  of  Gregory  and  John.  The  con- 
dition, on  which  he  had  sworn  to  abdicate, 
was  at  length  accomplished  beyond  dispute  ; 
and  his  honor,  his  conscience,  his  promises, 
his  oaths  unequivocally  obliged  him  to  fulfil 
his  part.  Henceforward  the  concord  of  Chris- 
tendom depended  wholly  upon  him.  After 
eight-and-thirty  years  of  schism,  disorder, 
and  desolation,  Benedict  was  the  only  re- 
maining obstacle  to  the  union,  repose,  and 
welfare  of  the  Christian  world.  The  Church 
herself,  if  she  was  iudeed  intrusted  by  the 
Almighty  to  his  care  and  guidance,  now 
stretched  forth  her  arms  to  him,  from  the 
abyss  of  misery  in  which  she  was  sunk,  and 
sadly  supplicated,  that  he  would  raise  her 
from  her  degradation  ;  that  he  would  volun- 
tarily sacrifice  that  dignity,  which  he  could 
not  possibly  retain  much  longer  ;  and  that  he 
would  invest  his  few  remaining  years  with 
the  gratitude  and  blessings  of  mankind,  rather 
than  adhere,  amid  universal  detestation,  to  a 


mere  name,  which  an  early  death,  followed 
by  eternal  infamy,  was  now  at  hand  to  tear 
away  from  him. 

These  arguments,  urged  by  the  highest 
secular  powers,  were  confirmed  by  other  au- 
thority, which  may  have  given  them  addi- 
tional value  in  the  eyes  of  a  churchman 
and  a  Pope.  There  were  two  holy  brothers 
named  Vincent  and  Boniface  Ferrier,*  who 
had  hitherto  faithfully  adhered  to  the  cause 
of  Benedict,  and  whose  acknowledged  piety 
and  supposed  inspiration  seemed  to  lend  it 
some  sort  of  sanctity.  These  venerable  per- 
sons now  joined  their  friendly  eloquence  to 
turn  the  heart  of  Benedict ;  and  they  fortified 
their  appeal  by  declaring,  that,  as  the  reproach 
of  schism  must  henceforward  rest  on  his 
party,  they  should  be  compelled,  in  case  of 
his  further  opposition,  to  desert  him.f 

Benedict  was  not  moved  by  any  of  these 
considerations.  Whether  it  was,  that  in  the 
conscientious  belief  that  he  was  the  true  Pope, 
he  considered  it  a  religious,  or  (what  might 
be  equally  sacred  in  his  mind)  an  ecclesiasti- 
cal duty,  to  preserve  his  office  to  the  end  of 
his  life  ;  or  whether  (as  is  more  probable,) 
the  love  of  power  grew  with  the  progress  of 
his  years,  and  the  decay  of  his  vigor,  so  as 
finally  to  close  his  heart  against  any  repre- 
sentations of  reason  or  decency, — he  main- 
tained his  constant  resolution  inflexibly.  As 
he  had  always  been  the  legitimate,  so  was  he 
now,  forsooth,  the  only,  Pontiff:  the  depo- 
sition of  both  his  adversaries  confirmed  him, 
without  competition,  in  the  possession  of  the 
See.  So  that,  if  the  schism  were  still  per- 
mitted to  subsist  (he  continued,)  the  scandal 
must  rest  with  the  Council  of  Constance,  not 
with  him.  For  his  own  part,  he  was  deter- 
mined never  to  abandon  the  bark  of  St.  Peter, 
of  which  the  helm  had  been  confided  to  him 
by  God  ;  and  the  older  he  became,  and  the 
nearer  he  approached  to  death  and  the  judg- 


*  This  same  Vincent  Ferrier  is  addressed  by  Ger- 
son  from  Constance,  as  a  patron  of  the  sect  of  the 
Flagellants,  whom  the  chancellor  earnestly  exhorts 
him  to  abandon.  Nevertheless  he  is  designated  as 
"Theologus  et  Orator  toto  orbe  inclytus."  The 
documents  are  given  by  Von  der  Hardt,  torn,  iii., 
pars  vii. 

t  Theodoric  of  Niem  mentions  that  Vincent  Ferrier 
did  then,  in  fact,  take  so  decided  a  part  against  his 
former  master,  as  to  declare  it  a  merit  to  persecute 
or  kill  him.  "  Quod  sit  vir  pravus  et  fallax  et  fictus, 
decipiendo  populum  Dei,  quodque  juste  persequendus 
sit  usque  ad  mortem  ab  omnibus  Christianis,&c."  .  . 
Vit.  Johann.  XXIII.  p.  63.  This  holy  zealot  had 
as  little  charity  in  his  enmity,  as  discretion  in  his 
friendship. 


THE  GRAND  SCHISM. 


429 


merit,  the  stronger  was  his  obligation  to  resist 
the  tempest,  and  avert  the  anger  of  Heaven 
by  persevering  in  the  course  assigned  to  him. 
In  conclusion,  he  enforced  the  necessity  of  at 
once  uniting  all  the  faithful  in  universal  obe- 
dience to  himself.  Benedict  was  now  in  his 
seventy-eighth  year  ;  nevertheless,  he  argued 
his  own  cause  before  a  public  assembly  for 
seven  entire  hours,  with  such  courage,  fer- 
vor, and  impetuosity,  as  to  leave  it  uncertain 
whether  his  extraordinary  energy  was  de- 
rived from  ambition,  or  from  fanaticism,  or 
from  a  strange  combination  of  both. 

The  result  of  this  singular  contest  was  not 
yet  perfectly  manifest.  On  the  one  side  was 
the  secular  and  spiritual  power  of  Europe, 
the  authority  of  kings,  the  prayers  of  the 
people,  the  consent  of  the  Catholic  Church — 
reason,  and  justice,  and  every  wise,  and  every 
good  principle,  arrayed  against  the  infatuated 
obstinacy  of  one  crafty,  faithless,  old  man. 
Yet  the  thoughtful  were  still  in  some  sus- 
pense, and  many  had  greater  fears  from  the 
inveterate  subtilty  of  Benedict,  than  hopes 
from  the  union  of  so  many  Princes.  .  .  . 
But  it  proved  otherwise  ;  the  parties  engaged 
in  the  Conference  had  no  personal  interest  in 
favor  of  that  pretender ;  and  his  perversity 
was  so  remote  from  reason,  that  it  served 
rather  to  cement  the  confederacy  against  him. 
It  was  resolved,  however,  to  make  one  final 
attempt  at  persuasion.  But  here  Benedict, 
perceiving  the  firmness  of  his  adversaries, 
and  fearing  their  ultimate  design,  withdrew 
his  person  from  their  power,  and  quitted 
Perpignan.  He  retired,  after  some  hesitation, 
to  a  place  called  Paniscola, — a  fortress  situ- 
ated near  Tortosa  and  the  mouth  of  the  Ebro, 
an  ancient  possession  of  the  House  of  Luna. 
Four  cardinals,  and  a  small  body  of  soldiers, 
followed  him. 

Benedict  deposed.  —  Any  hopes  which  he 
may  have  derived  from  this  proceeding,  be- 
yond that  of  mere  personal  security,  were 
disappointed.  The  Assembly  at  Perpignan, 
being  now  relieved  from  the  constraint  which 
his  presence  still  occasioned  to  those,  who 
still  acknowledged  him,  immediately,  and  by 
a  formal  act,  renounced  its  obedience.  Not 
long  afterwards,  Scotland,  which  had  taken 
no  part  in  these  measures,  but  continued  to 
adhere  without  scruple  to  its  first  decision, 
being  now  persuaded  that  Benedict  was  the 
only  remaining  obstacle  to  the  general  con- 
cord, followed  the  example  of  the  Conference. 
And  then,  at  length,  *  the  Council  of  Con- 
stance felt  itself  empowered  to  inflict  the  final 


*  On  July  26th,  1417. 


blow.  The  sentence  of  deposition  was  pro- 
nounced against  Peter  of  Luna,  according  to 
the  prescribed  forms ;  and  the  bolt,  which 
had  fallen  almost  harmless  from  the  Assem- 
bly of  Pisa,  descended  on  this  occasion  with 
greater  efficacy,  because  its  object  was  already 
virtually  deposed,  through  the  secession  of  his 

royal  adherents In  the  meantime,  the 

aged  Ecclesiastic,  against  whom  the  storm 
which  himself  had  raised  was  now  in  justice 
directed,  was  not  moved  to  any  act  of  con- 
cession, or  any  show  of  humiliation.  Twice 
deposed  by  two  General  Councils  —  twice 
anathematized  by  the  great  and  almost  unani- 
mous consent  of  the  Catholic  Church  — 
deserted  by  the  secular  powers,  who  had  so 
long  countenanced  his  perfidy  and  protected 
his  adversity — abandoned  by  the  most  vener- 
able, even  among  his  spiritual  followers — and 
confined  to  a  narrow  and  solitary  residence 
—  the  Pope  of  Paniscola  still  preserved  the 
mockery  of  a  court,  and  presided  in  his  empty 
council-hall.  And  thence,  in  the  magnanim- 
ity of  disappointment  and  despair,  he  launch- 
ed his  daily  anathema  against  Ferdinand  of 
Arragon,  and  retorted,  with  ludicrous  earnest- 
ness, the  excommunications  of  the  Christian 
world. 

Election  of  Martin  V.  by  the  Council,  and 
termination  of  the  schism.  —  The  Council  of 
Constance,  having  thus  at  length,  through 
the  perseverance  of  its  Imperial  Director,  re- 
moved the  three  competitors  whose  disputes 
had  rent  the  Church,  proceeded  to  provide 
for  its  future  integrity ;  and,  that  no  pretext 
might  possibly  be  left  for  subsequent  dissen- 
sion, it  was  determined,  for  this  occasion  only, 
to  make  an  addition  to  the  Elective  Assem- 
bly. The  entire  College  of  the  united  Car- 
dinals consisted,  at  that  time,  of  thirty  mem- 
bers; and  to  this  body  a  second,  consisting 
of  six  ecclesiastics  from  each  of  the  five  * 
nations,  was  associated.  It  was  further  regu- 
lated, that  the  consent  of  two-thirds  both  of 
the  sacred  college  and  of  the  deputies  of  each 
nation  should  be  required  for  the  validity  of 
the  election,  —  so  many  were  the  interests 
which  it  was  necessary  to  reconcile,  so  severe 
were  the  precautions  required,  to  secure  for 
the  future  Pontiff  the  undivided  obedience  of 
Europe.  Accordingly,  on  the  8th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1417,  the  electors  entered  into  conclave, 
and  after  a  deliberation  of  three  days,  they 
agreed  in  the  choice  of  Otho  Colonna  (Martin 
V.,)  a  noble  and  virtuous  Roman. 

*  As  soon  as  the  fate  of  Benedict  was  decided,  the 
Spanish  nation  was  added  to  the  four,  which  had 
hitherto  constituted  the  Assembly. 


430 


HISTORY   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


The  character  of  Martin  pointed  him  out 
as  the  man  destined  to  repair  the  ruins  of  the 
Church.  The  announcement  was  received 
with  enthusiastic  expressions  of  delight ;  the 
Emperor  was  the  first  to  prostrate  himself  at 
the  holy  Prelate's  feet,  in  a  transport  of  rap- 
ture, which  was  shared,  or  affected,  by  the 
vast  assembly  present.  And  it  was  not  with- 
out reasonable  ground  of  confidence — it  was 
not  without  many  motives  for  self-satisfaction, 
and  many  just  claims  on  the  gratitude  of  that 
age  and  that  Church,  that  Sigismond  and  the 
Council  at  length  approached  the  termination 
of  their  labors.  To  us,  indeed,  looking  back 
from  our  brighter  elevation  upon  the  means 
of  the  disputants  and  the  subject  of  the  strife, 
it  will,  perhaps,  appear,  that  so  powerful  a 
combination  of  temporal  and  spiritual  au- 
thority might  have  accomplished  in  a  much 
shorter  space  the  destruction  of  a  profligate 
Pope  and  two  denounced  pretenders  —  that 
the  force  employed  was  disproportionate  to 
the  end — that  the  methods  were  indirect  and 
dilatory,  marked  by  too  much  ceremony  and 
too  little  vigor.  But  we  should  thus  determine 
inconsiderately,  and  without  due  regard  to  the 
maxims  and  prejudices  of  those  days.  When 
we  reflect,  that  a  century  had  scarcely  yet 
elapsed  since  Boniface  VIII.  was  exulting  in 
the  plenitude  of  spiritual  despotism ;  that, 
even  to  the  end  of  the  Avignon  succession, 
the  lofty  attributes  of  Papacy  remained,  as 
heretofore,  unviolated  and  almost  unquestion- 
ed ;  when  we  recollect,  too,  how  slow  and 
difficult  are  the  triumphs  of  reason  over  pre- 
scriptive absurdities,  we  shall  rather  admire 
the  firmness  exhibited  at  Constance,  and  the 
courage  with  which  some  Papal  principles 
were  overthrown,  than  censure  that  assembly 
for  not  having  more  hastily  accomplished, 
what  it  did  at  length  accomplish  effectually. 

Fate  of  the  Pretenders. — The  Council  con- 
tinued its  sessions  *  for  a  few  months  after  the 
election  of  Martin,  and  was  then  dismissed, 
or  rather  adjourned,  for  the  space  of  five 
years.  Pavia  was  the  place  appointed  for 
the  next  meeting;  and  the  Pope  proceeded 
towards  Rome,  to  occupy  and  refit  his  shat- 
tered vessel.  Nevertheless,  with  whatever 
security  he  may  have  approached  his  See,  he 
must  sometimes  have  reflected,  that  there  still 
lived  three  men,  who  had  enjoyed  in  their 
turns  the  dignity  which  he  now  held,  and 
who  had  clung  to  it  with  extreme  pertinacity. 

*  These  were  forty-five  in  number ;  lasting,  at  va- 
rious intervals,  from  November  16th,  1414,  to  August 
9th,  1418. 


It  was  fair  to  presume  that  their  ambition 
would  not  depart  from  them,  except  with 
life ;  and  that  any  casual  circumstance,  which 
might  offer  to  any  one  of  them  the  means  of 
recovering  any  portion  of  his  power,  would 
find  him  eager  to  embrace  it.  So  long  as 
they  breathed,  the  concord  of  the  Church 
could  scarcely  be  deemed  secure  ;  let  us  then 
follow  their  history  to  its  termination.  Gre- 
gory did  not  long  survive  the  act  of  his  ces- 
sion ;  he  lived  long  enough  to  emerge  from 
the  condition  of  dishonor  and  guilt,  into 
which  his  weakness  had  thrown  him,  and 
little  longer ;  and  if  his  last  act  had  been  less 
obviously  the  effect  of  compulsion,  we  might 
have  admitted  it  as  some  atonement  for  his 
previous  delinquency. 

Peter  of  Luna  continued  for  about  six  years 
to  proclaim  his  legitimacy,  and  exult  in  his 
martyrdom.  Every  day  the  walls  of  Panis- 
cola  were  astonished  by  the  repetition  of  his 
anathemas ;  but  the  bolts  were  innocuous : 
but  for  the  temporary  departure  of  Alfonso 
of  Arragon  from  the  principles  of  his  prede- 
cessor, they  would  scarcely  have  been  heard 
beyond  the  fortress  gates  ;  nor  did  they  dis- 
turb, in  any  degree,  the  repose  of  Christen- 
dom. He  died  suddenly,  in  the  year  1424,  * 
in  extreme  old  age ;  but  his  vigor,  which  was 
still  fresh  and  unabated,  gave  some  color  to 
the  suspicion  of  poison,  which  attends  his 
death.  It  is  at  least  certain,  that,  as  soon  as 
he  perceived  his  final  hour  approaching,  he 
commanded  the  attendance  of  his  two  Car- 
dinals, the  faithful  remnant  of  his  court,  and 
addressed  them  with  his  wonted  intrepidity. 
And  then,  even  at  this  last  crisis,  when  am- 
bition and  interest  could  not  possibly  sway 
him  longer,  he  asserted  with  his  parting 
breath,  that  he  was  the  true  and  only  Pope, 
and  that  it  was  absolutely  essential  for  the 
purity  of  the  Church  to  continue  the  succes- 
sion. On  this  he  adjured  his  two  hearers, 
on  pain  of  his  pontifical  malediction,  to  elect 
a  successor.  Having  secured  dieir  obedience, 
he  died  ;  and  it  is  related  in  ecclesiastical  re- 
cords, that  six  years  afterwards  his  body  was 
found  entire,  and  without  symptom  of  decay ; 

*  The  year  is  disputed.  We  follow  Spondanus, 
aim.  1424,  s.  iii.  The  circumstance  that  he  held,  at 
least,  the  name  of  Pope  for  thirty  years  —  a  space 
longer  than  any  predecessor — has  been  seriously  urged 
as  an  argument  against  his  legitimacy.  *  Non  vide- 
bis  dies  Petri,'  the  prophetic  address  to  the  succes- 
sors of  the  apostle,  had  not  been  accomplished  in  the 
case  of  Luna,  therefore  he  could  not  be  a  genuine 
successor. 


THE  GRAND  SCHISM. 


431 


and  that,  being  then  transported  to  Igluera,  a 
town  of  Arragon,  the  property  of  his  family, 
it  long  continued,  and  perchance  may  still 
continue,  to  resist  the  visitation  of  corruption. 
His  character  has  not  escaped  equally 
inviolate  ;  and  the  censures  by  which  it  is 
perpetually  assailed,  cannot  injustice  be  sup- 
pressed or  softened.  His  talents  were  un- 
questionably vivid  and  active  ;  but  they  were 
of  a  mean  description, — the  mere  machines 
of  intrigue  and  subtilty, — the  energies  of  a 
contemptible  and  contracted  soul.  He  was 
eminent  in  sanctity,  and  the  integrity  of  pri- 
vate life.  But  what  manner  of  integrity  or 
sanctity  is  that,  which  is  found  consistent 
with  ambition,  and  selfishness,  and  perjury  ; 
which  can  wrap  itself  in  duplicity  at  any  call 
of  interest,  and  pursue  a  seeming  expediency 
through  fraud,  and  faithlessness,  and  false- 
hood ?  But  at  least  (it  is  said)  Benedict  was 
sincere  in  believing,  that  he  was  the  true  Pope, 
and  that  through  his  perseverance  alone  the 
succession  could  be  preserved  uninterrupted. 
.  .  .  Was  he  so  sincere  ?  When  he  advo- 
cated so  warmly  the  necessity  of  mutual  con- 
cession, during  the  reign  of  his  predecessor, 
then,  at  least,  he  was  not  persuaded,  that  the 
purity  of  the  Catholic  Church  was  identical 
with  obedience  to  the  pretenders  of  Avignon. 
Had  he  been  so  persuaded,  he  could  not  him- 
self have  accepted  the  pontificate  as  a  con- 
ditional boon  ;  nor  bound  himself  by  oath  to 
cede,  on  specific  terms,  that  trust,  which  af- 
terwards he  proclaimed  it  his  religious  duty 
to  maintain,  under  every  circumstance.  As- 
suredly, if  his  sincerity  in  this  respect  must 
be  admitted,  we  must,  at  the  same  time,  ac- 
knowledge, that  he  was  not  impressed  with 
it  till  after  his  elevation  ;  and  that  it  was  then 
so  closely  connected  with  his  ambition,  as  to 
make  it  impossible  for  the  historian,  as  it 
might  be  difficult  even  for  himself,  to  dis- 
tinguish between  them. 

The  two  Cardinals  obeyed  the  parting  in- 
junction of  their  master,  and  chose  for  his 
successor  one  Gilles  Mugnos,  who  called  him- 
self Clement  VIII.  But,  not  long  afterwards, 
Alphonso  finally  withdrew  his  protection  from 
his  creature ;  Mugnos  retired,  without  a  strug- 
gle, to  his  former  obscurity  ;  and  the  succes- 
sion of  pretenders,  which  had  been  imposed 
upon  the  Church  by  the  Conclave  at  Anagni, 
was  at  length  at  an  end. 

One  other  object  of  our  curiosity  still  re- 
mains, Baltazar  Cossa,  the  President,  the  ad- 
versary, and  the  victim  of  the  Council  of 
Constance.  Very  soon  after  the  dissolution 
of  that  assembly,  the  Republic  of  Florence, 


which  had  been  unceasingly  attached  to  the 
cause,  or  at  least  to  the  person  and  suffer- 
ings, of  the  captive,  earnestly  solicited  his 
liberation  from  Martin  V. ;  and  it  appears 
that,  presently  afterwards,  whether  through 
the  imprudence,*  the  policy,  or  the  gene- 
rosity of  that  Pope,  Baltazar  was  restored  to 
liberty.  He  returned  to  Italy,  and  presented 
himself  as  a  simple  ecclesiastic  among  his 
former  associates  and  dependants.  His  pop 
ular  qualities  had  secured  him  many  ad- 
herents, and  their  affection  was  not  shaken 
by  his  adversity.  In  some  places  he  was 
welcomed  with  cordial  salutations,  but  Parma 
was  the  principal  scene  of  his  triumph  and 
temptation ;  for  there  he  found  a  powerful 
party  prepared  to  revive  and  support  his  ab- 
rogated claims  to  the  chair.  These  warmly 
pressed  him  to  resume  his  dignity,  and  their 
solicitations  were  seconded  by  several  indi- 
viduals who  had  tasted  his  former  bounty, 
or  had  hopes  from  his  future  gratitude ;  all 
joined  in  protesting  against  the  violence  which 
he  had  suffered  at  Constance,  and  conjured 
him  once  more  to  array  himself  in  the  pon- 
tifical vestments,  which  were  rightfully  his 
own.  This  was  not  all :  even  in  the  calcu- 
lations of  success  there  seemed  some  ground 
for  hope.     The  independent  states  of  Italy 


*  The  account  of  Leonardus  Aretinus  (in  Reruni 
Italic.  Historia,)  who  had  the  means  of  knowing  the 
truth,  is  not  so  favorable  to  the  motives  of  either 
party,  as  that  which  we  would  more  willingly  adopt. 
"  John,  after  his  captivity  and  abdication,  was  im- 
prisoned in  Bavaria.  But  many  had  a  scruple, 
whether  his  deposition  and  abdication,  being  forcible, 
was  legitimate.  And  if  that  was  doubtful,  the  legiti- 
macy of  Martin  also  came  into  dispute.  With  this 
apprehension,  and,  at  the  same  time,  lest  the  Princes 
of  Germany,  possessing  this  image  (idolum)  of  a 
Pope,  should  some  day  take  some  advantage  of  it, 
Martin  engaged  in  measures  for  his  redemption  and 
restoration  to  Italy.  Therefore,  when  on  his  libera- 
tion lie  arrived  in  France,  and  then  learnt  the  counsel 
of  Martin  (which  was  to  confine  him  for  life  at 
Mantua,)  before  he  arrived  at  Mantua,  he  turned 
off  towards  Genoa;  and  there  being  free,  and  his 
own  master,  whether  induced  by  conscience,  or  by 
despair  of  success  in  any  hostile  enterprise,  he  volun- 
tarily came  to  Florence,  and  throwing  himself  at  the 
feel  of  Martin,  recognised  him  as  the  true  and  only 
Pontiff.  In  adventu  ejus  tota  civitas  obviam  profusa 
multis  lacrimis  et  incredibili  commiseratione  respexit 
hominem  de  tantae  dignitatis  fastigio  in  tantas  calami- 
tates  prolapsum.  Ipse  quoque  miserabili  prope  habitu 
incedebat,  &c."  .  .  .  The  Florentines,  on  the  other 
hand,  were  not  very  fond  of  Pope  Martin;  and  he  is 
related,  by  the  same  historian,  to  have  been  almost 
childishly  affected  by  a  song  then  popular  amon»  the 
rabble,  of  which  the  burden  was — 

Papa  Martinq  non  val  un  quattrino. 


432 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


would  probably  declare  in  his  favor,  and  the 
numerous  petty  tyrants,  who  had  usurped 
the  patrimony  of  the  Church,  would  assur- 
edly unite  against  the  acknowledged  Pope. 
These  circumstances  were  represented  to 
Baltazar,  and  he  fully  comprehended  their 
importance.  Some  wrongs,  too,  some  un- 
necessary hardships,  he  had  unquestionably 
endured  at  the  hands  of  the  emperor  and 
council.  Baltazar  patiently  listened  to  the 
seductions  of  his  friends  ;  and  then,  without 
returning  them  any  answer,  he  suddenly  took 
his  resolution.  He  departed  from  the  city 
hastily,  and  without  any  attendants ;  and  pro- 
ceeded to  Florence,  where  the  Pope  then 
resided,  in  the  garb  of  a  fugitive  and  a  sup- 
pliant. Immediately,  without  requiring  any 
formal  security  for  his  person,  he  sought  for 
Martin,  and  in  the  presence  of  a  full  assembly 
cast  himself  humbly  at  his  feet ;  and  while 
he  recognised  him  with  due  reverence  as  the 
legitimate  Vicar  of  Christ,  he  repeated  his 
solemn  ratification  of  the  acts  of  the  Council, 
and  of  his  own  deposition. 

Most  of  those,  who  witnessed  this  spectacle, 
were  affected  to  tears ;  for  they  beheld  the 
man,  in  whose  presence  all  had  once  been 
prostrate,  now  voluntarily  humbling  himself 
before  the  throne,  which  he  had  So  lately  oc- 
cupied, and  before  an  individual,  who  had 
honored  him,  for  nearly  five  years,  as  his  lord 
and  pontiff.  Martin  V.  shared  the  general 
emotion  ;  and  the  reciprocal  conduct  of  these 
two  prelates  furnishes  an  instance  of  mag- 
nanimous generosity,  which  too  rarely  illus- 
trates the  annals  of  the  Church.  The  Pope 
resolved  to  exalt  his  predecessor  as  near  to 
his  former  dignity,  as  was  consistent  with  his 
own  supremacy.  Baltazar  Cossa  was  ap- 
pointed cardinal  and  dean  of  the  Sacred  Col- 
lege ;  in  all  public  ceremonies,  whether  of 
chapels,  consistories,  or  other  assemblies,  Bal- 
tazar was  placed  by  the  side  of  the  Pontiff, 
on  a  loftier  seat  than  any  other  ecclesiastic  ; 
he  was  honored  by  the  confidence  of  his 
master,  and  he  repaid  it  by  undeviating 
fidelity. 

That  fidelity  may,  indeed,  have  cost  him 
no  struggle ;  and  if  we  should  believe  his 
former  declaration,  that  from  the  moment  of 
his  elevation  to  the  chair  he  had  never  enjoy- 
ed one  day  of  happiness,  the  most  enviable 
portion  of  his  life  may  really  have  been  that, 
iu  which  he  was  followed  by  general  com- 
miseration. But  whether  he  passed  his  re- 
maining days  in  successful  conflict  with  a 
bad  and  powerful  passion,  or  whether  (as 
seems  to  us  more  probable)  he  surveyed  with 


philosophical  disdain  the  dignity  of  whichhe 
had  felt  the  cares,  and  had  not  valued  the 
vanities, — in  either  case,  he  exhibited  a  vigor 
and  expanse  of  mind,  which  is  rarely  found 
in  man.  ...  It  is  true,  that  the  usual 
portraits  of  John  XXIII.  would  not  prepare 
us  to  expect  such  virtue  in  him.  But  that 
Pope  has  been,  in  truth,  too  hardly  treated 
by  historians.  His  enemies,  in  all  ages,  have 
been  the  powerful  party  ;  and  the  monstrous 
imputations,  which  originated  at  Constance, 
have  been  too  eagerly  repeated  both  by  Pro- 
testant and  other  writers.  Baltazar  Cossa 
was  a  mere  soldier,  * —  deeply  stained,  no 
doubt,  with  the  loose  immorality  which  then 
commonly  attached  to  that  profession,  but 
not  destitute  of  candid  and  manly  resolution, 
nor  of  those  worldly  principles,  which  make 
men  honorable.  It  is  entirely  unquestion- 
able, that  he  was  never  actuated,  even  in  ap- 
pearance, by  any  sense  of  religion  ;  that  he 
was  wholly  disqualified  even  for  the  lowest 
ministry  in  God's  Church ;  but  he  lived  in 
an  age  in  which  the  ecclesiastical  and  mili- 
tary characters  were  still  deemed  consistent, 
and  in  a  Church,  which  had  long  permitted 
the  most  dissolute  demeanor  to  its  directors. 
As  grand  master  of  a  military  order,  Baltazar 
Cossa  might  have  descended  to  posterity  with 
untarnished  celebrity  ;  and  even  the  apostoli- 
cal chair,  had  he  possessed  it  some  fifty  years 
later,  would  have  pardoned,  under  the  pro- 
tection of  his  warlike  enterprise,  the  pollution 
and  scandal  of  his  vices. 


NOTE    ON    THE  WHITE  PENITENTS  AND  OTHER 
ENTHUSIASTS. 

(I.)  Giovanni  Villani  (lib.  xi.  cap.  xxiii.) 
relates,  that  in  1334  one  Venturius  of  Ber- 
gamo, a  mendicant  preacher,  a  man  of  no 


*  He  is  said  to  have  exercised  in  hia  youth  the 
trade  of  a  pirate.  ..."  Dum  simplex  Clericus  ac 
in  adolescentia  constitutus  existeret,  cum  quibusdaro 
fratribus  suis  piraticam  in  mari  Neapolitano,  ut  fer- 
tur,  exercuit,  &c."  ...  To  the  habits  thus  acquired, 
is  attributed  a  peculiarity  which  followed  him  even  to 
the  Popedom,  of  devoting  the  night  to  business,  and 
the  day  to  sleep.  Theod.  of  Niem,  Vit.  Johann. 
XXIII.  His  character  is  fairly  discussed  by  Sis- 
mondi  (Rep.  Ital.  chap.  Ixii.,)  who  truly  remarks, 
that,  had  he  been  as  abandoned  as  he  is  sometimes 
described,  he  would  scarcely  have  been  tioice  raised 
to  the  pontificate  (for  he  was  really  chosen  when 
Alexander  V.  was  made  Pope,)  nor  retained  so  many 
valuable  friends  to  the  end  of  his  life.  Leonardus 
Aretinus  describes  him  to  have  been  "  Vir  in  tempo- 
ralibus  quidem  magnus;  in  spiritualibus  vero  nullus 
omnino  et  ineptus."  .  .      Rer.  Italic.  Historia. 


THE  WHITE  PENITENTS  AND  OTHER  ENTHUSIASTS. 


433 


eminence  or  family  distinction,  created  a 
strong,  though  temporary,  sensation  in  Lom- 
bardy  and  Tuscany.  The  object  of  his  preach- 
ing was  to  bring  sinners  to  repentance ;  and 
so  great  was  the  success,  and  so  visible  were 
the  fruits  of  his  eloquence,  that  more  than 
ten  thousand  Lombards,  of  whom  many  were 
of  the  higher  ranks,  set  out  to  pass  the  season 
of  Lent  at  Rome.  They  were  clad  in  the 
habit  of  St.  Domiuic  ;  they  travelled  in  troops 
of  twenty-five  or  thirty,  preceded  by  a  cross  ; 
and  their  incessant  cry  was  'Peace  and  mercy.' 
During  fifteen  successive  days,  the  time  of 
their  passage  through  Florence,  they  were 
entertained  by  tbat  enlightened  people  with 
respect  and  charity  ;  and  so  great  became  the 
renown  and  influence  of  the  preacher,  that 
they  came  to  the  knowledge  of  the  court  of 
Avignon,  and  awakened  the  jealousy  of  Pope 
Benedict.  Venturius  was  arrested,  and  sum- 
moned before  the  Inquisition  on  the  charge 
of  heresy  ;  and  though  acquitted  by  that  tri- 
bunal, he  was  still  retained  in  confinement 
by  papal  authority.  '  Such,'  says  Villain, 
'are  the  rewards  which  holy  persons  receive 
from  the  prelates  of  the  Church — unless,  in- 
deed, the  above  was  inflicted  as  a  just  chas- 
tisement upon  the  overbearing  ambition  of 
that  friar,  though  doubtless  his  intentions 
were  excellent' 

(II.)  We  read  in  Spondanus,  that  in  the 
year  1374  there  arose  in  Belgium  a  sect  of 
Dancers,  who  paraded  the  streets,  entered 
houses  and  churches  half  naked,  crowned 
with  garlands,  dancing  and  singiug,  uttering 
unknown  names,  falling  senseless  on  the 
ground,  and  exhibiting  other  marks  of  de- 
moniacal agitation.  Many  were  found  to 
imitate  them  ;  and  thus  much  (says  the  his- 
torian) appears  certain,  that  this  effect  was 
produced  through  the  visitation  of  an  evil 
spirit ;  for  they  were  healed  by  the  charms 
of  the  exorcists,  and  by  the  reading  of  St. 
John's  gospel,  or  of  the  expressions  by  which 
Christ  is  recorded  to  have  cast  out  devils,  as 
also  of  the  Apostle's  Creed.  The  same  writer 
proceeds  more  reasonably  to  attribute  their 
disease  to  the  want  of  religious  instruction. 
But  it  was  needless  to  seek  particular  causes 
for  the  appearance  of  one  of  those  distempers, 
which  have  disfigured  the  best  ages  of  the 
Church,  at  a  time  when  the  disorders  of  the 
ecclesiastical  government  were  so  generally 
felt  and  confessed ;  when  the  people  were 
beginning  to  exercise  in  so  many  quarters  a 
freedom  of  opinion,  yet  feebly  moderated  by 
reason  or  knowledge ;  and  when  religion 
was  the  subject,  to  which  the  greater  portion 
55 


of  this   irregular  independence   was  direct- 
ed. 

(III.)  We  shall,  therefore,  content  ourselves 
with  mentioning  one  other  eruption  of  en- 
thusiasm, which  was  more  violent,  indeed, 
and  more  celebrated,  than  the  last,  but  ap- 
parently even  more  transient.  In  the  year 
1399,  when  the  Christian  world  was  astound- 
ed by  the  triumphs  of  the  Turks  and  the 
Tartars  from  without,  and  shocked  by  the 
schism  and  the  vices  which  it  exposed  and 
occasioned  within,  a  body  of  devotees  de- 
scended the  Alps  into  Italy,  and  began  to 
preach  Peace  and  Repentance.  They  were 
entirely  clothed  in  white,  and  carried  crosses 
or  crucifixes,  whence  blood  appeared  to  ex- 
ude like  sweat.  They  were  headed  by  a 
priest,  a  foreigner,  whom  some  affirm  to 
have  been  a  Spaniard,  others  a  Provencal, 
others  a  Scotsman,  and  who  affirmed  himself 
to  be  Elias  the  Prophet,  recently  returned 
from  Paradise.  The  awful  announcement, 
which  he  was  commissioned  to  make,  was 
the  immediate  destruction  of  the  world  by  an 
earthquake  ;  and  his  tale  and  his  prophecy 
were  eagerly  received  by  a  generation,  edu- 
cated in  habits  of  religious  credulity.  Loni- 
bardy  was  the  scene  of  his  first  exhortations  ; 
he  traversed  its  cities  and  villages,  followed 
by  multitudes,  who  assumed  at  his  bidding 
the  cross,  the  raiment,  and  at  least  the  show 
of  repentance.  From  Lombardy  he  proceed- 
ed to  the  Ligurian  Alps,  and  entered  Genoa 
at  the  head  of  five  thousand  enthusiasts,  na- 
tives of  an  adjacent  town.  They  sang  various 
new  hymns  in  the  form  of  litanies,  and  anion" 
them  the  celebrated  Stabat  Mater  Dolorosa, 
the  reputed  composition  of  St.  Gregory  ;  they 
passed  several  days  in  that  city  preaching 
peace,  and  then  returned  to  their  homes. 
The  Genoese  caught  the  contagion,  and  trans- 
mitted it  onwards  to  Lucca  and  Pisa.  Those 
of  Lucca  immediately  proceeded,  four  thou- 
sand in  number,  to  Florence,  and,  after  being 
entertained  by  the  public  hospitality,  depart- 
ed. Then  the  Florentines  adopted  that  new 
religion  (as  ecclesiastical  writers  designate  it) 
with  equal  fervor;  and  thus  was  it  propa- 
gated from  one  end  of  Italy  to  the  other,  till 
its  course  was  at  length  arrested  by  the  sea. 

This  pious  frenzy  was  not  confined  to  the 
lower  classes,  nor  to  the  laity,  nor  even  to  the 
inferior  orders  of  the  clergy.  Prelates  and 
even  cardinals  are  recorded  to  have  followed 
if  they  did  not  guide,  the  current ;  and  the 
numerous  procession  from  Florence  was  con- 
ducted by  the  Archbishop.  And  if,  indeed, 
we  are  to  believe  the  wonderful  effects  which 


434 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


are  ascribed  to  the  preaching  of  these  fana- 
tics, we  shall  scarcely  censure  the  compliance 
which  countenanced,  or  at  least  which  toler- 
ated them.  All  who  joined  in  those  pilgrim- 
ages made  confession  and  testified  sincere 
repentance.  Every  one  pardoned  his  neigh- 
bor, and  dismissed  the  recollection  of  past 
offences ;  so  that  the  work  of  charity  was 
multiplied  with  zeal  and  emulation,  and  en- 
mities, which  no  ordinary  means  could  have 
reconciled,  were  put  asleep.  It  was  a  festiv- 
ity of  general  reconciliation.  Ambuscades, 
assassinations,  and  all  other  crimes  were  for 
the  season  suspended  ;  nor  was  any  violence 
committed  nor  any  treason  meditated,  so  long 
as  the  "  religion "  of  the  White  Penitents 
continued  in  honor.  But  this  was  not  long ; 
the  imposture  of  the  prophet  was  presently 
discovered  and  exposed,  and  within  a  very 
few  months  from  the  time  of  its  appearance, 
the  order  fell  into  disregard,  and  wholly  dis- 
appeared.* 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

Attempts  of  the  Church  at  Self- Reformation. 

General  clamor  for  Reformation — with  different  objects — 
first  appearance  of  a  Reform  party  in  the  Church — ex- 
posure of  Church  abuses  by  individual  Ecclesiastics — 
Pierre  d'Ailli  — Nicholas  Clemangis —  John  Gerson  — 
German  and  English  Reformers  —  Zabarella  —  the  real 
views  and  objects  of  those  Ecclesiastics — how  limited 
—position,  exertions,  and  disappointment  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  Pisa — good  really  effected  by  it — Council  of  Con- 
stance— language  of  Gerson — The  Committee  of  Reform 

—  its  labors  —  the  question  as  to  the  priority  of  the  Re- 
formation or  of  the  election  of  the  new  Pope — division 
of  the  Council  —  arguments  on  both  sides —  calumnies 
against  the  Germans — death  of  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury 
— Address  to  the  Emperor — defection  of  two  Cardinals 
and  of  the  English  —  final  effort  of  the  Germans  —  tri- 
umph of  the  Papal  party — and  election  of  Martin  V. — 
necessary  result  of  this — the  principles  and  motives  of 
the  Italian  clergy — The  fortieth  Session — object  of  the 
Reformers — the  Eighteen  Articles  —  remarks  —  other 
projects  of  the  Committee — respecting  the  Court  of 
Rome — their  general  character — respecting  the  secular 
Clergy  —  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  —  the  monastic  es- 
tablishments— the  real  difference  in  principle  between 
the  two  parties — first  proceedings  of  Martin  V. — fresh 
remonstrances  of  the  nations — Sigismond's  reply  to  the 
French — the  Pope  negotiates  with  the  nations  separate- 
ly—  publishes  in  the  43d  Session  his  Articles  of  Re- 
formation—  and  soon  afterwards  dissolves  the  Council 

—  the  Concordats  —  character  of  the  Pope's  Articles  — 
Annates — exertions  of  the  French — the  principle  of  the 
superiority  of  a  General  Council  to  the  Pope  established 
at  Constance — decree  for  the  periodical  convocation  of 
General  Councils — assemblies  of  Pavia  and   Sienna — 


*  The  authors  who  have  mentioned  these  enthusi- 
asts, arc  Theodoric  of  Niem,  an  eye-witness,  Poggio, 
in  his  History  of  Florence,  Sigonius,  Platina,  Mura- 
tori. 


meeting  of  the  Council  of  Basle — death  of  Martin  V. — 

crisis  of  the  Church — Accession  of  Eugenius  IV. his 

character — determines  on  opposition  to  the  Council  of 
Basle  —  the  objects  of  that  assembly  —  Cardinal  Julian 
Cesarini  —  Contest  between  the  Council  and  the  Pope 
— two  epistles  of  Cardinal  Julian  to  the  Pope — citations 
from  them,  on  the  corruption  of  the  German  clergy,  on 
the  popular  discontent,  on  the  transfer  or  prorogation 
of  the  Council,  on  the  danger  to  the  temporalities  of 
the  Church,  on  Eugenius' efforts  to  destroy  the  Council 
—  political  circumstances  interrupt  the  dispute  —  the 
Pope  sanctions  the  Council,  and  they  proceed  to  the 
reformation  of  the  Church — Substance  of  the  chief  en- 
actments on  that  subject — against  concubinage,  fees 
paid  at  Rome — on  papal  election,  &c. — some  subsequent 
canons — Industry  of  the  Pope's  party  in  the  Council — 
his  successful  negotiations  at  Constantinople — the  quar- 
rel renewed — the  Pope  assembles  the  Council  of  Ferra- 
ra  —  Secession  of  Cardinal  Julian — his  example  not 
imitated — Differences  about  the  legitimacy  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  Basle — the  Cardinal  of  Aries — the  eight  proposi- 
tions against  Eugenius  —  strong  opposition  in  favor  of 
the  Pope  —  he  is  deposed  —  Amadeus,  Duke  of  Savoy, 
(Felix  V.)  appointed  successor  —  dissolution  of  the 
Council  —  Nicholas  V.  succeeds  Eugenius,  and  Felix 
abdicates  —  Diet  of  Mayence  —  The  Council  of  Bourges 
— Pragmatic  Sanction — its  two  fundamental  principles 
— character  of  its  leading  provisions  —  its  real  perma- 
nence —  The  intended  periodical  meeting  of  General 
Councils — its  probable  effects  on  the  condition  of  the 
Church  —  Ecclesiastical  principles  of  the  Councils  of 
Constance  and  Basle  —  treatment  of  Huss  and  Jerome 
of  Prague  —  Spiritual  legislation  of  the  Council  of  Basle 
— intolerance  of  those  assemblies — Discovery  of  the  art 
of  printing. 

Though  Churchmen  are  usually  slow  to  per- 
ceive the  corruptions  of  their  own  system, 
and  unwisely  dilatory  and  apprehensive  in 
correcting  them,  still  the  abuses  of  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  Church  were  now  become  so 
flagrant — they  had  so  commonly  thrown  off 
decency  and  shame — they  were  so  wholly 
indefensible  by  reason  or  even  by  sophistry 
— and  at  the  same  time  so  oppressive  and  so 
unpopular,  that  a  cry  for  Reformation  began 
to  be  raised  by  the  acknowledged  friends,  the 
ministers,  and  even  the  dignitaries  of  the 
communion.  We  intend  no  reference  at  this 
moment  to  the  murmurs  of  those  discontented 
spirits,  who  saw  deeper  into  the  iniquities  of 
the  system,  and  aimed  their  yet  ineffectual 
resistance  at  its  root — those  faithful  messen- 
gers of  the  Gospel,  who  prepared  the  way 
for  Luther  and  Cranmer,  but  whose  warn- 
ings were  lost  upon  a  selfish  and  short-sighted 
hierarchy.  The  exertions  of  Wickliffe  and 
Huss,  the  real  reformers  of  the  Church,  will 
be  noticed  hereafter:  at  present,  we  shall 
confine  our  attention  to  the  endeavors,  by 
which  the  wiser  and  more  virtuous  among 
her  obedient  children  strove,  through  a  con- 
siderable period,  to  remove  her  most  repulsive 
deformities,  and  restore  at  least  the  semblance 
of  health  and  dignity.  We  shall  observe 
with  curiosity  and  advantage  the  particular 
evils,  to  which  the  zeal  of  those  reformers 


ATTEMPTS  AT  SELF-REFORMATION. 


435 


was  directed,  and  the  perverse  and  narrow 
and  fatal  policy  which  thwarted  it.  It  is  not 
that  any  effectual  remedies  could  have  been 
applied  by  those  hands — nor  any  perfect  ren- 
ovation of  their  Communion  accomplished 
by  men,  who  were  ignorant  of  the  actual  seat 
and  character  of  the  disease.  The  restoration 
of  an  Evangelical  Church  was  not  the  object, 
nor  could  it  have  been  the  result,  of  their  ef- 
forts ;  but  the  permanence  of  their  own  sys- 
tem was  the  matter  really  at  stake — for  it  is 
very  clear  that  the  dominion  of  Rome  would 
have  been  greatly  strengthened  by  seasonable 
self-correction  ;  and  that  an  authority,  so  deep- 
ly fixed  in  the  firmest  prejudices  of  mankind, 
might  have  been  preserved  somewhat  longer, 
had  it  been  exercised  with  more  discretion, 
and  modified  according  to  the  changing  prin- 
ciples of  the  times. 

In  our  progress  through  the  earlier  annals 
of  the  Church,  the  shadow  of  reformation  is 
continually  before  our  eyes,  and  its  name  pre- 
sents itself  in  every  page — not  only  in  the  re- 
cords of  the  monastic  establishments,  which 
could  not  otherwise  have  been  perpetuated, 
than  by  an  unceasing  process  of  regeneration, 
but  also  in  the  general  regulations  of  Popes 
and  of  Councils.  The  necessity  of  new  enact- 
ments, the  pressure  of  existing  abuses,  the 
excellence  of  the  ancient  discipline  were  ad- 
mitted in  all  ages,  and  the  admission  was 
sometimes  followed  by  salutary  legislation. 
Indeed,  it  is  unquestionable,  that  those  among 
the  chiefs  of  the  Church,  who  have  best  se- 
cured the  gratitude  of  their  own  communion, 
as  well  as  the  commemoration  of  history, 
have  deserved  that  distinction,  not  by  a  timid 
acquiescence  in  the  defects  of  the  existing 
institutions,  but  by  a  generous  endeavor  to 
correct  them  :  so  that  the  word  at  least  was 
familiar  and  respectable  in  the  eyes  of  Pre- 
lates and  of  Popes,  and  the  principle  might 
be  avowed,  under  certain  restrictions,  with- 
out any  suspicion,  or  even  insinuation,  of 
heresy. 

General  Complaints  against  the  abuses  of  the 
Church. — The  first  occasion,  however,  on 
which  the  advocates  of  reform  can  be  said 
to  have  appeared  as  a  party  in  the  Church, 
was  the  first  assembly  for  the  extinction  of 
the  schism.  Among  the  Fathers  of  Pisa  a 
powerful  spirit  of  independence  prevailed, 
and  the  circumstances  of  the  preceding  cen- 
tury had  given  it  a  direction  and  an  object. 
There  are,  indeed,  many  earlier  instances  of 
the  boldness  of  ecclesiastics  in  individually 
denouncing  the  imperfections  of  the  Church, 
and  in  synodically  legislating  for  their  remo- 


val ;  but  it  was  not  till  the  secession  to  Avig- 
non had  lowered  the  majesty  of  Rome  and 
impaired  the  resources  of  her  Pontiffs ;  it 
was  not  till  the  division  which  followed  had 
filled  the  world  with  proofs  of  their  weakness 
and  baseness,  of  their  necessities,  their  vices, 
and  their  extortions  —  that  a  principle  very 
hostile  to  papal  despotism  established  itself, 
not  only  among  princes  and  enlightened  lay- 
men,  but  even  among  the  Prelates  of  the 
Catholic  Church.  Indeed,  when  we  observe 
the  language  iu  which  certain  eminent  eccle- 
siastical writers,  during  the  conclusion  of  the 
14th  and  the  beginning  of  the  following  cen- 
tury, have  exposed  and  stigmatized  ecclesi- 
astical disorders,  our  wonder  will  rather  be, 
that  the  system,  which  they  so  boldly  de- 
nounced, did  not  sink  beneath  the  burden  of 
its  own  sinfulness,  than  that  persons,  who 
were  interested  in  its  preservation  should 
have  combined  to  amend  and  restore  it. 
Among  these  were  men  of  the  noblest  char- 
acter and  most  extended  learning  ;  men  of  all 
nations,  and,  during  the  schism,  of  all  obe- 
diences ;  at  the  same  time,  they  were  persons 
attached  to  Popery  and  patronized  by  Popes. 
Among  the  French,  Pierre  d'Ailli,  Cardinal 
of  Cambrai,  was  a  moderate,  but  earnest,  ad- 
vocate for  reform  ;  in  his  treatise  *  on  that 
subject,  written  about  1410,  he  censured  with 
great  severity  the  luxurious  insolence  of  his 
own  order ;  and  it  was  he  who  has  retailed 
a  proverb  current  in  those  days,  'that  the 
Church  had  arrived  at  such  a  condition,  as  to 
deserve  to  be  governed  only  by  the  repro- 
bate.' f  Nicholas  of  Clemangis,  a  native  of 
Champagne,  who  had  been  secretary  to  Ben- 
edict XIII.,  in  an  address  to  the  Council  of 
Constauce,  ascribed  the  schism  and  desolation 
of  the  Church  to  the  frightful  ungodliness  of 
its  pastors.  'The  earliest  ministers  of  the 
Gospel  were  devout,  humble,  charitable,  lib- 
eral, disinterested,  and  they  despised  the  good 
things  of  this  world.  But  as  riches  increas- 
ed, piety  diminished  ;  luxury,  ambition,  and 


*  '  De  difficultate  Reformationis  in  Concilio  Uni- 
versali.'  It  was  addressed  to  Gerson,  in  reply  to 
the  Treatise  of  the  latter  on  the  same  subject.  His 
more  celebrated  work  was  that  '  De  Ecclesiastica 
Potestate,'  in  which  he  gave  his  views  of  the  origin 
of  ecclesiastical,  as  well  as  of  papal  power,  and  of 
their  relation  to  each  other.  It  iray  be  found  in  the 
6th  volume  of  Von  der  Hard'  He  was  born  in 
Picardy  in  1350,  and  buth  Gerson  and  Clemangia 
were  his  pupils.     Bayle,  Vie  de  Pierre  d'Ailly. 

t  *  Adeo  ut  jam  horrendum  quorundam  proverbium 
sit,  ad  hunc  statum  venisse  Ecclesiam,  ut  non  sit 
digna  regi  nisi  per  reprobos."  The  passage  is  cited 
by  Lenfant,  Hist.  Cone.  Const.,  1.  vii.  g,  1. 


436 


HISTORY   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


insolence  took  the  place  of  religion,  humility, 
and  charity  :  poverty  became  a  disgrace,  and 
economy  a  vice  ;  avarice  came  to  the  aid  and 
support  of  ambition  ;  and  the  property  of  ec- 
clesiastics being  no  longer  sufficient  for  their 
desires,  it  grew  into  practice  to  seize  that  of 
others,  to  pillage,  assault,  and  oppress  the  in- 
feriors, and  to  plunder  every  one  under  every 
pretext.'  Such  being  the  substance  of  his 
general  *  censures,  he  did  not  hesitate  more 
particularly  to  ascribe  the  first  rank  in  vice 
and  scandal  to  the  Popes.  '  When  they  saw, 
that  the  revenues  of  Rome  and  the  patrimo- 
ny of  St.  Peter  were  inadequate  to  their  de- 
signs of  aggrandizement,  it  became  necessary 
to  discover  new  resources  for  the  support  of 
that  project  of  universal  monarchy.  And 
nothing  could  be  conceived  more  lucrative, 
than  to  deprive  metropolitans,  bishops,  and 
other  ordinaries,  of  the  right  of  election  to 
benefices,  and  to  reserve  the  nomination  and 
collation  to  themselves  :  and  these  they  never 
conferred,  except  for  large  sums  of  rnone}' ; 
which  they  often  obtained  in  advance,  by 
granting  expectative  graces  to  all  sorts  of  per- 
sons indiscriminately,  or  at  least  without  any 
distinction  in  regard  to  capacity  or  morals.' 
Such  was,  in  truth,  the  origin  of  the  Apostol- 
ic Chamber  ;  and  the  mysteries  of  that  fiscal 
inquisition  had,  no  doubt,  been  intimately 
revealed  to  the  secretary  of  Benedict  XIII. 
The  last  whom  we  shall  mention,  and  the 


*  Not  that  his  censures  were  confined  to  the  ava- 
rice and  rapacity  of  the  clergy;  a  considerable  share 
of  them  is  directed  to  their  incontinence — for  instance, 
"  Quid  illud,  obsecro,  quale  est!  quod  plerisquc  in 
Diocesibus  rectores  parochiarum  ex  certo  etconducto 
cum  suis  Pralatis  pretio  passim  et  publice  Concu- 
binas  tenenl'?  Quod  subditorum  excessus  et  vitia, 
omniaque  officia,  quae  judiciis  praeesse  sunt  solita, 
publice  venundanf?  Sed  adhuc  levia  hsec  sunt." 
Nor  was  he  more  merciful  to  the  canons  and  monks; 
he  was  even  particularly  severe  on  the  insolence  and 
vanity  of  the  latter,  whom  he  considered  as  the  Pha- 
risees of  their  age.  Respecting  the  abominations  com- 
mitted in  the  nunneries,  his  expressions  are  strong 
and  exaggerated.  '  Nam  quid,  obsecro,  aliud  sunt  hoc 
tempore  puellarum  monasteria,  nisi  quaedam,  BOB  dico 
Dei  sanctuaria,  sed  Veneris  execranda  prostibula, 
sed  lascivorum  et  impudicorum  Juvenum  ad  libidines 
explendas  receptacula.  Ut  idem  hodie  sit  puellam 
velarc,  quod  ad  publice  scortandum  exponere.' 
(Nicol.  de  Clemangiis,  de  Ruina  Ecclesiae.  cap. 
xxxvi.  Apud  Von  der  Hardt,  torn.  i.  Cone.  Con- 
stan.)  Gerson,  also,  in  his  sermon  at  Rheims,  used 
these  words:  '  Et  utinam  nulla sint  Monasteria  mulie- 
rum,  qua;  facta  sunt  prostibula  meretricum,  et  prohi- 
beat.  adhuc  deteriora  Deus.'  Ser.  factus  in  Concil. 
Remensi.  Op.  Gers.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  625.  Edit.  Paris. 
See  Lerifb.pl,  Cone.  Const.,  1.  vii.,  c.  13. 


greatest  among  the  reformers  of  France,  was 
the  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Paris, 
John  Gerson.  In  a  sermon  delivered  before 
the  Council  of  Rheims  in  1408,  that  eloquent 
Doctor  exposed  the  vices  of  the  clergy,  with 
the  same  freedom  which  he  afterwards  *  em- 
ployed at  Constance  in  defining  the  legitimate 
limits  of  Papal  authority.  From  the  expo- 
sure of  the  evil  he  proceeded  to  investigate 
its  origin  ;  and  as  the  general  degeneracy  of 
every  rank  in  the  priesthood  was  commonly 
traced  by  the  writers  of  that  age  to  the  licen- 
tiousness of  the  Roman  Court,  so  any  effort 
to  purify  the  descending  stream  was  reason- 
ably directed  to  its  supposed  source. 

If  the  most  distinguished  among  the  re- 
forming party  were  natives  of  France,  the 
Germans  engaged  in  greater  numbers,  and 
with  greater  consistency,  hi  the  same  project. 
They  appear,  moreover,  to  have  been  the 
earliest  in  the  field;  for  we  observe,  that 
Henry  de  Langenstein,  of  Hesse,  a  German, 
published  in  1381  a  vigorous  treatise  on  '  the 
Union  and  Reformation  of  the  Church.' f 
The  five  last  chapters  of  his  work  were  em- 
ployed in  depicting  the  universal  profligacy 
of  the  clergy.  After  denouncing  the  simo- 
nies and  other  iniquities  of  the  Popes,  the 
Cardinals,  and  Prelates,  he  descended  to  ex- 
pose the  concubinage  of  the  priests  and  the 
debaucheries  of  the  monks ;  he  represented 
the  cathedrals  as  no  better  than  dens  of  rob- 
bers, and  the  monasteries  as  taverns  and 
brothels.f  From  England  the  voice  of  re- 
monstrance proceeded  with  not  less  energy. 
'The  Golden  Mirror  of  the  Pope,  his  Court, 
the  Prelates,  and  the  rest  of  the  Clergy,'§ 
was  composed  during  the  pontificate  of  Bo- 
niface IX.,  the  most  triumphant  era  of  schism 

*  In  1410  he  addressed  to  Pierre  d'A  illy  his  treat- 
ise '  De  Modis  Uniendi  et  Reformandi  Ecclesiam  in 
Concilio  Universali.'  His  more  celebrated  work, 
'  De  Simonia  abolenda  Constantiensis  Concilii  Ope,' 
was  written  during  the  Council.  Both  may  be  found 
in  Von  der  Hardt,  torn.  i. 

■f-  'Consilium  Pacis  de  Unione  ac  Reformatione 
Ecclesise  in  Concilio  Universali  quaerenda.'  It  oc- 
cupies sixty  columns  in  the  beginning  of  Von  der 
Hardt's  second  volume. 

%  This  reformer  seems  also  to  have  looked  some- 
what more  deeply  into  the  question ;  for  he  beheld 
with  dissatisfaction  the  great  multitude  of  images, 
which  he  held  to  be  so  many  incentives  to  idolatry; 
and  he  was  offended  by  the  multiplication  of  festivals, 
and  the  frivolous  nature  of  the  controversies  which 
divided  the  Church. 

§  '  Aureum  Speculum  Papa?,  ejus  Curias,  Praelato- 
rum,  aliorumque  Spiritualium.'  The  work  gained 
great  celebrity  on  the  ContiBent. 


ATTEMPTS  AT  SELF-REFORMATIOX. 


437 


and  simony ;  and  the  Treatise  of  Richard 
Ullerstou,  an  Oxford  Doctor,  is  said  to  have 
guided  the  views  of  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury, 
who  effectually  served  the  cause  by  his  per- 
sonal zeal,  both  at  Pisa  and  Constance.  The 
Italians,  as  they  were  the  only  people  who 
profited  by  pontifical  corruption,  so  were  they 
more  commonly  found  to  defend  and  uphold 
it.  But  even  among  them  were  a  few  splen- 
did exceptions  ;  Pileus,*  Archbishop  of  Ge- 
noa, and  Zabarella,t  Cardinal  of  Florence, 
acknowledged  and  deplored  the  general  un- 
worthiness  of  the  order  to  which  they  be- 
longed. Lastly,  even  the  Spaniards  them- 
selves, the  perverse  adherents  of  Benedict 
XIII.,  vented  at  Constance,  in  some  satirical 
compositions,  the  indignation,  which  it  was 
not  yet  politic  to  express  openly. 

We  have  thus  seen  how  generally  J  it  was 
admitted  at  that  period,  even  by  the  friends 
and  ministers  of  the  Church,  that  great  abuses 
existed  therein,  that  they  demanded  imme- 
diate and  effectual  correction,  and  that  such 
could  only  be  administered  by  removing  the 
cause  of  the  evil.  Let  us  examine  then, 
for  one  moment,  the  view  which  they  took 


*  See  his  Ingenua  Paranesis  ad  Sigisraund. 
Irnper.  De  Reformatione  EcclesitB  in  Cone.  Const, 
prosequenda,  apud  Von  der  Hardt,  torn,  i.,  part  15. 

t  There  still  exists  a  long  and  elaborate  Treatise, 
published  by  Zabarella,  •  De  Schismate  Innocentii 
et  Benedicti  Pontificis,'  either  before  the  meeting  of 
the  Council  of  Pisa,  or  during  its  earliest  delibera- 
tions. 

%  In  the  *  History  of  the  Council  of  Constance,' 
by  Theodoric  Vrie,  written  at  the  time  and  dedicated 
to  Sigismond,  the  Church  herself  is  made  to  speak 
the  following  lines,  more  remarkable  for  the  bold 
truths  which  they  contain,  than  for  delicacy  of  ex- 
pression, or  metrical  correctness.  (Lib.  i.  Metrum 
Secundum.) 
Heu  Simon  regnat;    per  munera  quaeque    reguntur, 

Judiciumque  pium  gaza  nefanda  vetat. 
Curia  Papalis  fovet  omnia  scandala  mundi, 

Delubra  sacra  facit  perfiditate  forum. 
Ordo  sacer,  baptisma  sacrum  cum  Chrismate  Sancto 

Venduntur,  turpi  conditione  foro. 
Dives  honoralur,  pauper  contemnitur,  atque 

Qui  dare  plura  valet  munera  gratus  erat. 
Aurea  quae  quondam  fuit,  hinc  argentea  Papae 

Curia  procedit  deteriore  modo. 
Ferrea  dehinc  facta,  dura  cervice  quievit 

Tempore  non  modico;  sed  modo  facta  lutum. 
Postque  lutum  quid  deterius  solet  esse"?     Recoidor — 

Stercus.  Et  in  tali  Curia  tola  sedet. 
Semler,  in  Cap.  ii.  Secul.  xv.,  «  De  Publico  Ecclesia; 
Statu,'  enumerates  a  great  multitude  of  compositions 
produced  by  the  discontented  spirits  of  the  14th  and 
15th  centuries.  Several  are  given  at  length  by  Her- 
man Von  der  Hardt,  Hist.  Concil.  Constant. 


of  their  own  imperfections.  .  .  .  We 
may  observe  that  the  lamentations  and  cen- 
sures, so  abundantly  poured  forth  by  those 
writers,  were  confined  almost  wholly  to  one 
subject — the  degeneracy  and  corruption  of 
the  clergy.  This,  indeed,  was  acknowledged 
to  extend  to  the  lowest  rank  from  the  very 
highest — this  was  admitted  to  comprise  every 
form  of  sin  and  degradation — but  this,  accord- 
ing to  their  notions,  was  the  limit  of  the  evil. 
Under  this  one  head  was  comprehended  (or 
very  nearly  so)  the  sum  and  substance  of  the 
ecclesiastical  derangement.  The  purity  of 
the  system  was  seldom  or  never  questioned  ; 
the  perfect  integrity  and  infallible  wisdom  of 
the  Church,  and  the  divine  obligation  to  be- 
lieve and  obey,  without  thought  or  question, 
all  that  it  had  enjoined  or  should  enjoin,  in 
practice,  or  precept,  or  ceremony,  or  disci- 
pline, was  as  strongly  inculcated  by  the  most 
eminent  reformers,  as  by  the  most  perverse 
upholders  of  the  avowed  abuses  ;  only,  it  was 
maintained  by  the  former,  that  the  men,  who 
administered  this  heaven-descended  system, 
were  sunk  in  a  depravity  from  which  it  was 
necessary  to  raise  them,  and  that  no  measures 
could  effect  this  benefit,  which  did  not  first 
provide  for  the  re-organization  of  the  highest 
ranks.  After  all,  it  was  but  the  surface  of 
the  subject  which  they  surveyed  ;  and  thus 
the  remedies  proposed  could  not  be  other 
than  ineffectual. 

At  the  same  time  it  must  be  admitted,  that 
those  remedies  were  properly  adapted  to  the 
end  which  they  were  intended  to  attain.  The 
demoralization  of  the  inferior  clergy  was  un- 
doubtedly occasioned,  in  a  very  great  mea- 
sure, by  the  non-residence,  the  avarice,  and 
the  venality  of  their  more  elevated  brethren  ; 
and  these  views  were  communicated  almost 
necessarily  by  the  contagion  of  the  Court  of 
Rome.  And  since  it  was  become  the  prac- 
tice of  that  Court  to  attract  all  aspiring  eccle- 
siastics by  the  undisguised  sale  of  the  most 
honorable  dignities,  its  malignant  influence 
spread  like  a  pestilence  through  the  Church. 
Those,  therefore,  who  maintained  that  no 
reform  could  have  any  effect  unless  it  com- 
menced at  the  head,  and  whose  first  endeavors 
were  turned  to  extirpate  the  scandals  of  the 
Vatican,  pursued  their  own  views  with  bold- 
ness and  sagacity,  and  aimed  well  to  uproot 
the  evil  which  they  saw — only,  their  views 
were  too  narrow,  and  the  evil  lay  deeper  than 
they  were  able  to  discover,  or  than  they  dared 
to  avow. 

Tlie  Council  of  Pisa.  —  One  professed  ob- 
ject of  the  Council  of  Pisa  was  '  to  reform 


438 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


the  Church  in  its  head  and  in  its  members  ; ' 
and  many  of  the  fathers  there  assembled  were 
earnest  in  that  intention.  We  have  seen,  in- 
deed, to  what  insufficient  limits  their  project 
was  confined  :  still  was  it  no  inconsiderable 
design  in  that  age,  nor  unworthy  of  a  bold 
and  generous  character,  especially  in  minis- 
ters and  prelates  of  the  Roman  Church,  to 
repress  the  licentiousness,  and  to  moderate 
the  power,  of  the  successor  of  St.  Peter.  The 
boldness  of  the  enterprise  may  be  measured 
by  its  difficulty ;  for,  if  it  was  little  that  the 
reformers  attempted,  it  was  much  more  than 
they  had  the  means  of  accomplishing.  The 
moment,  however,  was  exceedingly  favora- 
ble ;  and  when,  after  the  deposition  of  the 
two  pretenders,  the  See  was  vacant,  and  the 
election  about  to  be  made  under  the  very 
eyes  of  the  Council,  an  oath  was  imposed 
upon  the  Cardinals,  that  he  among  them  who 
should  be  raised  to  the  Pontificate,  should  not 
dissolve  the  Council,  until  after  the  reforma- 
tion of  the  Church  had  been  completed.  The 
choice  of  the  College,  directed  by  the  coun- 
sels of  Baltazar  Cossa,  fell  upon  Alexander  V. 
Gerson  presently  preached  before  him,  and 
did  not  omit  to  press  die  paramount  duty  of 
correcting  many  abuses.  A  great  number  of 
the  fathers  held  the  same  expectation.  But 
Alexander,  v/ho  was  a  Greek  and  a  Pope, 
had  no  design  to  diminish  his  own  profitable 
privileges,  nor  any  scruple  in  evading  his 
solemn  obligation.  In  the  22d  and  23d 
Sessions  he  published  certain  declarations, 
that  out  of  regard  for  the  necessities  of  the 
Churches,  he  remitted  all  arrears  due  to  the 
Apostolical  Chamber ;  that  he  resigned  hence- 
forward his  claim  on  the  property  of  deceased 
Prelates,  and  the  revenues  of  vacant  bish- 
oprics ;  that  he  would  make  no  more  trans- 
fers of  benefices,  without  previously  hearing 
the  parties  concerned  ;  and  that  provincial 
councils  should  be  more  frequently  assembled 
for  the  salutary  regulation  of  the  Church. 
The  consideration  of  any  extensive  plan  of 
reform  he  thought  expedient  to  defer,  until 
the  next  general  Council ;  but  this  was  to  be 
assembled  in  three  years. 

With  these  unsubstantial  concessions — and 
even  from  these  there  was  one  dissentient 
Cardinal, — the  Prelates  of  Pisa  were  dismiss- 
ed ;  and  if  they  returned  to  their  several  Sees 
with  the  consciousness,  that  they  had  not 
fully  accomplished  any  one  of  the  objects  for 
which  they  were  convoked,  yet  were  they 
not  without  consolation,  nor  were  their  labors 
without  fruit.  They  had  not,  indeed,  healed 
the  divisions  of  the  Church ;  they  had  not 


restrained  the  abuses  of  papal  power ;  they 
had  not  checked  the  profligacy  of  the  Cardi- 
uals  ;  they  had  not  imposed  any  limit  on  the 
spreading  domination  of  simony.  Neverthe- 
less, they  had  fulfilled  an  important  destiny 
in  the  declining  history  of  their  Church  ;  they 
had  proclaimed  the  supremacy  of  a  general 
Council,  and  deposed  the  two  disputants  who 
divided  the  papacy ;  they  had  freely  censured 
the  vices  of  the  Apostolical  See,  and  had  de- 
manded its  reformation  ;  they  had  secured  the 
early  convocation  of  another  Council  for  the 
remedy  of  their  grievances ;  and  lastly,  and 
most  especially,  they  had  opposed  to  pontifi- 
cal despotism  that  independent  constitutional 
spirit,  which  was  the  safeguard  of  the  ancient 
Church  ;  and  which  spreading  from  Pisa  to 
Constance,  from  Constance  to  Basle,  and 
striking  deeply,  though  latently,  during  the 
times  of  iniquity  which  succeeded,  at  length 
achieved,  under  happier  auspices  and  in  a 
bolder  spirit,  its  great  and  effectual  triumph. 

The  Council  of  Constance. — A  much  more 
numerous  congregation  of  prelates  and  ec- 
clesiastics of  every  rank,  of  ambassadors,  of 
doctors  of  law,  and  other  distinguished  lay- 
men, constituted  the  august  assembly  of  Con- 
stance. The  place  was  favorable  to  the  hopes 
of  reform  ;  for  the  German  soil  was  more 
auspicious  to  that  cause  than  the  irreligious 
and  interested  cities  of  Italy.  Accordingly, 
we  observe  that  its  necessity  was  more  loudly 
proclaimed,  and  its  principles  defined  with 
greater  boldness  and  exactitude.  Gerson  once 
more  led  the  assault  against  papal  delinquen- 
cy. He  attacked  the  Decretals,  the  Clemen- 
tines, and  most  of  the  constitutions  of  the 
Popes ;  he  overthrew  many  of  the  preten- 
sions thence  derived,  and  he  exposed,  in  a 
strain  now  familiar  to  his  audience,  their  si- 
mony, their  avarice,  and  anti-Christian  usur- 
pations.* '  All  the  bulls  of  John  begin  with 
a  falsehood  ;  for,  if  he  was  truly  the  servant 
of  the  servants  of  God,  he  would  employ 
himself  in  rendering  service  to  the  faithful, 
and  assisting  the  poor,  who  are  the  members 


*  '  Non  Christi,  sed  mores  gerunt  Antichristi ;  ' 
and  again,  '  Non  iegimus  Christum  illi  conlulisse 
potestatem  beneficia,  dignitates,  episcopatus,  villas, 
terras  dispensandi  aut  distribuendi,  sed  nee  unquam 
Iegimus  Petrum  hsec  fecisse.  Sed  solum  banc  potes- 
tatem  ei  tribuit  specialem,  scriptam  Matt,  xvi., 
quam  etiam  minimomundi  episcopo  concessit.'  Such 
expressions  might  be  flattering  to  the  dignity  of  the 
surrounding  prelates.  But  he  was  an  injudicious 
friend  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  who  appealed 
to  the  Bible  as  the  test  of  its  purity.  John  Huss,had 
he  been  present  at  this  discourse,  might  have  pressed 
that  argument  somewhat  farther. 


ATTEMPTS  AT  SELF-REFORiMATION. 


439 


of  Christ  Jesus.  But  so  far  is  he  from  call- 
ing the  poor  about  him,  or  persons  distin- 
guished for  their  learning  or  their  virtue,  that 
he  surrounds  himself  with  lords,  and  tyrants, 
and  soldiers.  Let  him,  then,  rather  assume 
the  title  of  Lord  of  Lords  ;  since  he  dares  to 
boast,  that  he  possesses  the  same  power  which 
Christ  possessed  in  his  divine  and  human 
nature.*  It  was  well,  indeed,  for  Gregory 
the  Great  to  call  himself  the  Servant  of  the 
Servants  of  God.  He  nourished  the  poor, 
and  was  poor  himself;  he  conferred  benefices 
only  on  men  of  virtue  and  capacity  ;  he 
preached  the  Gospel  himself  to  his  clergy 
and  his  people  ;  he  composed  works  to  con- 
firm believers  in  their  faith  ;  he  held  a  rein 
over  the  luxury  of  the  Roman  people,  and 
rescued  them  by  his  prayer  to  God  from  a 
pernicious  pestilence.'  .  .  .  Accustomed 
to  the  bitterness  of  such  taunts,  the  Pope  and 
his  luxurious  court  may  have  been  insensible 
to  their  shamefulness,  or  even  questioned 
their  justice ;  but,  among  the  mitred  multi- 

*  '  Quia  praesumit  dicere  esse  tantam  suam  potes- 
tatem,  quantam  Christus  habuit,  secundum  quod  Deus 
et  secundum  quod  homo.'  Opera  Gersoni,  Apud 
Lenfant,  Hist.  Cone.  Const.  1.  vii.  s.  xiv.  The  same 
doctor,  in  his  sermon,  '  De  Signis  Ruinae  Ecclesiae,' 
mentions  eight  such  indications:  (1.)  Rebellio  et 
inobedientia;  (2.)  Inverecundia ;  (3.)  Iinmoderata 
inaequalitas,  qua  alius  et  saepe  dignior  esurit;  alius 
et  frequenter  indignior  pne  multitudine  et  magm'tu- 
dine  beneficiorum  ebrius  est;  (4.)  Fastus  et  superbia 
praelatorum  et  aliorum  ecclesiasticorum — tantus  fastus 
in  Dei  Ecclesia,  praecipue  in  temporibus  istis,  non 
tam  multos  movet  ad  reverentiam  quam  multos  ad 
indignationem;  et  plures  invitat  ad  praedam,  qui  se 
reputarent  fortasse  Deo  sacrificium  offerre,  si  possent 
quosdam  divites  ecclesiasticos  spoliare;  (5.)  Signum 
sumitur  ex  tyrannide  praesidentium — tales  sunt  pasto- 
res  qui  non  pascunt  gregem  Domini  sed  semetipsos ; 
(6.)  Conturbatio  principum  et  commotio  populorum; 
(7.)  Recusatio  corrections  in  principibus  ecclesiae  ; 
(8.)  Novitas  opinionum.  Moderno  quidem  tempore 
unusquisque  interpretari  et  trahere  non  veretur  sacram 
scripturam,  jura,  sanctorumque  patrum  instituta  ad 
libitum  suae  voluntatis,  prout   amor,  odium,  invidia, 

spes  promotionis,  ant  vindicta  eum  inclinat 

Praeter  haec  sunt  alia  signa,  videlicet  recessus  justitiae, 
distinct io  studiorum,  praelatio  puerorum,  et  ignoran- 
tium  et  pravorum,  et  hac  erit  destructio  Latinorum. 
Plura  alia  sunt  descripta  in  Prophetis  de  dejectione 
sacerdotalis  honoris,  ex  quibus  et  praedictis,  sapiens 
potest  concludere  ruinam  temporalium  de  propinquo 
iinminere.  A  mullis  annis  non  fuerunt  tot  malevoli, 
tanti  corde  rebelles  et  animoaccensi  contra  ecclesiam 
eicut  his  diebus.  Quos  in  longum  compesccre  nequa- 
quam  valebimus,  nisi  signis  virtu  turn  manifestis  ad 
benevolentiam  eos  inclinaverimus.'  Gersoni  Opera, 
vol.  i.  p.  199,  Ed.  Paris,  1606.  This  sermon  was 
preached  before  the  Council  of  Constance. 


tudes  who  were  present,  some  were  doubtless 
awakened  by  the  eloquence  of  Gerson  to  a 
better  sense  of  their  faith,  their  duties,  and 
their  obedience. 

The  College  of  Reform. — The  Council  had 
not  been  many  months  in  existence  before  it 
entered  seriously  into  this  department  of  its 
duties;  and  a  Committee  of  Reform  (College 
Reformatoire)  was  appointed  to  examine  into 
particular  abuses,  and  prepare  a  general  pro- 
ject for  the  approbation  of  the  whole  assem- 
bly. This  College,  named  on  the  15th  of 
June,  1415,  was  composed  of  nineteen  per- 
sons, viz.  four  deputies  from  each  of  the  four 
nations,  and  three  Cardinals.  The  deputies 
were  chosen  indifferently  from  bishops,  doc- 
tors in  theology,  and  doctors  in  law.  There 
had  been  some  previous  contest,  whether  or 
not  the  Cardinals  should  be  at  all  admitted 
as  members  of  this  body  ;  since  it  was  now 
well  understood  by  all  parties,  that  the  ques- 
tion of  a  general  reform  practically  resolved 
itself  into  a  reform  of  the  Court  of  Rome : 
not  only  because  any  other  measures  would 
have  been  wholly  useless,  unless  attended  by 
that,  but  also  because  the  whole  opposition 
to  the  removal  of  abuses  proceeded  from  that 
quarter.  Of  the  three  interested  parties  who 
were  at  length  admitted  into  the  committee, 
Pierre  d'Ailli,  the  Cardinal  of  Cambrai,  was 
one. 

The  College  appears  to  have  held  its  first 
deliberations  on  the  20th  of  August;  and  the 
subject  to  which  they  were  directed  was  the 
translation  of  bishops.  Other  important  mat- 
ters were  discussed  by  it  during  the  autumn 
following ;  but  whether  it  was  paralyzed  by 
the  pontifical  intrigues,  or  whether  some  of 
its  members  were  deficient  in  zeal,  its  exer- 
tions did  not  keep  pace  with  the  eagerness  of 
the  reformers  without.  The  German  '  Nation ' 
published,  about  the  end  of  the  year,  a  re- 
monstrance against  the  tediousness  of  its  pro- 
ceedings; the  pulpits  of  Constance  resounded 
with  expressions  of  exhortation  and  reproof; 
and  elegies,  and  squibs,  and  satires  were  cir- 
culated to  the  same  effect  in  the  social,  and 
even  in  the  public,  meetings  of  the  fathers. 

Divisions,  ending  in  the  election  of  Martin 
V. — The  labors  of  the  committee  were  con- 
tinued through  the  whole  of  141G  till  late  in 
the  succeeding  year;  and  by  that  time,  as  we 
shall  see  presently,  they  had  produced  many 
wise  and  salutary  resolutions.  But  in  the 
course  of  1417  a  new  subject,  of  controversy 
arose,  which  deeply  affected  the  success  of 
those  measures.  As  soon  as  the  See,  through 
the  cession  or  deposition  of  its  three  claimants. 


440 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


was  declared  vacant,  a  very  important  ques-  ] 
tion  was  moved— whether  it  were  not  wise 
to  defer  the  new  election,  until  after  the  work 
of  reformation  should  have  heen  accomplish- 
ed.   Whatever  was  honest  and  intelligent  and 
dispassionate  in  the  party  of  the  reformers 
maintained  the  necessity  of  that  expedient. 
They  knew  the  ambitious  and  selfish  spirit  of 
papacy ;  they  knew  how  the  elevation  to  the 
apostolical  chair  could  blight  the  best  prin- 
ciples, and  contract  the  noblest  heart;  they 
knew  that  disinterested  integrity  in  that  situ- 
ation was  beyond  the  magnanimity  of  man. 
They  determined  not  to  create  with  their 
own  hands  a  destroyer  of  their  own  works. 
The  nations,  which  took  this  side  in  the  dis- 
pute, were  the  Germans  and  the  English,  and 
they  were  supported  with  the  utmost  sincerity 
and  firmness  by  the  Emperor.     The  Car- 
dinals  conducted   the    opposite    party  with 
equal  constancy  and  greater  craft :  they  were 
warmly  supported  by  the  Italians ;  the  Span- 
iards, who  on  the  deposition  of  Luna  had 
been  admitted  to  the  deliberations,  were  on 
the  same  side ;  and  even  the  French,  hitherto 
the  most  enlightened  advocates  of  reform,  * 
for  the  most  part,  threw  themselves  into  the 
ranks  of  its  opponents.     The  contest  con- 
tinued during  the  whole  summer — numerous 
harangues  were  delivered,  and  much  violence 
and  much  sophistry  was  wasted  on  both  sides. 
On  the  one  hand,  the  universal  deformity  and 
prostitution  of  the  Church  were  exhibited  and 
exaggerated  in  the  most  furious  invectives ; 
on  the  other,  it  was  argued  that  the  Church 
without  the  Pope  was  a  headless  trunk,  which 
was  indeed  the  most  frightful  of  all  deformi- 
ties ;  and  that  it  became,  in  consequence,  the 
first  duty  of  every  reformer  to  supply  that 
deficiency  (such  was  the  nonsense  seriously 
propounded  by  the  friends  of  corruption)  and 
thus  restore  the  spiritual  body  to  its  integrity. 
This  was  indeed  the  last  ground  of  hope 
which  remained  to  the  cardinals ;  and  it  was 
really  firm  and  tenable,  because  the  majority 
of  the  nations  had  declared  in  their  favor. 
They  contested  it  with  every  weapon,  and 
with  the  uncompromising,  unscrupulous  ac- 
tivity of  men,  whose  personal  interests  were 
concerned  in  the  result.     On  one  occasion 
they  presented  a  memorial  to  Sigismond,  in 
which  they  urged,  on  the  plea  of  their  ma- 
jority, their  right  to  proceed  to  immediate 
election  :   at  the  same  time  they  affected  to 
repel,  with  some  loftiness,  the  imperial  inter- 

*  This  sudden  change  is  ascribed  to  their  national 
jealousy  of  the  English,  the  victors  of  Agincourt, 


ference  in  matters  strictly  ecclesiastical.  On 
another,  they  published  an  offensive  libel  up- 
on the  Germans,  in  which  they  accused  that 
nation  of  a  disposition  to  favor  the  opinions 
of  the  Hussites  —  to  defer  the  election  of  a 
Pope,  in  order  to  reform,  without  his  co- 
operation, his  office  and  his  court,  savored 
strongly  (so  the  cardinals  argued)  of  the  anti- 
papal  perversion  of  those  heretics!  The 
stigma  of  heresy — a  weapon  which  the  de- 
fenders of  ecclesiastical  abuses  have  managed 
with  great  address  in  every  age  of  the  Church 
—  exasperated  those  honest  and  orthodox 
Christians,  and  they  repelled  it  with  great, 
and  (as  they  thought)  virtuous  indignation. 
About  the  same  time  Robert  Hallam,  Bishop 
of  Salisbury,  died.  He  was  among  the  stout- 
est of  the  Reformers  of  Constance,  and  had 
exercised  very  considerable  influence,  not 
only  over  the  councils  of  his  compatriots,  but 
over  the  mind  of  the  Emperor  himself.  * 

On  the  9th  of  September,  five  days  after 
his  decease,  an  assembly  was  held  on  the 
same  subject ;  and  the  result  Avas  a  remon- 
strance, in  the  name  of  the  cardinals,  to  Sigis- 
mond, on  the  extreme  danger  impending  over 
the  Church  from  any  delay  in  the  election  of 
a  Pope.  It  is  remarkable,  that  the  language 
of  this  document  expressed  a  sense  of  the 
necessity  of  reform,  and  great  readiness  to 
undertake  it ;  but  it  was  urged,  that  the  ques- 
tion ought  to  be  deferred,  until  a  head  had 
been  given  to  the  Church.  But  the  Emperor 
rose  ere  the  Address  was  finished,  and  indig- 
nantly quitted  the  Assembly.  Howbeit,  the 
cardinals  persisted,  without  any  fear  or  com- 
promise ;  two  days  afterwards,  a  second  f 
memorial,  more  explicit  and  decided  than 
the  former,  was  presented  and  read ;  and  so 
firm  was  the  attitude  of  that  party,  that  the 
only  two  members  of  the  sacred  college,  who 
had  hitherto  supported  the  opposite  opinions, 
now  joined  their  colleagues.  A  still  more 
important  defection  immediately  followed 
this;  the  English  also  passed  over  to  the 
papal  party. 

From  the  moment  that  the  decision  of  the 
majority  of  the  Council  was  contravened  by 
Sigismond,  it  was  very  easy  to  persuade  even 
the  most  honest  reformers,  that  the  dignity 
and  authority  of  the  whole  assembly  was  at 
stake,  and  that  it  was  the  duty  of  all  parties 
to  combine,  in  order  to  repel  the  presumptu- 


*  Von  der  Hardt  calls  him  Cajsar's  fidus  Achates. 

|  They  may  both  be  found  in  the  first  volume  of 
Von  der  Hardt'sHist.  Cons.  Constat.  Praefat.  in  part 
xx,  p.  916  et  seq. 


ATTEMPTS  AT  SELF-REFORMATION. 


441 


ous  interference  of  the  Emperor — and  many 
were  probably  influenced  in  their  change  by 
that  motive.  But  the  Germans  still  maintain- 
ed their  former  resolution  ;  and  though  many 
of  them  also  may  have  been  guided  by  con- 
siderations (of  nationality,  or  loyalty)  foreign 
to  the  original  question  of  reform,  a  fresh 
memorial,  which  they  immediately  presented 
to  tbe  Council,  pressed  very  forcibly  the  real 
argument  on  which  the  contest  now  turned. 
In  this  paper  they  maintained,  with  groat 
boldness  and  reason,  'that the  General  Coun- 
cil stood  in  the  place  of  the  Church  and  com- 
pletely represented  it ;  that  the  schism  had 
arisen  from  the  general  corruption  of  that 
body,  and  that  such  corruption  could  only  be 
remedied  during  the  vacancy  of  the  See  ;  that 
if  a  Pope  were  once  elected — however  virtu- 
ous and  upright  the  individual  exalted  might 
be,  however  proved  and  old  in  integrity  and 
piety — he  would  speedily  be  stained  by  the 
vices  which  infected  the  Chair,  and  debased 
the  ecclesiastics  surrounding  it  ;  that  he 
would  grope  in  the  darkness  and  solitude  of 
his  own  honesty,  till  his  private  excellence 
would  give  way  before  the  overwhelming 
depravities  of  a  system,  which  no  man  could 
possibly  administer,  and  be  virtuous, — while, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  substantial  reform,  pre- 
viously effected,  would  shelter  him  from  the 
pressure  of  unjust  and  wicked  solicitations.' 
The  wisdom  and  truth  contained  in  these 
positions  inflamed  still  further  the  perversity 
of  the  cardinals ;  and  what  they  could  not 
hope  to  effect  by  reason,  or  even  by  menace, 
they  prepared  to  accomplish  by  more  certain 
means.  Among  the  German  prelates  there 
were  two,  who  possessed,  more  completely 
than  their  brethren,  the  confidence  both  of 
the  Emperor  and  the  'Nation'  —  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Riga  and  the  Bishop  of  Coire. 
Each  of  these  respectable  persons  had  private 
reasons  (which  were  not  concealed  from  the 
cardinals)  for  being  discontented  with  his 
own  See.  A  negotiation  was  opened.  To 
the  former  they  promised  the  bishopric  of 
Liege,  which  he  coveted;  to  the  latter,  the 
archbishopric  of  Riga — both  were  converted. 
Their  compatriots  followed  them;  and  the 
tumults,  which  had  shaken  the  Council  for 
so  many  months,  were  appeased  by  the  trans- 
lation of  two  venal  prelates.  * 

The  Emperor,  thus  deserted  by  the  entire 
Church,  still  offered  an  ineffectual  show  of 
resistance  ;  and  at  length,  to  throw  at  least 
some  dignity  over  his  defeat,  he  stipulated  as 


*  Von  der  Hardt,  torn.  iv.  p.  1426. 
5G 


I  the  conditions  of  his  consent,  that  the  Pope 
should  enter,  without  any  delay,  even  before 
his  coronation,  upon  the  work  of  reform  ; 
that  he  should  conduct  it  in  concert  with  the 
Council ;  and  that  he  should  not  depart  from 
Constance,  until  his  task  was  accomplished. 
The  cardinals,  with  their  coadjutors,*  soon 
afterwards  assembled  in  conclave,  and  on  the 
11th  of  November  following,  Martin  V.,  an 
Italian  and  a  Roman,  was  raised  to  the  pon- 
tifical throne. 

The  historian  cannot  fail  to  perceive,  what 
was  indeed  obvious  at  the  time  to  the  most 
intelligent  men  of  both  parties,  that  the  battle 
of  reform  had  in  fact  been  fought  on  other 
ground,  and  that  the  field,  for  which  so  many 
efforts  had  been  made,  and  were  still  to  be 
made,  was  already  lost.  Some  nominal  im- 
provements might  yet,  perhaps,  be  extorted 
from  the  reluctant  pontiff — some  trifling  abu- 
ses he  might  be  brought  to  sacrifice,  in  order 
to  save  and  perpetuate  the  rest — with  some 
unmeaning  shadow  he  might  consent  to  amuse 
and  delude  the  world — but  the  hope  of  any 
substantial  measure  of  renovation  was  gone. 
Notwithstanding  the  strong  sense  of  the 
Church's  degradation  and  danger,  with  which 
so  many  of  the  fathers  were  deeply  penetrat- 
ed—  notwithstanding  the  security  and  even 
applause,  with  which  their  complaints  and 
invectives  were  uttered  and  heard — notwith- 
standing the  learning,  the  virtue,  and  the 
powerful  talents  which  were  united  in  the 
same  cause, — it  was  no  difficult  matter  for  a 
small  body  of  very  crafty  ecclesiastical  poli- 
ticians, closely  bound  together  by  common 
and  personal  interests,  and  wholly  unscrupu- 
lous as  to  means,  to  neutralize  the  exertions 
of  a  much  more  numerous  party,  which, 
though  earnestly  bent  on  one  general  purpose, 
might  be  divided  as  to  a  thousand  particulars. 
For  a  space  of  nearly  three  years  numberless 
causes  of  discord,  personal,  professional,  na- 
tional, might  spring  up,  while  the  watchful 
cardinals  were  ever  at  hand  to  encourage  and 
mature  them.  Every  change  of  circumstance 
presented  a  new  field  of  action  ;  and  in  so 
harassing  and  protracted  a  contest,  superior 
discipline,  and  a  keener  sense  of  interest, 
might  finally  supplant  or  wear  away  the  ad- 
verse majority. 

The  Italian  Clergy. — Moreover,  the  College 
could  always  count,  with  perfect  confidence, 
on  the  zeal  and  fidelity  of  its  Italian  allies. 
The  whole  multitude  of  the  Transalpine 
clergy  conspired,  with  scarcely  an  individual 


*  See  the  preceding  chapter,  page  4?7 


442 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


exception,  in  opposition  to  reform.  Yet  this 
combination  did  not,  probably,  arise,  either 
because  they  were  very  rich,  or  very  power- 
ful, or  very  generally  demoralized.  In  riches, 
the  bishops  and  abbots  of  Italy  could  bear  no 
comparison  with  the  lordly  hierarchy  of  Ger- 
many or  England ;  partly,  because  their  dis- 
proportionate numbers  diminished  the  share 
of  each  in  the  common  fund,  and  partly,  be- 
cause the  private  devotion  of  ancient  days 
had  there  been  less  munificent  than  among 
the  younger  and  ruder  proselytes  of  the  north. 
In  poiver,  and  popular  influence,  they  were 
precluded  from  any  extravagant  progress  by 
the  wider  diffusion  of  intelligence,  and  the 
free  and  daring  spirit  of  the  prevalent  repub- 
licanism. In  truth,  among  the  Italian  people, 
the  last  sparks  of  religious  fervor  were  at  this 
time  nearly  extinct ;  and  whatever  attachment 
they  still  retained  for  their  Church  was  with- 
out enthusiasm,  and  not  uncommonly  without 
faith.  The  venerable  family  of  Saints,  once 
so  fruitful  in  every  province,  was  now  rarely 
and  languidly  propagated.  The  din  of  po- 
lemical controversy,  the  surest  indication  of 
theological  zeal,  was  seldom  heard  ;  and  even 
heresy  itself,  which  was  building  its  inde- 
structible temples  in  the  north  and  west  of 
Europe,  gave  little  occupation  or  solicitude  to 
the  Churchmen  of  Italy.  Many  of  the  causes 
which  tend  generally  to  swell  sacerdotal  au- 
thority (we  are  not  now  speaking  of  the  pe- 
culiar dominion  of  the  Pope)  had  ceased  to 
operate  in  that  country.  In  morality,  the  Ital- 
ian clergy  were  upon  the  whole  less  dissolute 
than  those  to  the  North  of  the  Alps  ;  and  for 
that  reason  they  were  less  deeply  impressed 
with  the  necessity  of  reform.  To  this  praise 
the  Court  of  Rome  did,  indeed,  present  an 
infamous  exception.  But  the  pontifical  pal- 
ace may  seem  to  have  attracted  to  its  own 
precincts  most  of  the  noxious  vapors,  which 
else  would  have  spread  more  general  infec- 
tion ;  and  the  prelates  of  Italy  found  their 
profit  in  the  very  vices  of  Rome.  Besides, 
they  had  been  so  long  habituated  to  consider 
the  authority  of  that  See  as  national  property, 
and  shared  with  such  selfish  exultation  the 
glory  of  its  foreign  triumphs  and  the  sense 
of  its  imposing  majesty,  that  they  rallied  round 
it  with  ardor,  on  the  first  rumor  of  hostility. 
They  saw  that  some  of  its  dearest  prerogatives 
were  threatened — they  saw  that  some  of  its 
most  profitable  usurpations  were  assailed: 
but  they  did  not  see  the  frienoliness  of  the 
design — they  did  not  perceive  that  an  increase 
of  vigor  and  stability  would  assuredly  follow 


the  immediate  sacrifice:  —  they  snatched  at 
the  short-sighted  policy  of  the  moment,  and, 
by  defending  the  abuses  of  their  Church,  en- 
sured its  downfal. 

Scheme  of  Reformation.  —  On  the  30th  of 
October,  in  the  interval  between  the  triumph 
of  the  cardinals  and  the  election  of  the  Pope, 
the  fortieth,  one  of  the  most  important  ses- 
sions of  the  Council,  took  place.  Then  was 
made  a  very  seasonable  effort,  on  the  part  of 
the  reformers,  to  impose  some  specific  obli- 
gation upon  the  future  Pope  ;  and  on  this  oc- 
casion the  scheme,  which  the  Committee  of 
Reform  had  been  so  long  engaged  in  prepar- 
ing, was  formally  approved,  and  recommend- 
ed to  the  immediate  adoption  of  the  pontiff 
and  Council — for  the  majority  were  still  sin- 
cere in  their  intentions,  though  they  had  blind- 
ly cast  away  the  means  of  effecting  them. 
To  do  justice  to  this  subject,  we  must  shortly 
mention  the  heads  of  this  project ;  since  it 
may  be  considered  as  embracing  the  utmost 
extent  of  change  which  it  was  thought  expe- 
dient, or  found  possible,  under  any  circum- 
stances to  introduce.  The  Articles,  to  which 
the  future  reformation  was  to  be  directed, 
were  eighteen: — (1)  The  number,  the  quali- 
ty, and  the  nation  of  the  cardinals ;  (2)  The 
Reservations  of  the  Holy  See  ;  (3)  Annates  ; 
(4)  Collations  of  benefices  and  expectative 
graces  ;  (5)  What  causes  ought  to  be  treated 
in  the  Court  of  Rome ;  (6)  Appeals  to  the 
same  Court ;  (7)  The  offices  of  the  Chancery 
and  Penitentiary;  (8)  Exemptions  granted, 
and  unions  made,  during  the  schism ;  (9) 
Commendams  ;  (10)  The  confirmation  of  elec- 
tions ;  (11)  Intermediates,  i.  e.  revenues  dur- 
ing vacancy ;  (12)  Alienation  of  the  property 
of  the  Roman  and  other  Churches  ;  (13)  In 
what  cases  a  Pope  may  be  corrected  and  de- 
posed, and  by  what  means ;  (14)  The  extir 
pation  of  Simony ;  (15)  Dispensations;  (16) 
Provision  for  the  Pope  and  the  Cardinals ; 
(17)  Indulgences;  (18)  Tenths.  To  these  it 
should  be  added,  that,  in  the  session  preced- 
ing, a  Decree  had  passed  to  regulate,  and  se- 
cure, as  far  as  possible,  the  periodical  meeting 
of  General  Councils. 

In  the  resolutions,  which  the  Committee 
published  respecting  the  above  Articles,  a  sort 
of  principle  is  discernible,  of  throwing  aside 
the  new  canon  law,  and  reviving  in  its  place 
the  more  discreet  and  venerable  institutions 
of  more  ancient  days.  Thus  they  resolved, 
that  the  Popes  should  judge  no  important 
cause  without  the  counsel  of  his  Cardinals— 
and  even,  in  some  instances,  without  the  ap 


ATTEMPTS  AT  SELF-REFORMATION. 


443 


probation  of  a  General  Council.  And  again, 
that  there  were  certain  cases  in  which  a  Pope 
might  be  judged  and  deposed  —  decisions 
wholly  at  variance  with  the  canons  of  the 
Vatican,  which  committed  to  the  Pope  alone 
all  judgment  of  major  causes,  and  gave  au- 
thority to  Bulls,  originating  with  himself; 
and  which  also  laid  it  down,  that  a  Pope 
could  not  be  judged  or  deposed  on  any  other 
charge,  than  that  of  heresy. 

Regarding  the  Pope. — The  Committee  of 
Reform  also  prohibited  the  Popes  from  reserv- 
ing *  the  spoils  of  the  bishops,  the  revenues 
of  vacant  benefices,  and  the  procurations,  or 
provisions  made  for  bishops  during  their  visi- 
tations. It  imposed  some  restraint  on  plu- 
ralities and  dispensations.  The  Pope  was 
forbidden  to  permit  the  same  person  to  hold 
more  than  one  bishopric  or  abbey  at  the  same 
time,  unless  with  the  consent  of  the  sacred 
college,  and  for  important  reasons — though 
even  this  restriction  appears  to  have  been 
liable  to  exceptions,  in  countries  especially 
where  the  benefices  were  poor.f  Another 
resolution  enforced  the  residence  of  the  high- 
er clergy,  on  pain  of  deprivation  in  case  of 
six  mouths  of  absence,  unless  with  special 
permission  from  the  Pope.  Another  forbade 
the  Pope  to  impose  tenths  on  his  clergy, 
without  the  consent  of  a  General  Council. 
Another  revoked,  with  some  trifling  excep- 
tions, all  the  exemptions  which  had  been 
granted  during  the  schism.  The  abuse  of 
exemptions  had,  indeed,  proceeded  so  far  as 
to  awaken  the  conscience  even  of  the  Pope 
himself,  who  subsequently  ratified  this  Ar- 
ticle. 

The  popes  had  usurped  the  power  of  trans- 


*  On  the  subject  of  reservations,  Lenfant  remarks, 
that  Mental  Reservations  of  benefices  were  not  yet 
introduced.  These  differed  from  othere  in  that  they 
were  not  published.  If  a  benefice  was  vacant,  and 
either  the  ordinary  had  conferred  it,  or  any  one  went 
to  Rome  to  obtain  it,  the  datary  would  answer,  that 
the  Pope  had  made  a  mental  reservation  to  present  it 
to  whom  he  thought  proper, 

t  In  Apulia,  for  example,  and  in  some  parts  of 
Spain,  the  reformers  allowed  the  Pope  to  give  dis- 
pensation for  four  benefices.  In  England,  on  the 
other  hand,  they  would  not  permit  it,  on  any  account, 
to  be  granted  for  more  than  two.  Clemangis  asserts 
(De  Corrupto  Ecclesia?  Statu,  cap.  xi.)  '  that  there 
were  at  that  time  ecclesiastics  who  held  as  many  as 
five  hundred  ample  benefices.'  And  the  same  writer 
further  affirms,  '  that  the  monks  of  his  day  were  at  the 
same  time  monks,  canons,  regular,  secular;  that,  un- 
der the  same  habit,  they  possessed  the  rights,  offices, 
and  benefices  of  all  orders  and  of  all  professions.' 
Lenf.  Hist,  Cone.  Const.,  1.  vii.  s.  xxxii. 


lating  from  see  to  see,  without  consulting 
the  inclination  of  the  prelates  affected  by  the 
change.  These  forcible  translations  were  pro- 
hibited by  the  committee  ;  but  it  does  not  ap- 
pear that  Martin  V.  consented  even  to  so  slight 
an  encroachment  upon  his  despotism.  It  had 
also  been  a  custom,  probably  established  by 
Innocent  III.,  for  the  Popes  to  reserve  to  the 
Holy  See  the  power  of  giving  absolution  for 
certain  offences  (called  reserved  cases,)  which 
were  thought  to  be  placed  above  episcopal 
cognizance.  The  pretext  for  this  innovation 
was,  to  invest  those  crimes  with  additional 
terrors,  and  to  repel  men  from  their  commis- 
sion by  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  absolution. 
The  common  effect  was  this;  that  many, 
unable  or  indisposed  to  undertake  so  long  a 
pilgrimage,  disregarded  entirely  both  confes- 
sion and  penance  ;  while  others,  whose  easiei 
circumstances  permitted  the  journey,  poured 
forth  their  penitential  gold  with  great  profu- 
sion into  the  apostolical  coffers.  This  subject 
was  for  some  time  debated  in  the  committee  ; 
but  it  was  at  length  unanimously  decided, 
that  the  established  usage  should  remain. 

The  Court  of  Rome. — As  those,  here  men- 
tioned, composed  the  most  important  restric- 
tions, which  it  was  designed  to  impose  upon 
the  Pope's  authority,  so  the  meditated  reform 
of  his  cardinals  and  his  court  would  have  in- 
troduced changes  still  less  considerable.  Four 
resolutions  were  passed  respecting  the  num- 
ber of  the  sacred  college,  and  the  qualifica- 
tions necessary  for  admission  ;  as  also,  that 
every  new  nomination  should  receive  the 
approbation  of  the  majority  of  the  college. 
Others  were  enacted  for  the  better  administra- 
tion of  the  apostolical  chancery  and  chamber, 
respecting  proton otaries  and  participants  ;  the 
auditors,  or  judges  dclla  rota  (the  parliament 
of  the  Pope  ;)  scriptors  of  the  penitentiary  ; 
abbreviators  of  Bulls  ;  clerks  of  the  chamber ; 
correctors  of  the  apostolical  letters  ;  auditores 
conlradictariorum,  and  auditors  of  the  cham- 
ber ;  acoluthes,  subdeacons,  chaplains,  refer- 
endaries', penitentiaries,  and  registrars — not 
for  the  abolition  of  any  of  those  offices,*  or 
of  others  which  might  have  been  added  to 
the  list,  but  only  for  their  more  judicious  re- 
gulation. •  Thus  Xve  observe,  that  it  did  not 
then  enter  into  the  views  of  any  party  to  di- 
minish the  state  and  dignity  of  the  see,  nor  to 
curtail  any  of  the  consequence  which  it  might 


*  The  only  office,  as  far  as. we  can  observe,  which 
the  reformers  abolished,  was  the  *  Auditorship  of  the 
Chamber  of  Avignon,'  which,  since  the  return  of  the 
Popes  to  Rome,  had  become  an  obvious  sinecure. 


444 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


derive  from  those  circumstances;  but  that 
the  Reformers  of  those  days  would  have  been 
well  satisfied  in  that  matter,  had  the  Pope 
consented  to  part  with  the  most  obvious  and 
superficial  abuses. 

The  Secular  Clergy. — The  resolutions  of 
the  committee  respecting  the  secular  clergy, 
■while  they  proclaimed  the  general  corruption, 
were  more  especially   levelled  against  two 
crimes,  the  same  which,  from  the  days  of 
Gregory  VII.,  had  been   the  constant   mark 
for  the  shafts  of  Reform — simony  and  concu- 
binage.    The  enactments  which  were  made, 
particularly  against  the  former  of  these  offen- 
ces, were  reasonable  and  salutary.    But  there 
could  be  little  prospect  of  their  execution,  so 
long  as  the  court  of  Rome  was  left  in  posses- 
sion of  so  much  pomp  and  splendor,  without 
any  fixed  and  sufficient  funds  for  its  support. 
Even  had  it  been  possible  by  a  single  act  of 
the  council,  at  once  to  extirpate  simony  from 
the  Church,  Rome  was  the  hot-bed  where  it 
would  of  necessity  have  sprung  up  again,  and 
thence  spread   its  pestiferous  branches  over 
the  whole  surface  of  Christendom.     Other 
ecclesiastical  abuses  were  likewise  assailed. 
It  had  frequently  happened,*   to   the   great 
scandal   of  the    people,   that    bishops    held 
sees,  and  incumbents  parishes,  without  hav- 
ing taken   priest's  orders.     The  College  of 
Reform  had  already  regulated,  that  the  pope 
should  grant  no  dispensation  to  bishops,  on 
this  point,  for  longer  than  one  year :  it  ex- 
tended the  same  limit  to  the  inferior  clergy. 
Another,  and  very  important  task  it  also  un- 
dertook,— to   draw  the   limits   which   were 
hereafter  to  divide  civil  from   ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction,  and  to  specify  the  causes  which 
appertained  to  either.     The   want   of  some 
definite  arrangement  on  this  subject  had,  for 
some  time,  disturbed   the  course  of  justice, 
and  led  to  perpetual  broils  between  the  clergy 
and  the  laity.    Nevertheless,  as  it  was  through 
that  very  indistinctness,  that  the  former  had 
been  enabled  to  push  their  claims  so  far,  it 
might  be    uncertain   whether    its    removal, 
though  finally  advantageous  to  both  parties, 
would  be  very  popular  among  them.    Several 
useful  regulations  were  likewise  devised  for 
the  purification  of  the  various  religious  bodies, 
and  especially  of  the  Mendicants.     It  seems, 
indeed,  to  have  been  generally  admitted  by 
the  leading  reformers,  that  in  the  universal 
degeneracy  of  the  Church,  the  most  conspicu- 
ous instances  of  profligacy  and  profaneness 
were  exhibited   by  the  monastic  establish- 
ments.  

*  Lenfant,  Hist.  Cone.  Const.,  liv.  vii.,  s.  46. 


Such  are  the  outlines  of  the  project  *  by 
which  the  reformers  of  Constance  proposed 
to  restrain  the  abuses  of  papacy,  and  to  re- 
store, correct,  and   consolidate   the  Catholic 
Church.     And  here  we  should  again  remark, 
that  the  authors  of  that  project  were  them- 
selves zealous,  and  even  bigoted  churchmen. 
Respecting  the  divine  authority,  the  power, 
the  infallibility  \  of  the  Church,  they  profess- 
ed opinions  as  lofty,  as  the  loftiest  notions  of 
their  adversaries.     Still  the  space  which  di- 
vided the  two  parties  was  broad  and  clear 
and  it  was  included  in  one  question — In  what 
does  this  infallible  Church  consist  ?  In  what 
is  it  fully  and  faithfully  represented  ?  Does  a 
council-general,   without  the   Pope,  possess 
the   mighty   attributes   in    question?      Or  a 
council-general  with  the  Pope  ?  or  the  Pope 
without  a  council-general  ?  The  last  opinion, 
the  extreme  of  high  papacy,  bad  not  perhaps 
very  many  advocates ;  at  least  the  second 
was   that  on   which  the   Italians   took  their 
stand,  as  being  the  more   tenable ;   the  first 
was  the  rallying  principle  of  the  reformers, 
who  may  be  designated  the  low  papists.     It 
cannot  be  too  carefully  impressed,  that  the 
mighty  struggles  at  Constance  respected,  in 
as  far  as  principles  were  concerned,  not  the 
character  of  the  Church,  on  which  all  were 
agreed,  but   the   extent  to  which   the   Pope 
possessed  the  attributes  of  the  Church.     And 
this  distinction  being  rightly  understood,  we 
shall  find  no  difficulty  in  accounting — when 
we  shall  arrive  at  that  subject — for  the  seem- 
ing inconsistency,  with  which  the  council  of 
Constance  deposed  a  legitimate  Pope  with  one 
hand,  while  it  consigned  the  heretics,  Huss  and 
Jerome,  to  barbarous  execution  with  the  other. 
The  Reformation  eluded  by  Martin  V. — We 
have  observed,  that  at  the  Fortieth  Session 
eighteen  articles,  which  were  the  heads  of 
the  resolutions  of  the  committee,  were  sub- 
mitted, by  the  approbation  of  the  council,  to 
the  future   Pope,   and  that  Martin   V.  was 
elected  a  few  days  afterwards.    Again,  on  the 
very  day  following  his   coronation,  the   na- 
tions assembled  and  pressed  the  observance 


*  The  above  account  is  founded  on  four  authentic 
documents  published  by  M.  Von  der  Hardt,  from  the 
MSS.  of  the  library  of  Vienna,  and  recognised  by 
Lenfant  as  "  containing  all  the  resolutions  of  the 
committee  of  reform."  —  Hist.  Cone.  Constan.,  liv. 
vii.,  s.  xxvii.  See  Von  der  Hardt,  torn,  i.,  partes 
x.  xi.  xii.  Collegii  Reformatorum  Constant, 
statuta,  sive  Geminum  Reformatorii  Constant.  Pro- 
tocollum,  &c.  &c. 

f  It  is  only  necessary  to  refer  to  the  writings  o, 
leading  reformers,  Gerson,  Pierre  d'Ailli,  &c.,  and 
the  acts  of  the  councils  both  of  Constance  and  Basle 


ATTEMPTS  AT  SELF-REFORMATION. 


445 


of  his  obligation.  The  Pope  appears  to  have 
promised  with  great  facility ;  but  at  the  same 
time  he  appointed  six  cardinals  to  co-operate 
with  the  deputies  of  the  nations  in  revis- 
ing their  former  labors.  Divisions  presently 
arose ;  the  cardinals  were  indefatigable  in 
creating  difficulties ;  so  that  the  patience  of 
the  Germans  being  once  more  wearied,  they 
addressed  ( about  the  end  of  1417 )  a  fresh 
memorial  to  the  new  committee.  The  sub- 
jects urged  on  this  occasion  principally  re- 
garded reservations,  appointment  to  bene- 
fices, expectative  graces,  and  other  papal 
usurpations,  and  abuses  of  the  Church  pa- 
tronage. Very  soon  afterwards,  the  French 
remonstrated  with  equal  warmth  against  the 
procrastinations  of  the  committee,  and  even 
presented  a  petition  to  Sigismond,  in  which 
they  exhorted  him  to  employ  his  powerful 
influence  with  the  Pope.  But  Sigismond 
had  not  forgotten  then-  late  opposition,  nor 
was  he  unmindful  of  the  fatal  wound,  which 
they  had  inflicted  on  the  cause.  He  dismissed 
their  deputies  without  honor ;  and  while  he 
bade  them  reflect,  how  steadily  they  had 
thwarted  his  wish  to  accomplish  the  reforma- 
tion he/ore  the  Pope  should  be  elected,  he 
recommended  them,  now  that  they  had  ob- 
tained their  Pope,  to  apply  to  him  for  their 
reform.  At  the  same  time,  the  Spaniards 
raised  a  clamor  against  simony  and  other 
abuses,  and  went  so  far  as  to  throw  out  some 
menaces  against  the  Pontiff'  himself;  indeed 
some  of  them  were  suspected  of  still  harbor- 
ing a  secret  attachment  towards  their  per- 
verse compatriot,  the  Pope  of  Paniscola. 
Martin  was  somewhat  moved  by  this  show 
of  unanimity;  and  thinking  to  gam  better 
terms  by  dividing  his  adversaries,  he  con- 
trived to  open  a  separate  negotiation  with 
each  nation,  on  the  plea  that  he  could  thus 
more  intimately  consult  their  several  interests. 
The  scheme  succeeded ;  and  as  all  parties 
were  wearied  alike  with  dispute  and  delay, 
matters  were  now  hurried  to  a  conclusion. 
On  the  21st  of  March,  1418,  the  Pope,  no 
longer  disguising  his  eagerness  to  dissolve 
the  council,  held  the  43d  session,  and  publish- 
ed his  own  articles  of  reformation ;  and  they 
should  be  recorded  for  their  very  insignifi- 
cance. The  first  revoked  (  with  a  large  field 
for  exceptions )  such  exemptions  as  had  been 
granted  during  the  schism ;  the  second  com- 
manded a  fresh  examination  of  such  unions 
of  benefices  as  had  taken  place  during  the 
same  period.  The  third  prohibited  the  ap- 
propriation of  the  revenues  of  vacant  benefi- 
ces to  the  apostolical  chamber.     The  fourth 


was  a  general  edict  against  simony.  The 
fifth  respected  papal  dispensations  to  hold 
benefices  without  being  in  orders.  The 
sixth  forbade  the  imposition  of  tenths  and 
other  taxes  on  ecclesiastics,  unless  for  some 
great  advantage  to  the  Church,  and  with  the 
consent  of  the  cardinals  and  local  prelates. 
The  seventh  regulated  the  dress  of  ecclesias- 
tics, according  to  the  modesty  of  the  ancient 
laws ;  and  the  last,  and  the  most  shameless 
of  all,  declared  that,  by  the  above  articles, 
and  by  the  concordats  granted  to  the  nations, 
the  Pope  had  satisfied  the  demands  of  the 
Committee  of  reform,  as  expressed  in  the 
fortieth  session  of  the  council,  and  discharg- 
ed his  own  obligations. 

Dissolution  of  the  Council. — The  Concor- 
dats were  as  delusive  as  the  articles;*  and 
Martin,  conscious  of  this,  had  not  yet  made 
them  public ;  but  continued  to  press  the 
immediate  dissolution  of  the  council.  It 
was  in  vain  objected,  that  many  matters  of 
great  importance  still  remained  unsettled :  it 
was  replied,  that  the  patrimony  of  the  Holy 
See  was  in  the  hands  of  depredators ;  that 
Rome  itself  was  exposed  to  the  scourges  of 
famine  and  pestilence,  of  foreign  and  intestine 
war;  that  it  was  the  paramount  duty  of  him, 
whom  the  whole  world  now  acknowledged 
as  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  to  place  himself 
on  the  throne  of  the  apostle.  Accordingly, 
on  the  22d  of  April,  the  council  assembled 
for  the  forty-fifth  and  last  session ;  and  the 
Bull  which  released  the  fathers  from  their 
unsuccessful  labors,  showered  upon  them 
and  their  domestics  a  profusion  of  indulgen- 
ces, as  if  to  complete,  by  an  additional  mock- 
ery, the  insult  with  which  their  hopes  had 
been   destroyed.f     On   the  2d   of  May    the 


*  That  granted  to  the  Germans  contained  twelve 
articles,  which  are  enumerated  by  Sender,  Secul.  xv., 
cap.  ii.,  p.  38.  Since  they  did  not  go  to  the  effectual 
removal  of  any  grand  abuse,  it  is  unnecessary  to  cito 
them  here. 

t  As  this  memorable  Bull  happens  to  be  short,  it 
will  be  well  to  record  it.  '  We  Martin,  Bishop,  ser- 
vant of  the  servants  of  God,  ad  perpetiiam  rei  memo- 
riam,  by  the  requisition  of  the  holy  council,  do  hereby 
dismiss  and  declare  it  terminated,  giving  to  every  one 
liberty  to  return  home.  Besides,  by  the  authority  of 
God  the  omnipotent,  and  of  his  blessed  apostles,  St. 
Peter  and  St.  Paul,  and  by  our  own,  we  accord  to 
all  the  members  of  the  council  plenary  absolution 
from  all  their  sins,  "  seuiel  in  vita;  "  so  that  each 
among  them  maj  obtain  this  absolution  in  form,  with- 
in two  months  after  the  gift  shall  be  made  known  to 
him.  We  also  give  them  the  same  privilege  in  arti- 
culo  mortis;  and  we  extend  it  to  servants  as  well  as 
their  masters,  on  condition  that,  after  the  day  of  no- 
tification, both  the  one  and  the  other  shall  fast  every 


446 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


concordats  were  published ;  and  that  which 
was  granted  to  the  French  was  immediately 
rejected  by  them,  as  contrary  to  the  liberties 
of  the  Gallican  Church.  Hut  the  object  of 
Martin  was  already  accomplished  ;  the  Coun- 
cil of  Constance  had  ceased  to  exist;  and  in 
defiance  of  the  urgent  remonstrances  of  the 
emperor,  the  pontiff  turned  his  footsteps 
towards  Italy.  He  turned  towards  the  soil, 
where  papacy  was  national  and  indigenous, 
and  where,  amidst  all  the  turbulence  of  con- 
tending cities  and  factions,  the  spiritual  des- 
potism of  the  Vicar  of  Christ  had  never  yet 
been  contested. 

Disputes  on  Annates.  —  We  should  here 
observe  that,  while  very  lofty  language  was 
employed  at  Constance  on  both  sides  respect- 
ing the  principle  on  which  the  government 
of  the  Church  rested ;  while  some  maintained 
that  it  was  a  pure  monarchy,  others  that  it 
was  a  monarchy  tempered  by  a  mixture  of 
the  aristocratical  and  even  republican  char- 
acter; other  disputes  were  less  publicly, 
though  not  less  passionately,  agitated  between 
those  parties,  respecting  much  more  vulgar 
considerations.  The  reader  cannot  fail  to 
have  remarked,  that  of  the  concessions  made 
by  Martin,  those  which  were  not  absolutely 
nugatory  regarded  the  temporalities  cf  the 
Church,  and  the  power  of  the  Pope  to  levy 
contributions  upon  the  clergy.  The  reform- 
ing prelates  had  pressed  these  from  the 
beginning  among  other  grievances ;  but  it 
proved  at  last,  that  the  subject,  on  which 
those  pecuniary  discussions  had  chiefly  turn- 
ed, was  entirely  unnoticed  in  the  Pope's 
decree.  The  exaction  of  Annates,  or  the 
first  year's  income  of  vacant  benefices,  seems 
to  have  been  that,  among  all  the  resources 
of  the  apostolical  chancery,  which  was  most 
profitable  to  the  receivers,  and  most  unpop- 
ular among  all  other  ecclesiastics.  The  claim 
was  of  a  very  modern  date ;  it  could  not 
be  traced  higher  than  Clement  V. ;  and  it 


Friday  during  one  year,  for  the  absolution  for  life, 
and  another  year  for  the  absolution  in  articulo  mortis  ; 
unless  there  be  some  legitimate  hinderance,  in  which 
case  they  shall  perform  other  pious  works.  And  after 
the  second  year,  they  shall  be  held  to  fast  every  Fri- 
day during  life,  or  to  do  other  works  of  piety,  on 
pain  of  incurring  the  indignation  of  the  omnipotent 
God,  and  of  his  blessed  apostles  St.  Peter  and  St. 
Paul.'  Such  were  the  consolations  which  were  offer- 
ed to  the  most  enlightened  body  which  had  ever  yet 
assembled  in  the  name  of  the  Church,  in  return  for 
their  disappointed  expectations,  by  the  very  man 
whom  they  had  raised  to  power,  and  whose  first  use 
of  it  was  to  beU'ay  them.  They  demanded  a  substan- 
tial reform,  and  he  paid  the  debt  in  indulgences. 


scarcely  assumed  the  shape  of  a  right  till  tne 
pontificate  of  Boniface  IX.  The  French 
'  nation '  urged  the  abolition  of  this  tax  with 
especial  zeal  from  the  very  opening  of  the 
council ;  and  the  ambassador  of  Charles  VI. 
was  instructed  at  all  events  to  carry  this 
measure.  The  fathers,  in  a  general  assem 
bly,  even  passed  a  resolution  to  that  effect , 
but  the  cardinals  still  exclaimed  and  remon- 
strated, and  protested ;  and,  as  their  last 
resource,  they  ventured  to  appeal  from  the 
council  to  the  future  Pope.  The  French 
replied  to  this  appeal  with  much  spirit  and 
reason  ;*  and  had  the  reformation  preceded 
the  election,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
imposition  would  have  been  removed.  But 
the  cardinals  finally  prevailed,  and  the  odious 
exaction,  under  some  slight  and  indefinite 
restrictions,  was  re-established. 

But  though  the  reforming  party,  which 
really  constituted  the  great  majority  of  the 
Council,  was  finally  defrauded  of  all  the 
substance  of  its  project,  and  dismissed  with 
a  very  thin  veil  to  cover  its  defeat,  yet  the 
recollection  of  one  great  triumph  might 
supply  substantial  ground  of  consolation. 
The  superiority  of  a  General  Council  to  the 
Pope  was  unequivocally  decreed  at  Constance. 
The  prelates  of  Pisa  had  done  little  more 
than  overthrow  two  claimants  to  the  See, 
neither  of  whom  was  universally  acknow- 
ledged, or  rightfully  established.  But  the 
legitimacy  of  John  XXIII.  was  never  ques- 
tioned even  by  his  bitterest  enemies ;  and 
Martin,  whose  succession  to  the  dignity  was 
only  legal  through  the  legality  of  the  previous 
deposition  and  of  the  power  exercised  by  the 
deposing  Council,  was  the  least  qualified  of 
all  men  to  discredit  either  the  act  or  the 
authority ;  so  that,  whatsoever  struggles  and 
protestations  may  afterwards  have  been  made 
by  individual  Popes,  the  general  principle 
was  immutably  established  in  the  Church.f 

Decree  for  the  decennial  meeting  of  General 
Councils.  —  The  fathers  of  Constance  also 
carried  home  with  them  another  source  of 


*  The  substance  of  the  paper  is  given  by  the  Con- 
tinuator  of  Fleury,  1.  civ.,  s.  Ixxiv.  Some  curious 
particulars  of  the  dispute  between  the  French  and 
the  Cardinals  on  the  subject  of  Annates  may  be  found 
in  Von  der  Hardt,  torn,  i.,  pars  xiii. 

f  It  is  well  known  that  Transalpine  divines  dispute 
the  principle  even  to  this  moment;  but  they  have  no 
ground  to  stand  upon.  If  they  admit  the  legitimacy 
of  the  Council  of  Constance,  they  must  receive  that 
decision;  if  not,  they  impugn  the  succession  of  their 
Popes  ever  since  that  Council  —  for  they  all  flow  un- 
interruptedly from  Martin  V.  No  sophistry  can  lib-- 
erate  them  from  this  dilemma. 


ATTEMPTS  AT  SELF-REFORMATION. 


447 


comfort  and  hope.  In  the  thirty-ninth  ses- 
sion, held  on  the  9th  of  October,  1417,  it 
was  enacted,  as  a  perpetual  law  of  the 
Church,  that  general  councils  should  be  held 
on  every  tenth  year  from  the  termination  of 
the  preceding;  iu  such  places  as  the  Pope, 
with  the  consent  of  the  Council  sitting, 
should  appoint.  But  in  the  first  instance,  as 
the  actual  exigencies  of  the  Church  did  not 
seem  to  allow  even  that  short  interval, 
another  Council  was  to  be  assembled  in  five 
years  from  the  dissolution  of  that  of  Con- 
stance, and  a  third  in  seven  years  after  the 
second.  In  obedience  to  this  constitution, 
Martin  V.  twice  attempted  to  collect  an 
obsequious  assembly  in  Italy ;  but  his  sum- 
mons were  disregarded  by  the  foreign  pre- 
lates, to  whom  neither  Pavia  nor  Sienna 
offered  any  prospect  of  independence.  The 
scanty  synods  were  hastily  dissolved,  and 
the  only  act  which  is  recorded  of  the  latter 
was  to  grant  as  ample  indulgences  to  those, 
who  should  contribute  gold  for  the  extinction 
of  the  Bohemian  heretics,  as  to  those,  who 
should  serve  the  crusade  in  person.  Basle, 
at  length,  was  appointed  for  the  meeting 
of  the  real  representatives  of  the  Church, 
and  they  crowded  thither  in  great  multitudes 
during  the  spring  and  summer  of  1431. 

Council  of  Basle.  —  In  the  meantime,  on 
the  19th  of  the  preceding  February,  Mar- 
tin V.  died.  His  long  pontificate  had  been 
principally  devoted  to  two  objects,  the  re- 
covery of  the  States  of  the  Church  and  the 
amassing  of  wealth  ;  and  he  had  succeeded 
in  both.  As  to  the  former,  he  had  restored 
the  interests  of  the  See  nearly  to  the  condition 
in  which  they  stood  before  the  schism.  As 
to  the  latter,  he  destined  the  treasures,  which 
he  collected,  rather  for  the  aggrandizement 
of  his  own  family,  than  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  or  even  of  the  Pontifical 
Government.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  admitted 
that  he  possessed  considerable  talents,  and  a 
vigorous  and  consistent  character ;  and  he  has 
escaped  the  imputation  of  any  great  vice,  ex- 
cepting avarice.  At  this  crisis,  the  character 
of  the  successor  to  the  chair  was  of  conse- 
quence almost  incalculable  to  the  Church. 
The  Council  of  Basle  was  irrevocably  sum- 
moned ;  and  its  principles,  its  policy,  and  its 
power  could  easily  be  foreseen  from  the  ex- 
perience of  Constance.  What  policy,  then, 
was  the  new  Pope  to  pursue  ?  Was  he 
openly  to  oppose,  or  craftily  to  elude,  or 
generously  to  co-operate,  in  the  work  of 
reformation  ?  The  durability  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  depended  on  the  answer. 


Election  and  Character  of  Eugenius  IV. — 
The  Cardinals  were  not,  indeed,  disturbed  by 
such  distant  considerations;  and  the  views, 
with  which  most  of  them  entered  the  con- 
clave, extended  not  beyond  their  private  in- 
trigues or  immediate  interests.  Being  unable 
at  once  to  agree,  they  proceeded  to  the  scru- 
tiny ;  and  their  secret  arrangements  being  not 
yet  satisfactorily  concluded,  they  continued  to 
throw  away  their  votes  upon  the  names  which 
held  the  lowest  consideration,  and  were  the 
last  in  the  chance  of  success.  And  thus  it 
happened,  that,  at  the  conclusion  of  one  of 
these  scrutinies,  to  the  astonishment  and  dis- 
may of  the  whole  college,  one  Gabriel  Con- 
dolmieri,  the  least  and  most  insignificant 
member  of  the  sacred  body,  was  found  in 
possession  of  two-thirds  of  the  suffrages.* 
There  was  no  space  to  repent  or  retract ; 
the  election  was  already  valid,  and  the  bark 
of  St.  Peter  was  thus  consigned,  in  the  most 
anxious  moment  of  its  destiny,  to  the  hand  of 
Eugenius  IV. 

Had  that  Pontiff  been  as  deeply  impressed 
with  his  own  incapacity  as  the  rest  of  the 
Christian  world,  he  might  occasionally  have 
followed  the  counsel  of  wiser  men ;  but,  on 
the  contrary,  he  was  the  most  presumptuous, 
as  he  was  the  most  ignorant,  of  mankind.f 
The  rigorous  habits  of  a-  monastic  life  had 
equally  contracted  his  principles,  and  blinded 
his  judgment ;  so  that  he  perpetually  mistook 
precipitation  for  decision,  and  then  thought 
to  redeem  his  rashness  by  his  obstinacy. 
Without  talents  or  any  steady  policy,  through 
the  very  restlessness  of  his  character',  he  ex- 
ercised an  influence  which  was  everywhere 
felt,  and  everywhere  felt  for  evil.J     And  if  it 

*  It  is  thus  that  Sismondi  describes  the  elevation 
of  Eugenius,  without  any  question  as  to  the  credi- 
bility of  his  authorities.  But  we  are  bound  to  add, 
that  several  Ecclesiastical  Historians,  of  various 
ages,  whom  we  have  consulted  on  this  subject,  are 
silent  as  to  the  circumstance  mentioned  in  the  text. 
Sismondi  (chap.  66.)  cites  Andrea;  Billii  Histor. 
Mediolan.  1.  ix.  p.  143. 

f  He  was  remarkable  for  a  downcast  look.  •  Vultti 
alioqui  decoro  et  venerabili,  nunquam  oculos  in  pub- 
lico attollcbat,  ut  a  parente  meo,  qui  enm  sequebatur, 
accepi.' — Volaterra,  lib.  xxii.,  p.  815,  ap.  Buyle. 

f  Contemporary  Italian  historians  exert  all  the 
talents  of  partisanship  iu  his  favor.  But  Sismondi, 
who  has  estimated  with  less  prejudice  his  political,  as 
well  as  his  ecclesiastical  character,  speaks  of  him 
very  differently.  'Dans  les  revolutions  violentes  oil  • 
on  le  voit  sans  cesse  engage,  en  guerre  avec  son  clerge, 
avec  sea  sujets,  avec  ses  bienfaitcurs,  il  manque  pres- 
que  toujours  en  meine  temps  et  de  la  bonne  foi,  et  de 
la  politique.  II  y  a  peu  de  tyrans  a  qui  on  peut  re- 
procher  plus  d'actes  de  perfidie  et  de  cruaute;  il  y  a 


448 


HISTORY   OF  THE  CHURCH. 


were  just  to  select  from  the  long  list  of  pon- 
tifical delinquents  one  name,  to  which  the 
downfal  of  the  Church  should  more  partic- 
ularly be  ascribed,  we  should  not  greatly  err 
in  attaching  that  stigma  to  Eugenius. 

The  unexpected  accident  of  his  elevation 
inflated  still  further  an  inconstant  mind. 
Some  success  which  he  gained  in  a  struggle 
with  the  Colonna  family  for  the  treasures  of 
his  predecessors,  filled  him  with  unbounded 
confidence ;  and  it  was  in  such  a  mood  that 
he  plunged  into  hostilities  with  the  Council 
of  Basle.  His  first  endeavors  were  directed 
to  crush  it,  ere  it  came  into  operation  or  even 
existence ;  but  finding  that  hopeless,  and  con- 
vinced that  an  assembly  so  solemnly  convok- 
ed, and  so  earnestly  desired,  must  meet  or 
seem  to  meet,  he  determined  to  neutralize 
its  character  by  changing  its  place.  Accord- 
ingly, he  notified  to  the  President,  towards 
the  end  of  the  year,  that  'by  his  own  full 
power'  he  had  transferred  it  to  Bologna,  in 
Italy. 

Julian  Cesarini,  Cardinal  of  St.  Angelo. — 
The  President  was  the  Cardinal  Julian  Cesa- 
rini, a  man  whose  eminent  talents  qualified 
him  for  that  office,  in  which  he  was  placed 
by  Martin,  and  confirmed  by  Eugenius,  and 
who  may  have  deserved  the  reputation  which 
he  has  received  from  Bossuet,  of  being  '  the 
greatest  character  of  his  age.'  At  any  rate, 
he  was,  on  this  occasion,  more  mindful  of  his 
duties  to  the  Church,  than  of  his  obligations 
to  his  master,  and  respectfully  refused  obedi- 
ence to  the  pontifical  mandate. 

Three  purposes  were  specified,  for  which 
the  Council  of  Basle  was  convoked  :  *  (1.) 
The  reunion  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  church- 
es; (2.)  The  reform  of  the  Church  in  its  head 
and  members ;  (3.)  The  reconciliation  of  the 
Hussites.  We  shall  confine  our  account,  for 
the  present,  to  the  second  of  these,  and  re- 
sume the  thread  which  was  broken  at  Con- 
stance :  in  so  doing,  it  will  be  our  misfortune 
again  to  observe  the  one  party  furiously  con- 
tending against  its  own  lasting  interests,  and 
repelling  the  friendly  hand  which  would  have 
purified  and  saved  a  foul  and  falling  system ; 
and  the  other  party,  thwarted  by  perpetual 


peu  de  monarques  imbecilles,  qui  aient  donne  plus  de 
preuves  d'incapacite  et  d'inconsequence.'  Republ. 
Ital.,  cap.  lxx. 

*  '  Concilium  hoc  congregatum  est  propter  extir- 
pandas  hsereses,  faciendum  pacem,  reformandum  mo- 
res.' Epist.  (2)  Juliani  Card,  ad  Eugen.  IV.  Julian 
places  first  thatwliieh  seems  to  have  been  in  his  mind 
the  most  important  object:  the  third,  the  reformation, 
lie  regarded  rather  as  the  means  of  restoring  the  unity 
of  the  Church. 


impediments,  insults,  artifices,  so  as  to  con- 
fine its  exertions  to  unworthy  objects,  and  not 
effectually  to  accomplish  even  those.  The 
former,  consisting  for  the  most  part  of  Italians, 
were  the  myrmidons  of  absolute  papacy; 
while  the  latter  comprehended  almost  all  that 
was  enlightened  and  generous  and  virtuous 
among  the  clergy  of  the  rest  of  Europe. 

Contention  between  the  Council  and  the  Pope. 
— Though  many  of  the  prelates  had  been 
long  assembled,  the  first  public  session  *  was 
not  held  until  the  14th  of  December,  1431  ; 
and  from  that  time  forwards,  for  the  space  of 
two  entire  years,  the  energies  and  patience  of 
the  fathers  were  wearied,  and  their  passions 
excited,  and  their  attention  wholly  diverted 
from  the  great  object  of  their  meeting,  by 
uninterrupted  contentions  with  Eugenius. 
They  had  come  together  from  all  parts  of 
Europe,  and  their  numbers  were  swelled  by 
the  addition  of  many  of  the  inferior  clergy  ; 
they  arrived,  deploring  the  debasement,  and 
eager  for  the  regeneration,  of  their  Church  ; 
they  were  confident,  too,  in  their  power,  and 
it  was  to  this  power  that  they  chiefly  trusted 
to  repress  the  excesses  of  papacy  ;  yet,  when 
they  would  have  advanced  with  ardor  to 
realize  these  hopes,  they  found  themselves 
engaged  in  a  tedious  and  irritating  contest 
for  their  own  independence.  In  the  course 
of  this  contest  they  published  and  republished 
those  decrees  of  Constance,  which  proclaim- 
ed the  superior  prerogatives  of  the  Council. 
They  reiterated  the  authorized  assertions, 
that  a  Council  General  represents  the  Church, 
and  is  the  Church  ;  that,  as  such,  it  derives 
its  attributes  immediately  from  Jesus  Christ; 
that,  as  such,  it  is  impeccable  ;  that  it  is  thus 
possessed  of  infallibility  —  a  boon  which  had 
been  denied,  not  only  to  Popes  who  had 
erred  in  matters  of  faith,  but  to  the  angels  f 
themselves,  for  they  had  sinned ;  that  on  these 
accounts  the  Pope  was  subject  to  the  Council 
in  all  things  regarding  (1)  faith,  (2)  the  extir- 
pation of  schism,  and  (3)  the  reformation  of 
the  Church  ;  that  he  was  only  the  ministerial\ 
head  of  the  Church,  inferior  in  eminence  to 


*  The  method  in  which  that  very  large  body  pro- 
ceeded through  its  deliberations  was  both  generally 
judicious,  and  particularly  calculated  to  neutralize  the 
majority  of  Italian  deputies.  It  is  given  at  length  by 
the  Contin.  of  Fleury,  liv.  cvi.,  §  6. 

f  The  c  synodal  response  of  the  Council  may  be 
found  in  substance  in  the  Continuator  of  Fleury,  lib. 
cvi.,  §  14.     The  original  is  in  Labbe's  Hist.  Concil. 

%  This  is  urged  by  ^Lncas  Sylvius,  Comment,  de 
Gestis  Basil.  Concil.,  lib.  i.,  p.  16.  The  same  writer 
also  argues  that  the  Pope  is  more  properly  the  Vicar 
of  the  Church  than  the  Vicar  of  Christ. 


ATTEMPTS  AT  SELF-REFORMATION. 


449 


that  mystical  body ;  *  and  consequently  (for 
this  was  the  point  to  which  the  whole  tend- 
ed,) that  he  possessed  no  power  over  the 
Council,  either  to  dissolve  or  transfer  it.  But 
all  these,  and  all  similar  assertions,  fell  with- 
out any  effect  upon  the  mind  of  a  pontiff, 
who  was  in  real  monastic  sincerity  persuaded, 
that  there  existed  in  the  Church  no  other 
legitimate  authority  whatsoever,  excepting 
his  own.  It  was  in  vain  to  appeal  to  ancient 
canons  against  modern  usurpations,  where 
ignorance  had  conspired  with  interest  to  over- 
throw reason  and  justice.  It  was  in  vain,  that 
all  the  learning  and  genius  and  eloquence  of 
the  Church  were  arrayed  on  the  same  side — 
their  weapons  were  unfelt  or  unheeded  by  a 
stupid  and  selfish  bigotry. 

Cardinal  Julian  Cesarini.  —  During  this 
controversy  (if  such  it  may  be  called)  Cardi- 
nal Julian  boldly  maintained  the  principles 
of  the  Council  and  the  cause  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  His  mind  was  naturally  capacious: 
deep  and  assiduous  study,  which  so  com- 
monly contracts  a  feeble  understanding,  had 
enlarged  and  enlightened  his;  and  a  mission, 
which  he  had  personally  undertaken  for  the 
conciliation  of  the  Bohemians,  had  brought 
before  his  eyes  the  causes,  the  obstinacy  and 
the  contagiousness  of  spiritual  rebellion.  He 
was  one  of  the  few  Italians,  who  had  pene- 
trated the  truth,  so  long  manifest  to  the  nor- 
thern prelates,  that  a  thorough  reformation  in 
discipline  was  necessaiy  for  the  preservation 
of  the  Church.  We  cannot  so  well  illustrate 
the  condition  of  affairs  at  that  period,  as  by 
citing  some  passages  from  the  two  celebrated 
epistles  which  he  addressed  from  Basle  to 
Eugenius. f     'One  great  motive  with  me  to 


*  This  last  position,  together  with  some  of  the 
others,  was  proved  by  arguments  derived  (1)  from 
reason,  (2)  from  experience,  (3)  from  authority,  in 
the  synodal  response  addressed  to  Eugenius,  at  the 
second  session.  The  argument  from  authority  chiefly 
rested  on  the  text  from  the  18th  chapter  of  St.  Mat- 
thew— '  If  thy  brother  shall  trespass  against  thee,  and 
will  not  hear  thee,  and  shall  neglect  to  hear  the  wit- 
nesses, tell  it  unto  the  Church;  but  if  he  neglect  to 
hear  the  Church,  let  him  be  unto  thee  as  a  heathen 
man  and  a  publican.  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  whatso- 
ever ye  shall  bind  on  earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven, 
and  whatsoever  ye  shall  loose  on  earth  shall  be  loosed 
in  heaven.'  .  .  Still  the  question  remained,  what 
constituted  the  Church'? 

t  The  first  Epistle  begins  in  these  words — '  Multa 
me  cogimt  libera  et  intrepide  loqui  ad  Sanctitatcm 
vestram  ;  periculum  videlicet  eversionis  fidei  ac  status 
ecclesiastici,  et  subtractions  obediential  a  Sede  Apos- 
tolica  in  iis  partibus;  denigratio  quoque  Anna.'  ejus- 
dem  Sanctitatis.  Cogit  et  me  charitas  qua  erga  V. 
S.  afiiciyr  et  q'ia  mihi  affici  scio.     Ita  enim  opus  est 

57 


join  this  Council  was  the  deformity  and  dis- 
soluteness of  the  German  clergy,  on  account 
of  which  the  laity  are  immoderately  irritated 
against  the  ecclesiastical  state:  so  much  so, 
as  to  make  it  matter  of  serious  apprehension 
whether,  if  they  be  not  reformed,  the  people 
will  not  rush,  after  the  example  of  the  Hus- 
sites, upon  the  whole  clergy,  as  they  publicly 
menace  to  do.  Moreover,  this  deformity 
gives  great  audacity  to  the  Bohemians,  and 
great  coloring  to  the  errors  of  those,  who  are 
loudest  in  their  invectives  against  the  base- 
ness of  the  clergy:  on  which  account,  had 
a  general  Council  not  been  convoked  at  this 
place,  it  had  been  necessary  to  collect  a 
provincial  synod  for  the  reform  of  the  Ger- 
man clergy  ;  since,  in  truth,  if  that  clergy  be 
not  corrected,  even  though  the  heresy  of  Bo- 
hemia should  be  extinguished,  others  would 
rise  up  in  its  place.'  ...  'If  you  should 
dissolve  this  Council,  what  will  the  whole 
world  say,  when  it  shall  learn  the  act  ?  Will 
'it  not  decide,  that  the  clergy  is  incorrigible, 
and  desirous  for  ever  to  grovel  in  the  filth  of 
its  own  deformity  ?  Many  councils  have 
been  celebrated  in  our  days,  from  which  no 
reform  has  proceeded  ;  the  nations  are  expect- 
ing that  some  fruit  should  come  from  this. 
But  if  it  is  dissolved,  all  will  exclaim  that  we 
laugh  at  God  and  man.  As  no  hope  of  our 
correction  will  any  longer  be  left,  the  laity 
will  rush,  like  Hussites,  upon  us.  This  design 
is  already  publicly  rumored.  The  minds  of 
men  are  pregnant ;  they  are  already  beginning 
to  vomit  the  poison  intended  for  our  destruc- 
tion. They  will  suppose  that  they  are  offer- 
ing a  sacrifice  to  God,  when  they  shall  mur- 


ut,  intellecto  discrTmine,  cautius  rebus  agendis  postea 
eonsulatur.'  The  following  sentiment  is  worthy  of 
the  best  ages  of  Christianity:  '  Et  si  dicat  S.  V. 
Habuimus  guerram  (bellum) ;  ego  respondebo,  quod 
etiam  si  guerrse  adhuc  durarent,  etiam  si  essetis  certi 
perdere  Romam,  et  totum  patrimonium  eccleske,  po- 
tius  subveniendum  est  fidei  et  animabus,  pro  quibua 
Dominus  noster  Jesus  Christus  mortuus  est,  quam 
arcibus  et  mceniis  civitatum.  Carior  est  Christo 
una  am'moquam  non  solum  temporalc  ecclesise  patri- 
monium, sed  etiam  caelum  et  terra.'  .  .  Again, 
'  Pro  Deo,  non  permittat  sibi  V.  S.  talia  peraiaderi, 
quia  timeo  dissidium  in  ecclesia  Dei.  Vereor  ne 
advenerit  tempus,  de  quo  dicit  Apostolus,  quod  oportet 
primum  ut  fiat  discessio.'  The  fears  of  the  Cardinal 
were  obviously  directed  not  to  a  second  schism,  a 
mere  orthodox  division  of  the  Church,  but  to  the  ab- 
solute revolt  of  its  children.  But  its  destiny  was  not 
yet  accomplished;  one  more  century  of  turbulent, 
contested,  and  flagitious  domination  was  yet  required 
to  fill  the  cup.  But  if  the  overflow  did  not  take  place 
at  the  time,  it  at  least  proceeded  from  the  country, 
indicated  by  Julian. 


450 


HISTORY   OF   THE  CHURCH. 


der  or  despoil  the  clergy.  Sunk  in  general 
estimation  into  the  depth  of  evil,  these  last 
will  become  odious  to  God  and  the  world ; 
and  the  very  moderate  respect  which  is  now 
felt  for  them  will  entirely  perish.  This  Coun- 
cil is  still  some  little  restraint  upon  secular 
men  ;  but  as  soon  as  they  shall  find  their  last 
hope  fail  them,  they  will  let  loose  the  reins  of 
public  persecution.'  .  .  .  'Should  the  Coun- 
cil be  dissolved,  the  people  of  Germany,  see- 
ing themselves  not  only  deserted  but  deluded 
by  the  Church,  will  join  with  the  heretics, 
and  hate  us  even  more  than  they.  Alas !  how 
frightful  will  be  the  confusion !  how  certain 
the  termination  !  .  .  Already  I  behold  the 
axe  laid  at  the  root.  The  tree  is  bending  to 
its  fall,  and  can  resist  no  longer.  And  cer- 
tainly, though  it  could  stand  of  itself,  we  our- 
selves should  precipitate  it  to  earth."1  .  .  '  Again, 
should  a  prorogation  be  proposed  and  a  trans- 
fer of  place,  to  the  end  that  in  the  presence 
of  your  holiness  greater  blessings  may  be 
accomplished,  no  man  living  will  believe  it.' 
'We  have  been  deluded  (they  say)  in  the 
Council  of  Sienna;  so  it  is  again  in  this; 
legates  have  been  sent  out,  bulls  have  been 
issued  ;  nevertheless,  a  change  in  the  place  is 
now  sought,  and  a  delay  in  the  time.  What 
better  hope  will  there  be  then  ? '  '  Most  bless- 
ed Father,  believe  me,  the  scandals  which  I 
have  mentioned  will  not  be  removed  by  this 
delay.  Let  us  ask  the  heretics,  whether  they 
will  delay  for  a  year  and  a  half  the  dissem- 
ination of  their  virulence  ?  Let  us  ask  those, 
who  are  scandalized  at  the  deformity  of  the 
clergy,  if  they  will  for  so  long  delay  their 
indignation  ?  Not  a  day  passes  in  which 
some  heresy  does  not  sprout  forth  ;  not  a  day 
in  which  they  do  not  seduce  or  oppress  some 
Catholics ;  they  do  not  lose  the  smallest  mo- 
ment of  time.  There  is  not  a  day,  in  which 
new  scandals  do  not  arise  from  the  depravity 
of  the  Clergy ;  yet  all  measures  for  their 
remedy  are  procrastinated !  Let  us  do  what 
can  be  done  now.  Let  the  rest  be  reserved 
for  this  year  and  a  half.  For  I  have  great 
fears  that,  before  the  end  of  the  year  and  a 
half,  unless  means  be  taken  to  prevent  it,  the 
greater  part  of  the  clergy  of  Germany  will  be 
in  desolation.  It  is  certain,  that,  if  the  word 
should  be  once  spread  through  Germany  that 
the  council  is  dissolved,  the  whole  body  of 
the  clergy  would  be  consigned  to  plunder.' 
'  But  I  hear  that  some  are  apprehensive  lest 
the  temporalities  should  be  taken  away  from 
the  Church  by  this  council.  A  strange  no- 
tion! Though,  if  this  council  did  not  consist 
of  ecclesiastics,  there  might  be  some  question 


I  on  the  subject.  But  where  shall  we  find  the 
ecclesiastic,  who  would  consent  to  such  a 
project?  not  only  from  its  injustice,  but  from 
the  loss  the  body  would  sustain  from  it.  And 
where  the  layman  ?  there  are  none,  or  next 
to  none  ?  And  if  some  princes  should  hap- 
ly send  their  ambassadors,  they  will  send, 
for  the  most  part,  ecclesiastics,  who  would 
in  nowise  consent.  Even  the  few  laymen, 
who  will  be  present,  will  not  be  admitted  to 
vote  on  matters  strictly  ecclesiastical ;  and  I 
scarcely  think  that  there  will  be,  upon  the 
whole,  ten  secular  lords  present,  and  perhaps 
not  half  so  many.  But  if  we  dismiss  the 
council,  the  laity  will  then  come  and  take 
our  temporalities  indeed.  When  God  wish- 
es to  inflict  any  misfortune  upon  any  people, 
he  first  so  disposes,  that  their  dangers  shall 
not  be  perceived  nor  understood.  And  such 
is  now  the  condition  of  ecclesiastics  ;  they  are 
not  blind,  but  worse  than  blind  ;  they  see  the 
flame  before  them,  and  rush  headlong  into  it.' 
'Within  these  few  last  days  I  have  received 
intelligence,  which  should  tend  still  further 
to  divert  you  from  dissolving  the  council. 
The  prelates  of  France  have  assembled  at 
Bourges,  and,  after  long  and  scrupulous  in- 
vestigation, have  decided  that  this  council  is 
not  only  legitimate,  but  .must  also  of  necessi- 
ty be  celebrated  both  in  this  place  and  at  this 
time ;  and  so  the  French  clergy  is  about  to 
join  it.  The  reasons  which  have  moved 
them  to  this  were  sent  at  the  same  time,  and 
have  been  forwarded  to  your  holiness.  Why 
then  do  you  longer  delay  ?  You  have  striven 
with  all  your  power,  by  messages,  letters,  and 
various  other  expedients,  to  keep  the  clergy 
away ;  you  have  struggled  with  your  whole 
force  utterly  to  destroy  this  council.  Never- 
theless, as  you  see,  it  swells  and  increases 
day  by  day,  and  the  more  severe  the  prohibi- 
tion, the  more  ardent  is  the  opposite  impulse. 
Tell  me  now — is  not  this  to  resist  the  will  of 
God?  Why  do  you  provoke  the  Church  to 
indignation  ?  Why  do  you  irritate  the  Chris- 
tian people?  Condescend,  I  implore  you,  so 
to  act,  as  to  secure  for  yourself  the  love  and 
good  will,  and  not  the  hatred,  of  mankind.' 

The  eloquent  expressions  of  reason  and 
truth  were  wasted  upon  the  sordid  soul  of 
Eugenius.  He  persisted  in  measures  of  op- 
position ;  they  were  met  by  a  process  of  cita- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  council ;  and  this  was 
retorted  by  a  Bull  of  dissolution ;  both  were 
equally  ineffectual.  At  length,  on  the  12th 
of  July,  1433,  the  fathers  proceeded  one  step 
farther  ;  they  suspended  the  pontiff  from  his 
dignity,  and  prohibited  all  Christians  from 


ATTEMPTS  AT  SELF-REFORMATION. 


451 


paying  him  obedience.  Eugenius,  in  the 
plenitude  of  his  own  power,  annulled  their 
decree ;  and  this  noisy  but  innocuous  alter- 
cation might  have  continued  for  some  time 
longer,  without  any  advantage  or  any  honor 
to  either  party,  had  not  some  accidental  cir- 
cumstances interrupted  it.  The  political 
enterprises  of  the  Pope  had  not  been  more 
happily  conducted,  than  his  ecclesiastical 
measures.  During  the  winter  of  1433  he  was 
threatened  by  a  complication  of  disasters. 
The  Colonna  attacked  him  at  home  ;  the  Duke 
of  Milan  assailed  him  from  abroad  ;  his  sub- 
jects were  universally  discontented,  and  their 
menaces  resounded  in  his  capital;  while  Sig- 
ismond  had  declared  loudly  in  favor  of  the 
council,  and  had  even  countenanced  it  by  his 
presence.  Under  these  circumstances,  Eu- 
genius suddenly  lowered  his  pretensions,  and 
withdrew  his  opposition.  The  offensive  Bulls 
were  revoked ;  and  under  the  plea  of  co-ope- 
rating with  the  council,  and  with  the  design 
of  embarrassing  it,  he  sent  two  legates  to  Basle 
to  represent  his  authority. 

This  hollow  reconciliation  took  place  early 
in  1434  ;  and  as  the  difficulties  of  the  Pope 
increased  during  the  following  spring,  so  far 
as  to  oblige  him  to  fly  from  his  capital  and 
take  refuge  at  Florence,  the  fathers  were  at 
length  enabled  to  turn  with  some  reviving 
hopes  to  the  subject  of  reformation. 

Articles  of  Reformation. —  Nineteen  *  ses- 
sions, during  four  invaluable  years,  had 
already  been  consumed  without  any  benefit 
either  to  the  Pope,  the  council,  or  the  Church. 
In  the  twentieth,  which  did  not  meet  until 
January  23,  1435,  some  edicts  were  at  length 
published  for  the  repression  of  ecclesiastical 
abuses;  and  during  the  fourteen  months 
which  followed,  other  canons  were  enacted 
to  the  same  end.  Their  substance  may  be 
expressed  in  very  few  lines.  (1.)  Severe  pen- 
alties were  proclaimed  against  concubinary 
clergy,  including  all  who,  having  suspicious 
women  in  their  service,  had  disregarded  the 
command  of  the  Superior  to  dismiss  them. 

*  We  should,  perhaps,  mention  that,  in  the  nine- 
teenth session,  the  council  renewed  the  ancient  de- 
crees about  the  conversion  and  excommunication  of 
Jews,  and  the  necessary  distinction  in  their  dress  and 
residence;  and  also  on  the  establishment  of  oriental 
professorships  in  the  various  Universities  —  the  last, 
in  confirmation  of  a  lifeless  canon  of  the  council  of 
Vienne.  Previously,  too — in  the  twelfth  session — a 
general  decree  had  been  promulgated,  with  a  view  to 
restore  episcopal  elections  to  their  original  form,  and 
to  deprive  the  Pope  of  reservations ;  but  it  was  so 
general,  that  little  practical  effect  cuuld  be  expected 
from  it. 


(2.)  It  was  prohibited  (in  the  name  of  the 
Holy  Spirit)  to  pay  any  fees  in  the  court  of 
Rome,  or  elsewhere,  for  confirmation  of  elec- 
tions, for  admissions,  postulations,  or  presen- 
tations ;  for  provision,  collation,  disposition, 
&c.  &c.  by  laymen ;  for  institution,  installa- 
tion, or  investiture,  in  cathedral  or  metropo- 
litan churches  or  monasteries,  in  dignities, 
benefices,  or  other  ecclesiastical  offices;  for 
holy  orders,  for  benedictions,  or  concessions 
of  the  pallium ;  for  Bulls,  for  the  seal,  for 
common  annates,  servitia  minuta,  first-fruits, 
deports;*  or  on  any  other  color  or  pretext. 
The  exaction,  payment  or  promise,  of  such  fees 
were  forbidden  under  the  penalties  of  simony. 
'  And  even  (it  was  enacted,)  even,  which  may 
God  prohibit,  if  the  Roman  pontiff  himself, 
who  is  bound  more  than  any  other  to  observe 
the  holy  canons,  should  throw  scandal  on  the 
Church  by  violating,  in  any  way,  this  decree, 
he  shall  be  brought  to  trial  before  a  general 
council.'  This  passed  in  the  twenty-first  ses- 
sion (June  9,  1435 ;)  and  it  is  curious  to  ob- 
serve the  desperate  exertions,  with  which  the 
Pope  and  his  legates  and  inferior  myrmidons 
put  every  resource  of  craft  and  intrigue  into 
action,  in  order  to  prevent,  to  annul,  or  to 
neutralize  this  measure.     But  they  were  de- 

*  (1.)  The  deport  was  the  year's  income  of  vacant 
cures  paid  to  the  Pope  or  bishop.     It  was  a  tax  in- 
stituted by  the  Popes  of  Avignon,  under  the  pretext 
of  holy  wars.     (2.)  The  grace  expectative  was  the 
Pope's  assurance  of  presentation  to  a  particular  bene- 
fice, when  it  should  become  vacant.     This  ri»lit  ori- 
ginated  in    simple    recommendation  ;    afterwards   it 
changed  into  command.     To  the  first  letters,  called 
monitory,  letters  pieceptory  were  added;    and  when 
it  was  necessary,  letters  executory  were  also  addressed 
to  some  papal  commissioners,  whose  duty  it  became 
to  compel  the  ordinary  to  present,  on  pain  of  excom- 
munication.    This  procedure  gradually  gained  ground 
from  the  twelfth  age.     (3.)  The  reservation  was  a 
declaration,  by  which  the  Pope  pretended  to  appoint 
to  a  benefice,  when   it  should  become  vacant,  with 
prohibition  to  the  chapter  to  elect,  or  the  ordinary  to 
collate.     From  special,  the  Popes  proceeded  to  gene- 
ral, reservations;   from  general  to  universal ;   at  least 
John  XXII.  reserved,  by  a  single  edict,  all  the  cathe- 
drals in  Christendom.     This  usurpation  was  attacked 
with  success  boih   at  Pisa,  Constance,  and  Basle; 
and  the  rights,  which  the  French  Church  acquired  in 
that  matter  at  Basle,  passed  into  the  Pragmatic  Sanc- 
tion, and  thence,  with  some  modification,  into  the 
Concordat.     The  council  of  Trent  abolished  reserva- 
tions entirely.     The   practice   is   traced   as  high   as 
Innocent  III.  .  .  .  Both  the  second  and  third  of  these 
were  contrary  to   the  canons  of  the  third   Lateran 
council,  held  by  Alexander  III.  in  1179,  which  pub- 
lished a  general  prohibition  against  all  dispositions 
of  benefices  previous  to  vacancy.  —  Fleury,  Institut 
au  Droit  Eccles.,  p.  ii.,  ch.  xv. 


452 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


feated  by  the  firmness  of  the  majority  of  the 
council  ill  a  good  cause:  and  if  many  more  such 
triumphs  had  been  obtained  by  the  same  party; 
if  many  more  such  restrictions  on  the  worst  ex- 
cesses of  Rome  had  been  imposed  and  enforc- 
ed, her  supremacy  over  the  Catholic  Church 
had  not  so  speedily  passed  away  from  her. 

(3.)  The  twenty-third  session  (March  25, 
1436)  regulated  the  election  of  the  Pope,  and 
confirmed  the  decree  of  the  thirty-ninth  ses- 
sion of  Constance,  which  had  prescribed  a 
formula  of  faith,  to  be  approved  on  oath,  on 
the  day  of  election.  The  oath  was  to  be  re- 
newed every  year  on  the  anniversary  of  the 
election.  It  proceeded  to  moderate  the  nepo- 
tism of  the  pontiff's, — so  far,  at  least,  as  to 
confine  their  secular  favors, — the  dukedoms, 
rnarquisates,  captaincies,  governorships,  and 
other  offices  which  were  at  their  disposal  as 
temporal  monarchs — to  the  second  degree 
of  relationship.  New  laws  were  also  publish- 
ed for  the  better  constitution  of  the  Sacred 
College,  which  differed  in  very  trifling,  if  in 
any,  respects,  from  the  enactments  of  Con- 
stance on  the  same  subject.  The  legislation 
of  Basle  also  descended  to  some  less  impor- 
tant subjects  :  it  consulted  the  delicacy  of 
'  timorous  consciences '  by  specifying  the 
degree  of  obedience  due  to  general  sentences 
of  excommunication;  it  restrained  the  pun- 
ishment of  interdicts  to  the  offences  of  the 
city  or  its  government:  any  sins  of  an  indi- 
vidual citizen  were  held  insufficient  to  pro- 
voke that  indiscriminate  chastisement.  It 
prohibited  appeals,  while  the  causes  were  yet 
pending ;  it  condemned  the  spectacles,  which 
took  place  in  the  churches  on  particular  fes- 
tivals ;  it  promulgated  decrees  for  the  greater 
solemnity  of  the  divine  offices,  and  for  the 
more  decorous  dress  and  deportment  of  the 
officiating  ministers. 

Such  is  the  substance  of  the  enactments  of 
the  council  of  Basle  for  the  reform  of  the 
Church.  It  is  true  that,  at  a  much  later  pe- 
riod of  its  continuance,  it  published,  in  the 
thirty-first  session  (January  24,  1438,)  two 
decrees ;  the  one  for  the  limitation  of  appeals 
to  Rome,  the  other  to  revoke  and  prohibit 
expectative  graces,  and  subject  the  provisions 
of  the  Pope  to  certain  specitied  restrictions  ; 
but  these,  even  had  they  been  very  funda- 
mental improvements,  were  passed  at  a  period 
when  the  legitimacy  of  the  council  itself  was 
much  disputed;  anil  probably  they  never  ac- 
quired general  authority.  Those  which  we 
have  above  enumerated  may  be  considered 
as  comprising  all  that  the  assembled  fathers 
really    accomplished,    during     deliberations 


which  continued,  at  least  nominally,  through 
the  space  of  nearly  twelve  years. 

Conduct  of  ike  Pope's  Legates. —  The  two 
legates,  to  whom  the  pontifical  interests  had 
been  intrusted  by  Eugenius,  followed  with 
abundant  zeal  and  capacity  their  private  in- 
structions. No  device,  which  seemed  calcu- 
lated to  thwart  the  progress  of  reform,  had 
been  neglected  by  them.  Every  objection 
bad  been  magnified  into  a  difficulty,  every 
difficulty  had  been  swelled  into  an  insur- 
mountable impediment.  The  meanest  soph- 
istry had  been  confronted  with  the  boldest 
reason ;  artifice,  fraud,  seduction  had  been 
arrayed  against  upright  purposes  and  gener- 
ous principles ;  *  delays  had  been  created, 
falsehoods  propagated,  subterfuges  invented, 
and  all  that  minute  machinery  set  in  motion, 
which  is  at  all  times  employed  in  the  defence 
of  corrupt  systems,  by  those  who  find  their 
profit  in  the  corruption,  f  To  the  honor  of 
the  reformers  of  Basle  be  it  recorded,  that  the 
intrigues  which  were  eternally  in  operation 
to  divide  or  to  degrade  them,  were  inefficient : 
the  firmness  of  those  respectable  ecclesias- 
tics,:): their  intelligence  and  their  honesty  re- 


*  '  Scitis  vosmetipsi  quoties  life  vobis  dilationes 
nocuerintj  quotiesque  paucoruin  mora  dierum  longis- 
simuin  traxit  spatium;  qui  jam  octavum  annum  in 
dilationibus  agitis,  semper  dilationes  ex  dilationibus 
vidistis  emergere.1 — Cardinalis  Arelatensis,  ap. 
JEn.  Sylv.  Gest.  Basil.  Concil. 

f  '  Quis  est  qui  existimet  Romamim  pontificem  ad 
sui  emendationem  concilium  conjugare'?  Nempe  ut 
peccant  homines,  sic  etiam  impune  peccar  evolunt.' 
./Eneas  Sylv.  de  Gest.  Basil.  Cone,  1.  i.,  p.  20. 

%  The  expressions  of  iEneas  Sylvius  almost  rise 
into  eloquence.  '  Ubinam  gentium  talis  patrum  est 
chorus,  ubi  tantum  sciential  lumen,  ubi  prudentia,  ubi 
bonitas  est,  qua?  nomen  patrum  sequare  virtutibus 
queatl  Oh  integerrimam  fraternitatem!  oh  venmi 
orbis  terrarum  Senatum!  Quam  pulchra,  quain  sua- 
vis,  quam  devota  res  fuit,  hie  celebrantes  episcopos, 
illic  orantes  abbates,  alibi  vero  doctores  divinas  le- 
gentes  historias  audire!  .  .  et  unum  ad  lumen  can- 
deUe  scribentem  cernere,  alium  vero  grande  aliquid 
raeditantem  intueri.  .  .  .  Illic  cum  exeuntem  cella 
aut  Christianum  aut  alium  quempiam  ex  antiquior-ibus 
vidisses,  non  alium  certe  videre  putasses,  ([nam  vel 
magnum  Antonium,  vel  Paulum  simplicem ;  et  ilium 
sane  Hilarioni,  ilium  Paphnutio,  ilium  Amoni  aequi- 
parasses.  Plus  autem  hoc  in  loco  quam  in  Antoniana 
solitudine  reperisses,  siquidem  Hieronymo  etiam  et 
Augustino  obviasses,  quorum  litterse  in  conclavi  fue- 
runt,  in  eremo  non  fuerunt.  .  Custodiebatur  inter  dom- 
inos  magna  charitas,  inter  famulos  bona  dilectio,  inter 
utrosque  optimum  silentium,  &c.  &c.'  De  Gestis 
Basil.  Concil.,  lib.  ii.,  pag.  57.  It  should  be  men- 
tioned that  this  description  is  not  general,  but  relates 
only  to  the  fathers  who  constituted  the  conclave  for 
the  election  of  the  new  Pope — the  elite  of  the  council. 


ATTEMPTS  AT  SELF-REFORMATION. 


453 


fleeted  upon  the  Catholic  Church  a  splendid 
gleam  of  glory  in  the  moment  of  her  danger 
and  tribulation  ;  and  their  perseverance  might 
still  have  wrought  some  great  advantage,  had 
not  a  new  circumstance  arisen  to  foil  it. 

Final  breach  between  the  Pope  and  the  Coun- 
cil.—  The  conciliation  of  the  Greek  Church 
was  one  of  the  avowed  objects  of  the  council ; 
and  as  deputies  were  expected  from  the  east 
to  confer  on  that  subject,  their  convenience 
and  inclinations  as  to  the  place  of  conference 
required  some  attention ;  both  (it  was  justly 
said)  would  be  best  consulted  by  substituting 
for  Basle  some  city  in  Italy.  It  was  in  vain 
that  the  council  then  proposed  Avignon,  or 
Savoy ;  the  Pope  would  listen  to  no  such 
compromise,  but  pressed  the  superior  advan- 
tages of  an  Italian  city.  .  .  At  the  same  time, 
both  parties  had  opened  negotiations  at  Con- 
stantinople ;  and  the  contests,  which  had  been 
enacted  at  Basle,  were  repeated,  with  a  dif- 
ferent result,  before  the  patriarch  and  the 
emperor.  In  that  refined  court,  the  superior 
tactics  of  the  papal  party  prevailed ;  and  in 
the  intestine  commotions  of  the  hierarchy  of 
the  west,  the  oriental  autocrat  listened  more 
partially  to  the  monarch,  than  to  the  senate, 
of  the  Church.  Besides,  while  his  emissa- 
ries were  thus  advancing  his  views  abroad, 
the  Pope's  domestic  embarrassments  had 
gradually  diminished,  and  with  them  his  fears 
and  his  prudence.  Thus  elated,  he  deter- 
mined again  to  engage  with  the  council  in 
open  warfare.  Accordingly  we  observe,  that, 
about  the  twenty-third  and  twenty-fourth 
sessions,  his  legates  assumed  a  higher  tone 
than  formerly  :  on  the  other  hand,  the  coun- 
cil breathed  nothing  but  indignation  and  de- 
fiance ;  and  thus,  after  a  short  and  feverish 
suspension,  the  former  quarrels  were  renew- 
ed, and  not  even  the  semblance  of  concord 
was  ever  afterwards  restored. 

The  second  contest  began  nearly  where 
the  first  had  ended.  The  Pope  manoeuvred 
to  transfer  the  council  to  Italy.  The  council 
cited  the  Pope  to  Basle  ( July  31,  1437,)  to 
answer  for  his  vexatious  opposition  to  the 
reform  of  the  Church.  And  the  Pope,  in 
that  plenitude  of  power  to  which  he  had 
never  formally  abandoned  his  pretensions, 
declared  the  council  transferred  to  Ferrara. 
In  the  28th  session  (  Oct.  1,  1437,)  Eugenius 
was  convicted  of  contumacy ;  and  on  the 
10th  of  the  January  following,  he  celebrated, 
iu  defiance  of  the  sentence,  the  first  session 
of  the  council  of  Ferrara.  On  that  occasion 
he  solemnly  annulled  every  future  act  of  the 
assembly  at  Basle,  excepting  only  such,  as 


should   have  reference  to  the    troubles   of 
Bohemia. 

Desertion  of  Cardinal  Julian. — On  the  eve 
of  the  opening  of  the  Council  of  Ferrara, 
Cardinal  Julian,  whose  fidelity  to  the  body 
over  which  he  presided,  and  earnestness  in 
the  discharge  of  that  office,  had  never  been 
questioned,  suddenly  departed  from  Basle, 
and  passed  over  to  the  party  of  the  Pope. 
The  defection  of  so  considerable  a  person,  at 
so  dangerous  a  crisis,  might  naturally  have 
shaken  the  firmness  of  the  fathers ;  and  we 
can  also  readily  believe,  that,  after  Cesarini 
had  taken  his  resolution,  he  exerted  his  great 
talents  to  induce  as  many  as  he  could  influ- 
ence, to  follow  him.  It  remains,  however,  as 
a  memorable  fact,  that,  among  the  numerous 
prelates  assembled  at  Basle,  four  only  were 
persuaded  to  imitate  the  example  of  their 
president ;  nor  does  it  appear  that,  even  after 
the  arrival  of  the  Greeks  in  Italy,  any  one 
bishop,  or  doctor,  or  dignified  ecclesiastic, 
deserted  the  cause  in  which  he  had  first  en- 
gaged. The  sovereigns  of  Europe  remained 
equally  firm,  and  the  king  of  France  even 
prohibited  his  subjects  from  joining  the  as- 
sembly at  Ferrara. 

Questions  on  the  legitimacy  of  the  Council. 
— It  is  almost  needless  to  say,  that  the  legiti- 
macy of  the  Council  of  Basle  has  been  a 
subject  of  dispute  among  Roman  Catholic 
writers,  and  that  they  have  differed,  accord- 
ing to  the  diversity  of  their  opinions  on  the 
extent  and  nature  of  papal  supremacy.  It 
has  been  commonly  designated  the  Acepha- 
lous Council ;  and  some  have  maintained  that 
its  authority  expired  as  early  as  the  tenth 
session  ;  but  even  Bellarmine  allows,  that  its 
decrees  were  binding  on  the  Church,  until  it 
commenced  its  deliberations  respecting  the 
deposition  of  the  Pope.  This  last  is  the 
more  general  opinion  even  among  the  Trans- 
alpine divines  —  of  whom  none  have  been 
found  so  rash  and  inconsistent,  as  to  dispute 
its  canonical  convocation  and  origin.  If  it 
be  admitted,  then,  thus  generally,  that,  during 
those  few  sessions,  which  it  devoted  to  the 
reform  of  the  Church,  it  was  a  true  and  in- 
fallible Council,  the  controversy,  respecting 
the  sessions  which  followed,  can  have  little 
importance  in  the  eyes  of  the  historian; 
since  they  were  consumed  in  an  obstinate 
contest  with  a  perverse  pontiff,  without  pro- 
ducing any  lasting  alteration  either  in  the 
principles  or  administration  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Church. 

Deposition  of  Eugenius.  —  We  shall  not 
pursue  that  contest  into  any  detail.      The 


454 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Aries,  who  was 
born  in  France  near  the  borders  of  Savoy, 
Was  elected,  no  unworthy  successor  to  the 
Chair  of  Cesarini.*  Eugenius  was  presently 
'superseded  from  all  jurisdiction;'  but  it 
was  not  until  the  middle  of  April,  1439,  that 
the  Council  published  its  celebrated  'Eight 
Propositions'  against  that  pontiff,  as  a  meas- 
ure preparatory  to  his  deposition.  On  this 
occasion  great  dissensions  arose;  the  prelates 
of  Spain  combined  almost  unanimously  with 
the  Italian  party ;  and  the  opposition  was 
powerfully  conducted  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Palermo  (Panormus  or  Panormitanus,)f  who 
had  recently  made  the  sacrifice  of  his  private 


*  '  Vir  omnium  constantissimus  et  ad  guberna- 
tionem  Generalium  Conciliorum  natus.'  ./En. 
Sylv.  Comment,  de  Gestis  Basil.  Concil.,  lib.  i.  p. 
25.  This  particular  commendation  is  explained  by 
subsequent  expressions.  We  shall  select  two  of  a 
very  different  character.  (1)  The  Cardinal,  on  an 
important  occasion,  fearing  to  be  left  in  a  minority, 
out-manoeuvred  the  opposition,  and  prorogued  the 
Council.  His  friends  were  delighted — '  Alii  quidem 
eum,  alii  vestimentorum  fimbrras,  deoseulabantur, 
secutique  ipsum  plurimi,  prudentiam  ejus  magnopere 
commendabant,  qui,  licet  origine  esset  Gallicus,  Italos 
tamen  hac  die  summa  homines  astutia,  superasset.' 
Ibid.  p.  37.  (2)  A  violent  pestilence  broke  out  at 
Basle,  and  swept  away  some  distinguished  members 
of  the  Council.  Every  one  supplicated  the  Cardinal 
to  retire  into  the  country;  all  his  domestics,  all  his 
friends,  joined  with  one  voice  in  the  same  entreaty — 
"Quid  agis,  spectate  Pater!  fugc  hunc  saltern  lunae 
defectum,  salva  tuum  caput,  quo  salvo  salvamur 
oranes ;  quo  etiain  pereunte  ornnes  perimus.  Quod 
si  te  pestis  opprimat,  ad  quern  confugiemusl  quis  nos 
regell  quis  ductor  hujus  tidelis  exercitus  erit'?  Jam 
tuam  Cameram  irrepsit  virus,  jam  Secretarius  tuns, 
jamque  Cubicularius  tuus  mortem  obiit.  Considera 
discrimen,  salva  teipsum  et  nos  .  .  .  ."  Sed  neque 
ilium  preces  neque  domesticorum  funera  flectere  po- 
tuerunt,  volentem  potius  cum  vitaj  periculo  salvare 
concilium,  quam  cum  periculo  concilii  salvare  vitam. 
Sciebat  enim,  quoniam,  se  reccdente,  pauci  re- 
mansissent,  facileque  committi  fraus  in  ejus  absen- 
tia potuisset.'  Ibid.  lib.  ii.  p.  48.  The  man,  who 
united  more  than  Italian  subtlety  with  the  courage 
and  self-devotion  here  discovered,  was  undoubtedly 
born  to  rule  his  fellow  creatures. 

f  His  speech  is  reported  in  the  Commentaries  of 
the  then  admirable  advocate  for  the  independence  of 
the  Church,  ^Eneas  Sylvius.  His  work  is  chiefly 
employed  on  those  Acts  of  the  Council,  which  more 
immediately  preceded  the  election  of  Felix  V.  Pan- 
ormitanus  urged,  among  other  things,  that  the  Pope's 
error  in  dissolving  the  Council  was  not  a  heresy; 
since,  though  the  superiority  of  the  General  Council 
was  a  truth,  it  was  not  an  article  of  faith — so  that 
the  Council  had  not  sufficient  ground  for  deposing 
Eugenius.  This  seemed  unpardonable  sophistry  to 
./Eneas  Sylvius — to  Pope  Pius  II.  it  probably  ap- 
peared a  very  feeble  defence  of  papal  rights. 


principles  to  the  will  of  his  sovereign.  His 
talents  and  his  eloquence  were  admired  by 
all ;  his  sophistry  influenced  the  weak  or  the 
wavering  ;  and  when  the  Fathers  next  assem- 
bled for  the  resumption  of  the  debate,  the 
benches  of  the  prelates  were  almost  deserted; 
— of  the  multitudes  collected  at  Basle,  scarce- 
ly twenty  mitred  heads  could  be  numbered 
in  that  congregation.*  The  Cardinal  of  Aries 
was  prepared  for  this  defection ;  and  he  had 
devised  a  remedy,  suited  no  less  to  the  char- 
acter of  the  declining  days  of  Papacy,  than 
of  its  most  prosperous.  He  commanded  the 
relics  of  all  the  Saints  in  the  city  to  be 
brought  from  their  sanctuaries,  to  be  carried 
by  the  priests  to  the  place  of  assembly,  and 
deposited  by  their  hands  in  the  vacant  seats 
of  the  bishops.  At  this  spectacle,  ( says 
iEneas  Sylvius,)  and  on  the  invocation  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  the  multitudes  present  were 
moved  by  an  extraordinary  impulse  of  de- 
votion, which  overflowed  in  tears.  And 
throughout  the  whole  Church  there  was  a 
soft  and  affectionate  bewailing  of  pious  men, 
who  implored  in  sorrow  the  divine  assistance, 
and  deeply  supplicated  the  Omnipotent  God 
to  give  aid  to  the  Church,  whose  children 
they  were.  The  Session  (the  thirty-third) 
was  then  peacefully  dissolved;  but  in  that 
which  followed  (June  25th,  1439)  the  con- 
tested measure  was  carried ;  and,  after  eight 
years  of  open,  or  disguised  hostility,  Euge- 
nius IV.  was  at  length  deposed. 

*  The  Council  of  Basle  was  composed,  besides  nu- 
merous prelates  and  abbots,  of  a  great  multitude  of 
inferior  clergy,  who  appear  to  have  formed  the  ma- 
jority; and  we  observe,  from  the  narrative  of  ^Eneas 
Sylvius,  that,  during  the  violent  debates  which  pre- 
ceded the  deposition  of  Eugenius,  the  prelates  were 
for  the  most  part  on  the  side  of  Panormitanus,  that  is 
of  the  Pope,  and  the  inferior  orders  on  the  other.  In 
the  session  (the  thirty-third)  described  in  the  text, 
'  Nullus  Arragonensium  piselatorum  intermit,  nullus- 
que  omnino  ex  tota  Hispania.  Ex  Italia  soli  Gros- 
sitanus  Episcopuset  Abbas  de  Dona.  Doctores  autem 
et  cteteri  inferiores  magno  in  numcro  Anagonenses 
fuerunt,  et  omnes  fere,  qui  aderant,  ex  Italia  Hispan- 
iaque  (nee  enim  inferiores,  sicut  Pralati,  princi- 
pem  timuerunt.)  Maximaque  tunc  Arragonensium 
et  Cathelanorum  virtus  in  inferioribus  emicuit, 
qui  sese  minime  necessitati  ecclesise  denegaru'nt.' 
'Si  enim  episcopi  baud  multi  erant,  plena  tamen 
omnia  fuerunt  subsellia  procuratoribus  episenporum, 
archidiaconis,  prsepositis,  prioribus,  presbyteris  et 
divini  et  humani  juris  doctoribus,  quos  aut  qua- 
dringentos  aut  certe  plures  esse  dijudicavi,  &c.'  This 
republican  constitution  of  the  Council  must,  indeed, 
have  rendered  it  peculiarly  obnoxious  to  the  prejudi- 
ces of  a  monastic  Pope. — Comment.  iEn.  Sylvii,  1. 
ii.  p.  43. 


ATTEMPTS   AT   SELF-REFORMATION. 


455 


Election  of  Felix  V.  and  Dissolution  of  the 
Council. — On  the  5th  of  November  following, 
Amadeus,  duke  of  Savoy,  was  elected  to  the 
See  thus  vacated,  and  assumed  the  name  of 
Felix  V.  But  as  Eugenius  retained,  with- 
out any  defection,  the  obedience  of  Italy  and 
some  other  countries,  the  success  of  the  anti- 
papal  party  had  no  other  effect,  than  to  create 
a  second  schism.  Among  the  sovereigns  of 
Europe,  the  most  powerful,  though  ill  affect- 
ed to  Eugenius,  were  far  from  approving  the 
violent  proceedings  of  the  Council ;  and  the 
German,  as  well  as  the  French  Court,  be- 
came more  distant  and  guarded  in  its  inter- 
course with  the  fathers  of  Basle;  while  the 
inferior  princes  appear  to  have  recognised  or 
rejected  the  one  Pope  or  the  other,  as  suited 
the  seeming  policy  of  the  moment.  And 
this  confusion  continued  with  little  interrup- 
tion until  May,  1443,  when  the  Council  cele- 
brated its  forty-fifth  and  last  Session.  It 
then  dissolved  itself — or  rather  transferred 
its  (nominal)  sittings  to  Lyons  or  Lausanne  ; 
while  the  rival  assembly,  which  was  still 
lingering  at  Florence,  withdrew,  by  a  simul- 
taneous secession,  to  Rome. 

Nicholas  V.  Cession  of  Felix.  —  Felix  V. 
maintained  his  scanty  Court,  and  the  faint 
show  of  pontifical  majesty,  at  Lausanne  ;  and 
though  the  sovereigns  both  of  France  and 
Germany  made  some  exertions  to  remove 
the  schism,  it  continued  until  the  death  of 
Eugenius  in  1447.  Nicholas  V.  succeeded ; 
and  the  more  general  recognition,  which  he 
received  from  the  Courts  of  Europe,  as  well 
as  his  more  popular  reputation,  induced 
Felix,  whose  ambition  was  destitute  of  self- 
ishness, as  his  character  was  moderate  and 
virtuous,  to  negotiate  respecting  the  cession 
of  his  dignity.  Certain  conditions  were  ac- 
cordingly proposed  and  accepted,  and  in  the 
year  1449,  the  creature  of  the  Council  of 
Basle  for  ever  resigned  his  claims  on  the 
Chair  of  St.  Peter.  The  happy  escape  from 
this  second  peril,  which  menaced  the  unity 
of  the  Church,  filled  the  people  with  univer- 
sal joy ;  the  errors  of  the  Hussites  and  the 
scandals  of  the  clergy  were  for  the  moment 
forgotten  ;  and  everywhere,  after  the  fashion 
of  the  times,  a  commemorative  verse  was 
chanted, — 

Fulsit  lux  mundo;  cessit  Felix  Nicolao. 

Though  the  general  measures  of  reform- 
ation, published  by  the  Council  of  Basle, 
were  very  inadequate  to  the  necessities  of 
the  Church,  even  in  the  eyes  of  an  orthodox 
reformer,  yet  by  concurrence  with  some  na- 
tional assemblies  held  in  Germany,  and  espe- 


cially in  France,  they  became  instrumental 
in  improving  the  ecclesiastical  government 
and  discipline  in  both  those  countries. 

Diet  of  Mayence. — In  Germany,  a  project^ 
which  had  been  prepared  at  Nuremburg,  in 
1438,  having  failed  to  obtain  the  approbation 
either  of  the  Council  or  the  Pope,  a  Diet 
was  opened  at  Mayence  in  the  March  of 
the  year  following.  The  deputies  from  Basle, 
and  some  emissaries  of  Eugenius  were  pre- 
sent ;  and  the  Assembly,  after  some  delibera- 
tion, received  all  the  general  decrees  of  the 
Council.*  We  do  not  learn,  however,  that 
any  means  were  taken  to  give  them  efficacy, 
or  to  establish  them  as  the  permanent  and 
living  code  of  the  German  Church.  At  any 
rate,  its  independence  was  soon  afterwards 
betrayed  by  Frederic  III. ;  and  in  the  nego- 
tiations between  the  empire  and  the  Holy 
See,  which  were  conducted  by  his  secretary, 
^Eneas  Sylvius,  that  accomplished  politician 
was  less  faithful  to  the  interests  which  he 
thus  represented,  than  to  those  over  which 
he  was  destined  hereafter  to  preside.  The 
concordats,  arranged  at  Aschaffenburg  in 
1448,  resigned  most  of  the  advantages  which 
the  Germans  had  derived  from  the  proceed- 
ings at  Basle,  and  left  the  papal  rights  nearly 
in  the  situation  in  which  they  had  been 
placed  by  Martin  V.f 

Council  of  Bourges. — The  French  were  at 
the  same  time  conducting  their  national  ex- 
ertions with  greater  method  and  decision, 
and  with  a  much  better  prospect  of  per- 
manent effect.  The  first  meeting  of  their 
prelates  at  Bourges  was  contemporary  with 
that  of  the  Council  of  Basle.  Some  useful 
resolutions  were  then  passed.  But  the  Grand 
Assembly,  which  fixed  the  liberties  of  the 
Gallican  Church,  was  held  in  the  same  city 
in  the  year  1438.  It  was  convoked  by 
Charles  VII.,  who  presided  in  person ;  it  was 
thronged  by  his  most  illustrious  subjects, 
secular  as  well  as  ecclesiastic ;  and  it  was 
attended  by  the  authorized  legates  both  of 
Eugenius  and  the  Council.  The  result  of 
their  deliberations  was  the  celebrated  Prag- 

*  The  Diet  of  Mayence  withheld  its  sanction  from 
those  decrees,  which  were  directly  levelled  against 
Eugenius. 

j-  The  Annates,  the  great  bone  of  contention,  were 
retained  in  substance  by  the  Pope.  Instead  of  the 
arbitrary  reservation  of  benefices,  he  obtained  the 
positive  right  of  collation  dining  six  alternate  months 
of  every  year.  Episcopal  elections  were  restored  to 
the  chapters — the  Pope  only  nominating  in  case  of 
translation,  or  of  a  person,  cauouically  disqualified, 
being  presented  for  confirmation. — See  Hallam,  Mid- 
i  die  Ages,  chap.  vii. 


456 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


matic  Sanction,*  the  great  bulwark  of  the 
national  Church,  against  the  usurpations  of 
Rome  —  that  to  which  the  French  divines 
afterwards  clung  with  so  much  resolution 
and  tenacity,  even  after  it  had  been  betrayed 
to  the  enemy  by  an  interested  monarch. 

The  Gallican  Liberties,  while  they  embrac- 
ed a  number  of  particular  provisions,  were 
founded  on  two  grand  principles  :  —  (1)  That 
the  Pope  has  no  authority  in  the  kingdom  of 
France  over  any  thing  concerning  temporals. 
(2)  That,  though  the  Pope  is  acknowledged 
as  sovereign  lord  in  spirituals,  his  power  even 
in  these  is  restricted  and  controlled  by  the 
canons  and  regulations  of  the  ancient  Coun- 
cils of  the  Church,f  received  in  this  kingdom. 

The  Pragmatic  Sanction.  —  The  Articles 
constituting  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  were 
chiefly  founded  on  the  Decrees  of  the  twen- 
tieth, twenty-first,  and  twenty-third  Sessions 
of  the  Council  of  Basle.  Some  of  these 
were,  indeed,  modified,  with  a  view  to  accom- 
modate them  to  the  peculiar  circumstances 
of  the  country,  not  (as  was  expressly  declar- 
ed) from  any  disrespect  to  the  authority  of 
that  Assembly.  But  the  greater  part  were 
at  once  adopted  into  the  Church  of  France, 
and  ardently  embraced  by  the  clergy  and  the 
nation.  Yet  can  it  scarcely  be  necessary  to 
remind  the  reader,  that  most  of  the  abuses 
thus  removed  concerned  no  more  vital  ques- 
tion, than  the  patronage  of  the  Church — that 
the  object  of  most  of  those  vaunted  resolu- 
tions was  only  to  relieve  the  clergy  (and,  to 
a  certain  extent,  the  people  of  France)  from 
the  contributions,  which,  under  a  thousand 
names  and  pretexts,  were  exacted  by  the 
Apostolical  Chancery  ;  that  the  avarice  of  the 
Holy  See  was  the  most  unpopular  among  its 


*  Pragmatic  sanction  was  a  general  term  for  all 
important  ordinances  of  Church  or  State — those,  per- 
haps, more  properly,  which  were  enacted  in  public 
assemblies,  with  the  counsel  of  eminent  jurisconsults, 
or  Pragmatici. 

•f  '  La  premiere  est,  Que  les  Papes  ne  peuvent  rien 
commander  ni  ordonner,  soit  en  general  soit  en  par- 
ticulier,  de  ce  qui  concerne  les  choses  temporelles  es 
pays  et  terres  de  Pobeyssance  et  souverainete  du  Roy 
Tres-Chrestien:  et  s'ils  y  commandent  on  statuent 
quelque  chose,  les  sujets  du  Roy,  encores  qu'ils  fus- 
sent  clercs,  ne  sont  tenus  pour  obeyr  pour  ce  regard. 

'  La  seconde,  Qu'encores  que  le  Pape  soit  reconnu 
pour  suzerain  es  choses  spirituelles ;  toutesfois  en 
France  la  puissance  absolue  et  infinie  n'a  point  de 
lieu,  mais  est  retenue  et  bornee  par  les  canons  et 
regies  des  anciens  conciles  de  l'Eglise  reeeus  en  ce 
royaume.  Et  in  hoc  maxime  consistit  Libertas  Ec- 
clesiaj  Gallicanre.'  See  Commentaire  stir  le  Traite 
des  Lib.  de  l'Eglise  Gall,  de  Pierre  Pithov.  Paris, 
1652. 


vices  ;  and  that  mere  pecuniary  motives  were 
at  the  bottom  of  more  than  half  the  grievan- 
ces, which  alienated  its  children  from  it.  * 

We  shall  not  here  relate  the  exertions  which 
were  made  by  Pius  II.  to  subvert  the  prin- 
ciples, of  which,  as  ./Eneas  Sylvius,  he  had 
been  the  warmest  advocate,  and  to  overthrow 
the  liberties,  which  his  own  hand  had  plant- 
ed. The  nominal  repeal  of  the  Pragmatic 
Sanction  by  Louis  XL  was  never  ratified  by 
his  subjects,  nor  effected  in  defiance  of  their 
dissent ;  and  the  articles  which  were  enacted 
at  Bourges  continued  for  the  most  part  in 
force  until  the  reign  of  Francis  I.  The  con- 
sequence was,  that  the  French  people,  being 
in  a  great  degree  sheltered  from  the  extor- 
tions of  Rome,  were  less  disposed  to  question 
her  general  rights,  and  to  rebel  against  her 
spiritual  prerogatives.  The  most  sordid  and 
disgusting  particulars  of  her  system  were  not 
so  commonly  presented  to  their  view.  A 
smaller  contribution,  indeed,  flowed  into  her 
treasuries,  and  her  emissaries  were  more 
sparingly  scattered  in  that  country  ;  but  her 
name  was  less  odious,  as  her  vices  were  less 
obtrusive.  And  while  in  Germany,  the  re- 
establishment  of  the  Papal  despotism,  with 
all  its  train  of  annates,  reservations,  and  in- 
dulgences, produced,  by  an  inevitable  neces- 
sity, the  violent  revolt  and  final  independence 
of  the  oppressed,  so  the  Catholics  of  France 
submitted  with  less  reluctance  to  her  mitigat- 
ed sway. 

The  most  important  decree  promulgated  at 
Constance  was,  perhaps,  that  which  fixed  the 
periodical  meeting  of  general  councils;  for  it 
was  in  vain  to  have  established  the  supre- 
macy of  those  assemblies,  unless  continual 
opportunities  were  afforded  them  for  its  ex- 
ercise. The  spirit  of  Rome  was  invariable, 
and  in  perpetual  action  ;  it  could  not  be  coun 
teracted  and  restrained,  unless  by  frequent 
collision  with  the  restraining  body.  The  wis- 
est resolutions,  unless  enforced  by  the  con- 


*  The  Pragmatic  Sanction  consisted  of  twenty- 
three  articles,  several  of  which  regarded  the  police 
of  cathedral  churches,  the  celebration  of  the  divine 
offices,  and  other  matters  not  connected  with  papal 
prerogatives.  There  are  also  some  few  which  are  so 
connected,  which  have  yet  no  reference  to  patronage 
— they  respect  the  periodical  assembly,  and  the  supe- 
rior authority,  of  General  Councils,  and  the  number 
of  the  Sacred  College.  But  elections,  reservations, 
collections,  expectative  graces,  and  annates  formed 
after  all  the  burden  of  the  grievances — and  to  those 
we  may  fairly  add  appeals  to  the  Court  of  Rome, 
which  were  now  become  only  an  additional  method 
of  raising  money. — See  Histohe  de  i'Orig.  de  la 
Pragm.  Sanct.,  &c.  par  Pierre  Pithov. 


ATTEMPTS   AT   SELF-REFORMATION. 


457 


stant  protection  of  the  power  which  created 
them,  would  be  neutralized  or  crushed  in  the 
pontifical  grasp.  The  justice  of  this  appre- 
hension was  proved  by  the  fate  of  the  very 
decree,  of  which  we  are  now  speaking.  It 
was  perseveringly  eluded  by  the  Popes  who 
followed,  and  with  so  much  success,  that  no 
other  general  council  was  convoked  before 
the  end  of  the  century.  After  the  separation 
of  the  fathers  of  Basle,  the  repose  and  pre- 
rogatives of  the  pontiffs  were  never  seriously 
disturbed,  until  the  destined  season  at  length 
arrived,  in  which  they  were  invaded  by  a 
harsher  voice  and  a  far  ruder  hand. 

It  has  been  made  a  question  among  eccle- 
siastical writers,  whether  the  decennial  meet- 
ings of  those  bodies,  as  decreed  at  Constance, 
would  have  conferred  benefit  or  the  contrary, 
on  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  It  is  argued 
on  the  one  hand,  that  they  presented  the  ouiy 
check  upon  the  excesses  of  the  Roman  court, 
which  were  hurrying  the  Church  to  its  de- 
struction ;  that  in  the  progressive  light  and 
information  of  the  age,  an  absolute  spiritual 
despotism  could  not  possibly  endure  much 
longer,  and  that  the  monarchy  of  the  Church 
could  only  hope  for  stability  through  an  infu- 
sion of  the  popular  principle  ;  since  even  the 
clergy  themselves  were  no  longer  well  affected 
towards  an  unlimited  government;  that  many 
abuses  in  morals  and  discipline,  which  were 
continually  growing  up,  were  most  effectually 
corrected  by  the  authority  of  councils. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  disputed  whether 
the  benefits  derived  from  the  three  assem- 
blies, which  had  taken  place,  were,  in  fact, 
so  very  substantial  ?  Whether  they  were  at 
all  proportionate  to  the  weighty  machinery, 
which  was  moved  to  produce  them  ?  Wheth- 
er the  non-residence  of  so  many  prelates  and 
other  clergy,  during  such  long  periods,  was 
not  a  new  evil  of  immense  importance  ? 
Whether  those  divisions  and  passionate  con- 
tests among  spiritual  ministers,  which  seemed 
the  necessary  fruit  of  general  councils,  did 
not  cast  as  many  scandals  on  the  church,  as 
those  which  were  removed?  Whether  the 
immediate  danger  of  a  positive  schism,  which 
had  actually  been  occasioned  by  the  proceed- 
ings at  Basle,  did  not  at  least  counterbalance 
those  remote  perils,  which  timely  remedies 
might,  or  might  not,  perhaps,  have  averted? 

To  a  Protestant  impartially  comparing 
these  considerations,  it  is,  in  the  first  place, 
obvious,  that  a  cordial  co-operation  between 
an  enlightened  Pope  and  a  body  of  intelligent 
ecclesiastics,  for  the  single  purpose  of  correct- 
ing abuses  in  government  and  discipline,  and 
58 


otherwise  modifying  the  system  by  season 
able  alterations,  would  have  afforded  the  best 
human  probability  of  preserving  the  papal 
supremacy  undisputed,  and  deferring  the 
hour  of  a  more  perfect  reformation.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  is  equally  manifest,  that,  as 
the  court  of  Rome  was  at  that  time  constitut- 
ed, so  generous  a  co-operation,  so  provident 
a  sacrifice  of  instant  profit  for  future  security, 
could  not  possibly  have  formed  the  policy  of 
the  Vatican.  Those,  who  have  long  been  in 
possession  of  usurped  prerogatives,  have  sel- 
dom the  courage,  when  the  moment  of  retri- 
bution approaches,  to  concede  a  part,  though 
they  should  thereby  save  the  rest;  they  cling 
pertinaciously  to  their  meanest  acquisitions, 
until  the  hand  of  the  reformer  is  at  length 
provoked  to  resume  the  whole.  It  was  thus 
with  the  Bishops  of  Rome :  educated  in  a 
profligate  court,  and  in  the  narrowest  princi- 
ples, they  commonly  obtained  their  elevation 
by  intrigue  or  bribery.  The  pontifical  digni- 
ty was  itself  beset  by  seductions,  sufficient  to 
corrupt  the  most  generous  mind.  So  that  it 
was  vain  to  look  to  Rome  for  any  other  policy, 
than  the  most  contracted  and  the  most  selfish. 

If  these  conclusions  be  true,  the  periodical 
meetings  of  general  councils  would  have 
only  introduced  periodical  convulsions  and 
schisms.  And,  although  some  partial  benefits 
would  no  doubt  have  proceeded  from  their 
deliberations,  they  would  scarcely  have  pro- 
longed the  duration  of  a  system,  of  which 
unity  was  a  necessary  characteristic.  The 
manner  of  its  destruction  might,  indeed,  have 
been  different ;  it  might  have  been  torn  in 
pieces  by  intestine  discord,  instead  of  sinkiug 
before  the  impulse  from  without.  But  its 
doom  was  irrevocably  sealed  ;  and  the  seeds 
of  dissolution  were  too  amply  sown  in  the 
very  vitals  of  the  papal  Church,  to  admit  of 
any  effectual  reformation. 

General  Principles  of  the  Councils  of  Con- 
stance and  Basle. —  Again;  however  justly 
we  may  applaud  the  reforming  projects  of 
the  fathers  of  Constance  and  Basle,  as  indi- 
cating some  consciousness  of  shame  or  of 
danger,  some  foresight,  at  least,  if  not  some 
virtue,  yet  it  is  certain  that  their  general 
principles  were  in  no  respect  more  moderate 
than  those  of  the  Vatican.  We  have  already 
observed  how  the  former  of  those  Councils, 
after  investing  itself  with  all  the  spiritual 
attributes  and  authority  of.  the  Church,  im- 
mediately   overstepped    the    boundary,"    and 

*  If  the  fathers  of  Constance  offended  the  King  of 
Prance  by  the  Orders  which  they  issued  respecting  the 
safe  conduct  of  Sigismond  in  his  journey  to  Spain; 


458 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


drew,  like  the  Popes  whom  it  superseded, 
the  temporal  sword.  But  we  have  still  to 
describe  the  most  arbitrary  and  iniquitous 
act  of  the  same  assembly.  The  Holy  Fathers, 
be  it  recollected,  had  met  for  the  reformation 
of  their  Church.  The  word  was  perpetually 
on  their  lips,  and  they  denounced,  with  un- 
sparing vehemence,  some  of  the  corruptions 
of  their  own  system.  In  the  midst  of  them 
were  two  men  of  learning,  genius,  integrity, 
piety,  who  had  intrusted  their  personal  safety 
to  the  faith  of  the  council,  John  Huss  and  Je- 
rome of  Prague ;  and  these  too  were  reform- 
ers. But  it  happened  that  they  had  taken  a 
different  view  of  the  condition  and  exigencies 
of  the  Church  ;  and  while  the  boldest  projects 
of  the  wisest  among  the  orthodox  were  con- 
iined  to  matters  of  patronage,  discipline,  cere- 
mony, the  hand  of  the  Bohemians  had  probed 
a  deeper  wound:  they  disputed,  if  not  the 
doctrinal  purity,*  at  least  the  spiritual  omnip- 
otence of  the  Church.  Those  daring  inno- 
vators had  crossed  the  line  which  separated 
reformation  from  heresy — and  they  had  their 
recompense.  In  the  clamor  which  was  raised 
against  them,  all  parties  joined  as  with  one 
voice:  divided  on  all  other  questions,  con- 
tending about  all  other  principles,  the  grand 
universal  assembly  was  united,  from  Gerson 
himself  down  to  the  meanest  Italian  papal 
minion,  in  common  detestation  of  the  heresy, 
in  implacable  rage  against  its  authors.  Those 
venerable  martyrs  were  imprisoned, arraigned, 
condemned  ;  and  then  by  the  command,  and 
in  the  presence  of  the  majestic  senate  of  the 
Church,  the  deposer  of  Popes,  the  uprooter 
of  corruption,  the  reformer  of  Christ's  holy 
Communion  —  they  were  deliberately  con- 
signed to  the  flames.  Is  there  any  act  record- 
ed in  the  blood-stained  annals  of  the  Popes 
more  foul  and  merciless  than  that  ?  .  .  . 
More  than  this.  The  guilt  of  the  murder 
was  enhanced  by  perfidy;  and  for  the  pur- 
pose of  justifying  this  last  offence  ( for  the 
former,  being  fouuded  on  the  established 
Church  principles,  required  no  apology  )  they 
added  to  those  principles  another,  not  less 
flagitious  than  any  of  those  already  recog- 
nised— '  that  neither  faith  nor  promise,  by 
natural,  divine,  or  human  law,  was  to  be 
observed  to  the  prejudice  of  the  Catholic 
religion.'  f     Let  us   here   recollect  that  this 


bo  did  those  of  Basle  irritate  the  princes  of  Germany 
by  an  assumption  of  temporal  authority;  and  this 
was  their  great  mistake. 

*  See  the  following  Chapter. 

t  '  Cum  tamen  dictus  Johannes  Huss,  fidem  ortho- 
doxam  peitiuaciter  impugnaus,  se  ab  omni  conductu 


maxim  did  not  proceed  from  the  caprice  of 
an  arbitrary  individual,  and  a  Pope, — for  so 
it  would  scarcely  have  claimed  our  serious 
notice — but  from  the  considerate  resolution 
of  a  very  numerous  assembly,  which  embod- 
ied almost  all  the  learning,  wisdom,  and  mod- 
eration of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

General  councils,  claiming  to  act.  under 
the  immediate  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
were  consequently  infallible,  as  well  as  im- 
peccable. We  shall,  therefore,  mention  one 
or  two  of  the  subjects  to  which  their  unerring 
judgment  was  directed.  In  the  July  of  1434, 
the  council  of  Basle  confirmed  a  Bull,  previ- 
ously published  by  Eugenius  IV.,  respecting 
the  veneration  due  to  the  sacrament  of  the 
Eucharist,  and  the  indulgences  granted  at 
the  feast  of  the  holy  sacrament;  with  an  order 
for  its  universal  observance  in  the  Church. 
The  thirty-sixth  session  (  Sept.  17,  1439 )  of 
the  same  assembly  was  occupied  in  drawing 
up  a  decree  in  favor  of  the  immaculate  con- 
ception of  the  Holy  Virgin.*  This  article  of 
faith  was  solemnly  enjoined  to  all  good  Cath- 
olics ;  and  an  universal  festival  was  instituted 
in  its  honor,  '  according  to  the  custom  of  the 
Roman  Church.'  Two  years  afterwards,  at 
their  forty-third  meeting,  the  same  fathers 
confirmed,  after  a  very  long  deliberation,  the 
feast  of  the  visitation  of  the  Holy  Virgin. 
They  enacted  that  it  should  be  celebrated 
throughout  the  whole  Church  by  all  the  faith- 
ful; and  they  accorded  to  those,  who  should 
assist  at  matins,  at  the  processions,  at  the 
sermon,  at  mass,  at  the  first  and  at  the  second 
vespers,  a  hundred  days  of  indulgences  for 
each  of  those  offices.  At  the  same  time, 
while  they  were  thus  extending  the  reign  of 
superstition  over  their  obedient  children,  they 

et  privikgio  reddiderit  alienum,  nee  aliqua  sibi  fides 
ant  promissio  de  jure  naturali,  divino  vel  humano, 
fuerit  in  prejudicitun  Catholiae  fidei  observanda: 
idcirco  dicta  sancta  synodus  declarat,  &c.'  The 
words  are  cited  by  Hallam  (Middle  Ages,  chap,  vii.), 
without  suspicion.  We  find  it  asserted,  however,  by 
Roman  Catholics,  that  they  exist  in  no  MS.  except 
that  in  the  Imperial  Library  at  Vienna;  and  that 
even  there  the  formal  signatures,  attached  to  the  other 
articles,  are  not  subscribed  to  this;  hence  they  infer 
its  epuriousness.  We  should  remark  that  Von  der 
Hardt  has  published  it  (torn,  iv.,  p.  521,)  without 
any  expression  of  doubt. 

*  That  is,  that  the  holy  Virgin  was  preserved  in 
her  conception  from  the  stain  of  original  sin.  We 
observe  that  bachelors  in  theology,  and  others  in  the 
University  of  Paris,  were  compelled  to  subscribe,  on 
oath,  to  their  belief  in  this  doctrine.  In  Spain  it  is 
considered  an  essential  part  of  die  Catholic  faith  at 
this  moment. 


THE   HUSSITES. 


459 


were  contesting  the  double  communion  with 
the  Bohemian  rebels,  and  refusing  every  con- 
cession to  reason  and  to  scripture,  excepting 
such*  as  was  extorted  from  them  by  force. 
Some  individuals  must  certainly  have  existed 
among  them,  who  had  penetrated  the  inward 
depravity  of  their  system  and  saw  the  totter- 
ing ground  on  which  it  stood ;  but  they  be- 
lieved, no  doubt,  that  things  would  continue 
to  be,  as  they  had  been  ;  they  were  blind  to 
the  slow  but  irresistible  progress  of  inquiry 
and  knowledge. 

From  the  days  of  St.  Bernard  to  those 
of  Bossuet  the  extirpation  of  heresy  formed 
a  part  or  an  object  \  of  every  scheme  of 
Church  reform  proposed  by  churchmen. 
The  principle  of  toleration  was  unknown  in 
the  ecclesiastical  policy;  it  may  have  guided 
the  private  practice  of  many  enlightened  in- 
dividuals, but  it  was  never  inscribed  in  the 
code  of  the  Church.  Those  very  councils, 
from  whose  generous  professions  and  pop- 
ular constitution  a  wiser  legislation  might 
have  been  expected,  did  but  exclude  it  more 
fiercely,  and  banish  it  more  hopelessly.  But, 
in  return  for  their  adherence  to  the  favorite 
vice  of  the  Church,  did  they  amend  any 
maxim  of  its  government?  Did  they  uproot 
any  unscriptural  tenet,  any  superstitious  be- 
lief, any  profitable  imposture,  any  senseless 
ceremony,  or  degrading  practice?  Did  they 
wash  away  any  spiritual  stain  from  the  sanc- 
tuary, now  that  the  light  from  abroad  was 
breaking  in  upon  it?  On  the  contrary,  they 
not  only  persevered  in  maintaining  every 
absurdity   which   had    been   transmitted    to 


*  The  concession  of  the  council  respecting  the 
double  communion  amounted,  at  last,  only  to  this, 
that  whether  the  sacrament  was  administered  in  one 
kind  or  in  both,  it  was  still  useful  to  communicants — • 
'  for  there  could  be  no  doubt  that  Christ  was  entire  in 
either  element;  and  that  the  custom  of  communica- 
ting the  laity  in  one  kind,  introduced  with  reason  by 
the  Church  and  holy  fathers,  long  observed  and  ap- 
proved by  theologians  and  canonists,  should  pass  for 
a  law,  neither  to  be  censured  nor  altered  without  the 
authority  of  the  Church.'  This  decree  was  publish- 
ed in  1437,  in  the  thirtieth  session. 

t  For  instance,  at  Constance  it  formed  a  part  of 
the  scheme  of  the  reformers.  To  '  repress  simony, 
and  prosecute  Jerome  of  Prague,'  were  joint  subjects 
of  the  same  remonstrances.  To  restore  the  unity  of 
the  Church  was  to  reform  the  Church.  But  at  Basle 
the  reformation  in  discipline  was  chiefly  recommen- 
ded as  the  means  of  extirpating  heresy.  (See  the 
passages  above  cited  from  Cardinal  Julian's  two 
letters.)  But  it  never  occurred  to  either  council  to 
consider,  whether  the  heretics  might  not  possibly  be 
risht;  or,  being  wrong,  whether  they  might  not  safe- 
ly be  tolerated. 


them,  but  showed  a  preposterous  anxiety  to 
increase  the  number.  It  is  perfectly  true 
that,  in  mere  matters  of  discipline,  they  were 
fearless  innovators,  and  that  they  assailed 
with  ardor  the  more  palpable  iniquities  of 
the  Vatican.  But  this  was  the  extent  of 
their  daring ;  this  was  the  limit,  as  they 
thought,  of  safe  and  legitimate  reform ;  all 
beyond  it  was  inviolable  ground.  Thus  it 
was,  that  to  question  the  sanctity  of  their 
spiritual  corruptions  was  deemed  profane 
and  heretical;  and  their  eyes  were  wilfully 
closed  against  the  unalterable  truth,  that  the 
Church  of  Christ  cannot  permanently  stand 
on  any  other  foundation,  than  the  gospel  of 
Christ. 

In  the  meantime,  while  the  fathers  of 
Basle,  who  saw  some  part  of  their  danger, 
were  ineffectually  contending  with  an  infat- 
uated pontiff,  who  was  blind  to  the  whole, 
the  art  of  printing  was  discovered ;  and  the 
star  of  universal  knowledge,  the  future  arbiter 
of  Churches  and  of  Empires,  arose  unheeded 
from  the  restless  bosom  of  Germany. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

History  of  the  Hussites. 

( 1.)  General  fidelity  of  England  to  the  Roman  See— The 
beginnings  of  Wiclif,  and  the  hostility  he  encountered— 
To  what  extent  his  opposition  to  Home  was  popular — 
His  death  at  Lutterworth,  and  the  exhumation  of  his 
remains  in  pursuance  of  a  decree  of  the  Council  of 
Constance— His  opinions  on  several  important  points 
—He  was  calumniated  by  the  high  churchmen  —  His 
translation  of  the  Bible.— (II.)  The  writings  of  Wiclif 
introduced  into  Bohemia— Origin  and  qualities  of  John 
Hups— His  sermons  in  the  Chapel  of  Bethlehem— Di- 
vision in  the  University  of  Prague— Secession  of  the 
Germans,  in  hostility  against  Huss— lie  incurs  the  dis- 
pleasure of  the  Archbishop  of  Prague— of  John  XXIII. 
—is  summoned  before  the  Council  of  Constance— His 
attachment  to  the  character  of  Wiclif— Opinions  as- 
cribed to  the  Vaudois  and  Hussites  by  jEneas  Sylvius — 
many  of  them  disclaimed  by  Huss— Notion  respecting 
tithes— The  restoration  of  the  cup  to  the  laity— de- 
manded not  by  Huss,  but  by  Jacobellusof  Misnia— The 
principle  of  persecution  advocated  by  Gerson — Huss 
proceeds  to  Constance— The  safe  conduct  of  the  Em- 
peror— The  motives  of  Huss— Assurances  of  protection 
— nevertheless  Huss  is  placed  in  confinement  —  and 
eight  articles  alleged  against  him— Condemnation  of 
Wiclif— A  public  tiial  granted  to  Huss— The  insults 
and  calumnies  to  which  he  is  exposed — Three  articles 
to  which  he  adhered— Principles  of  the  Council— Huss 
refuses  to  tetract— Declaration  of  Sigismond— Various 
solicitations  and  trials  to  which  Huss  is  subject  during 
his  imprisonment— Overture  made  to  him  by  Sigismond 
—Interview  between  Huss  and  John  of  Chlurn— The 
sentence  passed  on  Huss— The  process  of  his  degrada- 
tion—and execution— Two  principal  causps  of  his  des- 
truction.—(III.)  Jerome  of  Prague  appears  before  the 
Council— His  retractation— Subsequent  avowal  of  his 
opinions— and  execution— Observations.— (IV.)  Move- 


460 


HISTORY   OF   THE   CHURCH. 


ments  occasioned  in  Bohemia  by  these  executions — 
The  name  of  Thaborite  assumed  by  the  Insurgents — 
The  triumphs  of  Zisca — Massacre  of  the  Adamites — 
The  Bohemian  Deputies  proceed  to  the  Council  of 
Basle — The  four  articles  proposed  by  them — and  the 
consequent  ineffectual  debate — The  scene  of  negotia- 
tion then  removed  to  Prague— Various  parties  there — 
Defeat  and  massacre  of  the  Thaborites — A  compact 
concluded  between  Sigismond  and  the  Separatists — 
Real  principles  of  Rome — The  Pope  refuses  to  confirm 
the  compact,  and  the  dissensions  continue — under  Pius 
II.  and  Paul  II. — Many  of  the  opinions  of  the  Hussites 
perpetuated  by  the  '  Bohemian  Brothers,'  who  became 
celebrated  in  the  next  century. 

I.  The  Roman  See  had  been  long  accus- 
tomed to  consider  the  English  as  the  most 
obedient  and  exemplary  among  its  subjects — 
an  equivocal  merit,  which  it  rewarded  by 
more  oppressive  extortions  and  more  con- 
temptuous insult.  It  is  true,  that  our  kings 
and  statesmen  had  made  at  various  times 
some  vigorous  exertions  to  mitigate  the 
Papal  dominion  ;  but  the  Popes  were  enabled 
to  thwart  or  elude  their  efforts  by  the  fidelity 
of  the  clergy  and  the  people.*  Nor  was  it 
only  the  praise  of  ecclesiastical  obsequious- 
ness that  our  Catholic  ancestors  deserved  of 
the  Holy  See ;  that  of  immaculate  doctrinal 
purity  was  ascribed  to  them  with  equal  jus- 
tice. They  received  with  reverence  every 
innovation  in  their  belief,  every  demand  on 
their  credulity,  which  proceeded  from  the 
unerring  oracles  of  the  Church  ;  but  they 
faithfully  discouraged  any  new  opinions  orig- 
inating in  any  other  quarter.  The  conti- 
nental heresies  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries  had  not  been  allowed  to  deiile  their 
sanctuary  ;  still  less  had  it  been  profaned  by 
any  weeds  of  indigenous  growth.  The  land, 
in  which  Wiclif  was  already  preparing  his 
immortal  weapons  for  the  contest,  was  that, 
on  which  the  pontifical  regards  were  fixed 
with  the  deepest  complacency  and  most 
unsuspecting  confidence. 

Wiclif.  —  John  of  Wiclif f  was  born  in 
Yorkshire  about  the  year  1324.  He  was 
educated  at  Oxford  ;  and  the  great  proficien- 
cy, which  he  made  in   the   learning  of  the 

*  The  statutes  of  provisors  and  pramunire,  en- 
acted in  1350,  anticipated  most  of  the  articles  of  the 
Pragmatic  Sanction  of  France, — since  tlie  first  res- 
trained the  usurpation  of  Church  patronage  by  the 
Pope,  and  the  second  protected  the  temporal  rights 
of  the  Crown  ;  but  neither  of  them  was  observed,  and 
the  Pope  continued  to  fill  the  Sees  with  foreign  pre- 
lates. 

t  We  do  not  profess,  in  the  present  history,  to 
treat  in  any  detail  the  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  Eng- 
land; and  in  the  following  short  account  of  Wiclif 
there  is  little  which  may  not  be  found  much  more 
fully  and  eloquently  expressed  in  Professor  Le  Bas' 
•Life  of  Wiclif.' 


schools,  did  not  prevent  him  from  acquiring 
and  deserving  the  title  of  the  Evangelic,  or 
Gospel,  Doctor.  His  earlier  life  was  distin- 
guished by  a  bold  attack  on  the  corruptions 
of  the  clergy,  and  by  great  zeal  in  the  contest 
with  the  Mendicants,  which,  in  1360,  dis- 
turbed the  university  and  the  Church.  He 
was  raised  to  the  theological  chair  in  1372; 
he  had  previously  defended  the  cause  of  the 
Crown  against  the  Pope,  respecting  the  pay- 
ment of  the  tribute  imposed  by  Innocent  III., 
and  he  was  known  to  harbor  many  anti-papal 
opinions:  but  he  was  not  yet  committed  in 
direct  opposition  to  Rome.  Soon  afterwards 
he  formed  part  of  an  embassy  to  Avignon, 
instructed  to  represent  and  remove  the  griev- 
ances of  the  Anglican  Church.  It  was  not 
till  his  return  from  that  mission,  when  his 
language  was  heated  by  long-treasured  indig- 
nation, or  by  the  near  spectacle  of  pontifical 
impurity,  that  the  reformer  first  incurred  the 
displeasure  of  the  English  hierarchy.  He 
was  cited  before  a  convocation,  held  at  St. 
Paul's  in  1377;  and  it  seems  probable,  that 
he  owed  his  preservation  to  the  powerful 
protection  of  John  Duke  of  Lancaster.  At 
the  same  time  the  Vatican  thundered;  and 
the  heresy  of  Wiclif  was  compared  to  that 
of  Marsilius  of  Padua  and  others,  who  had 
been  sheltered  against  the  oppression  of  John 
XXII.  by  the  imperial  patronage.  But  the 
Papal  Bull  was  so  little  regarded  at  Oxford,* 
that  it  was  even  made  a  question,  whether  it 
should  not  be  ignominiously  rejected ;  and 
when  the  offender  was  subsequently  sum- 
moned to  Lambeth,  he  was  dismissed  with  a 
simple  injunction  to  abstain  from  diffusing 
his  opinions.  Howbeit,  the  Pope  and  his 
myrmidons  continued  eager  and  constant  in 
the  pursuit ;  and  there  are  many  who  believe, 
that  it  was  the  timely  circumstance  of  the 
schism,  which  alone  defrauded  persecution 
of  its  intended  victim. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  ardor  of  Wiclif  f 
was  still  further  inflamed  by  the  appearance 
of  this  new  deformity — when  he  saw  '  the 
head  of  Antichrist  cloven  in  twain,  and  the 
two  parts  made  to  fight  against  each  other.' 


*  '  Din  in  pendulo  ha?rebant,  utrum  papalem  Bul- 
lam  deberent  cum  honore  suscipere,  vel  ornnino  cum 
dedecore  refutare.'     Walsingham. 

f  One  of  the  latest  labors  of  his  life  was  another 
attack  on  the  delinquencies  of  the  clergy,  which  he 
described  under  thirty-three  heads  in  the  tract  '  How 
the  office  of  curates  is  ordained  of  God.'  The  more 
profound  sense  of  those  delinquencies  which  he  had 
derived  from  inveterate  habits  and  principles  of  piety, 
gave  an  ardor  to  the  expressions  of  his  advancing 
age  which  surpassed  that  of  his  youthful  enthusiasm 


THE   HUSSITES, 


461 


He  even  proceeded  so  far,  as  to  exhort  the 
princes  of  Europe  to  seize  that  signal  oppor- 
tunity of  extinguishing  the  evil  entirely.  But 
in  their  eyes  it  did  not  perhaps  appear  to  be 
an  evil  at  all — at  least  it  was  still  so  dee;  ly 
rooted  in  the  prejudices  of  the  people,  thul  its 
extirpation,  even  had  they  thought  it  desir- 
able, had  not  yet  been  practicable.  It  was 
the  misfortune  of  Wiclif,  as  it  was  his  great- 
est glory,  that  he  anticipated,  by  almost  two 
centuries,  the  principles  of  a  more  enlightened 
generation  ;  and  scattered  his  holy  lessons  on 
a  soil,  nor  yet  prepared  to  give  them  perfect 
life  and  maturity. 

As  long  as  Wiclif  confined,  or  nearly  con- 
fined, his  vehement  reprehensions  to  the  de- 
linquencies of  the  clergy,  or  the  anti-Chris- 
tian spirit  of  the  Court  of  Rome— so  long  he 
obtained  many  and  powerful  disciples,  and 
could  count  on  their  attachment  and  fidelity. 
But  no  sooner  did  he  rise  from  that  manifest 
and  intelligible  ground  of  dissent,  and  ad- 
vance into  the  region  of  doctrinal  disputation, 
than  the  enthusiasm  and  number  of  his  fol- 
lowers declined,  and  even  John  of  Lancaster 
strongly  enjoined  him  to  desist.  In  1381  -2 
he  opened  his  Sacramentary  Controversy  ; 
some  considerable  tumults  followed;  he  was 
cited  in  consequence  before  the  Convention 
at  Oxford,  and  banished  from  that  city.  He 
retired  to  his  rectory  at  Lutterworth  ;  and 
after  two  more  years  diligently  employed  in 
the  offices  of  piety,  he  died  there  in  peaceful 
and  honorable  security — security  which  was 
alike  honorable  to  his  own  character,  to  the 
firmness  of  his  illustrious  protectors,  and  to 
the  moderation  of  the  English  prelacy.  His 
opinions  were  never  extinguished  ;  and  his 
name  continued  so  formidable  to  the  cham- 
pions of  the  Church,  that,  after  an  interval 
of  thirty  years— after  all  personal  malice  and 
jealousy  had  long  passed  away — the  Council 
of  Reformers  at  Constance  published  that 
memorable  edict,  by  which  'the  body  and 
bones  of  Wiclif  were  to  be  taken  from  the 
ground,  and  thrown  far  away  from  the  burial 
of  any  Church.'.  .  .  .  The  decree  met  with 
a  tardy  obedience  :  after  the  space  of  thir- 
teen years,  the  remains  were  disinterred  and 
burnt,  and  the  ashes  cast  into  the  adjoining 
brook.  'The  brook  (says  Fuller,  in  words 
which  should  be  engraven  on  every  heart) 
did  convey  his  ashes  into  Avon ;  Avon 
into  Severn ;  Severn  into  the  narrow  seas ; 
they  into  the  main  ocean.  And  thus  the 
ashes  of  Wiclif  are  the  emblem  of  his  doc- 
trine, which  now  is  dispersed  all  the  world 
over.' 


Opinions    of    Wiclif. —  His   doctrine   was 
formed,  with  an  entire  disregard  of  all  spir- 
itual authority,  on  the  foundation  of  Scrip- 
ture alone — for  '  the  Scripture  alone  (as  he 
said)   is   truth.'     Various   innovations  of  the 
Roman  Church  were  opposed  by  him  with 
various  degrees  of  confidence.     Respecting 
images  and   the   invocation  of  the  saints  he 
wrote  at  no  great  length,  but  with  resonable- 
ness  and  moderation.     He  rejected  transub- 
stantiation,   according  to   the   sense  of   the 
Church  ;  but  he  admitted  a  sort  of  real  pre- 
sence,  without   affecting   to   determine    the 
manner.     His   notion    concerning  purgatory 
seems  to  have  gone  farther  from  the  belief  in 
which  he  was  educated,  as  he  gradually  ad- 
vanced in  knowledge  ;  but  he  never  entirely 
threw  off  his  original  impressions.     At  last, 
indeed,  he  might  appear  to  have  considered 
it  as  a  place  of  sleep  ;  but  his  expressions 
are  vague  and  betray  the  ignorance,  which  he 
was  not  careful  to  conceal,  either  from  others 
or  from  himself.     On  other  matters  he  ex- 
pressed much  bolder  opinions.     He  rejected 
auricular  confession ;   he  held  pardons  and 
indulgences  to  be  nothing  but  'a  subtle  mer- 
chandise of  anti-Christian    clerks,   whereby 
they  magnified  their  own  fictitious  power; 
and  instead  of  causing  men  to  dread  sin,  en- 
couraged them  to  wallow  therein   like  hogs.' 
Excommunication  and  interdicts  were  repu- 
diated with  equal  disdain.     He  reprobated  the 
compulsory  celibacy  of  the  clergy  and  the 
imposition   of  monastic   vows;   and   visited 
with  the  austerity  of  a  Puritan,  not  only  the 
vain  and  fantastic  ceremonies  of  the  Church, 
but  even  the  devout  use  of  holy  psalmody. 
In  the  granting  of  absolution  he   treated  the 
office  of  the  priest  as  strictly  ministerial  and 
declaratory  ;  and  he  hastily  pronounced  con- 
firmation to  be  a  mere  ecclesiastical  inven- 
tion, for  the  purpose  of  unduly  elevating  the 
episcopal  dignity.     He  appears  not  to  have 
disputed,  that  the  Pope  was  the  highest  spir- 
itual authority  in  the  Church  ;  but  he  reject- 
ed with  equal  scorn  his  ghostly  infallibility 
and  his  secular  supremacy;  and   his  abhor- 
rence of  the   court  of  anti-Christ   was    so 
strong,  as  to  be  a  continual  incentive  to  the 
bitterest  censure.     According  to  the  original 
institution  he  considered  bishops  and  priests 
as  the  same  order;  and  he  ascribed  (through 
a  defect  in  historical  knowledge)  the  distinc- 
tion, which  afterwards  divided  them,  to  the 
imperial  supremacy.     He    objected    to    the 
possession  of  any  fixed  property  by  the  cler- 
gy,  and    maintained   that   the   ecclesiastical 
endowments  were,  in  their  origin,  eleemosy 


462 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


nary,  and  that  they  remained  at  the  disposal 
of  the  secular  government.* 

Such  were  the  opinions  which  Wiclif  pro- 
mulgated in  the  theological  chair,  and  in  the 
fourteenth  century.  His  reputation  and  his 
dignity  raised  him  far  ahove  contempt ;  but 
at  the  same  time  they  imbittered  the  malig- 
nity of  his  enemies.  Yet,  monstrous  as  many 
of  his  real  tenets  must  have  appeared  in  that 
age,  recourse  was  had  to  the  usual  expedient 
of  charging  him  with  absurd  inferences  and 
notions  f  wholly  at  variance  with  any  that  he 
professed — as  if  the  churchmen  of  those  days 
had  some  secret  consciousness  of  the  weak- 
ness of  their  cause,  and  despaired  to  make 
the  enemies  of  their  system  generally  detes- 
table, unless  they  could  also  stigmatize  them 
as  foes  to  the  acknowledged  principles  of  re- 
ligion, of  morality,  and  of  reason.  We  are 
not  surprised  by  such  calumnies ;  neither  is 
it  strange  that  the  dissemination  of  his  actual 
doctrines  (for  they  were  diligently  dissemi- 
nated by  emissaries  }  employed  by  him  for 
that  purpose)  was  followed  by  some  tumults 
and  disorders.  The  first  open  struggles  of 
reason  against  prescription  and  prejudice — its 
first  appeals  to  the  sense  and  virtue  of  man- 
kind against  particular  interests  and  estab- 
lished absurdities,  are  seldom  unattended  by 
popular  heats  and  commotions ;  and  the  won- 
der in  this  case  rather  is,  that  the  prematurity 
of  the  Reformation  did  not  occasion  the  mar- 
tyrdom of  the  reformer. 

For  many  of  Wiclif 's  opinions  were  too  ad- 
vanced and  ripe  for  the  bleak  season  in  which 
he  lived.  They  were  calculated,  indeed,  for 
the  consideration  of  all  virtuous  and  disin- 
terested men  ;  and  they  were  sure  to  create  in 
succeeding  generations  a  disposition  towards 
better  principles  of  belief  and  practice;  but 
they  could  look  for  no  general  reception 
among  those,  to  whom   they  were  first  ad- 


*  It  is  observed  that,  with  these  opinions,  Wiclif 
held  the  Divinity  Professorship  at  Oxford,  a  Preben- 
dal  Stall,  and  the  Rectory  of  Lutterworth.  He  thought 
it  excusable,  no  doubt,  to  conform  to  the  system  which 
he  found  established,  and  his  enemies  at  the  time 
thought  it  no  crime  in  him  that  he  did  so;  yet  he 
would  have  stood  higher  with  posterity,  had  he  dis- 
dained the  plausible  excuse,  and  placed  the  unequivo- 
cal seal  of  private  disinterestedness  and  generosity 
upon  his  public  principles. 

f  They  are  to  be  found  in  great  numbers,  chiefly 
among  the  articles  of  impeachment,  levelled  against 
his  name  and  memory,  and  published  by  Popes  and 
Councils.  One  error  ascribed  to  him  is,  '  that  he 
represented  God  as  subject  to  the  devil.' 

X  Men  whom  he  called  his  '  poor  priests.'  See 
chap.  x.  of  Le  Bas'  Life  of  Wiclif. 


dressed.  Therefore  was  it  wisely  determined 
by  that  admirable  Christian,  when  he  sent 
them  forth  into  a  prejudiced  and  ignorant 
world,  to  promulgate  along  with  them  the  sa- 
cred volume  on  which  they  professed  to  stand. 
His  translation  and  circulation  of  the  Bible 
was  that  among  his  labors,  which  secured  the 
efficacy,  as  it  was  itself  the  crown,  of  all  the 
others.  This  was  the  life  of  the  system  which 
he  destined  to  be  imperishable — this  the  trea- 
sure which  he  bequeathed  to  future  *  and  to 
better  ages,  for  their  immortal  inheritance. 

John^  Hass. — II.  The  queen  of  Richard 
II.  was  a  Bohemian  princess ;  and  on  the 
death  of  her  husband,  she  returned,  with  a 
train  of  attendants,  to  her  native  land.  It  is 
commonly  believed,  that  these  persons  intro- 
duced a  precious,  but  a  dearly  preserved, 
possession  among  their  countrymen  —  the 
works  of  Wiclif.  Others  suppose  this  pre- 
sent to  have  been  made  by  an  Englishman 
who  had  travelled  to  Prague;  others  by  a 
Bohemian  who  had  studied  at  Oxford.  All 
may  possibly  have  contributed ;  but  in  re- 
spect to  the  more  important  fact,  there  seems 
to  be  no  dispute,  that  the  writings  of  Wiclif 
kindled  the  first  sparks  of  the  Bohemian  her- 
esies. During  the  latter  days  of  that  venerable 
teacher,  a  youth  was  growing  up  in  an  ob- 
scure village  of  Bohemia,  who  was  destined 
to  bear,  in  his  turn,  the  torch  of  truth,  and  to 
transmit  it  with  a  martyr's  hand  to  a  long 
succession  of  disciples — and  he  was  worthy 
of  the  heavenly  office.  John  of  Huss,  or 
Hussinetz,  was  very  early  distinguished  by 
the  farce  and  acuteness  of  his  understanding, 
the  modesty  and  gravity  of  his  demeanor, 
the  rude  and  irreproachable  austerity  of  his 
life.  A  thoughtful  and  attenuated  counte- 
nance, a  tall  and  somewhat  emaciated  form, 
an  uncommon  mildness  and  affability  of  man- 
ner added  to  the  authority  of  his  virtues  and 
the  persuasiveness  of  his  eloquence.  The 
University  of  Prague,  at  that  time  extremely 
flourishing,  presented  a  field  for  the  expan- 
sion of  his  great  qualities;  in  the  year  1401 
he  was  appointed  president,  or  dean,  of  the 
philosophical  faculty,  and  was  elevated,  eight 
years  afterwards,  to  the  rectorship  of  the 
University. 

The  Church  divided  with  the  academy  his 
talents  and  his  reputation.     In  the  year  1400 


*  The  effect  was  felt  even  in  the  next  generation, 
and  the  high  churchmen  began  to  tremble.  By  a 
decree  published  by  the  Convocation  at  St.  Paul's  in 
140S,  it  was  prohibited  either  to  compose  or  consult 
any  private  translation  of  the  Scriptures,  on  the  pen- 
alties attached  to  heresy. 


THE   HUSSITES. 


463 


he  was  made  confessor  to  Sophia  of  Bavaria, 
the  Queen  of  Bohemia:  and  in  1405  he  had 
obtained  general  celebrity  by  many  eloquent 
sermons  delivered  in  the  vulgar  tongue  in  his 
chapel*  at  Prague.  In  those  fervent  ad- 
dresses to  the  people,  who  composed  his  au- 
dience, he  frequently  inveighed  against  the 
corruption  of  the  court  of  Rome,  her  indul- 
gences, her  crusades,  her  extortions,  and  all 
the  multitude  of  her  iniquities;  and  his  har- 
angues were  received  with  impassioned  ac- 
clamation. Nevertheless,  his  name  was  not 
yet  tainted  by  any  charge  of  heresy ;  and  as 
late  as  the  July  of  1408,  Subinco,  (or  Suinco,) 
Archbishop  of  Prague,  declared  in  a  public 
synod,  that  the  kingdom,  over  which  his  spir- 
itual guardianship  extended,  was  free  from 
the  stain  of  any  religious  error.  But  about 
this  time  the  University  of  Prague  was  dis- 
turbed by  a  violent  dissension.  The  German 
students,  who  formed  the  majority,  and  to 
whom  a  greater  share  in  the  government,  the 
dignities,  and  emoluments  of  the  institution 
had  been  allotted  by  the  original  statutes,  f 
were  vigorously  assailed  by  the  native  Bohe- 
mians ;  who  claimed,  as  a  national  right,  that, 
according  to  the  example  of  Paris,  those  en- 
viable prerogatives  should  be  transferred  to 
themselves.  Huss  engaged  with  zeal  in  the 
cause  of  his  countrymen.  The  king  decid- 
ed in  favor  of  his  own  subjects,  and  he  was 
considered  to  have  been  chiefly  influenced 
to  that  resolution  by  Huss.  Many  German 
doctors  resigned  their  offices  and  retired 
from  the  kingdom ;  and  they  carried  with 
them,  whithersoever  they  went,  deep  rancor 
against  the  author  of  their  defeat  and  seces- 
sion. 

Again,  about  the  same  time,  probably  in 
the  beginning  of  1409,  Huss  was  extremely 
zealous  in  bringing  over  his  country  from  the 
cause  of  Gregory  XII. ,  in  whose  obedience 
it  persisted,  to  that  of  the  cardinals  assembled 


*  Called    the  Chapel  of  Bethlehem.     An  opulent 
citizen  of  Prague  had  built  and  endowed  it  for  (he 
maintenance  of  two  preachers,  «  qui  Testis  profestisque 
dicbus  verbum  Dei  Bohemico  sermone   plebibua   in-  j 
sintiarent.'     iEn.  Sylv.,  Hist.  Bohem.,  cap.  xxxv. 

t  The  University,  founded  in  1347,  by  the  Empe- 
ror Charles  IV.,  was  composed  of  four  nations,  Bo-  ] 
hernia,  Bavaria,  Saxony,  and  Poland;  and  as  the 
three  last  (even  the  last)  were  chiefly  Germans,  and 
had  three  votes,  in  four,  three-fourths  of  the  profes- 
sors, doctors,  &c.,  were  Germans.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  the  economy  of  the  University  of  Paris 
(where  the  division  was  also  quadripartite)  the  na- 
tives had  three  voices.  The  declaration  of  Kin" 
Wenceslas  in  favor  of  his  subjects  was  made  on  Oct. 
13,  1409. 


at  Pisa;  and  this  laudable  forwardness  ap- 
pears to  have  been  the  first  offence,  which 
awakened  the  displeasure  of  the  archbishop. 
At  least  it  is  manifest,  that  this  was  the  period 
at  which  the  indignation  of  that  prelate*  first 
broke  out ;  and  in  the  December  of  the  same 
year,  the  Pope  himself  (Alexander  V.)  issued 
some  prohibitory  decree  against  Huss  and  his 
followers. 

The  existence  and  circumstances  of  the 
great  schism,  and  the  obvious  evils  produced 
by  it,  had  long  been  a  popular  theme  of  cen- 
sure for  the  Bohemian  reformer.  And  after 
its  extinction,  John  XXIII.  furnished  him, 
in  1411,  with  fresh  matter  for  reprehension. 
That  pontiff  sent  forth  his  emissaries  to 
preach  a  crusade  against  Ladislaus,  King  of 
Naples,  and  to  accord  the  usual  indulgences. 
The  minds  of  many  had  been  previously  in- 
flamed against  this  mockery  of  the  cross  of 
Christ  by  the  preaching  of  Huss;  and  so  it 
proved,  that,  on  three  several  occasions,  the 
pontifical  missionaries  were  interrupted  by 
violent  exclamations  in  the  midst  of  their 
harangues.  Three  offenders  were  according- 
ly seized  by  the  order  of  the  senate,  and  pri- 
vately executed;  but  the  blood  which  flowed 
from  the  prison  into  the  street  betrayed  their 
fate.  The  people  rose;  and  having  gained 
possession  of  their  bodies,  carried  them  in 
procession  to  the  various  churches,  chanting 
holy  anthems.  They  then  buried  them  in  the 
chapel  of  Bethlehem,  with  the  aromatic  offer- 
ings usually  deposited  on  the  tombs  of  mar- 
tyrs. Other  commotions  followed  ;  the  cler- 
gy f  of  Bohemia  conspired  very  generally 
against  the  principles  of  the  reformer  ;  and 


*  Subinco,  Archbishop  of  Prague,  is  characterized 
by  Maimbourg  as  '  a  man  who  feared  nothing  when 
the  service  of  God  and  the  interests  of  the  church 
were  at  stake.'  Such  a  compliment,  from  the  pen 
of  Maimbourg,  is  at  least  suspicious. 

t  If  we  are  to  believe  .Eneas  Sylvius  (Historia 
Bohemica,  cap.  xxxv,)  the  clergy,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, were  favorable  to  Huss;  and  the  reason, 
which  he  malignantly  gives  for  that  fact,  seems  to 
prove  at  least  his  own  conviction  of  its  truth.  •  Se- 
qucbantur  Johannem  clerici  fere  omnes,  are  alieno 
gravati,  sceleribus  et  seditionibus  insignes,  qui  rernm 
novitate  evadere  poenaa  arbitrabaritur.  His  et  aon- 
nulli  doctrina  celebres  juncti  erant;  qui  emu  Lneccle- 
sia  consequi  dignitatem  non  potuiseent,  iniquo  animo 
ferebant  saceidolia  tnajorum  censuuin  his  committi, 

|  qui,quamvis  nobilitate  praeirent,  scientia  tauten  vide- 
bantur  inferiores.'  The  probability  seems  to  be,  that 
}lu>*  may  have  won,  ill  the  beginning  of  his  preach- 
ing, the  partial  support  of  the  secular  clergy  by  the 

i  bitterness  with  which  he  inveighed  against  monastic 
but  that  they  deserted  him,  as  soon  as  they 

'■  saw  his  views  more  perfectly  developed. 


464 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


John  XXIII.  cited  him,  but  without  effect, 
before  the  tribunal  of  the  Vatican.  In  fact, 
so  "reat  was  the  agitation  which  these  dis- 
putes had  now  excited,  that  when  the  Council 
of  Constance  assembled  presently  afterwards, 
it  issued  an  immediate  summons  for  the  ap- 
pearance of  Huss.  With  whatsoever  disre- 
gard that  ecclesiastic  may  have  treated  the 
mandate  of  the  Pope,  he  proved,  without 
hesitation,  his  allegiance  to  the  council.  He 
knew  the  hostility  and  the  faithlessness  of  the 
court  of  Rome  ;  but  in  the  august  represen- 
tation of  the  Church,  in  the  full  congregation 
of  holy  prelates  assembled  for  the  reformation 
of  abuses,  and  the  redressing  of  wrongs,  he 
might  find  some  foundation  for  confidence, 
and  some  hope  of  justice. 

Opinions  imputed  to  Huss. — It  is  proper 
now  to  examine,  what  was  the  nature  of  those 
spiritual  offences  which  excited  such  atten- 
tion throughout  Christendom,  and  such  terror 
among  the  directors  of  the  Church.  In  the 
first  place,  the  Bohemian  innovator  was  ac- 
cused of  disseminating  the  mortal  venom 
which  he  had  imbibed  from  England.  His 
devotion  to  the  faith  and  memory  of  Wiclif, 
for  it  was  for  some  years  concealed,  became  at 
length  loo  deep  and  ardent  for  dissimulation  ; 
and  it  is  even  related,  that  in  his  discourses 
from  the  pulpit  of  Bethlehem,  he  was  wont 
to  address  his  earnest  vow  to  Heaven,  that, 
whenever  he  should  be  removed  from  this 
life,  he  might  be  admitted  to  the  same  regions 
where  the  soul  of  Wiclif  resided  ;  since  he 
doubted  not,  that  he  was  a  good  and  holy 
man,  and  worthy  of  a  habitation  in  heaven.* 
It  is  certain,  that  on  the  first  movement 
against  Huss,  the  archbishop  collected  all  the 
books  of  Wiclif,  to  the  number  of  two  hun- 
dred volumes,  embossed  and  decorated  with 
precious  ornaments,f  and  caused  them  to  be 
publicly  burnt.  The  same  element,  which 
consumed  the  writings  of  Wiclif,  was  destin- 
ed to  prey  upon  the  body  of  his  disciple ;  and 
it  came  like  a  signal,  that  his  vow  had  been 
registered  above,  and  that  his  master  awaited 
his  coming  at  the  gates  of  Paradise. 


*  'Qui,  cum  se  libenter  audiri  animadverteret, 
raulta  de  libris  Viclefi  in  medium  attulit,  assercns  in 
its  omnem  veritatem  contineri ;  adjiciensque  crebro 
inter  praedicandum,  se,  postquam  ex  luce  migraret, 
ea  loca  proficisci  cupere,  ad  quae  Viclefi  anima  perve- 
nisset;  quern  virum  fuisse  bonum,  sanctum,  coeloque 
dignum  non  dubitaret.'  ./En.  Sylv.,  Hist.  Boh., 
I.  xxxv. 

t  '  Quorum  major  pars  argenteis  atque  inauratis 
fibulis  el  pretiosis  integumentis  omabatur.'  Harps- 
field,  ap.  Contin.  Fleury.  /Eneas  Sylvius  mentions 
the  same  fact  nearly  in  the  same  words. 


It  was  another  general  charge  against  Huss, 
that  he  was  '  infected  with  the  leprosy'  of  the 
Vaudois :  and  that  it  may  be  seen  how  many 
gross  offences  were  thought  to  be  contained 
in  this  single  accusation,  we  shall  here  follow 
the  enumeration  of  yEneas  Sylvius ;  only 
premising  that  many  opinions  are  there  as- 
cribed to  Huss,  which,  in  his  examinations 
before  the  council,  he  expressly  disavowed. 
The  most  important  among  them  were  these 
—  that  the  Pope  is  on  a  level  with  other 
bishops  ;  that  all  priests  are  equal  except  in 
regard  to  personal  merit ;  that  souls,  on  quit- 
ting their  bodies,  are  immediately  condemned 
to  eternal  punishment,  or  exalted  to  everlast- 
ing happiness ;  that  the  fire  of  purgatory  has 
no  existence  ;  that  prayers  for  the  dead  are 
a  vain  device,  the  invention  of  sacerdotal 
avarice ;  that  the  images  of  God  and  the 
saints  should  be  destroyed ;  that  the  orders 
of  the  mendicants  were  invented  by  evil 
spirits  ;  that  the  clergy  ought  to  be  poor,  sub- 
sisting on  eleemosynary  contributions ;  that  it 
is  free  to  all  men  to  preach  the  word  of  God ; 
that  any  one  guilty  of  mortal  sin  is  thereby 
disqualified  for  any  dignity  secular  or  ecclesi- 
astical ;  that  confirmation  and  extreme  unc- 
tion are  not  among  the  holy  rites  of  the 
Church  ;  that  auricular  confession  is  unprofit- 
able, since  confession  to  God  is  sufficient  for 
pardon  ;  that  the  use  of  cemeteries  is  without 
reasonable  foundation,  and  inculcated  for  the 
sake  of  profit;  that  the  world  itself  is  the 
temple  of  the  omnipotent  God  ;  and  that 
those  only  derogate  from  his  Majesty,  who 
build  churches,  monasteries,  or  oratories; 
that  the  sacerdotal  vestments,  the  ornaments 
of  the  altars,  the  cups  and  other  sacred  uten- 
sils, are  of  no  more  than  vulgar  estimation ; 
that  the  suffrages  of  the  saints  who  reign  with 
Christ  in  heaven  are  unprofitable,  and  vainly 
invoked  ;  that  there  is  no  holyday  excepting 
Sunday  ;  that  the  festivals  of  the  saints  should 
by  no  means  be  observed  ;  and  that  the  fasts 
established  by  the  Church  are  equally  desti- 
tute of  divine  authority. 

To  these  opinions,  which  he  is  accused  of 
having  habitually  propounded  in  his  chapel 
of  Bethlehem,  and  of  which  he  disclaimed 
many  of  the  most  important,  he  appears  in 
truth  to  have  subsequently  added  another,  by 
no  means  calculated  to  conciliate  the  clergy. 
During  a  period  of  suspension  from  his 
preachings  at  Prague,  he  retired  to  his  native 
village,  and  addressed  to  large  rustic  congre- 
gations the  popular  doctrine,  that  tithes  are 
strictly  eleemosynary,  and  that  it  is  free  for 
the  owner  of  the  land  to  withhold  or  to  pay 


THE   HUSSITES. 


465 


them,  according  to  the  measure  of  his  charity. 
But  the  subject,  on  which  the  greatest  heats 
were  afterwards  excited,  and  hi  which,  in- 
deed, the  other  points  of  difference  were  for 
the  most  part  forgotten,  was  the  distribution 
of  the  sacramental  cup  to  the  laity.  And  this 
innovation  upon  the  modern  practice  of  the 
Church  is  not,  as  it  singularly  happens,  as- 
cribed to  Huss;  though  it  originated  in  the 
same  country,  and  at  the  same  time.  A  cele- 
brated preacher  of  the  day,  named  Jacobellus, 
whose  learning  and  piety  are  alike  unques- 
tioned,* first  promulgated  the  tenet,  that  the 
communion  in  both  kinds  was  necessary  for 
salvation  ;  and  as  the  opinion  was  shown  to 
rest  not  only  on  the  authority  of  Scripture, 
but  also  on  the  practice  of  the  ancient  Church, 
1  the  heretics  embraced  it  with  immoderate 
exultation,  as  evinciug  either  the  ignorance, 
or  the  wickedness,  of  the  Roman  See.' .  .  . 
Wenceslas,  the  King  of  Bohemia,  regarded 
the  rise  of  these  principles  with  a  careless 
and,  as  some  assert,  a  stupid  indifference ; 
his  queen  protected  the  person,  if  she  did 
not  profess  the  principles,  of  her  confessor ; 
and  thus  the  secular  sword  slept  peacefully 
throughout  these  disputes,  though  it  was 
loudly  evoked  by  the  zeal  of  the  archbishop, 
and  though  Gerson  f  himself  raised  his  voice 
to  awaken  it. 


I  The  safe-conduct  of  Huss. —  It  has  been 
|  matter  of  surprise  to  many  writers,  that  Huss, 
with  the  consciousness  that  he  had  taught 
many  of  the  above  tenets,  and  with  the  know- 
ledge how  detestable  they  were  held  by  the 
churchmen,  should  have  advanced  so  readily 
from  a  position  of  comparative  security,  and 
placed  himself  at  once  in  the  power  of  his 
enemies.  It  was  not  that  he  was  ignorant  of 
his  danger.  A  letter,  which  he  addressed  to 
a  friend  immediately  before  his  departure  for 
Constance,  contains  passages  almost  prophetic 
of  his  imminent  fate.  He  had  the  precaution, 
however,  to  obtain  an  act  of  safe-conduct* 


*  '  Per  id  tempus  pnpulum  pnedicando  instruebat 
Jacobellus  Misnensis,  literarum  doctrina  et  morum 
prastantia  juxta  clams.'  ^En.  Sylv.,  loc.  cit. 

f  Sufficient  extracts  from  Gerson's  Letter  to  the 
archbishop  are  given  by  Coehlaeus,  Historian  Hussita- 
rum,  lib.  i.,  p.  21,  (ed.  Mogunt.  1549,)  and  as  it  is 
curious  to  observe  in  what  language  the  great  Church 
Reformer  of  his  day  justified  the  principle  of  persecu- 
tion, we  shall  cite  some  passages  from  it,  only  premis- 
ing that,  verv  nearly  at  the  same  moment,  the  Pope, 
John  XXIII.,  was  inditing  an  epistle  to  Wenceslas 
to  the  same  purport.  '  Inveniuntur  adhuc  luereses 
extirpate  ah  agro  ecclesiastico  diversis  viis,  veluti 
falce  multiplici.  Inveniuntur  quidem  primitus  extir- 
pate falce  vel  acuto  sarculo  miraculorum,  attestan- 
tium  divinitus  Catholicae  veritati,  et  hoc  tempore 
apostolorum.  Inveniuntur  extirpate  postmodum  per 
falcem  disputationis  argumentative  per  doctores. 
Sunt  extirpate  deinde  per  falcem  sacrorum  Concilio- 
rum,  faventibua  imperatoribus,  quum  disputatio  doc- 
triualis  particularium  dootorum  inefficax  videbatur. 
Tandem  accessit,  velut  in  desperata  peste,  securis 
hrachii  secularis,  excidens  hereses  cum  auctoribus 
suis  et  in  ignem  mittens.  Providens  hac  lanta 
sever itate  et  misericordi,  ut  sic  dicatur,  crudeli- 
tate  ne  sermo  talium,  veluti  cancer,  serpat  in  perni- 
ciern  tarn  propriam  quam  alienam.  Et  ante  mulio 
tempore  non  sinere  peccatoribus  ex  sententia  agere, 
sed  statim  ultiones  adhibere  magni  beneficii  est 
indicium.'  After  showing  that  none  of  the  ancient 
methods  of  extirpation  were  applicable  to  the  exist- 
59 


ing  heresy,  he  thus  proceeds: — '  Superest  igitur,  si 
de  pnemissorum  nihil  prosit,  quod  ad  radicem  in- 
fructuose,  iinmo  maledictje,  arboris  ponalur 
securis  brachii  secul  aris.  Quale  vos  brachium 
invocare  viis  omnibus  convenit,  et  expedit  ad  salu- 
tern  omnium  vobis  creditorum.'  .  .  .  The  doctrines 
attributed  to  Huss  were  condemned  by  the  Univer- 
sity of  Paris,  and  the  act  was  published  with  the  sig- 
nature of  Gerson,  as  chancellor:  it  contains  the  fol- 
lowing passage:  'For  though  there  appears  among 
the  opinions  of  these  heretics  some  zeal  against  the 
vices  of  the  prelates,  which  in  truth  are  very  great 
and  manifest,  yet  it  is  a  zeal  not  sufficiently  enlight- 
ened. A  discreet  zeal  tolerates  and  deplores  the  sins 
which  it  finds  in  the  house  of  God,  when  it  cannot 
wholly  remove  them.  It  would  be  impossible  to 
correct  vice  by  vice,  and  error  by  error;  as  the  devil 
is  not  expelled  by  Beelzebub,  but  by  the  spirit  of 
God,  whose  will  it  is  that  the  correction  of  abuses  be 
undertaken  with  great  prudence  and  regard  to  cir- 
cumstances of  time  and  place.'  This,  too,  is  lan- 
guago  which  might  very  well  have  proceeded  from 
the  court  of  John  XXIII. 

*  The  following  are  given  as  the  words  of  this 
frequently  controverted  'safe-conduct:' — '  Honora- 
bilem  magistrum  Johannem  Huss,  S.  T.  Baccalaure- 
um,  etc.,de  regno  Boemie,  in  Concilium  Generale  .  . 
transeuntem  .  .  .  vobis  omnibus  et  vestrum  cuilibet 
pleno  recommandamus  afTectu,  desiderantes,  quatenus 
ipsum,  cum  ad  vos  pervenerit,  grate  suscipere  .  .  . 
omnique  prorsus  impedimento  remoto  transire,  stare, 
morari  et  red  ire  libere  permittatis,  sibiqne  et  suis.' 
— (Act.  Public,  apud  Bzovium,ann.  1414.,  sect.  17.) 
It  is  not  at  all  obvious  that  the  Council  was  bound 
by  this  safe  conduct — the  less  so,  as  the  professed 
object  of  Huss's  journey  was  to  clear  himself  of  her- 
esy in  the  presence  and  judgment  of  the  Council:  but 
the  Emperor  was  certainly  so  bound;  and  that  which 
he  committed,  and  which  the  Council  persuaded  him 
to  commit,  was  direct,  unqualified  treachery.  It  was 
manifestly  the  duty  of  Sigismond  to  receive  Huss  from 
the  hands  of  the  Council,  and  restore  him  to  his  na- 
tive country ;  then  the  affair  might  have  been  taken 
up  de  novo,  without  any  reflection  on  the  faith  of  any 
party.  The  best  illustrations  of  the  rights  of  this 
question  are  such  facts,  as  prove  the  light  in  which 
it  was  viewed  by  succeeding  generations.  Thus  we 
observe,  that  before  the  assembling  of  the  first  Diet 
of  Worms  (1521,)  the  Elector  of  Saxony  privately 


466 


HISTORY    OF  THE   CHURCH. 


from  the  Emperor,  which  was  understood  to 
be  a  pledge  for  his  personal  safety  during  the 
whole  period  of  his  absence  from  Bohemia. 
But  that  admirable  Christian  was  unques- 
tionably impelled  by  motives  too  deep  for  the 
calculation  of  ordinary  minds.  He  felt  an 
intense  conviction  of  the  truth  of  his  doctrines, 
and  he  was  resolved,  should  need  be,  to  lay 
down  his  life  for  them.  That  conviction, 
attended  by  that  resolution,  gave  a  confidence 
to  his  character,  which,  while  it  left  him 
without  fear,  might  at  the  same  time  animate 
him  with  the  highest  hopes.  He  was  filled 
with  that  deliberate  enthusiasm,  which  some- 
times raises  the  soul  of  man  above  that  which 
we  call  wisdom ;  and  which,  while  it  provokes 
the  sneer  of  ordinary  beings,  has  produced 
those  lofty  deeds  of  disinterestedness  and  self- 
devotion,  which  redeem  human  nature. 

Doubtless  Huss  was  so  influenced,  when 
he  published,  both  before  his  departure  from 
Bohemia  and  during  his  journey,  repeated 
challenges  to  all  his  adversaries  to  appear  at 
Constance,  and  meet  him  in  the  presence  of 
the  Pope  and  the  Council ;  '  If  any  shall  there 
convict  me  of  any  error,  of  any  doctrine  con- 
trary to  the  Christian  faith,  I  refuse  not  (he 
proclaimed)  to  undergo  the  last  penalties  of 
heresy.'  *  These  expressions  betoken  confi- 
dence in  his  own  principles  and  in  the  integ- 
rity of  the  Council.  He  had  yet  to  discover, 
that  his  controversy  was  not  with  candid 
opponents,  contesting  his  avowed  opinions, 
before  an  impartial  tribunal ;  calumny  and 
secret  malice,  and  ecclesiastical  bigotry,  were 
more  dangerous  enemies  ;  and  his  fate  was 
seemingly  irrevocable,  from  the  moment  in 


required  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  a  formal  renun- 
ciation of  the  Decree  of  Constance — *  that  no  faith 
be  kept  with  heretics.'  On  the  same  occasion,  we 
find  that  great  pains  were  again  taken  by  the  Cath- 
olics to  induce  the  Emperor  to  violate  his  safe-con- 
duct to  Luther;  on  which  Louis,  Elector  Palatine, 
is  recorded  to  have  said — '  That  all  Germany  would 
not  stain  itself  with  the  shame  of  public  perfidy  to 
oblige  a  few  ecclesiastics;'  and  Charles  himself  to 
have  uttered  that  celebrated  apophthegm — 'That  if 
good  faith  were  banished  from  the  rest  of  the  world, 
it  should  find  refuge  in  the  breast  of  kings.'  —  See 
Beausobre's  Hist.  Reform,  liv.  iii. 

*'Significo  toti  Boemipe  et  omnibus  nationibus, 
me  velle  sisti  primo  quoque  tempore  coram  Concilio 
Constantiensi,  in  celeberrimo  loco,  prpesidente  Papa, 
etc.  ...  Eo  conferat  pedem  quisquis  suspicionem 
de  me  habuerit,  quod  aliena  a  Christi  fide  docuerim 
vel  defenderim.  Item  doceat  ibi,  adstante  Papa,  me 
ullo  unquam  tempore  erroneam  et  falsam  doctrinam 
tenuisse.  Si  me  de  errore  aliquo  convicerit,  etc.  .  .  . 
non  recusabo  quascunque  hasretici  poenas  ferre.'.  . — 
Huss.  Bohemic,  apud  Bzoviuoj,  ad  aDn.  1414. 


which  he  placed  his  life  in  the  power  of  that 
Catholic  assembly. 

Huss  is  placed  under  confinement  by  the 
Council. — He  was  attended  by  some  Bohemi- 
an noblemen,  and  he  received  the  strongest 
assurances  of  protection  from  John  XXIII. 
'Though  John  Huss  (said  that  Pope)  should 
murder  my  own  brother,  I  would  use  the 
whole  of  my  power  to  preserve  him  from 
every  injury,  during  all  the  time  of  his  resi- 
dence at  Constance  .  .  .'*  Nevertheless, 
within  a  month  from  his  arrival,  after  having 
professed  before  a  meeting  of  the  Council  his 
readiness  to  repel  every  charge,  he  was  plac- 
ed under  a  surveillance  which  was  immediate- 
ly changed  to  strict  confinement.  It  should 
not  be  forgotten,  that  this  first  violation  of  the 
safe-conduct  was  peculiarly  the  act  of  the 
Council.  Sigismond,  who  was  not  present, 
strongly  remonstrated  against  it;  and  the 
Pope  (from  whatever  motive)  f  disclaimed  all 
share  in  the  proceedings. 

Accused.  —  This  advantage  was  instantly 
pursued  by  his  enemies,  of  whom  the  most 
ardent  were  found  among  his  countrymen  ; 
and  accordingly  eight  J  articles  of  accusation 
were  prepared,  and  presented  to  John  XXIII. 
When  a  copy  of  them  was  delivered  to  the 
accused,  where  he  lay  sick  in  prison,  he  re- 
quested that  an  advocate  might  be  granted 
him  to  defend  his  cause ;  but  that  was  refused, 
on  the  plea  of  a  general  prohibition  by  the 
canon  law  to  undertake  the  defence  of  any 
one  suspected  of  lieresy.     And  then,  instead 


*  Lenfant.  Hist.  Cone.  Constant,  lib.  i.  §  xxviii. 

fThe  cardinals  were  the  agents  in  this  affair;  and 
John  does  not  appear  to  have  been  present  at  that 
congregation.  But  we  should  not  forget,  that  when 
Sigismond  wrote  to  command  the  immediate  liberation 
of  Huss,  on  the  strength  of  his  own  safe-conduct,  the 
Pope  opposed  the  execution  of  the  order.  Lenfant. 
Cone.  Constant.  1.  i.  §  50. 

Jit  seems  almost  unnecessary  to  enumerate  those 
charges, — they  were  as  follows: — (1)  That  commu- 
nion iti  both  kinds  is  necessary  for  salvation; — (2) 
that  the  bread  remains  bread  after  the  consecration; 
— (3)  that  ministers  in  a  state  of  mortal  sin  cannot 
administer  the  sacraments;  and  that  any  one  in  a 
state  of  grace  can  do  so; — (4)  that  the  Church  does 
not  mean  the  Pope  nor  the  clergy;  that  it  cannot 
possess  temporal  goods,  and  that  the  secular  powers 
can  rightfully  take  them  away; — (5)  that  Constantine 
and  other  princes  erred  when  they  endowed  the  Church  ; 
— (6)  that  all  priests  are  equal  in  authority;  so  that 
ordinations  and  privileges  reserved  to  the  Popes  and 
bishops  are  the  pure  effect  of  their  ambition; — (7) 
that  the  Church  loses  the  power  of  the  keys,  when 
the  Pope,  cardinals,  and  the  rest  of  the  clergy  are 
in  mortal  sin; — (8)  that  excommunications  may  bo 
disregarded  with  safety. 


THE   HUSSITES. 


467 


of  striving  to  obviate  the  various  intrigues 
which  were  employed  for  his  destruction,  he 
devoted  the  tedious  leisure  of  his  imprison- 
ment, and  the  resources  of  a  mind  superior  to 
ordinary  agitations,  to  the  composition  of  va- 
rious moral  and  religious  treatises.  * 

The  next  step  in  the  process  against  him 
was  the  condemnation  of  the  doctrines  and 
memory  of  Wiclif.  It  was  in  the  eighth 
session,  held  on  the  4th  of  May,  1415,  that  a 
list  of  forty-five  articles  was  drawn  up,  which 
embodied  all  (and  more  than  all)  the  errors 
of  that  reformer ;  that  it  received  the  solemn 
censure  of  the  fathers ;  and  that  the  vengeance 
of  that  orthodox  body  pursued  the  spiritual 
offender  even  beyond  the  grave.  It  is  a  sin- 
gular circumstance,  and  serves  well  to  illus- 
trate the  position  in  which  the  Council  then 
stood,  as  an  assembly  of  reformation,  that  in 
the  very  sermon  which  opened  that  session, 
and  which  introduced  the  opinions  of  Wiclif 
to  universal  abhorrence,  the  Pope  and  his 
Court  were  treated  with  equal  severity,  and 
rebuked  in  language  f  which  would  have  been 
held  blasphemous  had  it  proceeded  from  the 
lips  of  a  heretic. 

It  was  an  object  of  great  importance  with 
the  Council,  bent,  as  it  certainly  was,  on  the 
destruction  of  Huss,  and  conscious,  as  it  pro- 
bably was,  of  the  weakness  of  its  own  cause, 
to  avoid  the  scandal  of  a  public  disputation. 
Accordingly,  Huss  was  continually  persecut- 
ed by  private  interrogatories,  frequently  ac- 
companied by  intimidation  and  insult;  and 
depositions  against  his  orthodoxy  were  col- 
lected with  great  diligence  and  great  facility, 
since  every  kind  of  information  was  admitted 
against  a  suspected  heretic.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  vehemently  remonstrated  against 
this  inquisitorial  secrecy,  and  demanded  for 
his  defence  an  audience  of  the  whole  Council. 
His  Bohemian  friends  pressed  the  same  point 
with  equal  earnestness.  But  in  vain  would 
they  have  solicited  from  that  body  this  most 
obvious  act  of  justice,  if  the  emperor  had  not 
also  been  impressed  with  its  propriety,  and 
insisted  with  great  firmness,  that  the  trial 
should  be  public. 


*  On  marriage — on  the  Decalogue — on  the  love 
and  knowledge  of  God — on  penitence — on  the  three 
enemies  of  man — on  the  Lord's  Supper — and  others. 

f  The  Bishop  of  Toulon  preached  the  sermon — 
'  ubi  puram  dixit  veritatem  de  Papa  et  cardinalibus.' 
'  Benedicatur  anima  Domini  Episcopi,'  de  Papa 
dixit,  —  '  Maledicatur  caro  sua;'et  alibi  vere — 
•  ita  mentitur,  sicut  si  dicerem,  Deus  non  est  unus  et 
trinus.'  The  passage  is  found  in  a  MS.  of  Vienna, 
and  is  cited  by  Lenfant.  Cone.  Const,  lib.  ii.  § 
59. 


Tried. —  Consequently  the  fathers  assem- 
bled very  early  in  June  for  that  purpose.  The 
first  charge  was  read.  The  defendant  was 
called  upon  for  his  reply.  But  when  he  ap- 
pealed in  his  justification  to  the  authority  of 
the  Scriptures,  and  the  venerable  testimony 
of  the  fathers,  his  voice  was  drowned  in  a 
tumult  of  contempt  and  derision.  He  was 
silent ;  and  it  was  interpreted  as  guilt.  Again 
he  spoke ;  again  he  was  answered  by  dis- 
dainful jests  and  insults ;  and  the  assembly  at 
length  separated  without  any  serious  deter- 
mination. The  second  audience  was  fixed 
for  the  7th  of  June  ;  and  that  greater  decency 
might  be  preserved,  the  Emperor  was  re- 
quested to  be  present  on  that  occasion.  It  is 
carefully  recorded  by  historians,  and  not,  per- 
haps, without  some  sense  of  superstitious 
awe,  that  the  day,  on  which  the  fate  of  that 
righteous  man  was  in  fact  decided,  was  sig- 
nalized by  a  total  eclipse  of  the  sun — total,  as 
was  observed,  at  Prague,  though  not  quite  so 
at  Constance.  But  the  fathers  were  not  mov- 
ed by  that  phenomenon  to  any  principle  of 
justice,  or  any  feeling  of  mercy.  The  vari- 
ous charges,  already  prepared,  were  pressed 
upon  the  culprit,  less  clamorously,  indeed, 
but  not  less  eagerly  than  before.  His  accu- 
sers were  numerous  and  voluble,  and  armed 
with  the  most  minute  subtleties  of  the  schools. 
Many  among  them  were  English  ;  and  these 
urged  their  arguments  as  warmly,  as  if  they 
had  thought  to  redeem  the  land  of  Wiclif  by 
the  persecution  of  Huss,  and  to  wash  away 
the  stains,  which  one  heretic  had  cast  upon 
them,  in  the  blood  of  another. 

Numerous  depositions  were  likewise  pro- 
duced and  read,  alleging  errors,  which  he  had 
advanced  in  his  writings  or  in  his  sermons, 
or  even  in  his  private  conversations.  Alone, 
and  unsupported,  save  by  two  or  three  faith- 
ful Bohemians,  and  worn  and  enfeebled  by 
confinement  and  disease,  he  presented  a  spirit 
which  did  not  bend  beneath  this  oppression. 
The  opinions  imputed  to  him  related  chiefly 
to  the  Eucharist,  and  the  condemned  propo- 
sitions of  Wiclif.  .  .  There  were  some  which 
he  entirely  disavowed ;  others  which  he  ad- 
mitted under  certain  modifications;  others 
which  he  professed  his  readiness  and  his 
ability  to  maintain.  Among  the  first  was  the 
charge  respecting  transubstantiation.  On 
which  subject  he  repeatedly  and  unequivo- 
cally asserted  his  entire  concurrence  in  the 
doctrine  of  the  Church.  Among  the  last,  the 
positions  (they  were  ascribed  to  Wiclif)  to 
which  he  clung  with  the  greatest  pertinacity, 
appear  to  have  been  three.     (1.)  That  Pope 


468 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


Sylvester  and  the  Emperor  Constantine  did 
evil  to  the  Church  when  they  enriched  it. 
(2.)  That,  if  any  ecclesiastic,  whether  Pope, 
prelate,  or  priest,  he  in  a  state  of  mortal  sin, 
he  is  disqualified  for  the  administration  of  the 
sacraments.  (3.)  That  tithes  are  not  dues, 
but  merely  eleemosynary.  In  defence  of 
these,  and  perhaps  some  other  opinions,  the 
few  arguments,  which  he  was  permitted  to 
advance,  were  temperate,  if  not  reasonable 
and  scriptural:  at  least  they  proved  his  up- 
rightness and  the  integrity  of  his  heart ;  but 
they  were  received,  as  before,  with  reiterated 
shouts  of  derision.  The  question,  indeed, 
was  not,  whether  the  opinions  of  Huss  were 
founded  in  truth,  or  otherwise:  that  conside- 
ration seems  not  to  have  influenced  any  one 
mind  in  the  whole  assembly,  excepting  his 
own ;  the  question  really  to  be  decided ;  the 
only  question  with  which  the  council  affected 
any  concern,  was,  whether  they  were  the 
doctrine  of  the  Church.  Whatsoever  had 
once  been  pronounced  by  that  infallible  body 
was  law,  and  the  alternative  was  obedience 
or  death. 

On  the  following  day  Huss  was  admitted 
to  the  mockery  of  another  and  final  audience  ; 
and  on  this  occasion  he  was  chiefly  pressed 
on  twenty-six  articles,  derived  (fairly  or  un- 
fairly) from  his  'Book  of  the  Church.'  A 
scene  similar  to  the  preceding  was  terminat- 
ed, on  the  part  of  the  judges,  by  urgent  solic- 
itations to  the  accused  to  retract  his  errors. 
This  act  of  submission  was  advised  by  several 
of  the  fathers ;  it  was  strongly  recommended 
by  the  Emperor ;  but  Huss  was  umnoved. 
'  As  to  the  opinions  imputed  to  me,  which  I 
have  never  held,  those  I  cannot  retract;  as  to 
those  which  I  do  indeed  profess,  I  am  ready 
to  retract  them,  when  1  shall  be  better  in- 
structed by  the  Council.'  .  .  .  The  province 
of  the  Council  was  not  to  instruct,  but  to  de- 
cide—  to  command  obedience  to  its  decision, 
or  to  enforce  the  penalty. 

Condemned. — If  Huss  had  hitherto  nour- 
ished any  reasonable  hope  of  safety,  it  was 
placed  in  the  moderation  of  the  Emperor; 
but  at  this  conjuncture,  even  that  prospect  was 
removed.  For,  towards  the  conclusion  of 
the  session,  Sigismond  delivered  his  unqual- 
ified opinion,  '  that  among  the  errors  of 
Huss,  which  had  been  in  part  proved,  and  in 
part  confessed,  there  was  not  one  which  did 
not  deserve  the  penal  flames;'  to  which  was 
added,  'that  the  temporal  sword  ought  in- 
stantly to  be  drawn  for  the  chastisement  of 
his  disciples,  to  the  end  that  the  branches  of 
the  tree  might  perish  together  with  its  root. ' 


Huss  was  again  conducted  to  his  prison, 
and  thither  was  still  pursued  by  fresh  solic- 
itations on  his  constancy ;  and  that,  which 
had  stood  firm  before  public  menace  and 
insult,  might  have  yielded  to  private  impor- 
tunity, to  bodily  infirmity,  to  friendship,  to 
solitude.  First  of  all,  an  official  formula  of 
retractation  was  sent  to  him  by  the  Council ; 
it  was  express  as  to  his  abjuration  of  all 
the  errors  which  had  been  proved  against 
him,  and  as  to  his  unconditional  submission 
to  the  Council ;  but  it  was  free  from  any 
harsh  or  offensive  expressions.  Huss  calmly 
persisted  in  his  resolution.  'He  was  prepar- 
ed to  afford  an  example  in  himself  of  that 
enduring  patience,  which  he  had  so  frequent- 
ly preached  to  others,  and  which  he  relied 
upon  the  grace  of  God  to  grant  him.'  Many 
individuals,  of  various  characters,  but  alike 
anxious  to  save  him  from  the  last  infliction, 
visited  his  prison,  and  pressed  him  with  a 
variety  of  motives  and  arguments;  but  they 
were  all  blunted  by  the  rectitude  of  his  con- 
science and  the  singleness  of  his  purpose. 
One  of  his  bitterest  enemies,  named  Paletz,* 
was  among  the  number;  but,  though  his 
counsels  had  been  successful  in  degrading 
the  person  of  the  reformer,  they  failed  when 
they  would  have  seduced  him  to  infamy. 

Numerous  deputations  were  sent  by  the 
Council,  to  which  he  always  replied  with  the 
same  modesty  and  firmness,  equally  removed 
from  an  obstinate  perseverance  in  acknow- 
ledged error,  and  a  base  retractation  of  that 
which  he  thought  truth.  About  the  same 
time  it  was  resolved  to  commit  his  books  to 
the  flames,  as  if  to  warn  him  by  that  prelude 
of  the  approaching  catastrophe.  But  in  a 
letter  which  he  wrote  to  some  friend  on  the 
occasion,  he  remarked,  that  that  was  no 
ground  for  despondency,  since  the  Books  of 
Jeremiah  had  suffered  the  same  indignity; 
but  the  Jews  had  not  thus  evaded  the  ca- 
lamities, with  which  the  prophet  had  me- 
naced them. 

Notwithstanding  his  public  and  recent  de- 


*  It  was  supposed  that  the  spiritual  influence  of  a 
confessor  might  possibly  be  sufficient  to  lead  him  to 
retract;  and  Huss  requested  that  the  same  Paletz 
might  be  the  person  so  commissioned — partly  to  prove, 
that  he  could  pardon  his  worst  enemy ;  partly  to 
show,  how  willing  he  was  to  confide  the  inmost 
secrets  of  his  heart,  even  to  one  who  might  be  dispo- 
sed to  proclaim  them  most  loudly.  The  Council  did 
not  think  proper  to  accede  to  this  generous  request. 
It  sent  a  monk  to  him,  who  gave  him  the  same  coun- 
sel as  the  others,  and  absolved  him,  without  any 
penitential  imposition.  —  See  Lenfant's  Hist.  Cone. 
Const.,  liv.  iii.  §  xxxv. 


THE   HUSSITES. 


469 


claration,  the  Emperor  appears,  even  to  the 
very  conclusion  of  this  iniquitous  affair,  to 
have  entertained  some  lingering  scruples  res- 
pecting his  safe-conduct.  These  had  been 
silenced,  it  is  true,  by  the  sophistry  of  the 
doctors;  and  he  had  even  been  taught  to 
believe,  that  his  protection  could  not  lawfully 
be  extended  to  a  man  suspected  of  heresy ; 
that  monstrous  charge  superseded  the  ordi- 
nary economy  of  government,  and  dispensed 
with  the  imperious  obligations  of  moral  duty! 
Howbeit,  notwithstanding  the  spiritual  au- 
thority on  which  this  principle  was  advanced, 
Sigismond  would  have  greatly  preferred  some 
reasonable  compromise  to  that  violent  termi- 
nation, which  was  now  near  at  hand.  Ac- 
cordingly, when  he  saw  the  fruitlessness  of 
every  other  attempt  to  bend  the  spirit  of 
Huss,  he  resolved  himself  to  make  one  final 
effort  for  the  same  purpose.  On  the  5th  of 
July,  on  the  eve  of  the  day  destined  for  his 
execution,  the  prisoner  was  visited  by  an  im- 
perial deputation,  commissioned  to  inquire, 
'whether  he  would  abjure  those  articles  of 
which  he  acknowledged  himself  guilty?' 
And  in  regard  to  those  which  he  disavowed, 
'  whether  he  would  swear  that  he  held  there- 
on the  doctrine  of  the  Church  ? '  One  objec- 
tion, to  which  Huss  had  throughout  attached 
great  importance,  was  removed  by  this  pro- 
posal— the  obligation  to  retract  that  which  he 
had  never  maintained.  But  the  grand,  the 
insurmountable  difficulty  still  remained — to 
abjure  against  conviction  that  which  he  did 
actually  profess.  Upon  the  whole,  he  saw 
no  reason  for  any  change,  and  returned  to 
the  Emperor  the  same  sort  of  answer  with 
which  he  had  met  all  preceding  solicitations. 
It  remained  for  him  still  to  encounter  one 
other  trial ;  if,  indeed,  we  can  so  designate 
the  upright  counsel  of  a  faithful  and  virtuous 
friend — for  such  was  the  circumstance,  which 
completed  and  crowned  the  history  of  his 
imprisonment — and  it  should  be  everywhere 
recorded,  for  the  honor  of  human  nature.  A 
Bohemian  nobleman,  named  John  of  Chlum, 
had  attended  Huss,  whose  disciple  he  was, 
through  all  his  perils  and  persecutions,  and 
had  exerted,  throughout  the  whole  affair, 
every  method  that  he  could  learn  or  devise 
to  save  him.  At  length,  when  every  hope 
was  lost,  and  he  was  about  to  separate  from 
the  martyr  for  the  last  time,  he  addressed 
him  in  these  terms:  'My  dear  master,  I  am 
unlettered,  and  consequently  unfit  to  counsel 
one  so  enlightened  as  you.  Nevertheless,  if 
you  are  secretly  conscious  of  any  one  of 
those  errors,  which  have  been  publicly  im- 


puted to  you,  I  do  entreat  you  not  to  feel  any 
shame  in  retracting  it ;  but  if,  on  the  contrary, 
you  are  convinced  of  your  innocence,  I  am  so 
far  from  advising  you  to  say  anything  against 
your  conscience,  that  I  exhort  you  rather  to 
endure  every  form  of  torture,  thaa  to  re- 
nounce anything  which  you  hold  to  be  true.' 
John  Huss  replied  with  tears,  'that  God  was 
his  witness,  how  ready  he  had  ever  been,  and 
still  was,  to  retract  on  oath,  and  with  his 
whole  heart,  from  the  moment  he  should  be 
convicted  of  any  error  by  evidence  from  Holy 
Scripture."1*  ...  In  the  whole  history  of  the 
sufferings  and  the  fortitude  of  Huss,  there  is 
not  one  discoverable  touch  of  pride  or  stub- 
bornness ;  the  records  of  his  heroism  are  not 
infected  by  a  single  stain  of  mere  philosophy ; 
he  was  firm,  indeed,  but  he  was  humble  also  ; 
he  expected  death,  and  he  feared  it,  too ;  he 
neither  sought  the  Martyr's  crown,  nor  af- 
fected the  ambition  of  the  Stoic  :  his  princi- 
ples of  action  were  drawn  from  the  same 
source  as  the  articles  of  his  belief;  he  was  a 
pure  and  perfect  Christian,  and  he  thought  it 
uo  merit  to  be  so. 

Sentenced. —  There  was  a  long  interval  be- 
tween his  imprisonment  and  his  audience, 
and  again  a  tedious  month  intervened  be- 
tween his  audience  and  execution.  This 
period  was  passed  in  preparation  to  meet  his 
fate,  not  in  struggles  to  avoid  it.  '  God,  in 
his  wisdom,  has  reasons  for  thus  prolonging 
my  life.  He  wishes  to  give  me  time  to  weep 
for  my  sins,  and  to  console  myself  in  this 
protracted  trial  by  the  hope  of  their  remis- 
sion. He  has  granted  me  this  interval,  that, 
through  meditation  on  the  sufferings  of  Christ 
Jesus,  I  may  become  better  qualified  to  sup- 
port my  own.'f  The  time  of  those  sufferings 
at  length  arrived.  On  the  morning  of  July  6, 
1415,  he  was  conducted  before  the  Council, 
then  holding  its  fifteenth  session  ;  and  after 
various  articles  of  accusation  had  been  read, 
a  sentence  was  passed  to  the  following  effect, 
—  'That  for  several  years  John  Huss  has 
seduced  and  scandalized  the  people  by  the 
dissemination  of  many  doctrines  manifestly 

*  Huss,  on  the  eve  of  his  execution,  wrote  to  the 
Senate  of  Prague  to  the  following  effect: — 'Be  well 
assured  that  I  have  not  retracted  or  abjured  one  single 
article.  The  Council  urged  me  to  declare  the  false- 
hood of  every  article  drawn  from  my  books;  but  I 
refused,  unless  their  falsehood  could  l>e  demonstrated 
i  from  Scripture.  So  do  I  now  declare,  that  I  detest 
every  meaning  which  may  be  proved  false  in  those 
articles,  and  I  submit  in  that  respect  to  the  correction 
of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  who  knows  the  sincerity 
of  my  heart.'     See  Contin.  of  Fleury,  1   ciii,  Ixxviii. 

t  Opera  Job.  Huss.,  epist.  14,  apud  Lenfant. 


470 


HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


heretical,  and  condemned  by  the  Church, 
especially  those  of  John  Wiclif.  That  he 
has  obstinately  trampled  upon  the  keys  of 
the  Church  and  the  ecclesiastical  censures. 
That  he  has  appealed  to  Jesus  Christ  as 
sovereign  judge,  to  the  contempt  of  the  ordi- 
nary judges  of  the  Church  ;  and  that  such  an 
appeal  was  injurious,  scandalous,  and  made 
in  derision  of  ecclesiastical  authority.*  That 
he  has  persisted  to  the  last  in  his  errors,  and 
even  maintained  them  in  full  Council.  It 
is  therefore  ordained  that  he  be  publicly 
deposed  and  degraded  from  holy  orders,  as 
an  obstinate  and  incorrigible  heretic'  .  .  .  The 
prelates  appointed  then  proceeded  to  the  of- 
fice of  degradation.  He  was  stripped,  one  by 
one,  of  his  sacerdotal  vestments ;  the  holy 
cup,  which  had  been  purposely  placed  in  his 
hands,  was  taken  from  them;  his  hair  was 
cut  in  such  a  manner  as  to  lose  every  mark 
of  the  priestly  character;  and  a  crown  of 
paper  was  placed  on  his  head,  marked  with 
hideous  figures  of  demons,  and  that  still  more 
frightful  superscription,  Htresiarch.  The  pre- 
lates then  piously  devoted  his  soul  to  the 
infernal  devils  ;f  he  was  pronounced  to  be 
cut  off  from  the  ecclesiastical  body,  and 
being  released  from  the  grasp  of  the  Church, 
he  was  consigned,  as  a  layman,  to  the  ven- 
geance of  the  secular  arm.  It  was  in  the 
character  of 'advocate  and  defender  of  the 
Church,'  that  the  Emperor  took  charge  of 
the  culprit,  and  commanded  his  immediate 
execution. 

Executed.  —  The  last,  which  was  not  per- 
haps the  bitterest,  of  his  sufferings  was  en- 
dured with  equal  constancy  and  in  the  same 
blessed  spirit.  On  his  way  to  the  stake  he  re- 
peated pious  prayers  and  penitential  psalms ; 
and  when  the  order  was  given  to  kindle  the 
flames,  he  only  uttered  these  words  —  'Lord 
Jesus,  I  endure  with  humility  this  cruel 
death  for  thy  sake ;  and  I  pray  thee  to  pardon 
all  my  enemies.'  The  ministers  executed 
their  office  ;  the  martyr  continued  in  uninter- 
rupted devotion  ;  and  it  was  not  long  before  a 
rising  volume  of  fire  and  smoke  extinguished 

*  Probably,  in  the  long  list  of  Huss's  imputed  her- 
esies there  was  no  single  article  which  inflamed  the 
Council  against  liiin  nearly  so  violently  as  this  appeal. 
The  point  which,  above  all  others,  that  assembly  was 
interested  to  establish,  was  its  own  omnipotence  and 
infallibility — its  agency  under  the  immediate  opera- 
tion of  the  Holy  Spirit — in  fact,  its  divine  power. 
Consequently,  an  appeal  to  any  superior,  even  though 
it  were  Christ  himself,  was  derogatory  to  the  heaven- 
ly attributes,  with  which  the  Council  had  clothed 
itself. 

t '  Animam  tuain  devovemus  iufernis  Diabolic.' 


at  the  same  time  his  voice  and  his  life. . 
His  ashes  were  carefully  collected  and  cast 
into  the  lake.  But  the  miserable  precaution 
was  without  any  effect ;  since  his  disciples 
tore  up  the  earth  from  the  spot  of  his  martyr- 
dom, and  adored  it  with  the  same  reverence 
and  moistened  it  with  those  same  tears, 
which  would  otherwise  have  sanctified  his 
sepulchre. 

The  points  of  difference  strictly  doctrinal 
between  Huss  and  his  persecutors  were,  after 
all,  neither  numerous  nor  important ;  since 
we  are  bound  in  this  inquiry  to  give  credit 
to  the  solemn  disavowals  of  the  accused, 
rather  than  to  the  malignant  imputations  of 
his  accusers.  Lenfant,  in  his  accurate  his- 
tory *  of  this  affair,  has  investigated  very 
minutely  the  real  extent  of  the  offeuces  of 
Huss,  and  reduced  them  under  two  heads. 
(1.)  He  unquestionably  refused  to  subscribe 
to  any  general  condemnation  of  the  articles 
of  Wiclif.  There  were  many  particulars  on 
which  he  dissented  from  that  reformer,  but 
in  several  others  he  professed  the  same  no- 
tions; and  among  these  last  were  disparage- 
ment of  the  Pope  and  the  Roman  Church, 
and  opposition  to  tithes,  indulgences,  and 
ecclesiastical  censures.  (2.)  It  was  also  made 
a  dangerous  charge  against  him,  that  the 
spirit  of  ecclesiastical  insubordination,  which 
had  already  appeared  in  Bohemia,  was  prin- 
cipally occasioned  by  his  preaching.  .  .  . 
Such  was  the  burden  of  his  offence.  And 
though  all  the  leading  authors  and  orators  of 
the  time  were  as  unsparing  as  Huss  himself, 
in  their  denunciations  of  papal  and  ecclesi- 
astical enormities,  even  from  the  pulpits  of 
Constance ;  though  it  was  even  usual  with 
them  to  ascribe  to  these  abuses  the  heresies 
of  the  day ;  still  the  independent  exertions  of 
a  Bohemian  preacher  in  the  same  cause  were 
stigmatized  by  them  as  indiscreet  and  im- 
moderate zeal  —  because  the  principles,  from 
which  that  zeal  proceeded,  were  not  in  ac- 
cordance with  their  own  hierarchical  preten- 
sions; because  the  Bible,  and  not  the  Church, 
was  the  source  from  which  it  flowed.  .  .  . 
And  as  to  the  disaffection  of  the  Bohemians, 
if  the  Council  really  hoped  to  repress  it  by  the 
perfidious  execution  of  the  most  pious  and 
popular  of  their  teachers,  the  events,  which 
presently  followed,  were  a  lesson  of  bloody 
and  indelible  instruction  both  to  those  who  in- 
dulged that  error,  and  to  then-  latest  posterity. 

III.    Jerome  of  Prague. —  In  less  than  a 
year  from  the  execution  of  Huss,  the  same 
*  Hist.  Cone.  Const,  lib.  iii.  §  52,  60. 


THE   HUSSITES. 


471 


sceue  of  injustice  and  barbarity  was  acted  a 
second  time,  though  with  some  variety  of 
circumstances,  in  the  same  polluted  theatre. 
Jerome,  master  in  theology  in  the  university 
of  Prague,  and  a  layman,  was  the  disciple  of 
Jolin  Huss.  Huss  (says  iEneas  Sylvius)  was 
superior  in  age  and  authority ;  but  Jerome 
was  held  more  excellent  in  learning  and 
eloquence.  While  the  former  presided  in 
the  chair,  the  latter  delivered  his  lectures  in 
the  schools;  and  the  same  opinions  were 
taught  with  equal  zeal  and  effect  by  the  one 
and  by  the  other.  In  the  troubles,  which  had 
been  excited  through  those  opinions,  Jerome 
had  had,  perhaps,  the  greater  share;  there 
was  at  least  no  favorable  feature  to  distinguish 
his  offence  from  that  of  his  master.  Accor- 
dingly he  was  summoned  to  Constance  soon 
after  the  meeting  of  the  Council  ;  and  he 
appeared  there  on  the  4th  of  April,  1415,  not 
unprepared  for  the  treatment  which  awaited 
him.  It  should  be  observed,  that  he  also 
obtained  a  safe-conduct  from  the  Emperor; 
but  that  in  his  case  the  conditional  clause, 
salva  semper  justilia,  was  inserted  ;  whereas 
that  of  Huss  contained  no  such  provision. 

At  his  first  audience  (on  May  23rd)  he 
exhibited  great  firmness ;  but  at  the  second, 
which  took  place  only  thirteen  days  after  the 
execution  of  Huss,  it  was  expected  that  the 
impression  made  by  that  frightful  example 
would  render  him  more  tractable.  And  so 
assuredly  it  proved ;  for  on  his  third  exam- 
ination (on  September  11th)  he  submitted, 
after  suffering  much  insult  and  intimidation, 
to  make  a  formal  and  solemn  retractation. 
He  'anathematized  all  heresies,  and  especial- 
ly that  of  Wiclif  and  Huss  with  which  he 
had  been  previously  infected  (infamatus) ; 
he  denounced  the  various  articles  which 
expressed  it,  as  blasphemous,  erroneous,  scan- 
dalous, offensive  to  pious  ears,  rash,  and-  se- 
ditious ;  and  professed  his  absolute  adhesion 
to  all  the  tenets  of  the  Roman  Church.'  .  .  . 

It  was  admitted  that,  in  this  mournful  ex- 
hibition of  human  inconstancy,  he  had  satis- 
fied every  demand  which  was  made  upon  his 
weakness,  both  in  substance  and  in  form; 
nevertheless  be  was  still  retained  in  confine- 
ment. After  a  short  space,  his  enemies 
pressed  forward  with  new  charges  against 
him.  They  found  many  eager  listeners 
among  the  members  of  the  Council ;  and 
Gerson*  himself  again  took  up  the  pen  of 

*  He  composed  at  this  time  (in  October,  1415)  his 
treatise  '  De  Protcstatione  et  llevocatione  in  Negotio 
Fidei   ad  eluendam  Haereseos  notani.'     He  sought  to 


bigotry,  and  again  sought  to  dip  it  in  blood. 
Matters  continued  thus  until  the  23rd  of  May, 
1416,  when  a  final  and  public  audience  was 
granted  to  his  repeated  entreaties.  On  this 
occasion  he  recalled,  with  sorrow  and  shame, 
his  former  retractation,  and  openly  attributed 
the  unworthy  act  to  its  real  and  only  motive 
— the  fear  of  a  painful  death. 

His  execution. — His  bitterest  foes  desired  no 
further  proof  against  him  ;  and  only  seven 
days  were  allowed  to  elapse  before  he  was 
condemned,  and  executed  on  the  same  spot 
which  had  been  hallowed  by  the  sufferings 
of  his  master.  The  courage,  which  had 
abandoned  him  in  the  anticipation  of  the 
flames,  returned  with  redoubled  force  as  he 
approached  them.  The  executioner  would 
have  kindled  the  fagots  behind  his  back: 
'Place  the  fire  before  me,'  he  exclaimed  ;  'if 
I  had  dreaded  it,  I  could  have  escaped  it.' 
'  Such  (says  Poggio  *  the  Florentine) '  was  the 
end  of  a  man  incredibly  excellent.  I  was  an 
eye-witness  to  that  catastrophe,  and  beheld 
every  act.  I  know  not  whether  it  was  obsti- 
nacy or  incredulity  which  moved  him ;  but 
his  death  was  like  that  of  some  one  of  the 
philosophers  of  antiquity.  Mutius  Scsevola 
placed  his  hand  in  the  flame,  and  Socrates 
drank  the  poison  with  less  firmness  and  spon- 
taneousness,  than  Jerome  presented  his  body 
to  the  torture  of  the  fire.' 

Whatsoever  may  have  been  the  respective 
excellence,  in  their  living  or  in  their  martyr- 
dom, of  those  two  venerable  heralds  of  the 
Reformation,  the  conduct  of  the  Council 
was  not  at  all  less  iniquitous  in  respect  to  its 


cast  suspicion  on  such  retractations;  and  this  was  the 
first  step  towards  the  execution  of  Jerome.  The 
Composition  may  be  found  in  Von  der  Hardt,  torn, 
iii.  p.  iv. 

*  In  a  letter  addressed  to  Leonardus  Aretinus,  of 
which  the  whole  is  valuable,  as  describing  the  entire 
transaction,  and  painting  the  character  of  Jerome. 
It  is  cited  by  Beausobre,  Histoire  de  la  Reformation, 
lib.  ii.;  by  Von  der  Hardt,  torn.  iii.  pars  iii.;  and 
other  writers.  There  was,  indeed,  a  little  more  of 
philosophical  parade,  and  a  little  less  of  the  genuine 
Christian  spirit  in  the  death  of  Jerome  than  in  that 
of  his  master.  iEneas  Sylvius,  however,  whose 
eye  was  not  likely  to  perceive  this  distinction,  or  to 
value  it  when  perceived,  includes  both  in  the  same 
sentence  of  admiration.  '  I'ertuleiunt  ambo  constant! 
ammo  necem  et  quasi  ad  cpulas  invitati  ad  incendium 
properarunt,  millam  cmitteutes  vocem,  qoss  iniseri 
animi  posset  facere  indicium.  Ubi  ardere  cceperunt, 
hvinnum  cecineiunl,  quern  vix  flamma  et  fragor  ignis 
intercipere  potuit.  Nemo  l'hilosophorum  tain  fort: 
anirno  mortem  pertulisse  traditur,  quam  isti  incen- 
dium.'    Hist.  Bohem.  cap.  xxxvi. 


472 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


second,  than  to  its  first  victim.  If  in  the  one 
instance  the  violation  of  the  safe-conduct  dis- 
played unblushing  perfidy,  the  contempt  of 
the  retractation  was  at  least  as  shameless  in 
the  other.  The  first  crime  was  followed  by 
no  remorse ;  it  seems  rather  to  have  led  to 
the  more  calm  and  deliberate  perpetration 
of  the  second.  The  principle  by  which  the 
deeds  were  justified  was  never,  for  an  instant, 
questioned  in  either  case.  And  we  should, 
at  the  same  time,  bear  in  mind  (for  it  is  a 
consideration  deserving  repeated  notice,)  that 
this  was  not  a  principle  exclusively  papal — no 
peculiar  emanation  from  the  apostolical  chair 
or  the  Court  of  Rome  —  it  was  a  principle 
strictly  ecclesiastical,  animating  the  Council 
as  the  representative  of  the  Church,  and  in- 
flaming the  individual  bosom  of  the  church- 
men who  composed  it.  It  was  embraced  by 
the  French  and  English,  as  warmly  as  by  the 
Italians  themselves ;  nor  was  it  pressed  to  any 
greater  extremity  by  the  champions  of  eccle- 
siastical corruption,  than  by  the  men  who 
called  themselves  its  reformers. 

IV.  The  condition  of  Bohemia  is  describ- 
ed to  have  been  singularly  flourishing  at  that 
moment.  There  was  no  other  region*  more 
abundant  in  useful  productions,  or  in  which 
the  people  were  blessed  with  greater  com- 
forts ;  none  more  distinguished  for  the  splen- 
dor of  its  churches  and  monasteries,  and  the 
wealth  of  its  clergy.  Unhappily,  that  body 
had  used  with  little  moderation  the  advantages 
enjoyed  by  it ;  and  its  excesses  had  for  many 
years  excited  the  murmurs  of  the  laity.  This 
disaffection  had  even  shown  itself  in  occa- 
sional outrages;  but  no  systematic  hostility 
had  yet  been  arrayed  either  against  the  per- 
sons or  the  property  of  the  sacred  order. 
Howbeit,  no  sooner  were  the  proceedings 
of  the  Council  made  known  throughout  the 
country,  than  the  people  gave  indications  of 
a  ferocious  spirit;  the  nobles f  likewise  ad- 


*  Cochlaeus  (lib.  i.  p.  314)  cites  some  verses  '  Con- 
radi  Celtis  primi  apud  Germanos  Poetae  Laureati,' 
in  praise  of  the  city  of  Prague: — 

Visa  non  est  Urbs  meliore  coelo; 
Explicat  septem  ha?c  spatiosa  colles, 
Ambitu  murorum  imitata  magna? 
Moenia  Roma?, 
f  They  had   previously  addressed   several  remon- 
strances to   the   Emperor  on  the   subject  of  Huss's 
imprisonment,  representing  that  there  was  no  person, 
great  or  small,  who  did  not  see  the  violation  of  li is 
safe-conduct   with  indignation.     Their   letter  to  the 
Council  immediately  followed  the  execution  of  Huss, 
and  was  dated  September  2.    The  great  considered 


dressed  a  bold  remonstrance  to  the  fathers ; 
and  as  their  rising  opposition  was  met  by  new 
edicts  *  of  condemnation,  which  still  farmer 
inflamed  it ;  and  as  Martin  V.  at  length  pub- 
lished a  Bullf  of  Crusade  against  the  contu- 
macious heretics,  every  hope  of  reconciliation 
was  removed,  and  the  difference  was  fairly 
committed  to  the  decision  of  the  sword. 

Insurrection  of  the  Bohemians. — It  was  one 
of  the  earliest  and  most  innocent  acts  of  in- 
subordination to  spread  three  hundred  tables 
in  the  open  air,  for  the  public  celebration  of 
the  communion  in  both  kinds.f  And  as  the 
sense  of  some  one  specific  grievance  is  ne- 
cessary for  the  union  of  a  large  multitude  in 
revolt  against  any  established  power,  so  it 
was  wise  in  the  Bohemian  insurgents  to 
select  one  among  their  spiritual  wrongs,  as 
the  principal  motive  of  resistance,  and  to  se- 
lect that  which  would  be  most  intelligible  to 


the  act  as  an  affront  to  the  kingdom  of  Bohemia;  the 
populace  exclaimed  against  the  fathers,  as  persecutors 
and  executioners,  and  assembling  in  the  chapel  of 
Bethlehem,  decreed  to  the  victim  the  honors  of  mar- 
tyrdom. It  is  related,  that  Jerome  of  Prague  was 
prematurely  associated  with  his  master  in  this  popular 
canonization ;  and  it  is  remarkable  that  this  crown 
was  conferred  upon  him  within  a  few  days  from  that, 
on  which  he  made  his  retractation. 

*  Among  the  edicts  published  at  Constance  against 
the  Hussites,  there  was  one,  in  1418,  which  prohibit- 
ed the  singing  of  songs  in  derision  of  the  Catholic 
Church. 

f  The  Bull  published  by  Martin  in  1421  contained 
a  prohibition  to  keep  faith  with  heretics,  as  distinct- 
ly conveyed  as  words  can  express  it, —  'Quod  si  tu 
aliquo  modo  inductus  defensionem  eorum  suscipere 
promisisti ;  scito  te  dare  fidem  hcereticis,  violatori- 
bus  Fidei  Sanctae,  non  potuisse,  et  idcirco  peccare 
mortaliter ,  si  servabis;  quia  fideli  ad  infidelem  non 
potest  esse  ulla  communio.'  It  is  addressed  to  Alex- 
ander, Duke  of  Lithuania,  and  published  by  Coch- 
laeus,  a  prejudiced  Catholic.     Lib.  v.  p.  212. 

%  After  all,  it  appears  nearly  certain,  that  Huss 
was  not  the  author  of  the  restoration  of  the  cup. 
Lenfant  follows  the  account  of  yEneas  Sylvius,  and 
argues  that  he  was  not.  The  retrenchment  of  the 
cup  appears  to  that  author  to  be  a  necessary  conse- 
quence of  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  which 
Huss  seems  to  have  professed  to  the  last.  The 
Catholics  of  Constance,  and  even  Gerson  himself, 
(for  he  published  a  very  elaborate  and  artificial  trea- 
tise on  the  subject,)  appear  to  have  been  more  per- 
plexed in  the  defence  of  this,  than  of  any  other  of 
their  abuses.  Antiquity,  of  course,  is  the  great  ob- 
ject of  appeal;  and  yet  the  antiquity  of  this  prac- 
tice could  scarcely  reach  two  centuries  (Lenfant,  liv. 
iii.,  §xxxi.);  and  it  certainly  never  acquired  the 
force  of  a  law  till  the  contrary  was  declared  to  be 
heresy,  in  the  10th  Session  of  the  Council  (May  14, 
1415.) 


THE   HUSSITES. 


473 


the  lowest  classes.  Again,  the  distinction  of 
a  name  was  useful  in  rousing  enthusiasm,  and 
preserving  the  show  of  concord.  And  so 
this  chostn  people  stigmatized  the  surrounding 
nations  as  Iduinaeans  or  Moabites,  as  Amale- 
kites  or  Philistines ;  themselves  were  the 
well-beloved  and  elect  of  God  ;  Thabor  was 
the  mount  on  which  they  pitched  their  tents, 
and  Thaborite  the  appellation  which  they 
adopted.  The  first  effects  of  their  indigna- 
tion were  directed  against  the  monks  and 
clergy.  These  were  plundered  and  even 
massacred  without  pity  and  without  remorse. 
The  sacred  buildings  were  overthrown,  tin.1 
sanctuaries  profaned,  the  altars  stained  with 
blood ;  and  all  those  abominations  were  un- 
sparingly committed,  which  commonly  attend 
a  premature  resistance  to  inveterate  oppres- 
sion. 

Their  triumphs. — Sigismond  conducted  the 
armies  of  the  Church ;  Zisea  led  the  rebels 
against  them  ;  and  the  name  of  Zisca  is  sig- 
nalized by  several  triumphs  over  the  imperial 
crusaders,  which  evinced  not  only  his  great 
military  genius  and  resolution,  but  the  deep 
religious  enthusiasm  and  devotion  of  his  fol- 
lowers. Atrocities  were  perpetrated  by  botli 
parties,  as  if  in  emulation  of  each  other,  and 
of  the  heroes  of  former  holy  wars ;  and  so 
keen  was  the  thirst  for  blood,  that  the  Hus- 
sites indulged  it  in  the  massacre  of  a  sect  of 
brother-heretics.  A  number  of  unfortunate 
enthusiasts,  usually  designated  Adamites,  were 
collected  in  an  insular  spot,  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Zisca's  encampment.  They  are 
accused  by  various  writers  of  the  habit  of 
nudity,  and  of  many  scandalous  crimes;  and 
in  this  matter  it  is  probable  that  they  have 
been  much  calumniated.  It  may  be,  as  Mos- 
heim  is  disposed  to  think,  that  they  were  in- 
fected with  some  of  the  absurdities  of  mys- 
ticism ;  or,  as  Beausobre  *  learnedly  argues, 
that  their  difference  from  the  Catholics  was 
confined  to  the  use  of  the  cup.  It  is  beyond 
dispute,  that  they  did  not  maintain  all  the 
opinions  of  the  Thaborites;  and  it  would 
seem  that  some  fatal  quarrels  had  taken  place 
between  individuals  of  the  two  sects.     Zisca 


*  This  very  ingenious  writer,  in  his  dissertation 
on  the  'Adamites,'  addressed  in  two  books  to  M. 
Lenfant,  and  published  together  with  the  '  History 
of  the  Council  of  Constance  '  by  the  latter,  certainly 
clears  the  Adamites  from  the  worst  charges  that  have 
been  brought  against  them,  which  he  shows  to  have 
been  Catholic  calumnies.  Still  the  question,  why 
Zisca  destroyed  them,  is  scarcely  answered  satisfac- 
torily. 


surrounded  and  destroyed  them  without  any 
discrimination  or  mercy  ;  but  lest  we  should 
on  this  account  consider  him  as  having  sur- 
passed the  wickedness  of  his  Catholic  adver- 
saries, we  may  remark,  that  by  this  very  act 
he  has  incurred  the  deliberate  praise  of  their 
historians,*  and  redeemed  in  their  eyes  some 
portion  of  the  guilt  of  his  apostasy. 

Divisions. — Zisca  died  in  1424,  and  divis- 
ions immediately  ensued  among  his  followers. 
Two  other  factions,  the  Orebites  and  the  Or- 
phans, distracted  the  Bohemian  reformers; 
but  they  united  on  occasions  of  common 
danger.  In  1431  they  repelled  another  for- 
midable crusade,  which  was  conducted  by 
the  celebrated  cardinal  of  St.  Angelo ;  and  in 
this  affair  the  rout  was  so  complete,  that  the 
Pope's  Bull,  as  well  as  the  hat,  cross,  and  bell 
of  the  cardinal,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  vic- 
tors, f  In  the  meantime,  a  more  moderate 
party  arose  and  acquired  influence  among 
the  Hussites ;  its  hopes  were  turned  to  a  pa- 
cific accommodation  with  the  Church ;  and 
with  that  view  it  was  arranged,  that  the  Bo- 
hemians should  send  deputies  to  treat  with 
the  Council  of  Basle.  .  .  Accordingly  some  of 
the  most  renowned  among  their  military  and 
ecclesiastical  directors  appeared  at  that  city 
on  the  day  appointed.  The  fame  of  their 
fierce  exploits  made  them  objects  of  deep  and 
fearful  curiosity  with  that  peaceful  assembly; 
they  were  treated  with  respect,  for  they  had 
earned  it  by  their  sword  ;  and  no  violation  of 
their  safe -conduct,  or  other  breach  of  faith, 
was  on  this  occasion  meditated. 

Embassy  to  Basle. — They  were  introduced, 
on  February  16,  1433,  to  a  general  meeting 
of  the  lathers,  and  immediately  proposed  the 
conditions  of  reconciliation,  which  were  four 
in  number. |  (1.)  The  use  of  the  cup  in  the 
administration  of  the  sacrament.  (2.)  The 
free  preaching  of  the  word  of  God.  (3.)  The 
abolition  of  the  endowments  of  the  clergy. 
(4.)  Thepunishment  of  heinous  transgressions 
and  mortal  sins.  A  separate  dehate  was  then 
opened  upon  each  of  these  articles;  and  John 
of  Rokysan,  the  most  conspicuous  among  the 

*  See  Cochlseus,  lib.  v.,  p.  218. 

f  See  Lenfant,  Guerre  des  Hussites,  1.  xvi.  s. 
v.  &c. 

J  According  to  Cochlteus  (lib.  v.,  p.  205,)  these 
were  fust  agreed  upon  in  a  general  assembly  '  Baro- 
iiiiiii  terras  Bohemias  et  Moravia*,  et  dominorum  in- 
elvi:<:  urbis  Pragensis,  militarium,clientum,  civitatum 
et  comniunitatum,'  A.  D.  1421.  This  will  account 
for  the  moderation  of  the  demands  contained  in 
them. 


474 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


Hussite  divines,  commenced  by  a  defence  of 
the  double  communion,  which  lasted  for  three 
entire  mornings.  He  was  afterwards  answer- 
ed by  John  of  Ragusa,  an  ingenious  Domini- 
can, who  so  far  surpassed  the  prolixity  of  his 
opponent,  as  to  occupy  eight  mornings  in  the 
delivery  of  his  arguments;*  six  others  were 
then  consumed  by  the  reply  of  Rokysau.  The 
other  subjects  were  contested  with  scarcely 
less  tediousness ;  and  when  the  debate  had 
thus  continued  for  nearly  two  months,  and 
when  it  was  found  that,  so  far  from  any  pro- 
gress having  been  made  towards  accommoda- 
tion, the  obstinacy  of  both  parties  was  only 
confirmed  and  inflamed,  the  Duke  of  Bavaria, 
the  secular  protector  of  the  council,  sought 
for  other  expedients  to  bring  them  to  terms. 
But  in  this  attempt  he  failed  likewise;  and 
after  the  Catholics  had  advanced  some  coun- 
ter propositions,  which  were  rejected  by  the 
Hussites,  the  conference  terminated,  and  the 
deputies  returned  to  recount  to  their  compa- 
triots the  failure  of  their  mission. 

The  Calixtines. —  But  the  Catholics,  being 
now  better  informed  as  to  the  variety  and 
nature  of  the  dissensions  which  divided  their 
opponents,  thought  to  profit  by  that  circum- 
stance, if  they  should  carry  the  controversy 
into  the  hostile  territories;  a  solemn  embas- 
sy was  accordingly  appointed  to  proceed  to 
Prague.  Negotiations  were  again  opened  ; 
and  again  the  Catholics  essayed  the  arts  of 
persuasion  in  vain.  They  then  introduced 
such  amendments  into  the  four  articles  as 
effectually  destroyed  their  force,  or  altered 
their  meaning;  but  these  were  firmly  re- 
jected by  the  larger  and  more  determined 
portion  of  the  separatists.  There  existed, 
however,  among  these  last,  a  more  moder- 
ate and  very  influential  party,  which  was 
strongly  disposed  to  waive  all  other  sub- 
jects of  complaint,  provided  the  double  com- 
munion were  fairly  conceded  by  the  Church. 
These    were   called  Calixtines  f  —  from    the 


*  It  is  observed  that  John  of  Ragusa  gave  great 
offence  to  his  opponents  by  the  frequent  use  of  the 
word  heresy,  as  applied  to  their  opinions.  With 
them  it  was  still  a  question  whether  it  was  not  the 
Church  which  was  in  heresy;  with  the  Dominican, 
the  Church  was  infallible.  Willi  them  it  was  error 
to  differ  from  the  Scripture;  with  John,  to  differ 
from  the  Church.  Thus  the  term,  taken  in  a  differ- 
ent sense,  was  as  obnoxious  in  their  eyes  as  in  those 
of  the  Dominican. 

f  Cochkeus  (lib.  v.,  p.  192)  mentions  early  dif- 
ferences between  the  Jlagislri  l'ragenses  and  the 
Thaborites.  The  former  were  the  more  moderate 
Dissenters;  the  Church  Hussites  and  Jacobellus  Mis- 


chalice  *  to  which  their  demands  were  confin 
ed  —  and  they  were  distinguished  from  the 
Thaborites,  who  constituted  the  more  violent 
faction  ;  and  the  sum  of  whose  grievances 
was  by  no  means  comprehended  in  the  four 
articles,  though  they  might  consent  in  their 
public  deliberations  to  suppress  the  rest. 
Among  the  Calixtins  were  several  of  the 
substantial  citizens  and  leading  members  of 
the  aristocracy  ;  and  of  such  too  the  Catholic 
party  was  chiefly  composed.  As  these,  next 
after  the  clergy,  were  the  principal  sufferers 
by  the  continuance  of  anarchy  and  the  devas- 
tations of  war,  they  entered  without  much  dif- 
ficulty into  the  designs  of  the  council.  And 
since  it  was  now  obvious,  that  no  reconciliation 
was  to  be  expected  from  discussion,  it  was  de- 
termined to  make  another  appeal  to  the  sword. 
Reneivnl  of  War.  —  A  civil  war  was  imme- 
diately kindled  throughout  the  country  (in 
1434  ; )  the  party  of  the  council  was  directed 
with  ability  by  a  distinguished  Bohemian, 
named  Maynard  :  his  schemes  were  at  first 
advanced  by  dissensions  which  raged  be- 
tween the  Thaborites  and  the  Orphans  ;  and 
he  afterwards  conducted  matters  with  so 
much  address,  that  he  engaged  them  when 
united,  and  entirely  overthrew  them.  On 
this  occasion  it  so  happened,  that  the  most 
hardened  and  desperate  among  the  insurgents 
fell  alive  into  the  power  of  the  conquerors; 
and  as  they  were  numerous,  and  objects,  even 
in  their  captivity,  of  fearful  apprehension, 
Maynard  resolved  to  use  artifice  for  their  de- 
struction. Among  the  prisoners  there  were 
also  several,  who  were  innocent  of  any  pre- 
vious campaigns  against  the  Church,  and 
who  were  neither  hateful  as  rebels,  nor  dan- 
gerous as  soldiers.  These  it  was  the  design 
of  the  Catholics  to  spare  ;  and  the  better  to 
distinguish  them  from  the  veterans  of  Zisca, 
they  caused  it  to  be  proclaimed,  that  the  gov- 
ernment intended  to  confer  honors  and  pen- 
sions on  the  more  experienced  warriors,  the 
heroes  of  so  many  fields.  These  were  ac- 
cordingly invited  to  separate  themselves  from 
their  less  deserving  companions,  and  to  with- 


nensis,  Rokysan,  and  other  distinguished  reformers, 
belonged  to  them.  But  the  Thaborites,  who  were 
the  Puritans,  and  also  the  soldiers  of  the  party,  had 
Zisca  with  them,  and  the  two  Procopiuses — both 
eminent  warriors — so  that  they  were  for  some  time 
the  stronger  faction. 

*  Tot  pingit  calices  Bohemorum  Terra  per  urbes, 

Ut  credas  Bacchi  numina  sola  coli — 

is  a  contemporary  distich.     It  should  be  observed, 

that  every  other  picture  was  an  object  of  aversion, 

at  least  to  ihe  more  rigid  reformers. 


THE   HUSSITES. 


475 


draw  to  some  adjacent  buildings,  where 
more  abundant  entertainment  and  a  worthier 
residence  were  prepared  for  them.  They 
believed  these  promises ;  and  then  it  came 
to  pass  (says  vEneas  *  Sylvius,)  '  that  many 
thousands  of  the  Thaborites  and  Orphans  en- 
tered the  barns  assigned  to  them  ;  they  were 
men  blackened,  and  inured  and  indurated 
against  sun  and  wind ;  hideous  and  horrible 
of  aspect;  who  had  lived  in  the  smoke  of 
camps ;  with  eagle  eyes,  locks  uncombed, 
long  beards,  lofty  stature,  shaggy  limbs,  and 
skin  so  hardened  and  callous  as  to  seem 
proof,  like  mail,  against  hostile  weapons.  The 
gates  were  immediately  closed  upon  them; 
fire  was  applied  to  the  buildings ;  and  by 
their  combustion,  that  ignominious  band,  the 
dregs  and  draft'  of  the  human  race,  at  length 
made  atonement  in  the  flames,  for  the  crim'es 
which  it  had  perpetrated,  to  the  religion 
which  it  had  insulted.'.  .  .  Among  the  crimes 
with  which  the  Thaborites  are  reproached, 
was  there  any  more  foul  than  that,  by  which 
they  perished  ?  or  can  any  deeper  insult  be 
cast  on  the  religion  of  Christ,  than  to  offer 
up  human  holocausts  in  his  peaceful  name  ? 
In  the  balance  of  religious  atrocities  the  mass 
of  guilt  must  rest  at  last  with  those,  who  es- 
tablished the  practice  of  violence,  and  conse- 
crated the  principles  of  Antichrist. 

Compact  of  Iglau. —  But  the  adversaries  of 
Rome  were  not  thus  wholly  extirpated :  un- 
der the  spiritual  direction  of  Rokysan,  they 
were  still  so  considerable,  that  Sigismond  did 
not  disdain  to  negotiate  with  them.  The 
result  was,  that  a  concordat  or  compact  was 
concluded  at  Iglau  in  the  year  143G,  by 
which  the  Bohemians  conceded  almost  all 
their  claims ;  but  in  return,  the  use  of  the 
cup  was  conceded  to  them,  not  as  an  essen- 
tial practice,  but  only  through  the  indulgence 
of  the  Church.f  Some  arrangement  was 
likewise  made  respecting  the  ecclesiastical 
property,  which  had  been  despoiled  by  the 
rebels.  This  affair  was  conducted  with  the 
countenance  of  the  Council.  The  first  result 
was  favorable;  and  the  contest  with  Rome 
might  then,  perhaps,  have  ceased  ;  the  Bohe- 
mians, fatigued  with  tumult  and  bloodshed, 


might  have  returned  to  the  obedience  of  the 
Church,  contented  with  one  almost  nominal 
concession,  if  the  chiefs  of  the  hierarchy 
could  have  endured  any  independence  of 
thought  or  action,  any  shadow  of  emancipa- 
tion from  their  immitigable  despotism.  For 
this  was,  in  fact,  the  spirit  which  guided  the 
Councils  of  Rome  ;  it  was  not  the  attachment 
to  any  particular  tenet  or  ceremony,  which 
moved  her  to  so  much  rancor;  but  it  was 
her  general  hatred  of  intellectual  freedom, 
and  the  just  apprehensions  with  which  she 
saw  it  directed  to  the  affairs  of  the  Church. 

In  September,  1436,  Sigismond  made  his 
entry  into  Prague,  amid  congratulations  al- 
most universal ;  and  the  calamities  which 
had  desolated  the  country  for  two-and-twenty 
years  appeared  to  be  at  an  end.*  But  the 
Pope  refused  his  assent  to  the  concordat;  he 
refused  to  confirm  the  appointment  of  Roky 
san  to  the  See  of  Prague,  though  the  Empe- 
ror had  promised  it;  and  though  all  the 
factions  of  the  people  were  united  in  desiring 
it.  Wherever  the  guilt  of  the  previous  dis- 
sensions may  have  rested,  henceforward  we 
need  not  hesitate  to  impute  it  wholly  to  the 
Vatican.  Legates  and  mendicant  emissaries  f 
continued  to  visit  the  country,  and  contend 
with  the  divines,  and  tamper  with  the  people. 
Even  Pius  II.,  whose  personal  \  intercourse 


*  Hist.  Boliem.,  cap.  li.,  ad  finem. 

f  The  Council  of  Basle,  in  its  thirtieth  session, 
published  its  Decree  on  the  Eucharist,  in  which  are 
these  words: — •  Sivc  autem  sub  una  specie  sive  du- 
plici  quia  communicet,  secundum  ordinationem  sen 
observationem  Ecclesia?,  proficit  digne  communicaut- 
ibus  ad  salutern.'  Cochlseus,  lib.  viii.  p.  308.  Com- 
municants might  be  saved  according  to  either  method, 
so  long  a3  that  method  was  sanctioned  by  the  Church. 


*  The  appointment  of  a  double  administrator  of 
the  Sacrament  in  every  Church,  one  for  the  Catholic, 
the  other  for  the  Separatist,  was  of  somewhat  later 
dale.  Lenfant  places  it  in  1441,  and  mentions  that 
great  good  proceeded  from  it. 

\  The  most  celebrated  among  these  papal  mission- 
aries was  John  Capistano,  a  Franciscan,  who  had 
gained  great  distinction  in  a  spiritual  campaign 
against  the  Fratricelli  in  the  Campagna  di  Roma 
and  March  of  Ancona,  and  had  condemned  thirty- 
six  of  them  to  the  flames.  .  .  .  He  is  described  by 
Cochlaeus  (lib.  x.  ad  finem)  as  a  little  emaciated  old 
man,  full  of  fire  and  enthusiasm,  and  indefatigable  in 
the  service  of  the  Chinch.  The  year  of  his  exertions 
in  Bohemia  was  1451.  Such  emissaries  were  in  those 
days  among  the  most  useful  tools  of  the  Roman  hie- 
rarchy. 

%  It  was  in  1451  that  ^Eneas  Sylvius  made  his 
celebrated  visit  to  Bohemia,  as  imperial  envov.  His 
mission  was  merely  political;  but  it  deserves  our 
notice  from  the  very  interesting  description  which  he 
has  drawn  of  the  manners  of  the  Thaborites,  among 
whom  he  found  an  asylum  when  in  some  danger  from 
bandits:  —  'It  was  a  spectacle  worthy  of  attention. 
They  were  a  rustic  and  disorderly  crew,  yet  desirous 
to  appear  civilized.  It  was  cold  and  rainy.  Some 
of  them  were  destitute  of  all  covering  except  their 
shirts;  some  wore  tunics  of  skin;  some  had  no  sad- 
dle, others  no  reins,  others  no  spurs.  One  had  a 
boot  ou  his  leg,  auother  none.     One  was  deprived  of 


476 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


with  the  sectarians  had  not  softened  his  ec- 
clesiastical indignation  at  their  disobedience, 
exhibited  in  his  negotiations  with  Pogebrac,* 
the  king,  an  intolerant  and  resentful  spirit. 
And  at  length  Paul  II.,  his  successor,  once 
more  found  means  to  light  up  a  long  and 
deadiy  war  in  the  infected  country.  It  was 
considered,  no  doubt,  as  a  stigma  upon  the 
Church,  which  all  occasions  and  instruments 
were  proper  to  efface,  that  a  single  sect  should 
anywhere  exist,  which  dared  to  differ  from 
the  faith  or  practice  of  Rome  on  a  single 
article,  and  which  maintained  its  difference 
with  inpunity. 

The  Bohemian  brothers.  —  It  was  in  1466 
that  Paul  II.  excommunicated  and  deposed 
Pogebrac,  and  transferred  the  kingdom  to 
the  son  of  Huniades.  In  that  object  he  was 
not  successful ;  but  during  the  discords  of 
almost  thirty  years  which  followed,  the 
offensive  names  of  Thaborite,  Orphan,  and 
even  Hussite,  gradually  disappeared,  and  the 
open  resistance  to  the  Catholic  predominance 
became  fainter  and  fainter.     But  the  princi- 


an  eye,  another  of  a  hand ;  and  to  use  the  expression 
of  Virgil,  it  was  unsightly  to  behold 

populataque  lempora  raptis 

Auribus  et  truncos  inhonesto  vulnere  nares. 

There  was  no  regularity  in  their  march,  no  constraint 
in  their  conversation  ;  they  received  us  in  a  barbarous 
and  rustic  manner.  Nevertheless,  they  offered  us 
hospitable  presents  of  fish,  wine  and  beer.  .  .  On  the 
outer  gate  of  the  city  were  two  shields;  on  one  of 
them  was  a  representation  of  an  angel  holding  a  cup: 
as  it  were  to  exhort  the  people  to  this  communion  in 
wine, — on  the  other  Zisca  was  painted  an  old  man, 
blind  of  both  eyes  .  .  whom  the  Thaboriles  followed, 
not  only  after  he  had  lost  one  eye,  but  when  he  became 
a  perfectly  blind  leader.  Nor  was  there  any  incon- 
sistency in  the,  etc' — (See  his  130th  Letter.)  In 
the  meantime  these  wild  and  unseemly  sectarians 
nourished  in  their  rude  abodes  opinions,  which  were 
the  glory  of  the  following  age,  but  which  were  indeed 
pernicious  to  themselves.  Exactly  seven  years  after 
the  visit  of  JEneas  Sylvius,  the  King  of  Bohemia, 
Pogebrac,  willing  to  bring  them  to  more  moderate 
sentiments  of  reform,  summoned  a  General  Council 
of  Hussites,  who  condemned  some  of  their  tenets; 
and  then,  on  their  refusal  to  abjure  them,  the  King 
assaulted  Thabor,  and  destroyed  them  (as  it  is  relat- 
ed) with  such  scrupulous  exactness,  that  not  one  was 
left  alive. 

*  Pogebrac  was  a  moderate  reformer,  a  Calixtine; 
he  was  extremely  anxious  to  be  subject  to  the  Church, 
on  the  condition  only,  that  it  would  leave  him  the 
cup:  he  had  been  brought  up,  as  he  said,  in  that  prac- 
tice, and  would  never  resign  it.     His  persecution  of 


pies  were  so  far  from  having  expired  lii  this 
conflict,  that  they  came  forth  from  it  in 
greater  purity,  and  with  a  show  of  vigor 
and  consistency,  which  did  not  at  first  distin- 
guish them.  Early  in  the  ensuing  century, 
about  the  year  1504,  a  body  of  sectarians, 
under  the  name  of  the  '  United  Brethren  of 
Bohemia,'  begins  to  attract  the  historian's 
notice.  Beausobre  *  affirms,  that  this  associ- 
ation was  originally  formed  in  the  year  1467  ; 
that  it  separated  itself  at  that  time  from  the 
Catholics  and  Calixtines,  and  instituted  a 
new  ministry;  that  it  made  application  to  the 
Vaudois,  in  order  to  receive  through  them 
the  true  apostolical  ordination  ;  and  that  Ste- 
phen, a  bishop  of  that  persuasion,  did  actually 
ordain  Matthew,  the  first  bishop  of  the  'Uni- 
ted Brethren.'  It  is  unquestionable,  that 
those  among  the  Thaborites,  and  the  other 
more  determined  dissenters,  who  had  escaped 
the  perils  of  so  many  disasters,  continued 
with  uncompromising  constancy  to  feed  and 
mature  the  tenets  for  which  they  had  suf- 
fered ;  and  that  many  of  the  leading  articles 
of  the  Reformation  were  anticipated  and 
preserved  by  the  'Bohemian  Brothers.'  It  is 
also  true,  that  the  evangelical  principles  of 
their  faith  were  not  unmixed  with  some 
erroneous  notions ;  but  it  is  no  less  certain, 
that  when  Luther  was  engaged  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  his  mission,  he  was  welcomed 
by  a  numerous  body  of  hereditary  reformers, 
who  rejected,  and  whose  ancestors  had  reject- 
ed, the  sacrifice  of  the  mass,  purgatory,  tran- 
substantiation,  prayers  for  the  dead,  the 
adoration  of  images ;  and  who  confirmed 
their  spiritual  emancipation  by  renouncing 
the  authority  of  the  Pope.f 

the  Thaborites  sufficiently  proves  how  far  he  was 
fi-om  any  anti-ecclesiastical  tendency.  Yet  he  seems 
to  have  been  as  much  hated  at  Rome,  as  if  he  had 
gone  to  the  full  extent  of  opposition,  and  he  was 
certainly  much  less  feared.  The  Pope  had  still  a 
powerful  party  among  the  aristocracy  of  Bohemia. 

*  Dissertation  sur  les  Adamites.     Part  I. 

f  Bossuel  (in  the  eleventh  chapter  of  his  Variations) 
consumes  his  ingenuity  in  endeavoring  to  show  that 
the  '  Bohemian  Brethren  '  were  descended  from  the 
Calixtines,  not  from  the  Thaborites,  and  had  thus 
only  one  point  of  doctrinal  difference  with  Rome. 
But,  at  the  same  time,  he  admits  their  disobedience 
— '  Voila  comme  ils  sont  disciples  de  Jean  Huss. 
Morceau  rompu  d'un  morceau,  schisme  separe  d'un 
schisme — Hussites  divises  des  Hussites;  et  qui  n'en 
avoient  presque  retenu,  que  la  desobeissance  et  la 
rupture  avec  l'Eglise  Romaine  ' 


THE   GREEK   CHURCH. 


477 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

History  of  the  Greek  Church  after  its  Separation 
from  the  Latin. 

Origin,  progress,  and  sufferings  of  the  Paulicians — They 
are  transplanted  to  Thrace,  and  the  opinions  gain  some 
prevalence  there— Their  differences  from  the  Manich- 
ens — and  from  the  Church — Six  specific  errors  charg- 
ed against  them  by  the  latter— Examined— Points  of 
resemblance  between  the  Paulicians  and  the  Hussites— 
Mysticism  at  no  time  extinct  in  the  East— and  generally 
instrumental  to  piety— Introduction  of  the  mystical 
books  into  the  West— Opinions  of  the  Echites  or  Mes- 
salians— Those  of  the  Hesychasts  or  Quietists— who 
are  accused  before  a  Council,  and  acquitted  —  The 
mixed  character  of  the  heresy  of  the  Bogomiles— Con- 
troversy respecting  the  God  of  Mahomet— terminated  by 
a  compromise— Points  of  distinction  between  the  two 
Churches— Imperial  supremacy  constant  in  the  East- 
Absence  of  feudal  institutions— Superior  civilization  of 
the  Greeks— They  never  received  the  False  Decretals, 
nor  suffered  from  their  consequences— Passionate  re- 
verence for  antiquity — Animosity  against  the  Latins — 
Hopes  from  foundation  of  the  Latin  kingdom  of Jerusa 
lem— Its  real  consequences— Establishment  of  a  Latin 
Church  in  the  East— Influence  of  the  military  orders — 
Legates  a  latere — Latin  conquest  of  Constantinople — 
confirmed  by  Innocent  III. — A  Latin  Church  planted 
and  endowed  at  Constantinople — Tithes — Dissensions 
of  the  Latin  Ecclesiastics — Increasing  animosity  be- 
tween the  Greeks  and  Latins — Secession  of  the  Greek 
hierarchy  to  Nice— Mission  from  Rome  to  Nice— Sub- 
>ecland  heat  of  the  controversy,  and  increased  rancor — 
John  of  Parma  subsequently  sent  by  Innocent  IV. — 
Extinction  of  the  Latin  empire— The  Church  does  not 
still  withdraw  its  claims — Subsequent  negotiations 
between  the  Emperor  and  the  Pope — Confession  of 
Clement  IV. — Conduct  of  the  Oriental  Clergy— Am- 
bassadors from  the  East  to  the  Second  Council  of 
Lyons — Concession  of  the  Emperor  presently  disavow- 
ed by  the  Clergy  and  People — Subsequent  attempts  at 
reconciliation— Arrival  of  the  Emperor  and  Patriarch 
at  Ferrara— First  proceedings  of  the  Council— Private 
deliberations  by  Members  of  the  two  churches— The 
four  grand  Subjects  of  Division— The  Dispute  on  Purga- 
tory —  Doctrine  of  the  Latins— of  the  Greeks— First 
Session  of  the  Council —Grand  disputations  on  the 
Procession — The  Council  adjourned  to  Florence,  and 
the  same  Discussions  repeated  there— Sucaestions  of 
compromise  by  the  Emperor,  to  which  the  Greeks 
finally  assent— The  Common  Confession  of  Faith— A 
Treaty,  by  which  the  Pope  engages  to  furnish  Supplies 
to  the  Emperor— The  Union  is  then  ratified— The  man- 
ner in  which  the  other  differences,  as  the  Azyms, 
Purgatory,  and  the  Pope's  Primacy,  are  arranged— 
Difficulty  as  to  the  last— How  far  the  subject  of  Tran- 
substantiation  was  treated  at  Florence.  On  the  fate  of 
Cardinal  Julian— Return  of  the  Greeks— Their  ansry 
reception— Honors  paid  to  Mark  of  Ephesus— Insubor- 
dination of  three  Patriarchs  —  Russia  also  declare* 
against  the  Union— Critical  situation  of  the  Emperor— 
The  opposite  Party  gains  ground— The  prophetic  ad- 
dress of  Nicholas  V.  to  the  Emperor  Constantiue—  Per- 
versity and  Fanaticism  of  the  Greek  Clergy  —  They 
open  Negotiations  with  the  Bohemians  —  Tumult  at 
Constantinople  against  the  Emperor  and  the  Pope's 
legate— Fall  of  Constantinople—  JYote.  On  the  Arme- 
nians— and  Maronites. 

While  the  jealousies,  which  had  so  long 
disturbed  the  ecclesiastical  concord  of  the 
east  and  west,  were  ripened  into  open  schism 
by  the  mutual  violence  of  Nicholas  arid  Pho- 


i  tins,*  the  Eastern  Church  was  in  the  crisis 
of  a  dangerous  contest  with  a  domestic  foe. 
jj  A  sect   of   heretics    named    Paulicians   had 
ji  arisen   in   the   seventh   century,  and   gained 
j|  great   prevalence   in   the   Asiatic   provinces, 
I  especially    Armenia.     It    was   in    va'ui   that 
||they   were   assailed   by   imperial  edicts  and 
jj  penal    inflictions.     Capstans,    Justinian    II., 
■  and  even  Leo  the  Isaurian  successively  chas- 
I  tised  their  errors  or  their    contumacy;    but 
they  resisted  with   inflexible  fortitude,  until 
at  length  Nicephorus,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
ninth  century,  relented  from  the  system  of 
his   predecessors,  and   restored  the  factious 
dissenters  to   their   civil   privileges,  and  re- 
ligious liberty. 

During  this  transient  suspension  of  their 
sufferings,  they  gained  strength  to  endure 
others,  more  protracted  and  far  more  violent. 
The  oppressive  edicts  were  renewed  by- 
Michael  Curopalates,  and  redoubled  by  Leo 
the  Armenian  ;  as  if  that  resolute  Iconoclast 
wished  to  make  amends  to  bigotry,  for  his 
zeal  in  the  internal  purification  of  the  Church, 
by  his  rancor  against  its  sectarian  seceders. 
The  struggles,  the  victories,  and  the  misfor- 
tunes of  that  persecuted  race  are  eloquently 
unfolded  in  the  pages  of  Gibbon  :  we  shall 
not  transfer  the  narrative  to  this  history,  for 
it  belongs  net  to  our  purpose  to  trace  the  de- 
tails even  of  religious  warfare.  It  may  suf- 
fice to  say,  that  the  sword,  which  was  re- 
sumed by  the  enemy  of  the  Images,  was 
most  fiercely  wielded  by  their  most  ardent 
patroness ;  and  that,  during  the  fourteen  years 
of  the  reign  of  Theodora,  about  100,000 
Paulicians  are  believed  to  have  perished  by 
various  methods  of  destruction.  The  couflict 
lasted  till  nearly  the  end  of  the  century  ;  ami, 
at  length,  the  survivors  either  sought  for  ref- 
uge under  the  government  of  the  Saracens, 
or  were  transplanted  by  the  conqueror  into 
the  yet  uncontaminated  provinces  of  Bulgaria 
and  Thrace.  But  Dot  thus  were  the  doctrines 
silenced,  or  the  spirit  extinguished.  The 
fierce  exiles  carried  with  them  into  their  new 
habitations  the  sectarian  and  proselytizing 
zeal ;  and  the  errors  of  the  East  soon  took 
root  and  flourished  in  a  ruder  soil.  During 
the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries  the  Pauli- 
cians of  Thrace  were  sufficiently  numerous 
to  be  objects  of  suspicion,  if  not  of  fear;  and 
in  the  latter  we  find  it  recorded,  that  Alexius 
Comnenus  did  not  disdain  to  employ  the 
talents  and  learning,  with  which  he  adorned 
the  purple,  in  personal  controversy  with  the 

*  We  refer  the  reader  to  the  12th  chapter  of  this 
History. 


478 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


heretical  doctors.  Many  are  related  to  have 
yielded  to  the  force  of  the  imperial  eloquence  ; 
many  also  resigned  their  opinions  on  the 
milder  compulsion  of  rewards  and  dignities  ; 
but  those  who,  being  unmoved  by  either  in- 
fluence, pertinaciously  persisted  in  error  and 
disloyalty,  were  corrected  by  the  moderate 
exercise  of  despotic  authority.* 

After  this  period  we  find  little  mention  of 
the  Paulician  sect  in  the  annals  of  the  Ori- 
ental Church.  But  we  should  remark  that 
Armenia,  the  province  of  its  birth,  was  never 
afterwards  cordially  reconciled  to  the  See  of 
Constantinople  ;  and  that,  though  it  no  longer 
fostered  that  particular  heresy,  it  continued 
to  nourish  some  seeds  of  disaffection,  which 
frequently  recommended  it  in  later  ages  to 
the  interested  affection  of  the  Vatican.f 

Opinions  of  the  Paulicians— ll  is  generally 
much  easier  to  describe  the  fortunes  of  a 
suffering  sect  than  to  ascertain  the  offence  for 
which  they  suffered.  The  resistance  of  the 
Paulicians,  their  bravery,  their  cruelty,  their 
overthrow,  are  circumstances  of  unquestion- 
able assurance  ;  the  particulars  of  their  opin- 
ions are  disputed.  By  their  enemies,  they 
were  at  once  designated  as  Manichffians — it 
was  the  name  most  obnoxious  to  the  Eastern 
as  well  as  the  Western  Communion:  yet,  if 
we  may  credit  contemporary  testimony,-):  they 


*  Tiiey  were  removed  to  Constantinople,  and  plac- 
ed in  a  sort  of  honorable  exile  in  the  immediate 
precincts  of  the  imperial  palace.  Anna  Coninena 
(Alexiad,  b.  xiv.)  describes  with  filial  ardor  her 
father's  zeal  and  patience  in  converting  these  Mani- 
cheans.  ToCg  fiiv  uirXoig  rovg  [iuQ^novg  Ivixa, 
roig  Se  Xuyoig  ix^^ovTo  tou?  arri&iovg.  aJoirtQ 
Si  tote  y.arlx  Tiov  Mavi/alwv  ici'orrXiaTo,  anoaro- 
?.ixi.v  avri  fiTOccrqyiz^c  araSeiiufii rog  aywrun — y.ui 
~iytx>yt  rovrov  rotay.aiSty.urov  ttv  anoQToZov  oiou- 
aaaifit  .  .  .  anh  nowiag  ovv  I'f/ot  SeU.7jg  fioag  t( 
y.ai  hniQccg,  Iotiv  ov  y.ai  Stvriqag  y.ai  To<r>;c 
ifvXay.ijg  rijg  vvy.rbg  uiTajtiunoutvog  avrovg,  &c. 
&c. 

f  See  the  Note  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 
%  '  Iidem  sunt  (says  Petrus  Siculus,  page  764)  nee 
quicquamdiveitunt  a  Manicha>is  Paulliciani,qui  hasce 
recens  a  se  procusas  hrereses  prioribus  assuerunt,  et 
ex  sempiterno  exitii  baratliro  eftbderunt:  qui,tametsi 
se  a  ManichcBorum  impuritatibus  alienos  dictitant, 
sunt  tamen  dogmatum  ipsorum  vigilantissimi  custodes, 
Sec'  '  Historia  de  Manichseis;'  a  Latin  translation 
of  which  is  published  in  the  Maxima  Bibliotheca 
Patrum  Veterum;  torn,  xvi.,  ann.  860  —  900.  The 
expressions  of  Photius  are  'MijStlg  S'  ou'fl9co  (m>;c 
irlqag  pXuarrjua  firai,  7rao'  i,v  tyoiLcootr  6  -diuti- 
a/og  Murtjg,  Ti',r  naQayvuda  TavTrjv  rltv  Svaat(1o>r 
Stoyiov  SoyuuTvn-  uia  yuQ  tart  y.ai  >;  avrln  &C.' 
{Ju)yrtaig,  &c,  published  in  the  Bibliotheca  Cois- 
liana  (Paris,  1715)  page  349. 


earnestly  disclaimed  the  imputation.  The 
truth  is,  that  they  are  only  known,  like  so 
many  other  sects,  through  the  representations 
of  their  adversaries.*  These  have  been  in- 
vestigated by  Mosheimf  with  his  usual  care 
and  impartiality,  and  the  result  of  his  inquiry 
may  be  received  with  as  much  confidence 
as  is  consistent  with  the  nature  of  the  evi- 
dence. 

The  most  obvious  difference  between  the 
Paulicians  and  ManichaBans  related  to  the 
ecclesiastical  profession  and  discipline.  The 
former  rejected  the  government  by  bishops, 
priests,  and  deacons  ( to  which  the  Mani- 
chseans  adhered,)  and  admitted  no  order  or 
individuals  set  apart  by  exclusive  consecra- 
tion for  spiritual  offices.  Neither  did  the  au- 
thority of  councils  or  synods  enter  into  their 
system  of  religious  polity.  They  had,  indeed 
certain  doctors,  called  Synecdemi,  or  Notarii 
but  these  were  not  distinguished  by  any  pe- 
culiar dignities  or  privileges,  either  from  each 
other  or  from  the  body  of  the  people.  The 
oidy  singularity  attending  their  appointment 
was,  that  they  changed,  on  that  occasion, 
their  lay  for  scriptural  names.  They  received 
all  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  except 
the  two  Epistles  of  St.  Peter  ;  and  the  copies 
of  the  Gospel  in  use  among  them  were  the 
same  with  those  authorised  by  the  Church, 
and  free  from  the  numerous  interpolations 
imputed  to  the  Manichseans. 

The  peculiarities  already  mentioned  may 
appear  alone  sufficient  to  have  excited  the 
animosity  of  the  established  clergy  of  the 
East ;  but  these  were  by  no  means  the  only 
offences  objected  to  the  Paulicians  by  the 
Church  writers.  These  last,  without  pro- 
fessing to  give  a  perfect  delineation  of  the 
monstrous  system  of  the  Heretics,  are  con- 
tented to  charge  them  with  six  detestable 
errors:  1.  That  they  denied  that  either  the 
visible  world  or  the  human  body  was  the 
production  of  the  Supreme  Being;  and  dis- 
tinguished their  Creator  from  the  most  High 
God  who  dwells  in  the  heavens.  2.  That 
they  treated  contemptuously  the  Virgin  Mary. 
3.  That  they  disparaged  the  nature  and  insti- 


*  The  books  from  which  our  best  accounts  of  the 
Paulicians  are  derived,  are  Photius  (^'yja/s  T<5v 
reocpuiTow  Mari%a'ian'  y.aTap.aari'fitwg),  and  Petrus 
Siculus  (Historia  de  Manichseis).  By  the  account 
of  Petrus  Siculus  we  learn,  that,  in  the  year  870,  un- 
der the  reio-n  of  Basilus  the  Macedonian,  he  was  sent 
as  ambassador  to  the  Paulicians  at  Tibrica,  to  treat 
with  them  concerning  the  exchange  of  prisoners,  and 
that  he  lived  among  them  for  nine  months 

f  Cent.  ix.  p.  2.  chap.  v. 


THE  GREEK   CHURCH. 


479 


tution  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  *  4.  That  they 
loaded  the  cross  of  Christ  with  contempt  and 
reproach.  5.  That  they  rejected,  after  the 
example  of  the  greatest  part  of  the  Gnostics, 
the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  looked 
upon  the  writers  of  the  Sacred  History  as 
inspired  by  the  Creator  of  the  world,  not  by 
the  Supreme  God.  6.  That  they  excluded 
Presbyters  and  Elders  from  all  part  in  the 
administration  of  the  Church.f 

We  are,  of  course,  bound  to  receive  these 
articles  with  suspicion,  as  the  allegations  of 
an  enemy.  Still  they  had,  unquestionably, 
some  foundation.  The  first  and  fifth  are 
sufficient  to  prove  that  the  Paulicians  main- 
tained some  opinions  resembling  those  of 
Manes.  It  seems,  indeed,  most  probable  that 
they  were  descended  from  some  one  of  the 
ancient  Gnostic  sects,  which,  though  diver- 
sified in  many  particulars,  all  professed  one 
common  characteristic.  Again,  whether  or 
not  they  believed  the  eternity  of  matter  is 
questionable  ;  but  it  was  seemingly  their  opin- 
ion that  matter  was  the  seat  and  source  of 
all  evil ;  and  that,  when  endued  with  life  and 
motion,  it  had  produced  an  active  principle, 
which  was  the  cause  of  vice  and  misery. 
Respecting  the  third  charge,  it  appears  that,  in 
their  passion  for  the  allegorical  interpretation 
of  Scripture,  they  attached  merely  a  figurative 
sense  to  the  bread  aud  wine  administered 
by  Christ  at  the  last  supper,  understanding 
thereby  a  spiritual  food  and  nourishment 
for  the  soul.  The  second  and  fourth  evince 
their  freedom  from  some  of  the  popular  su- 
perstitions of  the  Greeks — adoration  of  the 
Virgin,  and  reverence  for  the  fancied  relics 
of  the  Cross ;  and  this,  again,  had  alone  been 
crime  sufficient  to  arm  against  them,  in  the 


*  The  words  of  Petrus  Siculus  are — 'Quod  divinam 
et  tretnendam  corporis  et  sanguinis  Domini  nostri 
conversionein  negent,  aliaque  de  hoc  mysterio  doceant 
— A  Domino  nempe  non  panem  et  vinum  in  cceria  dis- 
cipulis  propinatmn,  sed  figurate  symbola  tan  turn  et 
verba,  tanquam  panem  et  vinum,  data.'  In  the  arti- 
cle following — '  Quod  fonnam  et  vim  venerandae  et 
vivificaa  crucis  non  solum  non  agnosrant,  sed  infinitis 
etiam  contumeliis  onerent.'  The  six  articles  thus 
stated  by  Petrus  Siculus  are  given  by  Photius  in  the 
same  order,  and  with  no  very  important  alteration  01 
addition:  only,  the  patriarch  increases  the  list  by  the 
charge  of  the  most  abandoned  obscenity  and  pro- 
fligacy. 

t  The  Sicilian  elsewhere  admits  that  the  Paulicians 
professed  the  principal  Catholic  doctrines;  but  aliter 
ore,  aliter  corde.  These  menial  heresies,  so  gra- 
tuitously imputed  where  every  outward  proof  is  want- 
ing, are  the  most  wicked  invention  of  ecclesiastical 
rancor. 


eighth  and  ninth  centuries,  the  intemperate 
zealots  of  the  Oriental  Church.  Add  to  this, 
that  they  held  the  images  of  the  Saints  in  no 
reverence,  and  reco  no  mended  to  every  class 
of  the  people  the  assiduous  study  of  the  sa- 
cred volume ;  not  suppressing  their  indigna- 
tion against  the  Greeks,  who  closed  the 
sources  of  divine  knowledge  against  all,  ex- 
cept the  priests*.  .  .  These  various  subjects 
of  difi'erence  duly  considered,  we  shall  not 
wonder  that  the  Paulicians  became  the  vic- 
tims of  the  most  deadly  persecution  which 
ever  disgraced  the  Eastern  Church.  And 
since  they  were,  in  some  manner,  the  reform- 
ers of  their  time,  and  as  their  zeal  was  in- 
discriminately directed  as  well  against  the 
sacerdotal  order  as  against  the  corruptions 
introduced  or  supported  by  if,  the  Schisma- 
tics of  Armenia  resembled,  both  in  their  prin 
ciples  aud  their  excesses,  the  Bohemians  of 
the  fifteenth  age.  The  resemblance  was  in- 
creased by  the  violent  means  which  were  in 
both  cases  adopted  to  crush  them,  and  which 
were  resisted  with  the  same  ferocious  he- 
roism by  both.  Nor  were,  their  concluding 
destinies  very  different ;  for,  though  the  sect 
of  the  Paulicians  was  at  length  expatriated, 
and  finally  extinguished  or  forgotten  in  the 
Bulgarian  deserts,  the  Christians  of  Ar- 
menia never  afterwards  returned  with  any 
fidelity  to  the  communion  from  which  they 
had  been  so  violently  dissevered. 

Mysticism  prevalent  in  the  East. — Amidst 
the  metaphysical  disputes  which  agitated  the 
Greeks  in  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries, 
that  strong  disposition  to  mysticism,  which  is 
peculiarly  congenial   with  the  oriental  char- 

*  A  considerable  proportion  of  the  work  of  Petrus 
Siculus  is  consumed  in  describing  the  process,  by 
which  the  mind  of  Sergius  or  Constantino,  the  foun- 
der of  the  sect,  was  corrupted  by  the  seductions  of  a 
Manicha?an  woman.  The  following  is  an  important 
specimen  of  the  dialogue  (page  761):  '  Audio,  Domine 
Scrgi,  te  literarmn  scientia  et  erudflione  pra?stantem 
esse,  et  boniun  prtcterea  virum  usqttequaque.  Die 
ergo  mihi,  cur  non  legis  sacra  Evangelial  Qui- 
bus  ille  ita  respondit.  Nobis  profanis  ista  legere 
non  licet,  sed  sacerdotibus  duntaxat.  At  ilia  — 
Non  est  ita  ut  putas;  nee  enira  personarum  acceptio 
est  apud  Deum.  Omnes  siquidein  homines  vult  salvos 
fieri  Dominus  et  ad  agni  tionem  veritatis  venire.  At 
sacerdotes  vestri,  quoniam  Dei  vcrbuin  adulterant  et 
roysteria  occulunt,  qua;  in  Evangel i is  continentur, 
idcirco,  vobis  audientibus  omnia  non  legunt  qua? 
scripta  sunt,  &c.  It  is  related  that  Constantine  re- 
ceived from  a  deacon,  in  return  for  some  acts  of  hos- 
pitality, the  present  of  the  New  Testament.  Thus  it 
appears  that,  before  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century, 
the  Eastern  clergy  had  effectually  shut  up  the  sources 
of  sacred  knowledge. 


480 


HISTORY   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


acter,  gave  frequent  proofs  of  its  activity, 
though  it  never  became  the  predominant 
spirit.  It  was  principally  cherished  in  the 
monastic  establishments;  and  when  free  from 
the  strange  notions  into  which  it  not  uncom- 
monly seduced  irregular  minds,  it  gave  birth, 
without  any  doubt,  to  much  genuine  and  ar- 
dent piety.  But  in  the  course  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal history,  through  a  painful  necessity  per- 
petually imposed  upon  its  writer,  it  is  by  the 
excesses  of  piety  rather  than  its  natural  and 
ordinary  fruits,  !*y  the  abuses  of  religion 
rather  than  its  daily  and  individual  uses  and 
blessings,  that  attention  is  fixed  and  curiosity 
excited.  In  the  civil  and  political  records 
of  nations  the  exploits  of  patriotism  and  the 
deeds  which  throw  dignity  on  human  nature, 
are  proclaimed!  and  celebrated,  because  they 
were  performed  in  the  public  fields  of  re- 
nown, with  kings  and  nations  for  their  wit- 
nesses. But  in  a  religious  society  the  purest 
characters  are  commonly  those,  which  shun 
celebrity  and  court  oblivion.  The  noblest 
patriots  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ  are  men 
who  serve  their  Heavenly  Master  in  holiness 
and  in  peace.  They  have  their  eternal  re- 
compense;  but  it  is  rare  that  they  rise  into 
worldly  notice,  or  throw  their  modest  lustre 
on  the  historic  page. 

On  this  account  it  is,  that,  while  the  absur- 
dities of  mysticism  are  commonly  known  and 
derided,  the  good  effect  which  it  has  had,  in 
turning  the  mind  to  spiritual  resolves  and 
amending  the  heart  of  multitudes  imbued  with 
it,  is  generally  overlooked.  We  cannot  now 
recall  the  names,  or  publish  the  pious  acts  or 
aspirations,  which  have  been  concealed  or 
forgotten ;  yet  may  we  approach,  in  a  spirit 
of  benevolence,  the  follies  which  have  been 
so  carefully  recorded ;  and  while  we  pursue 
with  unsparing  denunciation  the  crimes  of 
ecclesiastical  hypocrites  —  the  ambition,  the 
frauds,  the  avarice,  the  bigotry  of  a  secular 
hierarchy — we  may  pass  with  haste  and  com- 
passion over  the  errors  and  extravagances 
of  piety. 

Euchites  or  Messalians.  —  Mosheim*  as- 
cribes the  introduction  of  the  mystical  theol- 
ogy into  the  Western  Church  to  a  copy  of  the 
pretended  works  of  Dionysius  the  Areopa- 
gite,  sent  by  the  Emperor  Michael  Balbus  to 
Lewis  the  Meek.  Whether  this  be  true  or 
not,  it  was  certainly  in  the  East  that,  those 
opinions  were  most  prevalent,  not  in  earlier 
only,  but  also  in  later  ages.     It  is  particularly 

*  Cent.  ix.  p.  2,  chap.  iii.  The  works  of  Diony- 
sius, though  long  received  as  genuine,  are  a  palpable 
forgery,  probably  of  the  filth  century. 


recorded,  that,  in  the  twelfth  century,  nu- 
merous fanctics  disturbed  the  unity  and  re- 
pose of  the  Oriental  Church  by  errors  pro- 
ceeding from  those  principles.  It  is  said  that 
they  rejected  every  form  of  external  worship, 
all  the  ceremonies,  and  even  the  sacraments 
of  the  Church  :  that  they  placed  the  whole 
essence  of  religion  in  internal  prayer ;  and 
maintained  that  in  the  breast  of  every  mortal 
an  evil  genius  presided,  against  which  no 
force  nor  expedient  was  availing,  except  unre- 
mitted prayer  and  supplication.  One  Lycop- 
etrus  is  believed  to  have  founded  this  sect, 
and  to  have  been  succeeded  by  a  disciple 
named  Tychicus;  and  their  followers  were 
presently  known  throughout  the  East  by  the 
denomination  of  Euchites,  or  Messalians,* 
Men  of  Prayer.  The  term  was  considered 
ignominious  ;  and  it  presently  came  generally 
into  use  to  designate  all  who  were  adverse  to 
the  persons  of  the  clergy,  or  the  system  of 
the  Church.  The  Churchmen  of  the  West 
were  at  the  same  period  beginning  to  employ 
the  terms  Waldenses  and  Albigcnses  with  the 
same  latitude  and  for  the  same  purpose; 
and  as,  in  the  one  instance,  we  are  well  as- 
sured that  many  holy  individuals  were  in- 
volved in  the  indiscriminate  scandal,  so  also 
may  the  seeds  of  a  purer  worship  have  lurked 
in  the  barren  bosom  of  the  Messalian  heresy. 
Hesychasts,  or  Quietists. —  Two  centuries 
afterwards,  the  eye  of  Barlaam,  an  inquisitive 
ecclesiastic,  sharpened  by  much  intercourse 
with  the  hierarchy  of  the  West,  detected,  in 
the  monasteries  of  Mount  Athos,  a  very  sin- 
gular form  of  fanaticism.  A  sect  of  persons 
was  their  discovered,  who  believed  that, 
through  a  process  of  intense  contemplation, 
they  had  attained  the  condition  of  perfect  and 
heavenly  repose.  The  method  of  their  con- 
templation is  conveyed  in  the  following  in- 
structions, handed  down  to  them,  as  it  would 
seem,  from  the  eleventh  century  :f — 'Being 
alone  in  thy  cell,  close  the  door,  and  seat 
thyself  in  the  corner.  Raise  thy  spirit  above 
all  vain  and  transient  things ;  repose  thy  beard 
on  thy  breast,  and  turn  thine  eyes  with  thy 
whole  power  of  meditation  upon  thy  navel. 
Retain  thy  breath,  and  search  in  thine  entrails 
for  the  place  of  thy  heart,  wherein  all  the 


*  This  was,  in  fact,  only  the  revival  of  an  ancient 
heresy,  condemned,  under  the  same  name  and  proba- 
bly for  the  same  errors,  by  the  Council  of  Antioch, 
held  towards  the  end  of  the  fourth  age.  See  Fleury, 
I.  xix.  s.  25,  26,  and  1.  xcv.  s.  9. 

f  It  is  found  in  a  spiritual  treatise  of  Simon,  abbot 
of  the  monastery  of  Xerocerka,  at  Constantinople, 
and  is  cited  by  Fleury,  1.  xcv.  s.  9. 


THE   GREEK  CHURCH. 


481 


powers  of  the  soul  reside.  At  first  thou  wilt 
encounter  thick  darkness ;  but  by  persevering 
night  and  day  thou  wilt  find  a  marvellous  and 
uninterrupted  joy ;  for  as  soon  as  thy  spirit 
shall  have  discovered  the  place  of  thy  heart, 
it  will  perceive  itself  luminous  and  full  of 
discernment'  When  interrogated  respecting 
the  nature  of  this  light,  they  replied  that  it 
was  the  glory  of  God;  the  same  which  sur- 
rounded Christ  during  the  transfiguration. 
These  enthusiasts  were  originally  called 
Hesychasts,  or,  in  Latin,  Quietists ;  they  after- 
wards obtained  the  name  of  Ou(paX6^v/ot,  or 
Umbilicani,  'men  whose  souls  are  in  their 
navels.'  They  were  also  known  by  that  of 
Thaborites,  from  their  belief  respecting  the 
nature  of  their  divine  light. 

It  might    seem    beneath  the  dignity   of 
history  to  waste  a  thought  or  a  sigh  on  such 
pure  fanaticism.     Yjft  such  was  it  not  con- 
sidered in  the  age  in  which  it  rose;  but  it 
occupied,  on  the  contrary,  the  solemn  con- 
sideration of  courts  and  councils.     Barlaam 
officiously  denounced  the  heresy  to  the  Pa- 
triarch of  Constantinople.     The  Metropolitan 
was  astounded,  and  instantly  summoned  the 
Hesychasts  into  his  presence.    As  they  argued 
with  confidence,  a  Council  was  thought  ne- 
cessary to  decide  so  grave  a  controversy  ;  but 
the  Emperor  Andronicus  hesitated  to  convoke 
it,  and  strongly  recommended  to  both  parties 
silence  aud  reconciliation.     Howbeit,  the  po- 
lemics persisted  ;  the  Emperor  yielded  ;  and 
the  Council  was  assembled.*     The  Archbish- 
op of  Thessalonica,  Gregory  Palamas,  advo- 
cated the  cause  of  the  Thaborites ;  and,  what 
might  astonish  even  those  most  familiar  with 
the  triumphs  of  religious  extravagance,  he 
succeeded.     Nay,  so  signal  was  his  success, 
that  the  accuser  thought  it  expedient  to  retire 
from   the  country  and   return  to  Italy.  .  .  . 
The  controversy  was  soon  afterwards  renew- 
ed, and  became  the  occasion  of  other  councils, 
which  agreed  without  exception  in  the  con- 
demnation of  the  Barlaamites.     But  the  ques- 
tion had  now  assumed  a  more  general  form  ; 
the  Quietism  of  the  Monks  of  Mount  Athos 
was  no  longer    the  subject  of  dispute;    it 
ascended  to  the  mysterious  inquiry,  whether 
the  eternal  light  with  which  God  was  encir- 
cled, which   might   be  called   his  energy  or 
operation,  and  which  was  manifested  to  the 
disciples  on  Mount  Thabor,  was  distinct  from 
his  nature  and  essence,  or  identified  with  it  ?  f 

*  It  was  held  on  June  11,  1341,  and  the  Emperor 
presided  in  person,  together  with  the  Patriarch  and 
many  of  the  nobility  of  the  empire. 

f  See  Mosheim.     Cent.  xiv.  p.  2,  eh.  v. 
Gl 


The  former  was  the  opinion  of  the  pious 
Archbishop  Palamas.  It  grew  gradually  to 
be  considered  as  the  more  reasonable  tenet, 
and  finally  took  its  place,  after  a  series  of 
solemn  deliberations,  among  the  dogmas  of 
the  Oriental  Church. 

Bogomiles. — We  must  notice  one  or  two 
other  disputes,  of  greater  notoriety  than  im- 
portance, which   occasioned   some   transient 
agitation  in  the  East.    A  monk  named  Ba- 
silius  was  burnt  in  the  Hippodrome  during 
the  reign  of  Alexius  Comnenus  for  opinions 
which  he  refused,  on  repeated  solicitation,  to 
renounce.*     They  are  known  to  us  only  from 
his  enemies.     He  is  said  to  have  maintained 
that  the  world   and  all  its  inhabitants  were 
the  creation  of  an  evil  and  degraded  demon, 
so  that  the  body  was  no  better  than  the  prison 
house  of  the  immortal   spirit:   wherefore,  it 
became  man  to  enervate   and   subject  it  by 
fasting,  prayer,  and  contemplation,  and  there- 
by to  redeem   the   soul   from   its   degrading 
captivity.     This   Heresiarch   had   many  fol- 
lowers, who  were  called  Bogomiles — as  it  is 
said,  from  a  Mysian  word  signifying  '  the  in- 
vocation of  divine  mercy.'    These  sectarians 
also  denied,  with  the  Phantastics,  the  reality 
of  the  body  of  Christ ;  while,  with  the  Gnos- 
tics, they  rejected  the  law  of  Moses.     Upon 
the  whole,  it  would  seem  that  their  creed 
was  formed  by  an  infusion  of  mysticism  into 
the  leading  Paulician  tenets— a  combination 
which   it  was  natural  to  expect  in  an  age, 
when  the  latter  were  still  in  some  repute, 
and  in  a  Church,  wherein  the  former  never 
wholly  lost  its  influence,  f 

About  the  same  time,  the  same  Alexius 
Comnenus  was  compelled  to  apply  to  the 
exigencies  of  the  state  some  of  the  figures 
which  adorned  the  churches.  Leo,  Bishop 
of  Chalcedon,  loudly  exclaimed  against  the 
sacrilege,  asserting  that  the  images  were  en- 
dued with  some  portion  of  inherent  sanctity. 

*  'O  di  nQug  anaouv  riuuiQiav  xla.  arceiMv 
xaTCMrQovijTixog  y.arnfalviTo.  ovrs  yuQ  to  tcvq 
xartuuXa^e  xifi  oidijQav  avrov  \pvxitv,  ovre  at  tow 
Avtuxqujoqos  nnbg  avrbv  diccioimiiiol  Siautjn^aitg 
xaxtdiXqav.  The  people  demanded  the  execution 
of  all  his  followers,  but  the  Emperor  was  contented 
with  a  single  victim.     See  the  Alexiad.  book  xx. 

f  Anna  Comnena's  expression  is,  to  rwv  BoyofitXtov 
Soyuu,  Ix  MuoaaXiavwv  xui  Mavixuiwv  ovyxtiue- 
vov.  That  orthodox  princess  vituperates  in  very 
strong  language  the  persons,  the  practices,  and  the 
opinions  of  the  Bogomiles,  and  relates  how  the  here- 
siarch was  one  night  stoned  by  demons  while  reposing 
in  his  cell.  She  also  particularizes  an  error  respect- 
ing the  Eucharist ;  but  is  not  otherwise  very  specific 
in  her  charges. 


482 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


The  monks  re-echoed  the  charge,  and  a  coun- 
cil was  in  consequence  assembled  at  Constan- 
tinople. It  decided  that  images  had  only  a 
relative     worship     ^o^erixwg    nqoaxvrovfitv    ot; 

?.aTQivTixo>g  rug  tlxurixc) ;  and  that  it  was  offer- 
ed not  to  the  substance  of  the  matter,  but  to 
the  form  and  features,  of  which  they  bear  the 
impression ;  that  the  representatives  of  Christ, 
whether  in  painting  or  sculpture,  did  not 
partake  of  the  nature  of  Christ,  though  en- 
riched by  a  certain  communication  of  divine 
grace ;  and  lastly,  that  invocations  were  to  be 
addressed  to  the  saints  only  as  servants  of 
Christ  in  their  relation  to  their  master.  This 
moderate  exposition  of  the  doctrine  did  not, 
however,  satisfy  the  Bishops,  who  persisted 
in  their  lofty  notions,  until  the  secular  au- 
thority interposed  to  repress  them.* 

The  God  of  Mahomet. — The  curious  learn- 
ing of  Manuel  Comnenus  gave  birth,  in  the 
twelfth  century,  to  several  frivolous  disputes. 
There  is,  however,  one  which  deserves  some 
notice,  as  well  from  the  singularity  of  its 
subject  as  from  the  spirit  in  which  it  was 
conducted  and  concluded.  The  catechisms 
of  the  Greek  Church  contained  a  standing 
anathema  against  the  God  of  Mahomet. 
Through  the  imperfect  comprehension  of  an 
Arabic  word,  the  Greeks  represented  that 
Being  as  solid  and  spherical,]  and  consequent- 
ly not  an  object  of  spiritual  adoration.  As 
this  anathema  tended  to  add  irritation  to  the 
subsisting  animosity,  and  offended  especially 
such  Mahometans  as  had  embraced,  or  were 
disposed  to  embrace,  the  Christian  faith,  the 
Emperor  ordered  it  to  be  erased  from  the  pub- 
lic ritual.  The  doctors  and  dignitaries  were 
scandalized  at  the  rashness  of  the  innovation  ; 
they  entered  eagerly  into  the  most  abstruse 
inquiries  respecting  the  nature  of  the  Deity  ; 
they  condemned  the  imperial  decree,  and  the 
purple  itself  was  an  insufficient  shelter  against 
the  imputation  of  heresy.  \  But  an  imperial 
heretic  will  never  be  destitute  of  supporters ; 
and  the  contest  was  carried  on  with  the  ac- 
customed vehemence  and  rancor.  In  this, 
as  in  most  other  controversies,  a  moderate 


*  Mosh.,  c.  xi.,  p.  2,  ch.  iii. 

f  '  OZuOfaiQog.  The  Arabic  word,  which  bears 
that  signification,  also  signifies  eternal. 

J  Hildebrand  himself,  in  an  earlier  age,  had  made 
himself  liable  to  the  same  imputation.  In  a  letter  to 
the  King  of  Morocco,  expressing  thanks  for  the  liber- 
ation of  some  Christian  captives,  he  expressed  his 
conviction  that  the  King  had  been  moved  thereto  by 
the  spirit  of  God;  and  that  both  he  and  the  infidel 
worshipped  the  same  God,  though  the  modes  of  their 
adoration  and  faith  were  different.  This  is  mention- 
ed by  Mills  in  his  History  of  the  Crusades. 


party  interposed  and  proffered  a  project  of 
conciliation ;  but  in  this,  unlike  the  usual 
fortune  of  theological  conflicts,  the  moderate 
party  prevailed.  A  council  was  assembled  ; 
and,  after  an  angry  and  protracted  struggle, 
the  Bishops  at  length  consented  to  the  fol- 
lowing compromise: — 'That  the  anathema 
should  keep  its  place  in  the  ritual,  but  that 
its  object  should  be  changed  from  the  God 
of  Mahomet  to  Mahomet  himself. '  On  these 
conditions  the  fathers  retired,  authorized  to 
denounce  the  impostor,  but  compelled  to 
spare  the  Deity. 

Essential  distinctions  between  the  two 
Churches.  —  In  resuming,  after  so  long  an 
interval,  the  history  of  the  Oriental  Church, 
it  becomes  necessary  to  recur  to  some  of  the 
leading  principles  of  its  constitution,  and  to 
notice  the  material  feature  by  which  it  was 
early  distinguished,  as  it  is  still  distinguished, 
from  its  Roman  rival.  And  as  we  have 
before  traced  the  connexion  of  those  commu- 
nions until  the  beginning  of  the  schism,  and 
as  we  now  propose  shortly  to  describe  the 
principal  attempts  which  were  made  to  reu- 
nite them,  it  is  proper  to  observe  the  different 
ground  on  which  they  stood,  that  we  may 
truly  estimate  the  difficulty  of  those  attempts ; 
for,  though  the  matters  of  doctrinal  dispute 
may  be  reduced  to  a  few  articles,  and  though 
the  differences  on  discipline  and  government 
might  seem  to  be  virtually  absorbed  in  one 
— the  supremacy  of  the  Pope — nevertheless, 
the  numerous  diversities  which  subsisted  in 
all  the  principles,  as  well  as  the  economy,  of 
the  two  establishments,  threw  impediments 
in  the  way  of  reconciliation,  which,  though 
not  always  in  sight,  were  ever  in  active  ope- 
ration. 

In  the  first  place,  we  may  mention  the 
firm,  uninterrupted  maintenance  of  the  im- 
perial supremacy.  While  the  pontiffs  of  the 
West  were  first  securing  their  emancipation, 
and  then  asserting  their  pre-eminence  over 
every  secular  authority,  the  Greek  ecclesias- 
tics were  the  subjects  of  the  civil  magistrate  ; 
they  were  translated,  deposed,  or  even  exe- 
cuted, at  his  undisputed  control;  and  what- 
ever wealth  or  influence  they  may  have 
obtained,  they  were  never  able  to  withdraw 
themselves  from  the  temporal  yoke,  nor  to 
establish,  like  their  Latin  brethren,  a  distinct 
and  independent  republic*  Hence  it  results 
that  the  individuals  who  composed  the  higher 
order  of  the  clergy,  were  essentially  different 
in  the  two  communions ;  different  in  their 
personal  habits,  in  their  private  views,  in 
*  See  Gibbon,  chap.  liii. 


THE  GREEK  CHURCH. 


483 


eir  public  estimation  of  the  sacerdotal  cha- 
racter, and  the  true  polity  of  the  Church. 

How  much  more  widely  was  this  distinc- 
tion extended  by  the  absence  in  the  East  of 
all  feudal  institutions,  and  of  the  character 
which  they  so  deeply  impressed  upon  every 
order,  and  almost  every  individual,  living 
under  them!  That  patrimonial  jurisdiction 
by  which  public  justice  became  private  pro- 
perty ;  the  secular  pomp  and  appendages  of 
baronial  state ;  and,  above  all,  the  practice 
of  military  achievement,  were  circumstances 
unknown  to  the  hierarchy  of  the  East.  They 
viewed  with  astonishment  the  temporal  great- 
ness of  the  apostolical  successors  ;  they  con- 
demned it  with  justice  and  seeming  sincerity  ; 
and  the  envy,  which  may  have  mingled  with 
that  condemnation,  rendered  it  the  more  se- 
vere and  malevolent. 

Notwithstanding  the  literary  degeneracy 
and  languor  of  the  Greeks,  their  superstitious 
reverence  for  the  ancient  models,  the  senility 
with  which  they  copied  without  daring  to 
emulate — though  it  be  true  that  'in  the  revo- 
lution of  ten  centuries  not  a  single  discovery 
was  made  to  exalt  the  dignity  or  promote 
the  happiness  of  mankind,  not  a  single  idea 
added  to  the  speculative  systems  of  antiquity' 
—  yet  was  it  something  in  those  barren  ages, 
to  admire,  to  copy,  to  praise,  even  to  possess 
the  noblest  monuments  of  human  genius. 
And,  though  they  lay  fruitless  in  the  hands 
of  their  possessors,  and  unproductive  of  any 
original  effort  or  bold  imitation,  yet  were 
they  not  without  effect  in  diffusing  light  and 
information,  and  in  raising  the  people,  by 
which  they  were  cultivated  however  imper- 
fectly, far  above  the  prostrate  barbarism  of 
the  West.*     Nor  was  it  only  that  the  educa- 

*  The  eleventh  age,  for  instance,  produced,  be- 
sides Alexius  Comnenus,  and  others  of  less  renown, 
Cerularius,  Cedrenus,  and  the  illustrator  of  Aristotle, 
Michel  Psellus.  Among  the  literary  names  of  the 
twelfth  (and  thirty-six  are  enumerated  by  Dupin  as 
commcndables  for  their  knowledge  of  theology,  canon 
law,  and  history)  are  Cinnamus,  Glycas,  Zonaras, 
Nicephorns,  Dionysius  the  geographer,  and  the  cele- 
brated commentator  Eustathins,  Bishop  of  Thessalo- 
nica.  The  industry  of  the  Greeks  seems  ever  to  be 
most  keenly  excited  by  controversy;  and  this  age 
was  enlivened,  not  only  by  some  warm  disputes  with 
the  Latins,  but  also  by  a  contest  between  the  systems 
of  Plato  and  Aristotle.  During  the  greater  part  of 
the  thirteenth  age  the  Latins  were  in  possession  of 
Constantinople;  but  in  the  fourteenth,  the  names  of 
Nicephorus  Gregoras,  Manuel  Chrysoloras,  Niceph- 
orus  Callistus,  are  boasted  by  the  Greeks;  and  the 
works  of  St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  and  other  scholastic 
writers,  were  translated  and  studied.  Yet  Plato  had 
still  his  followers. 


i  tion  of  the  clergy  embraced  more  subjects  of 
useful  instruction,  but  also,  that  education 
was  not  wholly  confined  to  the  clergy,  but 
extended  generally  to  the  higher  classes  in 
society.  It  was  the  same  with  theological  as 
with  profane  literature.  It  was  an  object  of 
very  general  interest  and  inquiry ;  and  the 
industry  to  pursue  it  was  kept  alive  among  a 
disputatious  race,  by  the  occasional  appear- 
ance of  domestic  heresy,  and  by  the  long-pro- 
tracted controversies  with  the  rival  Church. 
A  superiority  in  literary  discrimination  will 
account  for  the  circumstance  that  the  forgery 
called  the  'false  decretals'  was  at  once  re- 
jected by  the  Eastern  Church.  There  were, 
indeed,  other  sufficient  reasons  to  prevent  a 
code,  which  conferred  supremacy  almost  un- 
limited on  the  Roman  Bishop,  from  being 
acknowledged  either  by  the  Court  or  the 
Church  of  Constantinople:  but  it  is  also  pro- 
bable that  the  penetration  of  the  Greeks  at 
once  detected  the  clumsy  imposture. 

The  mention  of  the  Decretals  recalls  the 
consideration  of  the  Papal  polity,  founded  in 
a  great  measure  upon  them.  We  have  ob- 
served, that,  after  their  promulgation,  a  sys- 
tem of  government  and  a  form  of  disciplino 
unknown  to  earlier  ages  grew  up,  and  con- 
tinued, as  it  grew,  to  deviate  farther  and  far- 
ther from  the  original  canons  and  practices. 
We  have  traced  the  gradual  usurpations  of 
the  See  of  Rome,  and  the  changes  introduced 
by  pontifical  ambition  into  the  very  heart 
and  vitals  of  the  Catholic  Church.  That 
powerful  agency  had  no  existence  in  the 
East;  before  it  began  to  operate  with  any 
great  success,  the  separation  of  the  Churches 
was  so  decidedly  pronounced,  and  their  ani- 
mosity so  strongly  marked,  that  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  change  into  the  one  would  have 
been  reason  almost  sufficient  for  rejecting  it 
in  the  other. 

It  was  not,  indeed,  that  the  Patriarchs  of 
Constantinople  were  exempt  from  the  ruling 
passion  of  their  Roman  brethren,  nor  that 
they  failed  to  profit  by  any  favorable  occasion 
to  extend  their  authority  and  curtail  the  in- 
dependence of  their  clergy.  But  such  occa- 
sions were  rare,  because  they  could  only  arise 
through  the  co-operation  or  connivance  of 
the  civil  authorities ;  and  what  the  caprice  of 
one  despot  had  bestowed,  might  be  as  easily 
taken  away  by  the  opposite  caprice  of  anoth- 
er. In  the  meantime,  there  was  one  steady 
and  unvarying  principle,  on  which  the  eccle- 
siastical policy  of  the  East  was  conducted  — 
an  inviolable  reverence  for  antiquity.  It  was 
by  this  standard  that  the  excellence  of  every 


484 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


institution  was  measured.  The  canons  of 
the  Seven  General  Councils,  the  precepts  of 
the  early  fathers,  the  practice  of  the  primitive 

Church these  were  the  unalterable  rules  and 

models  for  the  guidance  and  government  of 
the  Church.  It  was  not  so  with  the  worldly 
hierarchy  of  Rome.  They  presently  learned 
to  subject  antiquity  to  the  more  flexible  laws 
of  expediency.  When  it  countenanced  the 
purpose  of  the  moment,  they  bowed  to  its 
venerable  name.  But  whenever  its  voice  was 
unequivocally  raised  in  opposition  to  their 
schemes,  then  was  it  readily  discovered,  that 
all  truth  and  excellence  were  not  communi- 
cated in  the  beginning;  but.  that  something 
was  reserved  for  more  seasonable  revelation, 
or  mere  human  discovery.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Greeks  were  the  bigots  of  antiquity ; 
their  worship  was  blind,  and  therefore  both 
consistent  and  passionate.  Hence  it  happened, 
that  the  least  important  among  the  modern 
opinions  or  practices  *  of  then-  rivals  disgust- 
ed them  at  least  as  deeply  as  the  most  essen- 
tial ;  and  that,  while  they  rejected  the  change, 
they  detested  the  innovator.  They  were  as 
intolerant  in  their  feelings  towards  the  Latins, 
as  were  the  Latins  towards  their  own  here- 
tics ;  and  so  general  were  those  feelings  and 
so  carefully  nourished  by  the  clergy,  and  so 
continually  rekindled  by  the  continuance  of 
schism  and  controversy,  that  if  a  sincere  re- 
conciliation, founded  on  compromise,  could 
possibly  have  been  effected  by  the  directors 
of  the  two  Churches,  it  was  scarcely  probable 
that  it  would  be  accepted  by  the  inferior 
clergy  and  people  of  Greece. 

Latin  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem. — The  founda- 
tion of  the  kingdom  of  Jerusalem  at  the  end 
of  the  eleventh  century  gave  to  the  Latins  a 
substantial  footing  in  the  East,  and  seemed  to 
open  the  gates  of  concord.  In  a  close  alli- 
ance against  the  common  enemy  of  the  Chris- 
tian name,  there  was  hope  that  the  less  per- 
ceptible differences  among  Christians  would 
altogether  vanish  and  be  forgotten.  The  har- 
mony of  so  many  sects  and  tongues  united  in 
adoration  of  the  same  Saviour,  at  his  birth- 
place and  round  his  tomb,  might  have  afford- 
ed a  spectacle  of  charity  and  a  prospect  of 
peace.  If  any  circumstance  of  place  or  as- 
sociation, any  reverence  of  sacred  monu- 
ments, any  brotherhood  in  holy  enterprise, 
could  have  quenched  the  fire  of  sectarian 
animosities,  we  might  have  expected  that 
blessing  from  the  occupation  of  Palestine  and 


*  The  Latin  practice  of  Tonsure  (y.ovqtvfia)  may 
be  particularly  mentioned,  as  exciting  the  indignation 
and  disdain  of  a  bearded  priesthood. 


the  redemption  of  the  Sepulchre  of  Christ. . . , 
What  was  really  the  result  ?  The  very  cir- 
cumstances, which  should  have  produced  re- 
ligious unanimity,  seem  to  have  had  no  other 
effect  than  to  multiply  the  causes  of  discord, 
to  exasperate  its  nature,  and  to  aggravate  its 
shame. 

The  first  act  of  the  conquerors  was  to  es- 
tablish, throughout  the  narrow  extent  of  their 
new  kingdom,  a  numerous  body  of  Latin 
clergy.  A  Latin  Patriarch  was  appointed  at 
Jerusalem,  a  second  at  Antioch  ;  and  episco- 
pal sees  were  multiplied  under  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  both.  Of  the  native  population,  those 
who  followed  the  Christian  faith  were  indis- 
solubly  attached  to  a  different  rite,  and  the 
authority  of  the  Latin  Prelates  was  confined 
to  a  precarious  host  of  crusaders  and  colonists. 
Nevertheless,  their  first  care  was  to  place  on 
a  solid  foundation  the  temporalities  of  their 
Churches  ;  *  and  since  the  feudal  institutions 
were  those  on  which  the  civil  government  of 
Godefroy  was  formed,  so  the  bishops  sought 
to  attach  to  their  sees  cities,  and  fortresses, 
and  baronies,  according  to  the  preposterous 
practice  of  the  West.  Then  arose  the  cus- 
tomary dissensions  between  the  spiritual  and 
secular  authorities,  on  the  extent  of  their  pre- 
rogatives and  the  limits  of  their  jurisdiction: 
and  they  were  inflamed  in  Palestine,  even 
beyond  their  usual  violence,  by  the  peculiar 
position  and  character  of  the  Military  Orders; 
for  these  were  endowed  with  various  priv- 
ileges by  the  Roman  See,  and  were  not  dis- 
posed to  concede  them.  Thence  proceeded 
perpetual  appeals  to  Rome,  with  all  their  train 
of  pernicious  consequences :  legates  a  latere 
were  profusely  poured  into  the  Holy  City ; 
and  by  their  ignorance,  their  obstinacy,  their 
arrogance,  and  their  avarice,  precipitated  the 
downfal  of  the  kingdom. 

It  was  dissolved  after  the  battle  of  Tiberias, 
in  1187 ;  and  whatsoever  contempt  of  their 


*  See  Fleury's  Sixth  Discourse  on  Ecclesiastical 
History.  '  According  to  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel 
(says  that  writer)  the  Latin  clergy  should  have  at- 
tended principally  to  the  instruction  and  correction 
of  the  crusaders;  to  form,  as  it  were,  a  new  Christi- 
anity, approaching  as  nearly  as  possible  to  the  purity 
of  the  early  ages,  and  capable  of  attracting,  by  its 
good  example,  the  surrounding  infidels.  Next  they 
should  have  engaged  in  the  reconciliation  of  heretics 
and  schismatics,  and  the  conversion  of  the  infidels 
themselves  :  it  was  the  only  method  of  making  the 
crusade  useful.  But  our  Latin  clergy  was  not  suf- 
ficiently well-informed  to  have  views  so  pure  and 
exalted  —  as  it  was  on  this  side  of  the  sea,  such  was 
it  in  Palestine,  or  even  more  ignorant  and  more  cor- 
rupted. .  .  • 


THE  GREEK   CHURCH. 


485 


Latin  brethren  the  clergy  of  the  East  may 
have  previously  and  perhaps  ignorantly  en 
tertained,  it  was  not  diminished  by  the  nearer 
inspection  of  their  character,  which  was  af- 
forded by  the  conquest  of  Palestine.  Thus 
it  proved,  that  the  advances  towards  concilia 
tion,  which  were  made  during  this  century 
by  the  Emperors  of  the  Comnenus  family, 
led  to  no  good  result.  Negotiations  were 
opened  ;  but  the  demands  of  the  Vatican  were 
positive,  and  they  amounted  to  nothing  less 
than  spiritual  submission.  Perhaps  the  Em- 
perors, who  had  discovered  the  secret  of  their 
own  political  weakness,  and  began  to  tremble 
at  the  temporal  influence  of  the  Vatican, 
might  have  consented  even  to  that  condition. 
But  the  Prelates  of  the  East,  who  were  sway- 
ed by  different  views  and  interests,  indignant- 
ly rejected  it;  and  the  failure  of  the  attempt 
only  increased  the  asperity  of  both  parties. 

Of  Constantinople.  —  The  reign  of  the  La- 
this in  Palestine  was  concluded  in  less  than 
ninety  years ;  their  dominion  in  Constantino- 
ple had  a  still  shorter  duration  ;  yet  its  effects 
on  the  ecclesiastical  relations  of  the  East  and 
the  West  were  more  direct  and  permanent, 
without  being  in  auy  respect  more  beneficial. 
The  capital  of  the  East  was  stormed  by  the 
crusaders  in  the  year  1204.  Innocent  III. 
was  at  that  time  Pope ;  and  in  the  first  in- 
stance he  strongly  reprobated  the  treacherous 
achievement:  but  the  conquerors  were  ac- 
quainted with  a  sure  expedient  to  soften  his 
displeasure.  Already  did  Alexis,  when  raised 
to  the  purple  which  he  so  soon  forfeited,  greet 
the  Pontiff  with  promises  of  spiritual  obe- 
dieuce  for  himself  and  for  his  Church ;  and 
Innocent,  in  rejoinder,  gave  him  divine  assur- 
ance of  prosperity  should  he  observe  his 
faith,*  and  of  speedy  reverse  should  he  violate 
it.  It  was  also  one  of  the  first  acts  of  the 
Latin  conquerors  to  tender  the  same  submis- 
sion to  the  Pontiff,  to  proffer  the  same  prom- 
ises, and  likewise  to  solicit,  with  all  humility, 
his  confirmation  of  the  conquest.  Innocent 
professed  some  embarrassment  at  this  appli- 
cation ;  the  perversion  of  the  legitimate  object 
of  the  crusaders  was  too  scandalous  —  their 
excesses  in  the  spoliation  of  the  city  too  no- 
torious —  their  motives  too  obvious  —  the  of- 
fence too  recent.      Accordingly  the  Pontiff 


*  The  express  condition  prescribed  by  Innocent  to 
Alexis  was,  that  he  should  engage  the  Patriarch  to 
send  a  solemn  deputation  to  Rome,  for  the  purpose 
of  recognising  the  supremacy  of  the  Roman  Church, 
promising  obedience  to  the  Pope,  and  soliciting  the 
Pallium,  as  necessary  for  the  lawful  exercise  of  his 
patriarchal  functions. 


expressed  his  disapprobation  both  of  the  en- 
terprise itself  and  the  circumstances  attending 
it;  and  particularly  condemned  that  sacri- 
legious violence  which  had  exasperated  the 
Greeks,  and  turned  them  away  from  'obedi- 
ence to  the  Apostolic  See.'*  Nevertheless, 
since  the  deed  was  perpetrated,  he  thought  it 
expedient,  after  mature  deliberation,  not  only 
with  his  cardinals,  but  with  all  his  influential 
clergy,  not  to  withhold  from  it  his  sanction — 
because,  forsooth,  the  designs  of  Providence 
were  inscrutable ;  and  it  might  be,  that,  in 
chastising  the  long-endured  iniquities  of  the 
Greeks,  a  just  God  had  employed  the  arms 
of  the  Latins  as  the  instruments  of  a  holy  re- 
generation, f 

Iu  the  year  following,  the  Pope  applied 
himself  more  directly  to  reap  the  fruits  of 
this  unprincipled  adventure.  He  excited  the 
zeal  of  all  the  faithful  for  the  defence  of  the 
new  empire.  He  wrote  a  circular  letter  to  the 
leading  prelates  of  France,  exhorting  them  to 
preach  the  indulgence  for  its  defence,  and  at 
the  same  time  observing,  that  Providence  had 
transferred  the  sceptre  from  the  proud,  super- 
stitious, and  rebellious  Greeks,  to  the  humble 
Catholic  and  obedient  Latins,  to  the  end  that 
his  holy  Church  might  be  consoled  by  the 
reunion  of  the  schismatics. 

Establishment  of  the  Latin  Church. —  In  the 
meantime  not  a  moment  was  lost  in  estab- 
lishing the  Latin  Communion  at  Constanti- 
nople ;  in  introducing  the  Latin  Liturgy ;  in 
encouraging  eminent  ecclesiastics  to  emi- 
grate to  the  East,  and  firmly  to  plant  in  the 
churches  and  schools  of  Constantinople  the 
doctrines,  the  discipline,  the  polity,  and  the 
learning  of  the  West.  That  the  nature  of 
that  encouragement  was  not  wholly  spiritual 
— that  an  establishment  founded  by  Innocent 
III.  held  out  no  inconsiderable  temporal  al- 
lurements!—  is  a  circumstance  which  will 


*  '  Ut  jam  mcrito  Latinos  abhorreant  plus  quam 
canes.'     Epistle  to  the  Marquis  of  Montserrat. 

■f  See  the  Epistle  of  Innocent  to  the  Marquis  of 
Montserrat,  published  by  Raynaldus,  ad.  ann.  1205. 
•  Divimun  enim  videtur  fuirsc  judicium,  ut  qui  tamdiu 
misericorditer  tolcrali,et  toiics  nun  solum  ab  aliis  sed 
etiam  a  nobis  studiose  commoniti  Doluerunt  redire  ad 
Ecclesia?  universitatem,  nee  ullum  terne  sanctre  sub- 
sidium  impertiri,  per  cos,  qui  ad  utrumque  pariter 
intendebant,  omitterent  locum  ct  gentem,  quatenus 
pcrdilis  male  malis  terra  bona  bonis  Agricolis  loca- 
ictur,  qui  fructum  reddant  tempore  opportuno,  &c.' 

%  The  following  are  the  Pope's  expressions,  ad- 
dressed to  the  Archbishop  of  Rheims  and  his  suf- 
fragans:— '  Exhortamur,  quatenus  tam  clericos  quam 
laicos  efficaciter  inducatis  ut  ad  capessendas  spirit' 
ualct  pariter  et  temporalcs  divitias  ad  prasfatum 


486 


HISTORY   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


excite  no  surprise  in  us;  though  it  did  not, 
perhaps,  increase  the  respect  or  affection  of 
the  Greeks  towards  their  new  instructers.  A 
concordat  was  signed  in  1206  by  the  Latin 
Patriarch  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  regent, 
barons,  knights,  and  people  on  the  other,  by 
which  a  fifteenth  portion  of  all  domains  with- 
out the  walls,  of  all  cities,  castles,  villages;  of 
corn-fields,  vineyards,  forests,  meadows  and 
other  immoveables,  was  at  once  bestowed 
upon  the  Latin  Church.  At  the  same  time, 
all  the  monasteries,  even  within  the  walls, 
appear  to  have  been  transferred  to  the  ascen- 
dant establishment.*  By  another  article  it 
was  regulated,  that  tithe  should  also  be  paid 
by  all  Latins  —  and  'if  (it  was  added)  in  pro- 
cess of  time  it  should  be  found  practicable  to 
persuade  the  Greeks  also  to  contribute  their 
tithe,  the  laity  shall  offer  them  no  impedi- 
ment.' We  should  here  recollect,  that  this 
method  of  remunerating  the  clergy,  so  long 
familiar  to  the  people  of  the  West,  had  never 
been  sanctioned  by  any  law,  or  grown  into  any 
general  use,  in  the  Oriental  Church. 

Dissensions. — If  one  of  the  earliest  exhibi- 
tions presented  by  the  Roman  Catholic  cler- 
gy to  the  schismatics  of  the  East  was  that  of 
their  avarice ;  another  as  early,  as  violent,  and 
almost  as  revolting,  was  that  of  their  dissen- 
sion. Before  the  storming  of  the  city  by  the 
French  and  Venetians,  a  sort  of  convention 
had  been  made  between  those  two  nations,  to 
this  effect — that,  if  the  empire  should  be  vest- 
ed in  a  Frenchman,  the  Church  should  be 
under  Venetian  superintendence.  Accord- 
ingly the  first  patriarch,  Thomas  Morosini, 
was  a  native  of  Venice  ;  and  he  immediately 
took  measures  so  to  fill  the  chapter  of  the 
Patriarchal  Cathedral,  as  to  secure  a  compa- 
triot for  his  successor.  Innocent  vehemently 
remonstrated  against  this  design.  He  sent 
his  legates  to  Constantinople;  and  as  they 
acted  in  opposition  to  the  resident  head  of 
the  Church,  the  Schismatics  were  edified  by 
witnessing  the  jealous  disputes  of  two  inde- 
pendent authorities.  But  it  was  on  the  death 
of  Morosini  (in  1211)  that  the  struggle  really 
commenced.     The  Venetian  Canons  entered 

Imperatorem  accedant,  qui  singulos  vult  et  potest, 
secundum  status  suos,  &c.  augere  divitiis  et  honori- 
bus  ampliare.   .  .  .' 

*  It  should  be  mentioned  that  the  French  and 
Venetians  had  entered  into  a  convention,  by  which, 
after  making  a  decent  provision  for  the  Oriental 
clergy,  they  proposed  to  divide  between  themselves 
the  rest  of  the  Church  property.  But  Innocent  took 
under  his  own  protection  the  property  even  of  a  rival 
Church,  and  immediately  annulled  the  convention. 


the  Church  of  St.  Sophia,  with  arms  in  their 
hands,  and  proceeded  to  the  choice  of  a  Ven- 
etian successor.  Other  ecclesiastics  of  other 
nations,  who  also  claimed  their  share  in  the 
election,  nominated  three  other  candidates, 
and  the  matter  was  referred  to  Rome.  The 
Pope  commanded  them  to  meet  and  delibe- 
rate in  common,  and  the  result  was  a  second 
disagreement.  The  dispute  was  conducted 
with  the  customary  violence ;  and  as  it  lasted 
for  about  three  years,  during  which  space  the 
highest  office  in  the  Church  remained  vacant, 
it  furnished  the  schismatic  spectators  with 
another  equivocal  proof  of  the  superior  ex- 
cellence of  the  Roman  polity.  In  the  mean- 
time the  sectarian  antipathy  continued  to  be 
so  strongly  manifested  on  their  part,  that 
there  were  many  of  their  clergy  who,  before 
they  celebrated  the  Communion,  caused  those 
altars  to  be  washed,  which  had  been  polluted 
by  the  ceremony  of  the  Latins ;  and  who 
likewise  insisted  on  re-baptizing  all  who  had 
received  that  sacrament  from  Latin  hands. 
These  proofs  of  insubordination  are  men- 
tioned with  censure  in  one  of  the  canons  of 
the  Fourth  Lateran  Church. 

While  the  Roman  hierarchy  was  endeavor- 
ing to  fix  and  extend  its  conquest  along  the 
western  shores  of  the  Bosphorus,  the  genuine 
pastors  of  the  oriental  Church,  the  legitimate 
guardians  of  its  apostolical  purity,  were  as- 
sembled in  honorable  exile  at  Nice.  They 
had  witnessed  the  shame,  the  pillage,  and  the 
desolation  of  the  metropolis  of  their  faith , 
they  had  seen  their  churches  despoiled,  and 
their  altars  violated  ;  the  holy  images  trampled 
under  foot,  the  relics  of  departed  saints  scat- 
tered in  the  dust,  the  sacred  utensils  desecrat- 
ed, and  the  sanctuary  of  St.  Sophia  profaned 
and  plundered  by  lawless  and  Latin  hands. 
Such  assuredly  was  not  the  season  for  any 
dreams  of  reconciliation.  But  after  the  lapse 
of  one  generation,  when  these  bitter  recollec- 
tions were  not  quite  so  recent,  an  accident 
occurred  which  opened  the  way  to  a  serious 
negotiation  between  the  churches  —  if  we 
should  not  rather  say,  the  courts — of  Nice  and 
Rome.  Five  Franciscan  missionaries,  in  the 
discharge  of  their  perilous  duties  among  the 
infidels,  were  seized  by  the  Turks,  and  on 
their  liberation,  dismissed  to  Nice.  They 
were  humanely  received  by  the  patriarch 
Germanus,  who  was  edified  by  their  poverty 
and  their  zeal ;  and,  in  the  communications 
of  a  friendly  intercourse,  the  division  of  the 
two  churches  was  mentioned  and  deplored 
by  both  parties.  The  emperor  (John  Vata- 
ces)  had  strong  political  reasons  for  desiring 


THE   GREEK   CHURCH. 


487 


an  accommodation ;  and  with  his  consent  the 
patriarch  addressed  some  amicable  overtures, 
though  not  unmixed  with  untimely  reproach,* 
both  to  the  Pope  and  the  cardinals. 

Latin  Mission  to  Nice. — This  took  place  in 
1232,  during  the  reign  of  Gregory  IX.  ;  and 
in  the  year  following  the  pontiff  sent  four 
mendicants,  (two  Dominicans,  and  two  Fran- 
ciscans) to  conduct  the  negotiations  in  the 
east.  They  presented  themselves  at  Nice 
before  the  emperor  and  the  patriarch,  in  the 
January  of  1234;  and  a  series  of  conferences 
then  commenced,  which  did  not  finally  ter- 
minate, though  occasionally  interrupted,  till 
the  middle  of  May.  It  were  needless  to  unfold 
the  particulars  of  this  controversy,  though 
they  are  not  destitute  of  interest  and  instruc- 
tion to  the  theological  reader ;  nor  shall  we 
pursue  the  intricate  manoeuvres  of  the  dis- 
putants, though  the  most  practised  polemic 
might  possibly  peruse  them  with  profit.  It  is 
sufficient  to  mention,  that  the  dispute  turned 
entirely  on  two  points,  the  procession  of  the 
Holy  Spirit ;  and  the  use  of  leavened  or  un- 
leavened bread  in  the  Eucharist.  The  Greeks 
urged  the  ancient  doctrine  and  practice;  the 
Latins,  without  conceding  their  claims  to  the 
authority  of  early  writers,  rested  the  weight 


*  '  To  go  to  the  bottom  of  the  question  (said  the 
patriarch)  many  powerful  and  noble  persons  would 
obey  you,  if  they  did  not  fear  your  oppression,  and 
the  wanton  extortions  and  undue  services  which  you 
exact  from  your  subjects.  Hence  proceed  cruel  wars, 
the  depopulation  of  cities,  the  closing  of  the  churches, 
the  cessation  of  the  divine  offices,  every  thing  short 
of  martyrdom,  and  some  things  not  far  short  of  that. 
For  there  is  now  imminent  danger  that  the  tyrannical 
tribunal  will  be  unclosed,  and  torments  and  blood- 
shed, and  the  crown  of  martyrdom  proposed  to  us. 
Is  this  the  lesson  which  St.  Peter  teaches,  when  he 
instructs  the  shepherd  to  conduct  his  flock  without 
constraint  or  domination!'  In  his  letter  to  the  car- 
dinals he  wrote  with  equal  bitterness.  *  Permit  me 
to  speak  the  truth  to  you.  Our  division  has  arisen 
from  the  tyrannical  oppression  which  you  exercise, 
and  the  exactions  of  the  Roman  Church,  which, 
from  being  a  mother,  has  become  a  step-mother,  and 
tramples  upon  others  in  proportion  as  they  humble 
themselves  before  her.  We  arc  scandalized  to  see 
you  exclusively  attached  to  the  good  things  of  this 
world;  heaping  up  from  all  quarters  gold  and  silver, 
and  making  kingdoms  your  tributaries.'  That  such 
reproaches,  however  just,  should  have  broken  forth 
in  letters  expressly  conciliatory,  might  well  have  led 
those,  to  whom  they  were  addressed,  to  despair  of  the 
success  of  the  negotiation.  The  original  epistles  are 
given  by  Matthew  Paris,  Histor.  Major,  ann.  1237; 
whose  remark  it  is  that  the  animosity  of  the  Greek 
Church  was  occasioned  by  the  acts,  more  than  the 
opinions,  of  its  rival.  See  also  Raynaldus,  ann. 
1232-3. 


of  their  defence  on  scripture.  The  debates 
were  broken  off,  and  renewed  ;  the  same  ar- 
guments and  assertions  were  repelled  and 
reiterated ;  and  the  ardor  of  the  opposition 
increased,  as  the  contest  was  prolonged. 

At  length  the  emperor,  who  was  less  heated 
by  the  theological  zeal,  and  more  sincere,  as 
he  was  more  interested,  in  his  desire  for 
reconciliation,  personally  proposed  to  the  en- 
voys a  compromise.  As  in  political,  (said 
this  simple  mediator)  so  be  it  in  theological, 
negotiations.  When  princes  differ  respecting 
a  city  or  a  province,  each  party  relaxes  some- 
what of  his  pretensions  for  the  attainment  of 
peace.  Our  differences  in  this  matter  are 
two,*  and  if  you  sincerely  wish  for  concord, 
concede  one  of  them.  We  will  approve  and 
revere  your  holy  sacrament ;  abandon  to  us 
your  creed ;  say  the  creed  as  we  say  it,  effac- 
ing the  offensive  addition.  They  replied — 
Let  us  tell  you  that  the  Pope  and  the  Roman 
Church  will  not  abandon  one  iota  of  its  faith, 
or  of  any  thing  contained  in  its  creed.  But 
the  following  proposal  we  may  consent  to 
make  to  you.  You  must  firmly  believe  and 
teach  others,  that  the  body  of  our  Lord  may 
be  consecrated  with  unleavened  as  ivell  as 
leavened  bread  ;  and  you  must  burn  all  the 
books  which  your  churchmen  have  written  to 
the  contrary.  And  in  respect  to  the  Holy 
Spirit,  you  must  believe  that  it  proceeds  from 
the  Son  as  well  as  from  the  Father,  and  teach 
the  people  so ;  but  the  Pope  will  not  oblige 
you  to  insert  the  article  in  your  creed — only 
all  books  which  have  been  written  against  it 
shall  be  burnt.  .  .  On  hearing  this  final  decla- 
ration, the  emperor  resigned  himself  to  des- 
pair ;f  but  in  his  prelates  it  excited  only  feel- 


*  We  should  observe,  that  throughout  this  dispute, 
it  was  always  assumed  by  the  Latins,  that  the  result, 
or  rather  that  the  meaning,  of  the  reconciliation  would 
be  the  obedience  of  the  Greek  to  the  Roman  Church; 
a  return  to  that  (supposed)  submission  which  the 
former  had  shaken  otf.  Now  this  assumption  was 
not  (as  far  as  we  can  see)  contested  by  the  Greeks, 
certainly  it  was  not  made  matter  of  argument.  And 
yet  that  establishment  of  supremacy  was,  in  fact,  the 
point  at  which  the  Roman  was  ultimately  aiming — as 
it  was  also  that  to  which  his  pretensions  were  most 
slightly  founded. 

t  '  De  corpore  Christ!  ita  dicimus — quod  oportebit 
vos  firmitcr  credere  et  aliis  pnedicare  quod  Corpus 
Christi  confici  potest  ita  in  Azymis  sicut  in  lermeu- 
tato;  et  omnes  libri,  quos  vestri  scripserunt  contra 
Fidem,  oondemnentur  et  comburantur.  De  S.  Sancto 
ita  dicimus;  quod  oportebit  vos  credere  S.  S.  pro- 
cedere  a  Filio  sicut  a  Patre,  et  istud  necesse,  ut 
prredicetur  in  populo;  quod  autcm  cantetis  istud  in 
Symbolo,  nisi  velitis,  non  compellet  vos  Dominus 
Papa;   condemnatis  et  combustis  omnibus  libris,  qui 


488 


HISTORY   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


ings  of  indignation  and  revenge.  One  other 
violent  conference  followed,  to  which  large 
multitudes  of  the  people  were  admitted  ;  and 
it  was  broken  off  by  mutual  charges  of  heresy, 
and  confirmations  of  the  ancient  anathema. 
The  legates  then  withdrew ;  having  increased 
the  evils  which  they  had  proposed  to  remove, 
and  added  fresh  fuel  and  fierceness  to  the 
controversy. 

The  failure  of  this  enterprise  did  not  pre- 
vent a  similar  attempt  on  the  part  of  Innocent 
IV.,  which  was  conducted  with  more  mode- 
ration, but  with  no  better  success,  than  the 
former.  The  agent,  selected  for  the  conduct 
of  this  mission,  was  of  great  dignity  and  re- 
putation in  the  Church.  John  of  Parma, 
general  of  the  Franciscan  order,  and  alike 
eminent  for  his  theological  erudition,  and  the 
austerity  of  his  life,  was  a  character  well 
calculated  to  influence  the  prelates  of  the 
East.  It  is  something  to  be  enabled  to  assert 
that  his  sojourn  at  Nice  (in  1249)  produced  no 
mischief;  but  the  negotiations,  which  seemed 
likely  to  result  from  it,  were  prevented  by 
the  death  of  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor.  In 
1261,  the  sceptre  of  the  Latins  was  broken; 
and,  upon  the  whole,  we  are  unable  to  ob- 
serve that  their  conquest  had  any  spiritual 
fruits,  or  any  other  consequences  than  bitter- 
ness and  aggravated  rancor.*  And  we  may 
here  remark,  that  as  the  Latins  on  their  ex- 
pulsion from  the  East  did  not  resign  their 
claims  to  ecclesiastical  ascendency,  or  abolish 
the  titles  of  the  dignities  there  conferred  up- 
on their  own  clergy,  so  there  continued  long 
to  exist  about  the  Roman  court  titular  patri- 
archs, and  titular  bishops,  of  Constantinople, 
Antioch,  Jerusalem  and  other  oriental  sees, 
who,  by  the  assumption  of  those  empty 
names,  offended  the  sensitive  vanity  of  the 
Greeks,  and  kept  alive  the  mutual  irritation. 

Subsequent  attempts  at  re-union.  —  Howbeit, 
for  a  short  period  after  the  restoration,  the 

huic  capitulo  sunt  contrarii.  Quod  audiens  imperator 
graviter  tulit,  &c.'  The  envoys  wrote  an  account  of 
their  own  embassy,  addressed  to  the  Pope,  and  con- 
tained in  Libro  Censuum;  whence  Raynaldus  (ann. 
1232)  has  made  extracts. 

*  Fleury  goes  so  far  as  to  consider  the  schism, 
properly  speaking,  to  have  commenced  only  at  this 
period.  Such,  however,  was  not  the  opinion  of  peo- 
ple in  those  days;  in  the  account  of  the  previous  ne- 
gotiations at  Nice,  we  observe,  that  the  emperor,  on 
some  occasion,  remarked,  that  the  schism  had  then 
lasted  three  hundred  years.  On  the  othe1-  hand,  the 
emperor  did  not  date  with  accuracy — from  the  breach 
between  Photius  and  Nicholas,  the  space  was  above 
360  years ;  from  the  dispute  between  Cerularius  and 
Leo  IX.,  not  more  than  180. 


re-union  was  negotiated  with  much  more 
ardor  than  at  any  former  time,  and  even 
with  a  momentary  show  of  success.  The 
reason  of  this  eagerness  on  the  part  of  Palaeo- 
logus  was  the  consciousness  of  his  weakness, 
and  the  terror  of  another  crusade  against  his 
still  unsettled  government.  'I  speak  not 
now,'  he  said, '  about  dogmas  or  ceremonies 
of  religion.  If  there  is  any  difference  on 
that  subject,  we  can  arrange  it  more  easily, 
after  peace  shall  have  been  concluded  be- 
tween us.'  The  union  desired  by  the  em- 
peror was  external  and  political :  a  perfect 
theological  concord  he  might  think  hopeless, 
or  he  might  not  comprehend  its  importance. 
Some  Franciscans  were  once  more  sent  to 
the  East  by  Urban  IV.;  and  some  articles 
were  hastily  drawn  up.  But  Clement  IV. 
refused  them  his  ratification,  and  composed 
a  more  accurate  formulary  of  faith,  which  he 
proposed  for  the  acceptance  of  the  Greeks. 
This  confession  contained  not  only  the  dis- 
puted tenet  of  the  Holy  Procession,  but  also 
expressed,  with  great  precision,  the  doctrine 
of  purgatory,  and  specified  the  condition  of 
souls  after  death,  according  to  the  degrees  of 
their  impurity.  Also,  the  doctrine  and  name 
of  transubstantiation  were  marked  in  it  very 
particularly.  Moreover,  the  plenitude  of 
pontifical  power,  and  the  duty  of  universal 
appeal  to  that  tribunal  were  carefully  incul- 
cated. Clement  could  scarcely  have  expected 
so  much  acquiescence  from  the  clergy  of  the 
East;  but  in  a  subsequent  letter  to  the  empe- 
ror he  failed  not  to  remind  him,  that  the 
crown  possessed  power  sufficient,  and  even 
more  than  sufficient,  to  control  the  inclina- 
tions both  of  the  clergy  and  the  people. 

In  the  earlier  part  of  these  negotiations, 
the  clergy  had  preserved  the  appearance  of 
neutrality ;  because  they  were  unwilling, 
without  great  necessity,  to  oppose  any  project 
of  the  emperor,  and  because  they  considered 
his  present  project  as  wholly  impracticable. 
Probably  they  did  not  suppose  that  he  was 
himself  sincere  in  so  desperate  a  scheme. 
Nevertheless,  as  his  political  difficulties  in- 
creased, he  became  more  earnest  in  his  de- 
sign; and  when  some  of  his  prelates  were 
at  length  alarmed  into  resistance,  he  employ- 
ed the  secular  authority  to  repress  them. 

Council  of  Lyons.  —  In  the  meantime,  the 
second  council  of  Lyons  had  been  called 
together,  and  one  of  its  professed  objects 
was  the  reconciliation  of  the  churches.  It 
was  still  assembled,  when  (on  June  24,  1274) 
the  ambassadors  from  the  East  arrived.  Sev- 
eral difficulties  were  still  apprehended  ;  and 


THE  GREEK   CHURCH. 


439 


there  were  many  who  reasonably  trembled, 
lest  that  solemn  meeting  of  the  universal 
church  should  be  distracted  by  the  passionate 
broils  of  an  endless  controversy.  But  the 
emperor  had  arranged  it.  otherwise;  and  at 
the  session  which  immediately  followed,  the 
Western  fathers  were  edified  and  astonished 
by  the  voice  of  the  prelates  of  the  East, 
chanting  the  Double  Procession,  in  unison 
with  the  worship  of  the  orthodox.  The 
policy,  which  had  dictated  the  humiliating 
concession,  did  not  hesitate  there ;  probably 
there  was  no  depth  of  spiritual  submission 
to  which  the  emperor  was  not  then  prepared 
to  descend :  for  it  seemed  to  depend  on  the 
decision  of  that  council,  whether  the  arma- 
ment, to  which  all  Europe  was  contributing, 
should  be  directed  against  Syria  or  against 
himself.  Accordingly,  the  Pope's  supremacy 
was  acknowledged  without  any  scruple ;  and 
a  communication  from  Palaeologus  was  pub- 
licly recited,  in  which  he  professed,  without 
any  equivocation  or  cavil,  every  tenet  laid 
down  in  the  confession  of  Clement  IV.  The 
re-union  of  the  churches  was  then  officially 
announced;  and  the  Pope  pronounced  the 
Te  Deum,  with  his  head  uncovered,  and  his 
eyes  suffused  with  unsuspicious  joy. 

As  long  as  the  fears  and  necessities  of  the 
eastern  empire  continued,  as  long  as  the 
fragile  vessel  of  state  lay  at  the  mercy  of  any 
tempest  from  the  west,  so  long  did  this  hollow 
truce  subsist.  But  not  quite  ten  years  after 
its  conclusion,  Andronicus,  having  succeeded 
to  the  sceptre  of  his  father,  proceeded,  with- 
out delay,  to  dissolve  the  union.  A  council 
was  assembled  at  Constantinople ;  the  hateful 
act  of  humiliation  was  repealed ;  and  the 
revival  of  the  schism  was  proclaimed  amidst 
the  acclamations  of  the  clergy  of  Greece. 
One  circumstance,  indeed,  is  here  particular- 
ly forced  upon  our  attention.  The  motive 
which  chiefly  persuaded  Andronicus  to  re- 
open that  ancient  wound  was,  that  he  might 
heal  a  still  more  dangerous  disorder,  which 
the  reconciliation  with  Rome  had  inflicted 
upon  his  own  Church.  The  power  of  Palae- 
ologus had  secured  the  outward  submission, 
but  it  had  not  changed  the  opinions,  or  the 
principles,  or  the  passions,  of  his  prelates; 
the  great  majority  remained  adverse  to  the 
re-union ;  and  in  their  importunate  and  pres- 
sing clamors,  the  fears  of  an  ancient  and 
distant  rival  were  forgotten.  Howbeit  the 
domestic  dissensions  of  the  Greeks  were  not 
even  thus  allayed;  there  were  some  too 
strongly  impressed  with  the  policy  of  their 
late  connexion  to  applaud  its  hasty  dissolu- 
02 


tion ;  and  there  remained  ever  afterwards  a 
party  in  the  East  which  professed  its  adhesion 
to  the  Roman  communion. 

We  shall  not  pursue  the  insincere  and 
fruitless  overtures  which  were  so  often  de- 
feated and  renewed  during  the  fourteenth 
century,  and  especially  under  the  Popes  of 
Avignon.  The  pontificates  of  John  XXII., 
of  Clement  VI.,  of  Innocent  VI.,  and  Bene- 
dict XII.,  were  particularly  marked  by  those 
vain  negotiations;*  and  during  this  period 
we  may  remark  that  the  motives  of  both 
parties  were  equally  removed  from  any  spir- 
itual consideration.  If  political  exigencies 
invariably  actuated  the  one,  the  other  was 
now  chiefly  moved  by  pecuniary  necessities. 
The  military  succors,  which  the  Pope  might 
be  the  means  of  raising,  would  be  recom- 
pensed by  obedient  contributions  to  the 
apostolical  treasury.  According  to  the  ap- 
proach or  suspension  of  immediate  danger, 
the  zeal  for  reconciliation  burnt  fiercely,  or 
subsided;  but  the  characters  were  still  sus- 
tained under  all  circumstances.  'That  old 
song  respecting  the  Greeks  (said  the  fathers 
of  Basle)  has  already  lasted  for  three  hundred 
years,  and  every  year  it  is  chanted  afresh.' 
At  length  the  progress  of  the  Turks  excited 
a  permanent  alarm,  and  a  proportionate 
sincerity;  and  we  shall  now  shortly  trace 
the  chief  events  to  which  it  led. 

Council  of  Ferrara.  —  After  separate  nego- 
tiations with  Pope  Eugenius  and  the  Council 
of  Basle,  the  Emperor  of  the  East  at  length 
decided  to  accept  the  proposals  of  the  former. 
An  oriental  despot  might  well  be  perplexed 
by  the  claims  of  two  rival  authorities,  both 
professing  to  be  legitimate  and  supreme,  and 
both  acknowledged  by  many  adherents  in 
their  own  communion.  But  whether  his  im- 
perial prejudices  inclined  him  towards  the 
Monarch  of  the  church,  or  from  whatsoever 
other  motive,  he   embarked   (in   November, 

*  It  was  on  the  last  occasion  that  the  emperor  sent 
that  Barlaain,  whom  we  have  already  mentioned, 
(the  same  who  instructed  Petrarch  in  the  rudiments 
of  Greek,)  to  the  court  of  Avignon.  Sufficient  ac- 
counts Hi'  these  various  negotiations  are  given  by 
Bzoyius,  ad  ami.  1331,  s.  i.  1339,  s.  22,  1345-6-9, 
and  particularly  1356,  s.  22.  On  one  occasion  (in 
1339)  great  efforts  were  made  to  show  that  the  Greek 
opinions  bad  always  been  the  same  wi'.h  the  Latin 
(after  so  many  mutual  excommunications!)  and  this, 
as  we  all  know,  furnished  Leo  A  Hat  ins  in  a  later  age 
with  a  fruitful  field  for  sophistry.  The  detestation, 
which  the  Greeks  still  entertained  for  the  Pope,  is 
strongly  expressed  by  the  Patriarch  Gennadius  in  a 
document  which  is  cited  by  Bzovius,  aim.  1349,  s. 
14. 


490 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


1427)  with  his  patriarch,  and  numerous  ec- 
clesiastics, on^the  galleys  of  Eugenius,  and 
arrived  in  due  season  at  the  appointed  city, 
Ferrara.  A  trifling  difference  first  arose  re- 
specting the  seats  to  be  respectively  occupied 
during  the  conference  by  its  spiritual  and 
temporal  presidents.  But  this  was  arranged 
by  a  compromise,  by  which  the  Pope  con- 
ceded a  part  of  his  claim,  but  retained  his 
pre-eminence.  They  were  placed  on  differ- 
ent sides  of  the  Church,  but  the  Pope  was  on 
the  right,  and  his  throne  was  one  step  higher 
than  that  of  the,  Emperor.  The  next  pro- 
ceeding, and  it  might  occasion  some  surprise, 
if  not  distrust,  among  strangers,  unused  to 
the  discords  of  the  west,  was  the  promulga- 
tion of  a  solemn  anathema  against  the  Coun- 
cil of  Basle.  All  public  deliberations  were 
then  adjourned  for  some  months  ;  but  it  was 
arranged  that,  during  this  interval,  a  select 
number  of  doctors  of  the  two  churches 
should  frequently  meet,  and  prepare  the  way 
by  amicable  discussions  for  a  more  speedy 
reconciliation. 

Accordingly  these  deputies,  who  were,  in- 
deed, the  leading  members  of  both  parties, 
did  meet.  On  the  one  side  was  the  celebrated 
Julian  Cesarini,  Cardinal  of  St.  Angelo,  and 
so  lately  the  President  of  the  rival  Council ; 
and  with  him  were  Andreas,  Bishop  of  Co- 
lossus (or  Rhodes,)  John  a  Doctor  of  Spain, 
and  some  others.  Marc  of  Ephesus,  and 
Bessarion,  Archbishop  of  Nice,  conducted 
the  disputations,  on  the  other.  It  was  here 
agreed,  seemingly  without  difference,  that  the 
articles  by  which  the  schism  was  entirely  oc- 
casioned were  four.  (1)  The  Procession  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  (2)  The  use  of  leavened  or 
unleavened  bread  in  the  Eucharist.  (3)  Pur- 
gatory. (4)  The  Primacy  of  the  Pope.  It 
■was  further  settled,  that  the  subject  of  the 
first  discussion  should  be  Purgatory. 

Accordingly,  Cardinal  Julian  laid  down 
the  doctrine  of  his  Church  on  that  matter  as 
follows:  —  that  the  souls  of  the  just,  which 
are  pure  and  without  stain,  and  have  been 
exempt  from  mortal  sin,  proceed  directly  to 
heaven,  to  the  enjoyment  of  eternal  happi- 
ness; but  that  the  souls  of  men  who  have 
fallen  into  sin  after  their  baptism,  unless  they 
have  fully  accomplished  the  penance  neces- 
sary to  expiate  that  sin,  (even  though  they 
may  have  performed  some  penance,)  and  also 
manifested  fruits  worthy  of  their  penitence, 
so  as  to  receive  entire  remission,  pass  into 
the  fire  of  purgatory  ;  that  some  remain  there 
for  a  longer,  others  for  a  shorter  period,  ac- 
cording to  the  nature  of  their  offences ;  and 


that,  being  at  length  purified,  they  are  admit- 
ted to  beatitude.  But  that  the  souls  of  those 
who  die  in  mortal  sin  are  consigned  to  im- 
mediate punishment To  this,  Marc  of 

Ephesus  replied,  that  the  doctrine,  in  the 
main,  was  that  of  the  Greek  Church  ;  only 
that  the  latter  did  not  admit  the  purification 
by  fire,  but  held  that  sinful  souls  were  sent 
into  a  place  of  darkness  and  mourning,  where 
they  remained  for  a  season  in  affliction,  de- 
prived of  the  light  of  God.  He  admitted 
that  they  were  purified,  and  delivered  from 
this  desolate  abode  by  sacrifice  and  alms ;  but 
he  held  that  the  comdemned  would  not  be 
wholly  miserable ;  and  that  the  saints  would 
not  be  admitted  to  perfect  beatitude  until 
after  the  resurrection  of  their  bodies.  .  .  .  On 
this  last  point  an  unexpected  difference  arose 
between  Marc  of  Ephesus  and  his  colleague, 
Bessarion,  as  to  what  really  was  the  doctrine 
of  their  Church  ;  and  this  was  pressed  to  dis- 
pute and  altercation.  In  the  meantime,  the 
season  advanced,  and  these  perliminary  con- 
ferences were  discontinued  before  the  dispu- 
tants had  touched  on  any  other  subject,  or 
arrived  at  any  specific  conclusion  even  upon 
that. 

At  length  the  formal  deliberations  of  the 
Council  commenced,  and  the  first  public  ses- 
sion was  held  on  the  8th  of  October;  but 
there  were  some  among  the  Greeks  who, 
observing  that  the  Fathers  of  Basle  had 
shown,  in  the  meantime,  no  indications  of 
submission,  began  already  to  despair  of  any 
durable  effect  from  their  mission.  However, 
the  Prelates  assembled  in  considerable  num- 
bers ;  the  same  were  recognised  by  both 
parties,  as  the  important  subjects  of  differ- 
ence, and  it  was  agreed  that  the  Jirst  of  them 
was  that,  in  which  the  whole  difficulty  of 
reunion  was,  in  fact,  involved.  They  pre- 
pared, in  consequence,  to  argue  the  mystery 
of  the  Procession  with  becoming  solemnity  : 
and  it  was  vainly  hoped,  that  a  question 
which  had  employed  the  learning  and  wear- 
ied the  ingenuity  of  the  Christian  world  for 
about  eight  hundred  years,  would  finally  be 
set  at  rest  by  the  eloquence  of  the  Doctors  of 
Ferrara. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  advocates  of 
both  opinions  displayed  on  this  occasion 
abundant  talents,  unwearied  zeal,  and  re- 
sources almost  inexhaustible,  especially  the 
Cardinal  of  St.  Angelo  ;  *  who  here  exhibited, 


*  Tiraboschi  (vol.  vi.  p.  1,1.  ii.)  cites  the  testimony 
of  Sguropulos,  who  was  present  at  all  these  discus- 
sions, and  expressed  his  astonishment  at  the  eloquence 
of  Julian. 


THE   GREEK   CHURCH. 


491 


in  defence  of  the  doctrine  of  his  Church,  the 
same  commanding  faculties  and  energy  with 
•which  he  had  urged,  at  Basle,  the  refor- 
mation of  its  discipline.  Through  fifteen 
tedious  sessions  the  controversy  was  main- 
tained with  unahated  ardor ;  and  though  the 
point  principally  argued  was  only,  whether 
the  words  Filioque  were,  properly  speaking, 
an  addition  or  an  explanation,  it  might  have 
been  supposed,  from  the  warmth  and  prolixity 
of  the  orators,  that  the  very  existence  of  the 
Christian  faith  was  at  stake.  At  length,  as 
no  immediate  result  seemed  at  all  probable, 
and  as  Ferrara  was  found,  on  many  accounts, 
inconvenient  for  so  large  *  an  assemblage,  the 
Pope,  with  the  consent  of  the  Emperor,  ad- 
journed the  Council  to  Florence. 

Removed  to  Florence. — The  Council  of  Flo- 
rence held  its  first  session  on  Feb.  26,  1439 ; 
and  it  opened  with  some  proposals  on  the 
part  of  the  Emperor  and  Cardinal  Julian,  for 
arriving  more  directly  at  the  practical  object 
of  these  conferences — a  public  reconciliation. 
But  no  expedient  was  discovered  for  attaining 
that  end,  and  the  disputations  were  accord- 
ingly renewed.  The  results  of  the  conferen- 
ces at  Ferrara  had  not  been  such,  as  either 
to  bring  the  Latins  to  retrench  the  contested 
expression  from  the  creed,  or  the  Greeks  to 
insert  it:  thus  the  Procession  became  once 
more  the  subject  of  debate.  For  the  seven 
succeeding  sessions  the  same  assertions  were 
advanced  and  denied,  the  same  arguments 
reiterated  and  confuted.  At  length,  however, 
the  Latins  found  a  new  and  powerful  cham- 
yfion  in  John,  provincial  of  the  Dominicans. 
This  learned  mendicant,  by  reference  to  an- 
cient manuscripts  of  St.  Basil,  and  other 
Greek  Fathers,  professed  to  demonstrate,  that 
those  venerable  Patriarchs  had  asserted  the 
double  Procession.  This  was  an  assault  up- 
on that  point,  on  which  alone  the  Greeks 
were  very  sensible.  Every  shaft  of  reason 
might  be  foiled  or  blunted  by  sophistry  or 
prejudice;  every  other  authority  might  be 
suspected  or  disavowed;  but  when  the  ar- 
chives of  their  own  unerring  Church  were 
cited  against  them,  it  was  hard  indeed  to  raise 
any  defence,  or  reply  with  any  confidence. 
It  would  appear,  too,  that  Bessarion  had  for 


*  About  one  hundred  and  fifty  Bishops,  besides 
numerous  Abbots,  are  said  to  have  been  present.  We 
should  here  mention  that  the  Greeks  lived  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  Pope,  receiving  a  regular  stipulated 
allowance  from  the  Apostolical  Treasury.  Notwith- 
standing, so  great  was  their  despondency  as  to  the 
result  of  the  embassy,  that  they  betrayed  from  time  to 
time  a  strong  desire  to  return  to  Greece. 


sometime  taken  little  share  in  the  disputes, 
and  at  length  even  Marc  of  Ephesus  with- 
drew from  the  conference.  The  victory  now 
appeared  to  rest  with  the  Latins;  when  the 
Emperor,  who  possessed  some  skill  in  the- 
ology, and  was  sincerely  desirous  of  the 
re-union,  discovered  what  he  considered  an 
equitable  method  of  compromise.  In  a  letter 
of  St.  Maximus,  that  Father  was  found  to 
have  asserted,  that  'the  Latins,  when  they 
declare  that  the  Holy  Spirit  proceeds  from 
the  Son,  do  not  pretend  that  the  Son  is  the 
cause  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  since  they  know 
very  well  that  the  Father  is  the  only  cause 
both  of  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Spirit — of  the 
Son  by  generation,  of  the  Holy  Spirit  by 
Procession — they  only  mean,  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  proceeds  through  the  Son,  because  he 
is  of  the  same  essence.'  Soon  after  this  pro- 
posal had  been  made,  the  public  sessions  of 
the  Council  were  suspended,  and  the  Greeks 
held  several  conferences  among  themselves, 
with  a  view  to  some  honorable  accommoda- 
tion. 

The  Greeks  were  now  openly  divided. 
Bessarion,  gained,  as  his  adversaries  assert, 
by  the  presents  and  promises  of  the  Pontiff, 
at  once  avowed  his  adhesion  to  the  Latin 
dogma,  and  defended  it  with  confidence  and 
eloquence.  Of  this  same  party  was  the  Em- 
peror, through  his  anxiety  to  reconcile  the 
Churches  on  any  terms,  and  at  any  sacrifice. 
Marc  of  Ephesus  obstinately  maintained  his 
original  opinions ;  he  abhorred  the  heresy  of 
the  Latins,  and  rejected  every  overture  of 
compromise.  Nevertheless  the  conferences 
continued:  several  attempts  were  made  to 
devise  some  explanation  of  the  Oriental  doc- 
trine which  might  be  satisfactory  to  the  La- 
tins ;  and  the  party  of  the  Unionists  gained 
ground.  The  Emperor  saw  his  advantage, 
and  pursued  it  by  such  means  of  persuasion 
as  an  Emperor  may  always  exercise.  And 
at  length,  after  more  than  two  months  of  dis- 
cussion, the  Greeks  unanimously  consented  to 
the  terms  of  reconciliation,  with  the  single 
honest  exception  of  Marc  of  Ephesus. 

Common  Confession  of  Faith. — The  con- 
fession of  faith,  on  which  this  treaty  of  con- 
cord was  founded,  was  as  follows  : — 'In  the 
name  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  of  the  Father,  the 
Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  we,  Latins  and 
Greeks,  agree  in  the  holy  union  of  these  two 
Churches,  and  confess  that  all  true  Christians 
ought  to  receive  this  genuine  doctrine:  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  eternally  of  the  Father 
and  the  Son,  and  that  from  all  eternity  it  pro- 
ceeds from  the  one  and  the  other  as  from  a 


492 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


single  principle,  and  by  a  single  production, 
which  we  call  Spiration.  We  also  declare 
that  what  some  of  the  Holy  Fathers  have 
said,  viz.  that  the  Holy  Spirit  proceeds  from 
the  Father  through  the  Son,  should  be  taken 
in  such  manner  as  to  signify,  that  the  Son, 
as  well  as  the  Father,  and  conjointly  with 
him,  is  the  principle  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  And 
since,  whatsoever  the  Father  hath,  that  he 
communicates  to  his  Son,  excepting  the  pa- 
ternity which  distinguishes  him  from  the  Son 
and  the  Holy  Spirit,  so  is  it  from  the  Father 
that  the  Son  has  received,  from  all  eternity, 
that  productive  virtue  through  which  the 
Holy  Spirit  proceeds  from  the  Son,  as  well 
as  from  the  Father.' 

Treaties  of  Union. — We  should  here  men- 
tion, that  while  this  spiritual  negotiation  was 
in  progress,  another  convention  of  a  very  dif- 
ferent character  was  also  under  considera- 
tion ;  and  the  two  treaties  were  brought  to 
their  conclusion  at  the  same  time.  It  was 
stipulated  by  the  latter,  that  his  Holiness 
should  furnish  the  Greeks  with  resources  for 
their  return  ;  that  he  should  maintain  a  stand- 
ing military  and  naval  force  for  the  defence 
of  Constantinople ;  that  the  galleys  carrying 
pilgrims  to  Jerusalem  should  be  compelled  to 
touch  at  Constantinople ;  that,  if  the  Empe- 
ror should  require  twenty  galleys  for  six 
months,  or  for  a  year,  the  Pope  should  bind 
himself  to  supply  them ;  and  that,  if  soldiers 
were  wanted,  he  should  use  his  influence 
with  the  princes  of  the  west  to  procure  them. 
This  convention  having  been  officially  rati- 
fied, the  emperor  announced  the  consent  of 
his  Prelates  to  the  doctrinal  accommodation  ; 
and  on  the  6th  of  June,  1439,  it  was  an- 
nounced, that  the  divisions  of  so  many  cen- 
turies were  at  length  closed  for  ever.  The 
Confession  of  Union  was  recited  in  Greek 
and  in  Latin,  and  it  was  hailed  by  the  accla- 
mations of  both  parties,  who  embraced  with 
seeming  warmth,  and  interchanged  the  salu- 
tation of  peace. 

It  will  have  been  observed,  that  the  public 
disputations  had  been  entirely  confined  to  one 
of  the  four  subjects  of  difference  ;  and  that 
the  arrangement  of  that,  as  it  was  considered 
by  far  the  most  difficult  question,  was  held  to 
be  a  sufficient  pledge  of  agreement  upon  all. 
And  so  indeed  it  proved.  The  difference  on 
the  Azyms  was  removed  by  the  confession 
of  the  Greeks,  that  the  Eucharist  might  be 
celebrated  with  unleavened,  as  worthily  as 
with  leavened,  bread.  Respecting  purgatory, 
it  was  acknowledged  on  both  sides,  that  those 
souls  which  could  neither,  through  some  un- 


atoned  sins,  be  received  into  immediate  be* 
atitude,  nor  yet  deserved  eternal  condemna- 
tion, were  delivered  into  some  abode  of 
temporary  durance  and  purification ;  but 
regarding  the  method  of  purification  — 
whether  it  was  by  fire,  as  some  thought,  or  by 
darkness  and  tempest,  as  seemed  to  be  the 
opinion  of  others — it  was  held  more  prudent 
to  abstain  from  any  positive  declaration.  The 
question  of  the  Pope's  primacy  occasioned 
somewhat  greater  embarrassment,  because  its 
practical  consequence  was  more  directly  per- 
ceptible ;  and  though  the  Imperial  eye  might 
overlook  the  importance  of  doctrinal  differ- 
ences, it  was  not  blind  to  any  encroachment 
on  Imperial  prerogative.  And  thus,  though 
Palseologus  readily  assented  to  the  general 
proposition  of  papal  supremacy,  he  objected 
to  its  application  in  two  cases.  He  would  not 
consent  that  the  Pope  should  call  councils  in 
his  dominions  without  his  approbation  and 
that  of  the  Patriarchs  ;  nor  would  he  permit 
appeals  from  the  Patriarchal  courts  to  be 
carried  to  Rome.  He  maintained  that  the 
Pope  should  send  his  legates  to  decide  them 
on  the  spot.  The  pontiff  insisted  ;  but  as  the 
Emperor  declared  that  he  would  prefer  to 
break  off"  the  negotiations  even  in  that  their 
latest  stage,  rather  than  yield  those  points,  a 
method  of  verbal  compromise  was  discovered, 
which  satisfied  the  consciences  of  both  par- 
ties. 

Question  on  Transubstantiation. — To  the  at- 
tentive reader  it  will,  perhaps,  appear  strange, 
that  in  so  many  controversies  between  the 
two  Churches  no  dispute  had  yet  been  raised 
on  the  subject  of  Transubstantiation.  And  it 
will  thence  seem  natural  to  infer,  that,  on  that 
point,  no  difference  existed  between  them. 
In  a  later  age,  when  the  Protestants  were 
contending  with  the  Roman  Catholics  for  the 
spiritual  adhesion  of  the  Greeks,  this  impor- 
tant question  was  thoroughly  investigated ; 
and  the  result,  as  it  appears  to  us,*  was  not 
quite  favorable  to  either  party.  For,  if  some 
of  the  ancient  Fathers  indulged  in  very  lofty 
expressions  on  the  nature  of  the  Eucharist, 
yet  the  Latin  dogma  was  never  formally 
established  among  the  Articles  of  the  other 
Church.  We  shall  now  mention,  that  dur- 
ing the  conferences  at  Ferrara  and  Florence 
certain  expressions  fell  from  the  Greek  Doc- 
tors, which  excited  suspicions  of  their  ortho- 
doxy so  generally,  that  the  Pope  deemed  it 
necessary  to  demand  of  them  a  formal  decla- 


*  This  subject  has  been  shortly  treated  by  tha 
author  of  this  history,  in  a  work  '  On  the  Condition 
and  Prospects  of  the  Greek  Church.' 


THE   GREEK   CHURCH. 


493 


ration  on  that  point,  before  the  '  Decree  of 
Union'  should  be  finally  ratified.  According- 
ly, Bessarion  of  Nice,  on  the  part  and  in  the 
presence  of  his  brethren,  made  an  affirmation 
to  this  effect : — '  Since  in  the  preceding  con- 
gregations we  have  been  suspected  of  hold- 
ing an  erroneous  opinion  touching  the  words 
of  the  Consecration,  we  declare,  in  the  pre- 
sence of  your  Holiness,  .  .  .  that  we  have 
learnt  from  our  ancient  Fathers,  and  especial- 
ly from  St.  Chrysostom,  that  it  is  the  words 
of  our  Lord  which  change  the  substance  of 
the  bread  and  wine  into  that  of  the  Body  and 
Blood  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  that  those  divine 
words  have  the  force  and  virtue  to  make  that 
wonderful  change  of  substance,  or  that  Tran- 
substantiation  ;  and  that  we  follow  the  senti- 
ments of  that  great  Teacher.'  These  expres- 
sions are,  in  themselves,  sufficiently  explicit : 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  we  are  bound  to  re- 
collect, that  the  Greeks  at  Florence  had  by 
this  time  abandoned  in  despair  every  manner 
of  resistance  to  the  Emperor  and  the  Pope  ; 
and  also,  that  the  Prelate  who  read  the  decla- 
ration, and  whose  motives  are  liable  to  very 
well-founded  suspicion,  was  afterwards  ex- 
alted to  the  dignity  of  a  Cardinal  in  the  Ro- 
man Church.* 

*  Bessarion,  an  Asiatic  Archbishop,  ended  his  days 
in  the  peaceful  enjoyment  of  a  Roman  dignity.  His 
great  antagonist,  Julian  Cesarini,  Cardinal  of  St. 
Angelo,  under  a  less  auspicious  influence,  exchanged 
the  field  of  controversial  achievement  for  that  of  mili- 
tary dishonor.  Let  us  here  trace  his  concluding  for- 
lunes.  Being  appointed  by  the  Pope  to  superintend, 
as  his  legate,  the  warlike  operations  against  the 
Turks,  he  attached  himself  to  the  camp  of  Huniades. 
Under  iiis  sanction,  and  with  his  consent,  (it  was  a 
reluctant  consent,)  a  truce  for  ten  years  was  signed, 
with  religious  solemnities,  between  the  contending 
parties;  and  Amurat  reposed  in  confidence  on  the 
shores  of  the  Bqsphoms,  or  employed  his  forces  in 
some  other  enterprise.  Suddenly  some  new  circum- 
stance came  to  light,  which  promised  advantage  to 
the  Christians  from  the  renewal  of  hostilities.  Here- 
upon the  Cardinal  Legate,  perceiving  some  hesitation 
among  the  generals,  seized  a  favorable  moment  to 
counsel  the  violation  of  the  truce.  To  this  effect,  he 
urged  the  impolicy  of  the  secret  engagement,  the  in- 
fidelity of  the  party  with  whom  it  was  contracted. 
He  pressed  the  injustice  thereby  offered  both  to  the 
Pope  and  the  Emperor;  the  prejudice  done  to  their 
own  reputation,  and  to  the  interests  of  the  Church. 
He  maintained  that  the  very  compact  with  the  Turk 
was  in  itself  an  act  of  perfidy  to  their  allies.  These 
and  similar  arguments  he  advanced  with  his  custom- 
ary power.  But  seeing  that  his  unlettered  hearers 
were  not  yet  persuaded,  that  a  treaty  so  solemnly 
ratified  could  at  once  be  violated  without  reproach, 
he  proceeded  more  curiously  to  distinguish  between 
the  obligation  due  to  a  mere  promise  and  that  which 


Return  of  the  Greeks. — After  this  last  con- 
fession of  Bessarion,  the  'Decree  of  Union  ' 
was  signed  and  ratified  ;  and  the  Greeks,  their 
object  accomplished,  set  forth,  with  various 
emotions  perhaps,  but  with  general  satisfac- 
tion, on  their  return  to  the  east.  The  voyage 
was  favorable  ;  and  on  the  20th  of  February, 
1440,  they  were  restored  to  the  altars  of  Con- 
stantinople. With  what  feelings  were  these 
messengers  of  religious  concord  welcomed  ? 
What  salutations  hailed  them  on  their  ar 
rival  from  that  holy  enterprise  ?  The  joy 
the  gratitude,  the  affection  of  their  fellow 
Catholics?  Let  us  turn  to  the  circumstances 
of  their  reception :  through  a  general  confed 
eracy  of  the  Clergy,  of  the  people,  and  par- 
ticularly of  the  Monks,  who  chiefly  swayed 
the  conscience  and  directed  the  movements 
of  the  people,  the  authors  of  the  Union  found 
themselves  excluded  even  from  their  ecclesi- 
astical functions.  They  were  overwhelmed 
with  insults.  They  were  called  azymites, 
apostates,  traitors  to  the  true  religion ;  the 
sanctuaries  which  they  entered  were  deserted  ; 
they  were  shunned,  as  if  convicted  of  impie- 
ty, or  blasted  by  excommunication  ;  and  in 
many  of  the  Churches  the  spirit  went  so  far, 
that  the  very  name  of  the  Emperor  himself 
was  erased  from  the  Dyptics.  On  the  other 
hand,  Marc  of  Ephesus,  who  had  fought 
without  concession  or  compromise  the  battles 
of  his  Church,  and  persisted  inflexibly  in  his 
repugnance  to  the  re-union,  was  rewarded  by 


is  demanded  by  the  public  welfare,  and  to  show  the 
higher  authority  of  the  latter.  Whenever  these,  for- 
sooth, were  at  variance,  the  faith  plighted  to  an  in- 
fidel could  have  little  solid  weight.  For  though,  in 
truth,  an  oath  is  binding,  when  it  is  just  and  founded 
in  equity,  it  is  properly  considered  as  null,  and  dis- 
pleasing to  God,  when  it  leads  to  private  or  public 
calamity,  &c.  &c! 

The  eloquence  of  the  Cardinal  so  well  enforced  his 
fallacies  upon  minds  which  probably  were  only  thirst- 
ing for  conviction,  that  the  whole  assembly  demanded 
with  acclamations  the  violation  of  the  truce.  The 
army  moved  forwards,  and  immediately  engaged  in 
that  campaign,  which  was  terminated  by  the  battle 
of  Varna.  In  that  fatal  encounter,  among  thousands 
of  less  illustrious  victims,  fell  the  Cardinal  of  St. 
Angelo.  The  nature  of  his  death  is  uncertain.  It  is 
variously  asserted  that  he  was  slain  in  the  field,  and 
in  the  rout;  that  he  was  drowned  in  the  Danube; 
that  he  was  plundered  and  murdered  by  Hungarian 
robbers.  And  it  had  been  happier  for  his  memory 
had  the  last  struggle  of  his  genius  been  wrapped  in  the 
same  obscurity — could  we  forget  that  it  was  made  for 
the  purpose  of  corrupting  the  rude  morality  of  Chris- 
tian soldiers  and  statesmen,  and  leading  them  into 
that  perjured  enterprise,  which  ended  in  his  destruc- 
tion and  their  disaster,  and  the  ihfamy  of  all. 


494 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


universal  acclamation.  Marc  of  Ephesus  bad 
alone  stood  forth  as  the  defender  of  the  faith, 
and  of  the  honor  of  the  CEcumenic  Church. 

Dissensions  in  the  East. —  The  controversy 
•was  immediately  renewed  in  the  East.  Marc 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  schismatics, 
and  many  compositions  were  published,  as 
well  by  himself  as  by  others,  to  press  the  re- 
peal of  the  Union.  Various  polemical  treati- 
ses were  also  put  forth  in  rejoinder ;  and  at 
the  same  time  the  Emperor  exerted,  on  the 
same  side,  a  more  equivocal  method  of  per- 
suasion. He  selected  for  the  Patriarch  of 
Constantinople  a  decided  supporter  of  the 
Union,  and  caused  the  patronage  of  the  See 
to  be  conferred  exclusively  upon  ecclesiastics 
of  that  party.  .  .  Within  the  limits  of  his  tem- 
poral sovereignty  the  Head  of  the  Oriental 
Church  received  a  reluctant  obedience.  But 
beyond  those  boundaries,  in  the  Patriarchats 
of  Jerusalem,  of  Antioch,  and  Alexandria,  his 
spiritual  subjects — for  they  were  no  more 
than  spiritual  —  broke  forth  into  undisguised 
rebellion.  In  1443  those  three  Prelates  united 
in  publishing  a  Synodal  Epistle,  in  which 
they  pronounced  the  sentence  of  deposition 
against  all  those,  on  whom  their  Brother  of 
Constantinople  had  conferred  ordination  ;  and 
then  added  the  threat  of  excommunication,  in 
case  this  sentence  should  be  neglected.  At 
the  same  time  they  addressed  to  the  Emperor 
himself  a  similar  menace,  should  he  still  con- 
tinue to  protect  his  Patriarch. 

A  Synod,' which  combined  the  authority 
of  three  of  their  Patriarchs,  was  reverentially 
regarded  by  a  people  already  predisposed  to 
embrace  its  edicts.  Even  the  resolution  of 
Palseologus  appears  to  have  been  shaken  by 
so  bold  an  act  of  insubordination.  At  the 
same  time,  as  if  to  increase  his  confusion,  the 
Clergy  and  populace  of  the  Northern  Prov- 
inces of  his  Church,  Russia  and  Muscovy, 
loudly  declared  themselves  against  the  Union, 
and  insulted  and  imprisoned  a  Papal  Legate 
who  was  sent  to  publish  it  among  them. 
Thus,  after  his  sojourn  under  foreign  domin- 
ion, after  his  personal  exertions  in  allaying 
the  heats  of  controversy,  and  conducting  it, 
as  he  fondly  fancied,  to  a  lasting  termination, 
the  Emperor  of  the  East  discovered  that  his 
ecclesiastical  influence  was  confined  almost 
to  the  city  and  suburbs  of  Constantinople; 
and  that  the  treaty  from  which  he  expected 
such  advantage  was  received  even  there  with 
a  reluctant  and  precarious,  even  though  it 
was  an  interested,  submission. 

It  might  have  been  supposed  that  some 
sense  of  political  advantage  would  have  mov- 


ed the  feelings  of  his  subjects ;  that  the  pros- 
pect of  a  powerful  alliance  would  have  exert- 
ed some  influence;  that  the  sight  of  the 
advancing  Turk  would  have  inspired  some 
moderation;  or,  if  reason  was,  indeed,  ex- 
cluded from  the  controversy,  that  the  passion 
of  fear  would,  in  some  degree,  have  counter- 
acted the  passion  of  bigotry.  Some  mitiga- 
tion of  the  first  frenzy  might  at  least  have 
been  expected  from  time ;  and  in  the  interval 
of  eleven  years,  more  charitable  feelings,  and 
more  provident  considerations  might  grad- 
ually have  gained  prevalence  under  the 
Imperial  patronage.  But  the  event  was  far 
otherwise :  if  the  heat  of  either  party  relaxed 
during  this  critical  period,  it  was  that  of  the 
friends  of  the  Union  ;  its  opponents  increased 
in  strength,  and  remitted  nothing  of  their 
original  rancor. 

Prediction  of  Nicholas  V.,  and  fall  of  the 
Greek  Empire.  —  In  the  year  1451  Nicholas 
V.,  after  engaging  in  some  earnest  endeavors 
to  rouse  the  energies  of  Christendom  against 
the  common  foe,  issued  a  celebrated  address 
to  the  Greeks.  He  exhorted  them  to  pay  some 
regard  to  their  own  safety,  and  not  to  paralyse 
the  efforts  which  Providence  was  making  to 
preserve  them;  to  display  their  devotion  in 
acts  of  penitence  ;  and  to  receive,  without  de- 
lay, the  decree  of  the  Council  of  Florence. 
To  the  Emperor  Constantine  he  addressed  a 
menace,  dictated,  as  some  have  thought,  by  a 
prophetic  spirit.  After  complaining,  that  the 
Greeks  had  now  too  long  trifled  with  the  pa- 
tience of  God  and  man,  in  deferring  their 
reconciliation  with  the  Church,  he  announced 
that,  according  to  the  parable  in  the  Gospel, 
three  years  of  probation  would  still  be  grant- 
ed for  the  fig-tree,  hitherto  cultivated  in  vain, 
to  bring  forth  fruit.  But,  if  it  did  not  bear 
fruit  in  that  season — if  the  Greeks,  during  the 
space  which  God  still  indulged  to  thern,  did 
not  receive  the  decree  of  the  Union — that 
then,  indeed,  the  tree  would  be  cut  down  even 
to  its  root — the  nation  extirpated  by  the  min- 
isters of  divine  justice. 

This  denunciation  contemplated  no  im- 
probable catastrophe ;  and  the  Emperor  took 
such  measures  as  were  left  to  him  to  concil- 
iate the  dispositions  of  the  Vatican.  But  what 
was  the  spirit  which  at  this  last  crisis  animat- 
ed his  subjects?  It  was  during  this  very 
year  that  several  Greek  ecclesiastics  address- 
ed, in  the  name  of  the  whole  Church,  a  com- 
munication to  the  rebels  of  Bohemia.  They 
praised  the  zeal  of  their  brother-schismatics ; 
they  applauded  them  for  their  rejection  of  the 
innovations  of  Rome,  and  their  adherence  to 


THE  ARMENIANS. 


495 


the  true  faith  ;  and,  finally,  called  on  tliem  to 
conclude  a  treaty  of  Union  with  themselves — 
not  such  union  as  that  mockery  of  concord 
dressed  up  at  Florence,  from  which  truth  was 
far  removed,  but  Union,  founded  on  the  re- 
spectable opinions  of  the  ancient  Fathers ! 

And  thus,  those  precious  moments,  which  the 
Pope  devoted  to  vows  and  exertions  for  the 
salvation  of  Greece,  were  employed  by  her 
zealous  theologians  in  courting  the  bitterest 
enemies  of  his  government. 

In  the  year  following,  the  Emperor  having 
received  with  honor  the  Papal  Legate,  and 
made  him  some  fair  promises,  they  proceed- 
ed to  celebrate  the  Liturgy  in  St.  Sophia. 
But  as  soon  as  mention  was  made,  in  the 
course  of  the  service,  of  the  names  of  the 
Pope  and  the  Latin  Patriarch,*  the  whole 
city  rose  in  commotion,  and  the  multitude, 
uncertain  what  course  to  take,  rushed  in  a 
mass  to  consult  a  popular  fanatic,  named 
Gennadius.  This  man  was  a  monk;  and 
attached  to  the  door  of  his  cell  they  found  a 
written  rescript,  denouncing  the  last  inflictions 
against  all  who  should  receive  the  impious 
decree  of  Florence.  Then  it  was  that  Priests 
and  Abbots,  Monks  and  Nuns,  soldiers  and 
citizens,  the  entire  population,  except  the  im- 
mediate dependents  of  the  Emperor,  shouted, 
as  with  a  single  voice  —  'Anathema  against 
all  who  are  united  with  the  Latins ! '  The 
sanctuary  of  St.  Sophia  was  proclaimed  pro- 
fane ;  all  intercourse  was  suspended  with  all 
who  had  assisted  at  the  service  with  the  La- 
tins; absolution  was  refused,  and  the  Church- 
es were  closed  against  them. 

This  was  the  madness  of  a  falling  empire 
—  this  was  the  heaven-inflicted  delirium 
which  prepared  the  path  for  destruction.  The 
measure  of  fanaticism  was  at  length  filled  up  ; 
the  pontifical  prophecy  f  hastened  to  its  ac- 
complishment. And  while  the  frantic  people 
of  Greece  were  in  the  highest  ferment  of 
theological  excitement,— while  their  religious 
hatred  against  their  brother  Christians  was 
burning  most  intensely,  —  while  partial  dif- 
ferences were  most  exaggerated, — while  sec- 
tarian intolerance  was  most  fierce  and  un- 
compromising, the  banners  of  the  Infidel  were 


*  Gregory — then  a  voluntary  exile  at  Rome,  through 
his  reluctance  to  preside  over  a  rebellious  Church. 

t  Constantinople  was  certainly  laken  in  the  third 
year  (inclusive)  after  the  prediction  of  Nicholas. 
The  Tope  wrote  some  time  in  1-151  ;  the  city  fell  on 
May  20,  1453.  The  coincidence,  even  with  this 
latitude,  was  fortunate;  but  after  the  battle  of  Varna, 
no  light  from  heaven  was  necessary  to  foreshow  the 
speedy  downfal  of  the  Greek  empire. 


in  motion  towards  the  devoted  city,  and  a 
nation  of  Christians  was  consigned  in  bondage 
to  the  common  enemy  of  Christ. 


NOTE    (1)    ON    THE    ARMENIANS. 

The  first  occasion  on  which  we  can  observe 
the  Armenians  to  have  come  into  contact,  as 
an  independent  communion,  with  the  Church 
of  Rome,  was  the  following:  —  In  the  year 
1145,  while  Pope  Eugenius  was  resident  at 
Viterbo,  certain  deputies  from  their  patriarch 
(also  called  their  Catholic,)  arrived  to  salute 
the  Pontiff,  and  proffer  every  sort  of  respect 
and  deference.  The  particular  object  of  their 
mission  appears,  however,  to  have  been  this, — 
to  appeal  to  the  decision  of  the  Pope  respect- 
ing their  differences  with  the  Greek  Church. 
The  differences  principally  debated  were  two  ; 
— the  Armenians  did  not  mix  water  with  the 
wine  in  the  eucharist ;  they  made  use  of  leav- 
ened   bread,   excepting  on   the   festivals  of 

Christmas  and  the  Epiphany We  do 

not  learn  that  there  were  any  lasting  results 
from  this  embassy  ;  but  it  is  carefully  record- 
ed, *  that  the  Orientals  assisted  at  the  Latin 
Mass  celebrated  by  the  Pope  in  person  ;  and 
that  one  of  them  beheld  on  that  solemnity  a 
sunbeam  resting  on  the  head  of  the  Pontiff", 
as  well  as  two  doves  ascending  and  descend- 
ing above  him,  in  an  inexplicable  manner — 
a  marvel  which  greatly  moved  him  to  rever- 
ence and  submission. 

Notwithstanding,  the  circumstances  under 
which  the  Armenians  next  present  themselves 
to  the  historian,  prove  the  futility  of  the  for- 
mer overtures  to  Rome.  For  we  find  that, 
in  the  year  1170,  the  Catholic  Norsesis  ad- 
dressed a  letter  to  Manuel  Comnenus,  in 
which  he  mentioned  some  points,  whereon 
himself  and  the  Greeks  were  not  agreed,  and 
expressed  a  strong  desire  for  reconciliation. 
The  Emperor  intrusted  the  commission  to  a 
philosopher  named  Theorian,  who  proceeded 
to  Armenia,  and  conferred  with  the  patriarch 
and  another  influential  prelate.  On  this  oc- 
casion much  more  important  differences  were 
advanced  than  those  discovered  at  Viterbo; 
and  that,  which  was  most  prominent,  respect- 
ed the  nature  of  Christ.  From  the  account 
of  this  controversy  it  would  appear,  that,  in 
the  outset,  the  Greeks  supposed  the  Armeni- 
ans to  be  involved  in  the  Eutychian  heresy  ; 
while  the  Armenians  imagined  the  Greeks 
to  have  embraced  the  opposite  error  of  Nes- 


*  By  Otho  Frisingensis,  who  was  at  that  time  m 
Viterbo. 


496 


HISTORY   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


torius.  In  the  course  of  the  conference  both 
were  undeceived.  The  Armenians  did  in- 
deed admit,  that  they  held  one  incarnate 
nature ;  but  not  by  confusion,  like  Eutyches, 
nor  by  diminution,  like  ^pollinaris:  but  in 
the  'orthodox'  sense  of  Cyril  of  Alexandria.* 
The  Greeks  cleared  their  own  tjnets  from 
the  charge  of  Nestorianism  with  equal  per- 
spicuity. The  result  was,  that  the  Catholic 
acknowledged  their  orthodoxy,  and  under- 
took to  bring  over  all  his  compatriots  to  the 
same  opinion.  Some  other  differences  of 
inferior  weight  were  also  discussed;  and 
these,  too,  the  Armenian  is  related  to  have 
softened  away  with  equal  facility.  At  length, 
after  an  affecting  interview,  in  which  many 
tears  were  poured  forth  in  pious  sympathy 
by  both  parties,  Theorian  returned  to  Con- 
stantinople, and  Narsesis  prepared  to  com- 
municate his  own  convictions  to  the  Church 
over  which  he  presided. 

With  what  little  success  these  negotiations 
were  attended  appears  from  the  next  glimpse 
that  we  catch  of  the  ecclesiastical  affairs  of 
the  Armenians.  On  the  23rd  of  May,  1199, 
Leo,  their  king,  addressed  an  epistle  to  Inno- 
cent III.,  expressing  his  anxiety  for  the  re- 
union of  his  Church  with  that  of  Rome.  At 
the  same  time  he  disclosed  the  motive  of  his 
anxiety ;  for  he  deplored  the  ravages,  to 
which  his  kingdom  was  exposed  by  the  in- 
roads of  the  infidels,  and  proclaimed  the 
absolute  need  in  which  he  stood  of  foreign 
succor.  This  application  was  accompanied 
by  one  from  the  Catholic,  in  which  he  pro- 
fessed his  wish  for  reconciliation,  and  his 
readiness  to  make  submission  to  the  Vatican. 
The  Pope  sent,  in  reply,  many  civil  expres- 
sions ;  and  intended,  no  doubt,  to  confer  a 
more  substantial  service  on  his  militant  fellow 
Christians,  when  he  presented  them  at  the 
same  time  with  the  standard  of  St.  Peter,  as  a 
safeguard  against  the  sword  of  the  unbeliever. 
Some  negotiations  succeeded:  at  length  (in 
the  year  1205,)  the  king  prevailed  upon  his 
subjects  to  acknowledge  their  spiritual  alle- 
giance to  the  Pope  ;  and  the  Catholic  publicly 


*  See  '  Theoriani  Orthodoxi  cum  Catholico  Ar- 
meniorum  Colloquium,'  in  the  Maxima  Biblioth. 
P.P.  torn.  xxii.  p.  796—812,  (Edit.  Lugdun.  1677). 
'  Dicimus  in  Christo  naturam  unam  esse,  non  secun- 
dum Eutychcn  confundentes,  nee  secundum  Apollina- 
rem  detrahentes,  sed  secundum  Alexandrinum  Anti- 
Etitem  Cyrillum,  in  Ortliodoxia,  qure  in  libro  contra 
Nestorium  scripsit,  unam  esse  naturam  Sermonis 
incarnatam '  .  .  .  .  The  controversy  turned  a  good 
deal  on  the  distinction  (real  or  imaginary)  between 
Christus  and  Sermo,  in  this  question. 


placed  the  act  of  his  submission  in  the  hands 
of  the  legate.  He  accepted  the  pallium* 
from  the  same  authority,  and  engaged  to 
visit  the  holy  See,  by  his  Nuncios,  once  in 
every  five  years,  and  to  assist  in  person,  or 
by  deputy,  at  all  councils  which  might  be 
held  in  the  west  for  the  regulation  of  his  in- 
terests. Greater  objections  appear  to  have 
prevailed  among  those  orientals  against  the 
introduction  of  the  Roman  code  of  canon 
law ;  but  it  was  arranged  that  some  part  of 
its  institution  should  be  received  at  once,  and 
the  rest  at  some  future  time,  after  more  ma- 
ture deliberation  among  the  Armenian  pre- 
lates. Such  was  the  general  nature  of  the 
reconciliation  then  effected ;  but  some  dissen- 
sions presently  arose  between  the  king  and 
one  of  the  pontifical  legates ;  and  there  seems 
no  reason  to  believe  that  the  above  negotia- 
tion had  any  lasting  consequences.! 

As  the  amicable  overtures  from  Armenia 
to  Rome  were  entirely  occasioned  by  the 
political  necessities  of  the  former,  they  were 
more  frequent  during  the  desolation  of  the 
East  in  the  fourteenth  century.  The  in- 
terested obedience  of  that  communion  was 
tendered  to  John  XXII.,  and  accepted  by 
him.  A  few  years  afterwards  (in  1341)  we 
observe  another  king,  named  Leo,  soliciting 
temporal  assistance  from  Benedict  XII.  The 
Pope  made  answer  in  two  letters,  respectively 
addressed  to  the  king  and  to  the  Catholic.  In 
the  former,  he  made  mention  of  the  errors 
entertained  by  the  Armenians,  and  of  the  ex- 
ertions which  he  had  made,  both  by  personal 
inquiry  from  those  professing  them,  and  by 
the  examination  of  the  authorized  books,  to 
ascertain  their  nature  and  extent.  In  the  lat- 
ter, he  exhorted  the  clergy  to  assemble  in 
council,  to  condemn  and  extirpate  the  false 
opinions  which  they  held,  and  then,  for  their 

*  See  the  Letter  from  Leo  to  Innocent,  published 
by  Raynaldus,  ann.  1205,  in  which  he  boasts,  that, 
with  great  labor,  and  through  divine  grace,  he  had  at 
length  brought  about  that  obedience  of  the  Armenians 
to  the  Roman  Church,  which  his  ancestors  had  so 
long  attempted  in  vain. 

f  From  the  fragment  of  a  Greek  writer,  named 
Nico,  (probably  of  the  thirteenth  century,)  translated 
and  published  in  the  Max.  Bibliotheca  P.P.  (torn, 
xxv.  p.  328),  and  entitled  '  De  Pessimorum  Armeni- 
orum  pessima  Religione,'  it  appears  that  they  still 
retained  all  the  errors  imputed  to  them  by  either 
Church.  Among  a  multitude  here  enumerated  it  is 
one,  that  '  they  do  not  adore  the  venerable  images, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  that  their  Catholic  anathematizes 
those  who  do  so.  Neither  do  they  worship  the  Cross, 
until  they  have  driven  a  nail  into  it,  and  baptized  it, 
&c. 


THE  ARMENIANS. 


497 


belter  instruction  in  the  faith  and  observances 
of  the  Roman  Church,  to  receive  the  Decree, 
the  Decretals  and  other  Canons  used  in  the 
West.  He  expressed  a  pious  persuasion,  that 
when  the  errors  of  the  Armenians  should 
once  he  removed,  the  enemies  of  the  faith 
would  no  longer  prevail  against  them ;  and 
.concluded  his  address  by  the  proposal  of  a 
conference. 

The  first  of  these  epistles  was  accompa- 
nied hy  a  memorial,  in  which  the  errors  in 
question  were  enumerated.     They  were  ex- 
panded into  a  tedious  catalogue  of  one  hun- 
dred and  seventeen ;  but  they  may,  without 
much  inaccuracy,  be  reduced  under  the  fol- 
lowing heads:  —  1.  The  Armenians  were  ac- 
cused of  adhesion  to  the  opinions  of  Eutyches, 
involving,  of  course,  the  Monophysite  heresy, 
the  rejection  of  the  council   of  Chalcedon, 
the  condemnation  of  St.  Leo,  and  the  seces- 
sion from  both  the  GEcumenic  Churches.  2. 
They  were  charged  with  administering  the 
sacraments  of  confirmation  and  the  eucharist, 
together  with   that  of  baptism  —  a  practice 
which  (as  Fleury  observes)   had  very  early 
pre  valance  in  the  Church.     3.  They  mixed 
no  water  with  the  wine  in  the  holy  com- 
munion— which  again  was  an  ancient  usage. 
4.     They   rejected    Transubstantiation,  and 
maintained   that  it  was  the  figure  only,  not 
the  real  body,  that  was  received  by  the  Com- 
municants— an  opinion  which  was  then  na- 
turally considered  as  a   consequence  of  the 
Eutychian  error  respecting    the  nature  of 
Christ — for  if  any  doubts  were  thrown  on  the 
reality  of  Christ's  body  on  earth,  the  same 
would  extend  in  an  equal  (if  not  in  a  greater) 
degree,  to  the  reality  of  his  flesh  in  the  sacra- 
ment of  his  supper.     The  other  imputations 
concerned  some  fabulous  notions  respecting 
the  resurrection,  the  last  judgment,  the  place 
of  punishment,  the  earthly  and  heavenly  pa- 
radise, the  intermediate  state,  and  other  ques- 
tions of  difficult  determination. 

In  consequence  of  the  pontifical  remon- 
strances, the  Patriarch  assembled  his  council, 
and  condemned  all  the  imputed  errors;  he 
then  sent  deputies  to  the  succeeding  Pope 
(Clement  VI.,)  charged  with  a  general  obliga- 
tion, to  retract  any  other  obnoxious  opinions 
which  might  thereafter  be  discovered  ;  and  at 
the  same  time  to  acknowledge  the  Bishop  of 
Rome  as  the  chief  of  the  Church  of  Christ, 
and  to  solicit  copies  of  the  decretals,  for  the 
more  faithful  administration  of  his  own  sub- 
ordinate communion.  The  Poj>e  engaged  to 
send  them,  and  in  November,  1346,  despatch- 
ed two  legates  on  a  mission  to  the  East. 
63 


Five  years  afterwards,  the  Pontiff,  still  dis- 
satisfied with  the  communications  (perhaps 
equivocal)  which  he  received  from  his  new 
subjects,  and  desiring  a  more  express  declar- 
ation of  their  opinions  on  those  points  which 
most  interested  himself,  addressed  the  Cath- 
olic of  Lesser  Armenia  in  terms  not  substan- 
tially different  from  the  following:— 'Since 
we  are  unable  clearly  to  collect  your  opinions 
from   your  answers,  we  desire   distinctly  to 
propose   the  following  questions: — Do  you 
believe  that   all  who  at  their   baptism  have 
received  the  Catholic  faith,  and  have  after- 
wards  separated   from  the  communion,  are 
Schismatics  and   heretics,  if  they  persist  in 
such  separation?    and   that  no  one  can  be 
saved,  who  has  renounced  obedience  to  the 
Pope  ?  Do  you  believe  that  St.  Peter  received 
from  Jesus  Christ  full  power  of  jurisdiction 
over  all  the  faithful  ?  that  all  the  power  which 
the  apostles  may  have   possessed  in  certain 
provinces  was  subject  to  his  ?  and  that  all  the 
successors  of  St.  Peter  have  the  same  power 
with  himself?  Do  you  believe  that,  in  virtue 
of  that  power,  the  Pope  can  judge  all  the 
faithful    immediately,  and   delegate   to   that 
effect  such  ecclesiastical  judges  as  he  may 
think  proper?  Do  you  believe  that  the  Pope 
can  be  judged   by  no  one,  except  God  him- 
self;  and  that  there  is  no  appeal  from  his 
decisions  to  any  judge  ?    Do  you  believe  that 
he   can   translate   bishops,  and   abbots,  and 
other  ecclesiastics  from  one  dignity  to  anoth- 
er, or  degrade  and  depose  them,  if  they  de- 
serve such  punishment  ?    Do  you  believe  that 
the  Pope  is  not  subject  to  any  secular  power, 
even  regal  or  imperial,  in  respect  to  institu- 
tion, correction,  or  destitution  ;  that  he  alone 
can  make  general  canons,  and  grant  plenary 
indulgences,  and  decide  disputes  on  matters 
of  faith?'  ....     These  interrogations  were 
accompanied  by  the  notice  of  some  Armenian 
errors  on  the  intermediate  state,  on  the  sacra- 
ments, and  especially  the  Eucharist ;  and  by 
some  complaints,  that  promises,  hitherto  made 
with   facility,  had  not   been  sufficiently  ob- 
served.   But  they  chiefly  merit  the  historian's 
attention,  as  they  prove  the  uncompromising 
severity  with  which  Rome,  even  during  the 
exile  of  her  Pontiffs,  exacted  all  her  usurped 
ecclesiastical  rights,  and  imposed  the  whole 
weight  and  pressure  of  her  yoke  even  on  the 
most  distant  and  most  reluctant  of  her  sub- 
jects.   Howbeit,  after  that  period,  we  do  not 
observe  any  proof  of  the  continuance  or  re- 
newal of  friendly  negotiation  between  Rome 
and  Armenia,  sufficiently  important  to  deserve 
a  place  in  this  history. 


498 


HISTORY   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


NOTE    (2)   ON   THE   MARONITES. 

Maro,  or  Maroun,  from  whom  this  sect  de- 
rives its  appellation,  lived  during  the  latter 
part  of  the  sixth  century  on  the  banks  of  the 
Orontes ;  and  in  the  disputes  then  prevailing 
between  the  eastern  and  western  Churches, 
he  exerted  his  influence,  which  was  consid- 
erable in  that  part  of  Syria,  in  favor  of  the 
latter.  About  a  century  later,  a  certain  John, 
surnamed  the  Maronite,  was  distinguished  by 
his  opposition  to  the  Melchites  Greeks ;  and 
it  seems  to  have  been  under  his  guidance, 
that  the  Syrian  '  rebels '  *  settled  apart  m  the 
secure  recesses  of  Libanus  and  Antilibanus. 
There  they  formed  a  powerful  association, 
formidable  alike  to  the  orthodox  Greeks  and 
to  the  Mahometan  invader.  .  .*.  .  The  first 
crusades  brought  them  once  more  into  im- 
mediate contact  with  the  Latins ;  but  not 
always  as  allies,  nor  by  any  means  as  mem- 
bers of  the  same  ecclesiastical  communion. 
For  it  appears  certain,  that  the  Maronites 
had  imbibed,  in  the  first  instance,  the  opinions 
of  the  Monothelites,  and  that  they  long  main- 
tained them,  together  with  some  other  pecu- 
liarities in  rites  and  discipline.  At  length, 
however,  about  the  year  1182,  they  were 
induced  to  abandon  then*  leading  error,  and 
were  then  received  into  the  bosom  of  the 
Roman  Church. 

At  the  same  time  it  was  stipulated,  that 
the  Pope  should  in  no  respect  interfere  with 
any  of  their  ancient  practices  or  ceremonies  ; 
consequently  they  continued  to  observe  the 
discipline  of  the  Greek  Church,  regarding 
the  marriage  of  the  clergy,  and  to  administer 
the  eucharist  in  both  kinds,  and  according 
to  the  manner  generally  in  use  in  the  East. 
They  retained,  too,  in  other  matters,  a  much 
closer  resemblance  to  their  original,  than 
to  their  adopted,  communion.  Nevertheless, 
they  have  faithfully  preserved  the  name  of 
obedience  to  Rome  from  that  time  to  the 
present;  and  if  the  contributions,  which  they 
have  continually  received  from  the  apostol- 
ical treasury,  should  occasion  any  suspicion 
respecting  the  motives  of  their  fidelity,  it  is 
worthy,  at  least,  of  observation,  that  the 
pecuniary  current  has  invariably  set  in  that 
direction,  and  that  the  more  ordinary  prin- 
ciples of  the  Vatican  have  never  extended 
to  the  oppression  of  its  Maronite  subjects. 


*  They  were  then  called  Mardaites — which  means 
Rebels.  The  reader  is  familiar  with  the  picture  of 
the  Maronites  drawn  in  Volney's  admirable  •  Travels 
iu  Syria.' 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

From  the  Council  of  Basle  to  the  beginning  oj 
the  Reformation. 

The  real  weight  of  General  Councils  as  a  part  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  Church  —  Circumstances  preceding  the 
accession  of  Nicholas  V. — His  popular  qualities — Love 
of  all  the  Arts — His  public  virtues — Recorded  particu- 
lars of  his  Election — Concord  with  Germany — Celebra- 
tion and  abuse  of  the  Jubilee — Death  of  the  Cardinal  of 
Aries — His  recorded  miracles  and  canonization — Efforts 
to  unite  the  Christian  States  against  the  Turks  —  Dis- 
satisfaction and  Death  of  Nicholas  —  Caliztus  III.  Cru- 
sading enthusiasm  of  .(Eneas  Sylvius  —  Jealousy  be- 
tween the  Pope  and  Alphonso  of  Arragon —  Nepotism 
of  the  former — .(Eneas  Sylvius  justifies  the  Pope  against 
the  complaints  of  the  Germans — His  history — The  cir- 
cumstances of  his  elevation  to  the  Pontificate  —  The 
Council  of  Mantua,  for  the  purpose  of  uniting  Europe 
against  the  Turks — The  project  of  Pius  II. — Failure  of 
the  whole  Scheme — Embassy  to  Rome  from  the  Princes 
of  the  East  —  Thomas  Palsologus  arrives  at  Rome  — 
Canonization  of  Catharine  of  Sienna — The  Bull  of  Piua 
II.  against  all  appeals  from  the  Holy  See  to  General 
Councils — The  Pope  retracts  the  errors  into  which  he 
fell,  as  iEneas  Sylvius — Probable  motive  of  his  aposta- 
sy—  His  speech  in  Consistory — Departure  against  the 
Infidels — Arrival  at  Ancona,  and  Death — His  Character 
— Compared  to  Nicholas  V.,  and  Cardinal  Julian — Con- 
ditions imposed  by  the  Conclave  on  the  future  Pope — 
Remarks — Paul  II.  is  elected,  and  immediately  violates 
them — A  native  of  Venice — Principles  of  his  Govern- 
ment— He  diverts  the  War  from  the  Turks  against  the 
Hussites,  and  persecutes  a  literary  Society  at  Rome — 
Sirtus  IV.  makes  a  faint  attempt  to  rouse  Christendom 
against  the  Turks — Violent  broil  between  the  Pope  and 
the  Florentines — Otranto  taken  by  the  Turks — Exces- 
sive Nepotism  of  this  Pope — Institution  of  the  Minimes 
— Increased  venality  of  the  Court  of  Rome — The  moral 
character,  talents,  learning  of  Sixtus — Elevation  of  In- 
nocent VIII. — Violation  of  the  oath  taken  in  Conclave 
— Preferment  conferred  on  his  illegitimate  Children — 
His  weakness  and  his  avarice — The  great  wealth,  elec- 
tion, and  reputation  of  Alexander  VI. — Distribution  of 
his  Benefices,  &c.  among  the  Cardinals  who  voted  for 
him — Great  Festivities  at  Rome — Moral  profligacy  and 
indecency  of  the  Pope — His  projected  alliance  with  the 
Sultan  Bajazet — He  confers  the  possession  of  the  New 
World  on  the  Kings  of  Spain — The  Act  contested  by 
the  Portuguese — On  what  ground — His  negotiations 
with  Charles  VIII.  of  France— History  and  fate  of  Zi- 
zim,  brother  of  Bajazet — Cssar  Borgia,  Duke  of  Valen- 
tion,or  Valentinois — His  co-operation  with  his  father — 
The  object  of  their  common  ambition — Probable  cir 
cumstances  of  the  death  of  Alexander  VI. — Express- 
sions  of  Guicciardini — Pius  III.  dies  immediately  after 
his  election — Julian  della  Rovera,  or  Julius  II.  unani- 
mously elected — His  policy  and  character — His  dispute 
with  Louis  XII. — Ecclesiastical  scruples  of  the  latter — 
Julius  resumes  the  possession  of  the  States  of  the 
Church,  and  extends  them — His  extraordinary  military 
and  political  talents — Encouragement  of  the  Arts — Lays 
the  foundations  of  St.  Peter's— A  Council  convoked  by 
the  Cardinals  against  the  Pope — Its  entire  failure — Ju- 
lius convokes  the  fifth  Lateran  Council — Subjects  dis- 
cussed by  it  till  his  death — Continuation  of  the  Council 
under  Leo  X. — A  number  of  constitutions  enacted  by  it 
— Its  edict  to  restrain  the  Press — Its  abolition  of  the 
Pragmatic  Sanction,  through  the  co-operation  of  Francis 
I.— Dissolution  of  the  Council — Observations — On  the 
gradual  degeneracy  of  the  See— Of  the  Government  of 
the  successive  Popes— their  Nepotism — On  the  morality 
of  the  Conclave — Obligations  undertaken  there  on  Oath 
— Reasons  of  their  perpetual  violation — Ignorance  of 


NICHOLAS  V. 


499 


Cisalpines  respecting  the  real  character  of  the  Court 
of  Rome— Respectability  ascribed  to  it  through  the  mer- 
its of  its  literary  Pontiffs— The  great  use  made  by  the 
Popes  at  this  period  of  the  dangers  of  a  Turkish  inva- 
sion, in  order  to  suppress  the  question  of  Churcli  Re- 
form. 

The  council  of  Basle,  after  its  protracted  and 
resolute  struggle  with  the  Vatican,  having  at 
length  dissolved  itself,  and  Felix  V.,  its  crea- 
ture, having  resigned  his  ill-supported  preten- 
sions to  the  Chair  of  St.  Peter,  the  prospects 
of  the  Court  of  Rome  once  more  brightened, 
and  its  authority  was  again  secure  from  any 
immediate  invasion.     As  a  restraint  on  papal 
despotism,  a  General  Council  was  effectual, 
so  long  as  the  council  was  assembled  ;   and 
even  its  name  and  the  menace  of  an  appeal 
to  it,  as  a  last  resource,  have  operated,  on 
more  occasions  than  one,  with  salutary  influ- 
ence on  the  fears  of  an  arbitrary  Pope.     But 
the  power  of  the  Monarchy  was  continuous  ; 
its  principles  were  never  suspended  ;   its  ac- 
tion   was    uniformly   directed  to  the    same 
object — whereas   the   controlling    body,   the 
Senate  of  the  Church,  had  only  an  occasional 
and    very  precarious    existence;    and    even 
when  it  was  more  efficaciously  in  action,  it 
was  liable  to  all  the  incidents  which  throw 
uncertainty  into  the  deliberations  of  very  large 
assemblies.     It  is  true  that  the  councils  of 
Pisa,  Constance,  and  Basle  had  endeavored, 
by  express  enactments,  to  make  their  sittings 
periodical,  so  as  to  erect  the  Council  General 
into  a  permanent  branch  of  the  constitution  of 
the  Church.     But  as  the  power  of  convoking 
it  still  remained  with  the  Pope  ;  as  the  collect- 
ing together  of  so  large   a  body  of  prelates 
from  all  parts  of  Europe  must  always  have 
occasioned  many  local  evils  ;  and  as  the  gen- 
eral consent,  and  even  private  inclinations,  of 
the  more  powerful  sovereigns  were  not,  under 
such  circumstances,  to  be  disregarded,  it  was 
easy  for  the   Pontiff  to  evade  an  obligation 
which   he  detested.     So,  in  fact,  it  proved; 
for  when  they  had  once  shaken  off  the  fetters 
that  were  forged  for  them  at  Basle,  the  suc- 
cessors of  Eugenius  IV.  carefully  abstained, 
for  above  half  a  century,  from  acknowledging 
any  power  in  the  Church,  except  their  own. 
The  moment  of  the  accession  of  Nicholas 
V.  was  even  favorable  to  the  unlimited  su- 
premacy (the  high  Papists  called   it  the  In- 
dependence) of  the  Court  of  Rome.      The 
faithful  children  of  the  Church  had  now,  for 
seventy  years,  been  distracted  by  dissensions 
almost  uninterrupted.      The  schism   which 
had  dissevered  kingdoms,  and  dishonored  the 
Church,  had   been   seemingly  aggravated  by 
the  council  of  Pisa ;  and  no  sooner  was  it 


appeased,  after  many  fierce  disputes  at  Con- 
stance, than  a  third  assembly  succeeded, 
which  occasioned  (to  all  appearances)  a  new 
broil,  and  which  ended  by  creating  a  second 
schism.  The  spectacle  of  a  Pope  and  a  coun- 
cil launching  anathemas  against  each  other 
was  not  calculated  to  edify  the  devout  Cath- 
olic, nor  even  to  conciliate  towards  the  coun- 
cil the  affections  of  the  unthinking,  who  form 
the  majority  of  mankind.  But  when  the 
Pope  assembled  his  rival  council  at  Ferrara, 
and  when  the  two  infallible  antagonists  inter- 
changed the  bolts  of  excommunication,  we 
may  fairly  believe  that  the  dignity  of  those 
venerable  bodies  suffered  much  in  popular 
opinion,  and  even  that  their  utility  was  made 
matter  of  serious  question.  Wearied  by  con- 
tinual dissension,  and  disgusted  by  endless 
exhibitions  of  ecclesiastical  discord,  many 
were  disposed  to  acquiesce  in  the  unrestrain- 
ed licentiousness  of  the  Vatican,  as  the  lesser 
evil. 

Nicholas  V.—  Again,  the  formidable  suc- 
cesses of  the  Turks,  and  their  near  approach 
to  the  capital  of  the  East,  diverted  the  atten- 
tion of  men  from  their  spiritual  grievances 
to  a  more  sensible  object ;  and  the  zeal  which 
Nicholas  displayed  in  that,  the  common  cause 
of  all  Christendom,  reconciled  many  to  an 
authority,  so  earnestly  exercised  in  so  holy  a 
cause.  Above  all,  the  personal  character  of 
that  Pope  was  of  great  use  in  conciliating 
the  disaffected,  and  rallying  them  under  the 
pontifical  banners.  His  reputation,  his  tal- 
ents, his  pursuits,  were  in  accordance  with 
the  spirit,  which,  in  Italy,  at  least,  so  pecu- 
liarly prevailed  at  that  time,  for  the  cultivation 
of  ancient  literature.  His  gradual  ascent  from 
an  inferior  origin  to  the  highest  dignity  was 
truly  ascribed  to  his  literary  genius  and  ac- 
complishments; and  having  attained  that  emi- 
nence, he  surrounded  it — not  with  sensualists 
or  sycophants,  —  but  with  men  of  study  and 
erudition,  whose  society  he  loved,  and  whose 
affection  he  obtained.  A  multitude  of  tran- 
scribers and  translators  were  continually  in 
his  employment;  and  the  learning  of  tlie 
Greeks  was  placed  within  the  reach  of  an 
ordinary  education.  He  founded  the  Vatican 
library,  and  sent  his  messengers  into  every 
country  for  the  collection  of  rare  and  valu- 
able manuscripts;  and  while  he  sought  to 
amass  the  most  precious  treasures  of  profane 
lore,  he  exerted  even  greater  zeal  to  multiply 
authentic  copies  of  the  sacred  writings. 

But  neither  was  his  polite  taste,  nor  the 
profusion  of  his  liberality,  confined  entirely 
to  literary  objects.  His  patronage  was  bestow- 


500 


HISTORY   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


cd  on  the  arts,  and  especially  on  that  of  archi- 
tecture. He  embellished  his  capital  with  sev- 
eral superb  edifices ;  many  churches,  which 
had  fallen  into  ruins  during  the  schisms  and 
disorders  of  preceding  generations,  were  now 
restored  to  more  than  their  ancient  splendor  ; 
and  the  ground  was  prepared,  and  the  foun- 
dations traced  out,  on  which  the  least  unwor- 
thy temple  which  man  has  ever  dedicated 
to  Omnipotence,  was  destined  to  rise.  The 
talents  of  Nicholas  were  illustrated  by  private 
as  well  as  public  virtues.*  He  discouraged 
the  practice  of  Simony,  so  long  habitual  to 
the  Court  of  Rome ;  and  the  records  of  his 
history  permit  us  once  more  to  associate  the 
word  '  charity '  with  the  character  of  a  Pope. 
Such  were  purposes  on  which  the  revenues 
of  the  Church  were  honorably  employed,  and 
for  which  they  were  less  reluctantly  contrib- 
uted ;  and  such  the  character  which,  being 
raised  at  that  moment  to  the  pontifical  chair, 
conciliated  minds  already  weary  with  dissen- 
sion, and  seduced  them  into  a  temporary  ac- 
quiescence in  acknowledged  abuses. 

When  the  Cardinals  went  into  conclave, 
on  the  death  of  Eugenius,  nothing  was  farther 
from  their  intention,  or  from  general  expecta- 
tion, than  the  election  of  Nicholas.  Prosper 
Colonna  was  the  person  on  whom  the  choice 
was  expected  to  fall ;  and  though  the  common 
proverb  was  not  then  forgotten, '  that  he  who 
enters  the  conclave  Pope,  comes  out  Cardi- 
nal,' (chi  entra  Papa,  esce  Cardinale)  still 
among  the  names  at  all  connected  with  suc- 
cess Thomas  of  Sarzana  was  not  mentioned. 
Eighteen  Cardinals  were  present;  and,  after 
two  or  three  scrutinies,  eleven  were  united  in 
favor  of  Colonna ;  one  only  was  wanting  to 
give  him  the  requisite  majority.  At  that 
moment  the  Cardinal  of  St.  Sixtus  is  reported 
to  have  turned  suddenly  to  Sarzana,  and  said 
to  him,  'Thomas,  I  give  my  vote  to  you, 
because  this  is  the  eve  of  St.  Thomas ! '  It 
was,  in  fact,  the  eve  of  St.  Thomas  Aquinas. 
The  rest  of  the  College  immediately  followed 
the  example,  and  Thomas  of  Sarzana  was 
unanimously  elected.! 


*  We  may  be  allowed  to  cite  (from  Platina)  a  part 
of  his  epitaph,  because  the  praises  it  offers  were  really 
well  founded: — 

Hie  sita  sunt  Quinti  Nicolai  Antistitis  ossa, 

Aurea  qui  dederat  saecula,  Roma,  tibi. 
Consilio  illustris,  virtute  illustrior  omni, 

Excoluit  doctos  doctior  ipse  viros. 
Abstulit  errorem,  quo  Schisma  infecerat  orbem. 

Restituit  mores,  mcenin,  templa,  domos. 
Attica  Romans  complura  vohimina  linguae 
Prodidit — en  tumulo  fundite  thura  sacro. 
t  The  Roman  people  were  allowed  to  retain  (in  re- 
turn, perhaps,  fur  their  long-lost  share  in  the  election) 


One  of  the  first  act  of  Nicholas  was,  to  sign 
a  Concordat  with  the  German  Church.  Its 
provisions  did  not  extend  beyond  the  subject 
of  patronage ;  and  it  was  arranged  that  the 
Pope  should  appoint  to  all  great  benefices  of 
every  description  which  should  become  va- 
cant Ml  curia;  to  all  vacated  by  Cardinals,  or 
other  officers  of  the  Roman  Court;  and  to  all 
inferior  benefices  which  should  fall  during 
six  alternate  months  of  the  year.  The  rest 
appear  to  have  been  left  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Ordinaries ;  all  (except  the  smallest)  being  lia- 
ble to  the  payment  of  Annates,  according  to 
the  tax  of  the  Apostolical  Chamber  ;  and  all 
to  Papal  confirmation.  This  Concordat,  pro- 
perly considered,  was  the  substantial  effect 
produced  by  the  Council  of  Basle  upon  the 
constitution  of  the  Church  of  Germany;  it 
was  for  this  end  that  the  labors  of  so  many 
pious  prelates  and  learned  doctors  had  been 
exhausted !  Yet  even  this  result,  as  we  shall 
presently  see,  was  not  such  as  to  secure  the 
satisfaction  or  bind  the  faith  of  the  Court  of 
Rome. 

Jubilees. — In  the  year  1450  the  avarice  of 
the  Roman  Clergy  and  people  was  again 
i  nourished  by  the  celebration  of  the  Jubilee ; 
and  so  vast  were  the  multitudes  which  on 
this  occasion  sought  the  plenary  indulgence 
at  the  tombs  of  the  apostles,  that  many  are 
said  to  have  been  crushed  to  death  in  Church- 
es, and  to  have  perished  by  other  accidents.* 
Nevertheless,  as  there  were  still  many  devout 
persons,  particularly  in  the  more  remote 
countries  of  Europe,  who  were  precluded 
from  reaping  the  promised  rewards  by  per- 
sonal disabilities,  Nicholas,  in  imitation  of 
the  abuse  of  his  predecessors,  afforded  them 
facilities  to  redeem  their  omission.  To  the 
Poles  and  Lithuanians  a  private  jubilee  was 
accorded,  on  the  condition,  that  every  pious 
person  should  pay  for  his  indulgence  only 
half  of  the  money  which  the  pilgrimage  to 
Rome   would  have  cost  him  ;   but   through 


die  licentious  privilege  of  plundering  the  mansion  of 
the  Pope  elect.  On  this  occasion  it  happened,  that 
Prosper  Colonna,  as  first  Deacon,  had  the  office  of 
communicating  the  election  from  the  window  to  the 
assembled  populace.  Now  the  people,  knowing  him 
to  be  the  favorite,  thought  no  other  than  that  he  had 
appeared  to  announce  his  own  election.  Conse- 
quently they  rushed,  without  further  inquiry,  to  his 
magnificent  palace,  and  stripped  it  bare.  After  they 
had  learned  their  mistake,  they  proceeded  to  atone  for 
it  by  plundering  Sarzana  also;  but  he  was  a  scholar, 
and  had  little  to  lose. 

*  Ninety-seven  pilgrims,  for  instance,  were  thrown 
at  once  by  the  pressure  of  the  multitude  from  the 
bridge  of  St.  Angelo,  and  drowned. 


NICHOLAS   V. 


501 


some  sense  of  shame,  as  is  said,  at  the  enor- 
mous sums  which  would  thus  have  been 
raised,  the  proportion  was  finally  reduced  to 
one  quarter.  Of  the  proceeds,  which  were 
still  considerable,  half  was  consigned  to  the 
King  of  Poland,  for  the  prosecution  of  the 
holy  war,  a  fourth  to  the  Queen  Sophia,  for 
charitable  uses,  and  a  fourth  for  the  repara- 
tion of  the  Roman  Churches.  In  this  in- 
stance we  have  the  unusual  consolation  of 
believing,  that  the  money  thus  levied  upon 
superstition,  and  levied,  too,  chiefly  upon  the 
superstition  of  the  poor,  was  applied,  for  the 
most  part,  to  the  purposes  professed.  There 
are  shades  iu  the  colors  of  religious  impos- 
ture; and  the  sin  of  deluding  a  credulous 
race  would  have  been  still  blacker,  had  it 
been  followed  by  perfidy,  or  had  its  fruits 
been  expended  in  pampering  the  profligacy 
of  the  Court  of  Rome. 

The  Cardinal  of  Aries.— In  that  year,  also, 
died  the  Cardinal  of  Aries,  the  same  who 
had  succeeded  Julian  Cesarini  as  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Council  of  Basle.  But  the  history 
of  that  eminent  ecclesiastic  did  not  terminate 
at  his  death.  On  the  interment  of  his  body 
at  Aries,  many  extraordinary  miracles  were 
performed  at  his  tomb  ;  and  their  fame  spread 
so  widely,  and  with  such  assurance  of  truth, 
that  the  partisans  of  the  rival  Council  of 
Florence  were  struck  with  confusion.  This 
Prelate  had  been  excommunicated  by  Pope 
Eugenius,  and  stigmatized  as  the  author  of 
schism,  the  child  of  perdition,  the  nursling 
of  iniquity  ;  he  had  been  condemned  by  two 
General  Councils  for  rebellion  against  the 
Church,  and  degraded  and  deprived  of  all 
his  dignities.  He  had  continued,  notwith- 
standing, in  the  exercise  of  his  episcopal 
functions  at  Aries;  and  so  lasting  was  the 
impression  of  his  sanctity — founded  on  his 
charitable  disposition,  and  other  Christian 
excellences — and  so  pressing  was  the  impor- 
tunity of  his  devotees,  who  had  even  antici- 
pated in  their  prayers  the  determination  of 
the  Vatican,  that  at  length  Pope  Clement 
VII.  published  (in  1527)  the  Bull  of  Beatifi- 
cation ;  and  by  that  act  exalted  among  the 
holy  mediators  the  denounced,  anathematized 
foe  of  Pontifical  corruption  and  despotism. 

If  Nicholas  V.  had  made  some  ineffectual 
exertions  to  preserve  the  Eastern  empire, 
while  there  seemed  yet  some  hope  of  its 
preservation,  he  redoubled  his  efforts  where 
the  shadow  of  a  hope  no  longer  existed. 
The  fall  of  Constantinople,  though  long 
foreseen,  fell  like  an  unexpected  bolt  upon 
the  nations  of  the  West ;  and  it  was  quickly 


perceived  that  the  capital  of  the  ancient 
Empire,  the  throne  of  the  Christian  religion, 
the  opulent  palaces  and  cities  of  Italy,  pre- 
sented peculiar  temptations  to  an  ambitious, 
unbelieving  depredator.  Accordingly  nu- 
merous religious  persons  began  to  preach  a 
new  crusade ;  and  while  ^Eneas  Sylvius  was 
astonishing  the  Princes  of  Germany  by  his 
polished  eloquence,  a  simple  Monk,  a  hermit 
of  St.  Augustine,  was  exerting  a  more  suc- 
cessful influence  over  the  republics  of  Italy. 
His  name  was  Simonet ;  he  was  destitute 
of  all  acquirements ;  but  his  natural  address 
won  the  confidence  of  those  who  listened  to 
him.  He  traversed  the  country,  in  repeated 
journeys,  with  unwearied  activity.  At  Ve- 
nice, at  Milan,  at  Florence,  he  reiterated  his 
counsels  and  his  arguments.  The  orator 
was  disinterested,  and  his  object  was  the 
concord  of  his  hearers.  It  was  by  such 
simple  machinery,  that  he  prevailed  in  ef- 
fecting an  union  among  those  powerful  cities. 
Yet  the  practised  statesmen  of  the  day  were 
confounded  *  when  they  learned,  that  a  hum- 
ble, undistinguished  Monk,  without  rank, 
without  wealth,  without  any  worldly  support, 
had  accomplished  an  enterprise  which  the 
Pope,  and  his  Court  of  Cardinals,  had  at- 
tempted in  vain. 

In  the  midst  of  his  chivalrous  designs  to 
recover  Constantinople,  and  expel  the  con- 
queror from  Europe,  and  at  a  moment  when 
there  seemed  some  prospect  of  a  partial  co- 
operation for  that  purpose,  Nicholas  V.  died. 
His  complaint  was  gout ;  and  it  is  commonly 
asserted,  that  its  progress  was  hastened  by 
the  affliction  with  which  he  saw  the  triumphs 
of  the  infidel.  It  is  at  least  certain,  that  dur- 
ing the  two  or  three  last  years  of  his  life  the 
natural  suavity  of  his  temper  deserted  him ; 
that  he  became  morose,  and  even  cruel  ;  fear- 
ful of  his  enemies,  and  suspicious  of  his 
friends;  querulous,  and  discontented  even 
with  the  Chair  of  St.  Peter.  '  No  man  (he 
once  said)  ever  crosses  my  threshold  who  tells 
me  a  word  of  truth.  I  am  confounded  by 
the  artifices  of  those  who  surround  me;  and 
if  I  was  not  restrained  by  the  fear  of  scandal, 
I  would  resign  the  Pontificate,  and  become 
once  more  Thomas  of  Sarzana.  Under  that 
name  I  had  more  enjoyment  in  a  single  day, 
than  any  year  can  henceforth  ever  bring  me.' 
Nicholas,  however  amiable  in  his  domestic 
qualities,  had  been  ever  unable  to  recognise 


*  'Visum  est  id  omnibus  monstri  simile  humilera 
et  incognitum  monachum  Italiam  pacavisse.'  JEne& 
Sylv.  Hist,  de  Europa,  cap.  68,  p.  460,  edit.  Basil. 
See  Platina,  Vit.  Nic.  V.  ad  finem. 


502 


HISTORY   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


any  political  rights  in  the  subjects  of  the  state ; 
and  thus  he  had  persecuted  the  patriots  of 
his  day  with  precipitate  severity.  In  conse- 
quence, it  is  made  a  natural  question  by  the 
author  of  '  The  Italian  Republics,'  whether 
it  was  not  remorse,  rather  than  commisera- 
tion, which  imbittered  and  curtailed  his  de- 
clining days. 

Calixtus  III. — Alphonso  Borgia,  a  native 
of  Spain,  was  chosen  as  his  successor,  and 
assumed  the  name  of  Calixtus  III.  Scarce- 
ly was  he  established  in  his  dignity,  when 
iEneas  Sylvius  presented  himself  at  Rome, 
the  bearer  of  the  most  flattering  assurances 
on  the  part  of  the  Emperor,  both  respecting 
his  own  military  preparations,  and  the  gen- 
eral eagerness  for  the  Turkish  war.  In  an 
animated  address  to  the  Pope  and  Cardinals, 
the  orator  depicted  the  dangers  which  impen- 
ded over  Europe  :  he  then  dilated  upon  the 
great  numercial  superiority  of  the  Christians 
— that  many  Princes  of  Germany  had  taken 
the  vow  ;  that  the  King  of  Arragon  was  in 
readiness  ;  that  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  was 
ardent  for  the  enterprise.  Charles  of  France 
would  not  fail  to  emulate  the  zeal  of  his  pre- 
decessors ;  the  ancient  courage  of  the  English 
would  not  now  desert  them  ;  the  Castilians, 
the  Portuguese,  all  nations,  in  short,  awaited 
only  the  pontificial  summons  to  arm  for  the 
defence  of  religion  —  if  his  Holiness  would 
only  second  the  vows  of  the  faithful,  by  un- 
locking the  treasures  of  the  Church,  and 
sending  the  laborers  to  the  harvest.  .  .  .  These 
magnificent  declarations  were,  for  the  most 
part,  the  spontaneous  fruits  of  the  orator's 
enthusiasm — that  they  had  no  result,  is  not  to 
be  entirely  ascribed  to  the  lukewarmness  of 
the  Pope.  Yet  it  is  remarkable  that,  among 
the  various  Princes  announced  as  forming  that 
holy  confederacy,  the  first  who  withdrew 
from  it,  and  that,  too,  in  consequence  of  per- 
sonal dissension  with  the  Pontiff,  was  Al- 
phonso of  Arragon.  Borgia  had  been  the 
subject  of  that  monarch — more  than  that — 
he  had  been  engaged  in  his  domestic  service, 
and  owed  his  ecclesiastical  advancement  to 
the  same  patronage.  On  his  elevation  to  the 
Chair,  Alphonso  sent  ambassadors  to  inquire 
of  his  Holiness,  what  terms  were  hereafter  to 
subsist  between  them  ?  Calixtus  peevishly  re- 
plied, '  Let  him  rule  his  kingdom,  and  leave 
the  government  of  the  Church,  without  any 
interference,  to  me.'  Some  have  considered 
the  reply  as  too  harsh,  while  others  have  dis- 
covered in  the  overture  of  Alphonso  a  want 
of  due  veneration  for  the  Vicegerent  of 
Christ.     Probably,  the  monarch  had  not  for- 


gotten, and  perhaps  the  Pontiff  could  not  for- 
give, the  relation  which  had  formerly  subsist- 
ed between  them  ;  and  their  knowledge  of 
each  other's  character  may  have  been  too  deep 
and  intimate  to  leave  much  room  for  rever- 
ence on  either  side. 

The  System  of  Nepotism. —  Calixtus  III. 
reigned  only  three  years,  and  died  in  August, 
1458,  at  a  very  advanced  age.  His  pontificate 
was  signalized  by  no  striking  incident,  nor 
were  his  acts  in  any  respect  remarkable, 
unless,  indeed,  we  should  consider  him  as 
having  introduced  into  the  government  of  the 
Church  the  system  of  Nepotism.  For,  though 
instances  of  that  vice  had  occasionally  occur- 
red before,  it  was  not  till  now  that  it  became 
the  practice  of  the  Vatican.  Calixtus  ex- 
hausted upon  his  worthless  nephews  the 
riches  of  the  Apostolical  Treasury,  and  lim- 
ited his  ambition  to  the  aggrandizement  of 
his  own  family.  It  was  to  this  that  the  as- 
pirations of  pontificial  presumption  sank  at 
last !  From  that  lofty  spiritual  arrogance, 
which,  in  earlier  ages,  has  extorted  from  us 
something  approaching  to  admiration,  the 
character  of  papacy  first  descended  to  the 
grasping  after  temporal  power ;  its  great  ob- 
ject then  became  to  enlarge  the  dominions  of 
the  See — to  secure  the  obedience  of  the  city. 
Avarice  attended  ;  still  its  fruits  were,  for  the 
most  part,  applied  to  ecclesiastical  objects — to 
maintain  the  interests  of  the  Church,  and 
extend  the  authority  of  the  Vicar  of  Christ. 
Intrigues  and  wars  flowed  from  the  Vatican, 
and  deluged  Europe  with  blood ;  still  they 
were  designed  to  extend  the  power,  to  aug- 
ment the  dignity,  of  Rome.  It  was  for  the 
declining  years  of  Papal  despotism,  that  the 
last  and  lowest  degradation  was  reserved :  it 
was  not  till  the  age  of  Calixtus  III.  and  Six- 
tus  IV.  that  the  ambition  of  St.  Peter's  suc- 
cessors degenerated  into  mere  family  passion, 
and  was  confined  to  the  narrowest  circle  of 
selfishness. 

Policy  ofJEneas  Sylvius. — In  the  year  pre- 
ceding his  death,  Calixtus  was  accused  by  the 
Germans  of  having  raised  exorbitant  contri- 
butions, under  the  pretext  of  a  holy  war,  and 
violated  the  Concordat  made  with  his  pre- 
decessor. There  was  considerable  ground 
for  both  these  complaints.  Nevertheless,  it 
was  on  this  occasion  that  yEneas  Sylvius,  for- 
merly the  adversary  of  pontificial  oppression, 
more  recently  the  advocate  of  the  Imperial 
claims,  came  forward  in  defence  of  the  Tope, 
and  vigorously  maintained  his  rights  and  jus- 
tified his  conduct.  In  some  letters,  composed 
during  this  dispute,  he  reproached  the  Ger- 


PIUS    II. 


503 


man  Prelates  for  referring  to  any  other  au- 
thority, rather  than  the  Chief  of  the  Church.* 
He  asserted  that  their  grievances,  even  hail 
they  been  real,  should  have  been  left  to  the 
remedial  benevolence  of  the  Holy  See;  he 
applied  himself  to  confute  some  arguments 
against  its  authority,  which  were  derived 
from  the  Councils  of  Constance  and  Basle ; 
he  made  mention  of  a  sort  of  Pragmatic 
Sanction,  established  by  certain  Prelate-Prin- 
ces of  German},  with  a  view  to  degrade  the 
Holy  See  ;  and  he  reproached  the  nation  with 
an  unnatural  ingratitude,  in  having  resolved 
to  withold  contributions  from  Rome,  to  pre- 
vent appeals,  to  restore  elections  to  the  Ordi- 
naries, to  refuse  Annates,  and  so,  in  effect,  to 
deprive  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  of  the  plenitude 
of  his  power. 

It  is  important  to  notice  these  particulars, 
because  they  indicate  the  secret  working  of 
that  spirit,  which,  in  the  next  generation, 
broke  forth  with  irresistible  violence.  Nor 
is  it  without  a  feeling  of  sorrow,  mingled 
with  shame,  that  we  observe  the  most  en- 
lightened ecclesiastic  of  his  age  casting  off 
the  wise  and  generous  principles  of  earlier 
life,  as  his  ambition  was  warmed  by  a  nearer 
prospect  of  gratification,  and  as  his  selfish  in- 
terests became  more  closely  associated  with 
ecclesiastical  corruption.  iEneas  Sylvius 
Piccolomini  was  born  at  Corsigni,  near  Si- 
enna, in  1405,  and  his  first  laurels  were  gath- 
ered at  the  Council  of  Basle ;  he  remained 
faithful  to  that  Assembly,  and  promoted  its 
objects,  and  advanced  his  own  reputation  in 
the  conduct  of  some  important  missions 
which  were  confided  to  him.  In  the  year 
1442  he  became  secretary  to  the  Emperor 
Frederic ;  but  throughout  the  pontificate  of 
Nicholas  V.  he  was  engaged  in  the  service  of 
the  Holy  See,  and  zealously  exerted  himself, 
as  its  Nuncio,  in  a  cause  which  was  always 
dear  to  him,  to  confederate  the  Christian 
powers  against  the  Turkish  aggressor. 

He  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  Cardinal 
(of  Sienna)  by  Calixtus  III.,  and  on  the  death 
of  that  Pope  he  entered  into  Conclave  with 
his  brethren.  The  first  scrutiny  was  indeci- 
sive ;  but  it  was  followed  by  a  very  effective 


*  He  went  to  the  utmost  extent  of  papal  orthodoxy, 
by  asserting,  •  that  none  who  had  disregarded  the 
authority  of  the  Roman  Pontiff,  could  at  any  time 
enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  that  those,  who  had 
Bpurned  the  commands  of  the  Apostolical  See,  should 
not  now  have  any  occasion  for  exultation.  Hos  enim 
Catholica  Veritas,  nisi  resipuerint  ante  obitum,  ignis 
a?  tern  i  mancipio  9ine  intermissione  deputat.'  JEa. 
Bylv.  Epist.  lib.  i.  Ep.  369,  &c 


intrigue,  which  seemed  likely  to  terminate  in 
the  election  of  the  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  an 
ambitious  and  unprincipled  Frenchman.  Pic- 
colomini exerted  all  his  eloquence  and  in- 
fluence against  that  choice ;  he  addressed 
several  of  the  Cardinals  separately;  he  appeal- 
ed to  their  consciences,  to  their  interest,  to 
their  vanity;  he  exaggerated  the  vices  of  the 
Archbishop ;  he  addressed  the  national  jeal- 
ousy of  his  compatriots  ;  he  threatened  them 
with  a  second  secession  to  Avignon,  and 
painted  the  approaching  shame  and  desola- 
tion of  Italy.  The  College  proceeded  a 
second  time  to  the  scrutiny.  The  golden 
chalice  was  placed  upon  the  altar,  and  the 
Cardinals  of  Rouen,  of  Rimini,  and  Colonna 
remained  near  it.  The  others  took  their  ap- 
pointed seats,  and,  rising  in  succession,  ac- 
cording to  seniority,  they  placed  in  the  chalice 
the  paper  which  expressed  their  suffrage. 
When  Sylvius  went  up  in  his  turn,  the  Car- 
dinal of  Rouen,  who  knew  how  bitter  an 
enemy  he  was,  hastily  said  to  him,  'Remem- 
ber me  on  this  occasion.'  '  What,'  replied 
Piccolomini,  'do  you  address  me,  who  am 
but  a  vile  worm  of  earth ! '  He  resumed  his 
place ;  and  when  the  scrutiny  was  finished, 
and  the  papers  examined,  it  appeared  that 
the  Cardinal  of  Sienna  had  nine  votes,  and 
that  of  Rouen  six  only. 

His  Election  to  the  Pontificate.  —  Three  still 
were  wanting  to  the  former  to  make  good  his 
election ;  and  the  Cardinals  thezi  proceeded 
to  the  accessit.  For  some  time  they  sat  in 
profound  silence.  One  of  them  at  length 
arose,  and  gave  his  voice  to  Piccolomini ;  it 
was  a  thunderbolt  for  the  Cardinal  of  Rouen. 
There  was  a  second  interval  of  silence,  and 
during  it  those  individuals  who  had  any 
hopes  for  themselves,  having  penetrated  the 
secret,  that  Piccolomini  was  on  the  point  of 
being  elected,  left  their  places  on  various  pre- 
texts. Presently  another  Cardinal  gave  his 
vote  to  Sylvius ;  and  only  one  more  being 
now  required,  Prosper  Colonna  rose  ;  and 
though  the  Cardinals  of  Rouen  and  Nice  en- 
deavored to  prevent  his  design  by  a  charge 
of  perfidy,  he  gave  his  decisive  suffrage  to 
Piccolomini.  The  latter  was  then  saluted 
Pope  by  the  whole  College  ;  and  after  reply- 
ing, with  great  modesty,  to  the  excuses  and 
congratulations  of  the  opposite  party,  ten- 
dered by  Bessarion  of  Nice,  he  assumed  the 
name  of  Pius  IT.,  and  went  through  the  cus- 
tomary solemnities. 

Council  of  Mantua.  —  The  object  to  which 
the  exertions  of  iEneas  Sylvius  had  been 
faithfully  directed  in  all  his  subordinate  offices, 


504 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


equally  distinguished  his  pontificate  ;  and  the 
gradual  progress  of  the  Turks,  by  increasing 
his  apprehensions,  fortified  his  zeal.  Ac- 
cordingly he  allowed  not  a  moment  to  elapse 
before  he  convoked  a  Council  for  the  promo- 
tion of  a  general  crusade.  Mantua  was  the 
place  selected  for  that  purpose  ;  his  call  was 
obeyed  by  the  greater  number  of  the  Italian 
Princes ;  and,  finally,  though  with  more  re- 
luctance, by  representatives  from  most  of  the 
European  States.  Many  deputies  from  the 
East  were  also  present  —  from  Rhodes,  from 
Cyprus,  from  Lesbos,  from  the  Peloponnesus, 
Epirus,  and  Ulyria  —  to  express  their  suffer- 
ings or  their  fears,  and  pour  out  their  suppli- 
cations. Pius  II.  proceeded  with  extraor- 
dinary pomp  to  the  opening  of  the  Council. 
In  various  cities  through  which  he  passed 
he  was  received  with  the  same  ostentatious 
homage  which  is  paid  to  a  temporal  Prince ; 
and  the  religious  motive  which  may  have 
animated  the  Pontiff  was  forgotten  in  the  less 
questionable  policy  of  his  design. 

Pius  II.  opened  the  Council  of  Mantua  on 
the  1st  of  June,  1459,  just  six  years  after  the 
fall  of  Constantinople.  His  first  discourse 
was  employed  in  rebuking  the  indifference 
of  the  Christian  Princes  ;  in  contrasting-  the 
devotion  of  the  Turks  for  their  execrable  sect 
with  the  apathy  of  the  children  of  the  Gos- 
pel; and  in  expressing  his  own  resolution 
never  to  abandon  his  project,  but  to  sacrifice 
his  life,  if  necessary,  for  the  people  intrusted 
to  him  by  God.  His  earnestness,  his  activity, 
his  brilliant  and  commanding  eloquence,  pro- 
duced an  immediate,  though  it  proved  but  a 
temporary,  effect.  The  Council  continued 
its  sessions  till  the  end  of  the  January  follow- 
ing :  as  its  deliberations  proceeded,  it  increas- 
ed in  numbers  and  dignity ;  and  it  grew 
warmer  in  the  cause,  as  it  was  more  influenc- 
ed by  the  ardor  and  genius  of  the  Pontiff. 
The  methods  by  which  he  proposed  to  effec- 
tuate his  design  contained  nothing  that  was 
impracticable  —  much  that  was  reasonable 
and  generous.  An  army  of  50,000  or  60,000 
confederates  was  to  be  immediately  collected 
for  the  defence  of  Hungary  and  the  adjacent 
provinces;  the  men  were  to  be  raised  in 
Germany,  Bohemia,  Poland,  and  Hungary. 
The  pecuniary  means  were  to  be  furnished 
chiefly  by  Italy  ;  the  clergy  *  were  to  contri- 


*  The  Venetians  and  Genoese  were  not  included  in 
this  engagement.  The  greatest  difficulties  were  raised 
by  the  former,  partly  owing  to  their  commercial  and 
other  intercourse  with  the  Infidel,  and  partly,  perhaps, 
because  they  had  been  accustomed  to  profit  by  crusades, 
not  to  contribute  to  them.     Again,  though  the  Duke 


bute  a  tenth  of  all  their  property,  the  Jews  a 
twentieth,  and  the  laity  a  thirtieth  part.  The 
Pope  professed  his  readiness  to  conduct  the 
war  in  person,  and  to  consecrate  to  that  pur- 
pose all  that  belonged  to  him. 

The  Council  was  then  dissolved :  and 
whatsoever  may  have  been  the  sincerity  of 
its  members,  while  they  were  awed  by  the 
presence  of  the  Pontiff,  and  animated  by  his 
eloquence,  the  engagements  they  contracted 
were,  for  the  most  part,  violated.  The  intes- 
tine dissensions  of  the  Christian  Powers  were 
too  deeply  seated  to  permit  any  cordial  or 
general  co-operation  ;  and  so  far  was  Pius  II. 
from  succeeding  in  his  attempt  to  heal  them, 
that  he  did  not  himself  long  escape  their 
contagion,  but  presently  became  entangled  in 
the  malignant  politics  of  Europe. 

Embassy  from  the  East. — In  the  same  year 
(1460)  a  solemn  embassy  from  the  Princes 
of  the  East  arrived  at  Rome :  the  respect, 
which  could  not  be  claimed  for  their  power, 
was  offered  to  their  titles  and  pretentions, 
and  to  the  object  of  their  mission.  The  En- 
voys professed  to  represent  David,  Emperor 
of  Trebizond,  George,  King  of  Persia,  the 
Sovereigns  of  the  Two  Armenias,  and  many 
others.  They  advanced  a  profusion  of  hopes 
and  promises — the  Turks  were  to  be  assailed 
from  the  East  by  a  powerful  army,  through 
the  Hellespont,  Thrace,  and  the  Bosphorus  ; 
among  their  allies  they  numbered  Bendis, 
King  of  Mingrelia  and  Arabia,  Pancratius, 
King  of  the  Georgians,  Moiiic,  Marquis  of 
Goria,  Ismael,  Lord  of  Sinope,  and  some 
others ;  it  was  the  object  of  their  mission  to 
inform  his  Holiness  of  these  preparations, 
and  to  render  homage  to  the  Vicar  of  God 
upon  earth.  Pius  II.  applauded  their  zeal, 
and  accepted  their  homage ;  but  assuring 
them  that  little  could  be  done  on  his  part,  un- 
less in  conjunction  with  the  Courts  of  France 
and  Burgundy,  he  sent  them  forth  to  tell  their 
pompous  tale  beyond  the  Alps.  It  may  seem 
needless  to  add,  that  this  deputation  had  no 
result. 

The  year  following,  Thomas  Palaeologus 
presented  himself  at  Rome,  and  he  was  re- 
ceived with  a  munificence  which  did  honor  to 


of  Burgundy  had  given  some  reluctant  promises  of  aid, 
neither  the  French,  Castilians,  nor  Portuguese  had 
offered  any  hopes.  'As  to  England  (said  the  Pope), 
we  have  nothing  to  expect  from  that  kingdom,  on 
account  of  the  troubles  which  divide  it  ;  nor  from 
Scotland,  hidden  in  the  depths  of  the  ocean.  Den- 
mark, and  Sweden,  and  Norway,  are  too  distant  to 
send  us  soldiers,  and,  content  with  their  fish,  they 
could  not  send  us  money,  if  they  would.' 


PIUS   II. 


505 


the  pontifical  Court.  The  Imperial  Exile  had 
passed  from  Corfu  to  Ancona,  and  brought 
to  that  city  the  relics  of  the  Apostle  St.  An- 
drew. He  bestowed  the  sacred  treasure  upon 
the  Pope;  and  accordingly  commissioners 
were  appointed,  who  conducted  it  with  great 
solemnity  to  Rome.  It  was  deposited  in  St. 
Peter's  with  every  mark  of  veneration :  and 
though  the  reader  is  already  familiar  with 
such  absurdities  ;  though  he  has  had  frequent 
occasion  to  deplore  the  deference  to  popu- 
lar superstition  which  has  been  paid  by  very 
intelligent,  and  even  very  pious,  ecclesiastics, 
we  may  still  record  another  humiliating  act, 
which  it  was  the  fate  of  Pius  II.  to  perform. 
Catharine  of  Sienna  had  died  above  eighty 
years  before  in  perfect  odor  of  sanctity  ;  con- 
tinual miracles,  certified  by  sufficient  tes- 
timony, had  been  performed  at  her  tomb; 
people  were  anxiously  expecting  her  canon- 
ization.* A  Duke  of  Austria  and  a  King  of 
Hungary  had  successively  solicited  the  Pon- 
tiff of  the  day  to  do  that  justice  to  her  ex- 
traordinary qualities ;  but  the  ceremony  had 
been  deferred  through  the  confusion  of  the 
Church  and  the  disorders  of  the  Holy  See. 
It  was  reserved  to  the  genius  of  iEneas  Syl- 
vius at  length  to  perform  that  office ;  and  one 
of  the  most  extravagant  enthusiasts,  that  ever 
dishonored  the  profession  of  Christianity,  f 
was  enthroned  among  the  Saints  of  the 
Church  by  one  of  the  most  enlightened  Pre- 
lates who  has  in  any  age  adorned  it. 

From  being  the  zealous  advocate  of  the 
Council  of  Basle,  we  have  observed  iEneas 
Sylvius  defending  the  usurpations  and  exalt- 
ing the  majesty  of  the  Roman  See.  It  was 
thus  that  he  became  qualified  to  occupy  it ; 
and  the  enjoyment  of  its  power  and  preroga- 
tives was  not  calculated  to  revive  his  ardor 
for  its  reformation.  To  have  imposed  limits 
on  an  authority  exercised  by  himself  had 
been  a  rare  and  difficult  effort  of  magnanim- 
ity :  and  so  far  was  Pius  II.  from  harboring 
the  design,  that  he  seized  an  early  occasion 
to    discourage    those    liberal    principles    of 


*  The  first  recorded  Act  of  Canonization  was  per- 
formed in  993,  by  John  XV.,  in  behalf  of  Udalrig, 
Bishop  of  Augsburg.  The  right  in  the  first  instance 
was  not  exclusively  vested  in  the  Pope:  councils,  and 
even  prelates  of  high  rank,  were  qualified  to  perform 
it;  till  Alexander  III.  placed  this  among  the  more 
important  acts  of  authority  (Causae  Majores)  to  be 
executed  only  by  the  Pope.— See  Mosh.  Cent,  x.,  p. 
ii.  ch.  iii. 

t  The  exploits  of  this  fanatic  fill  twenty-four  folio 
pages  in  the  works  of  St.  Antoninus,  Archbishop  of 
Florence.  —  (Chronicorum,  Tertia  Pars,  p.  692,  et 
seq.) 

64 


Church  government,  which  were  entertained 
by  many  ecclesiastics,  and  which  had  so  late- 
ly been  propagated  by  himself.  During  the 
Council  of  Mantua,  shortly  before  its  disso- 
lution, and  at  a  moment  when  his  influence 
over  its  members  was  probably  the  greatest, 
he  published  a  celebrated  Bull  against  all 
appeals  from  the  Holy  See  to  general  Coun- 
cils. '  An  execrable  abuse,  unheard  of  in  an- 
cient times,*  has  gained  footing  in  our  days, 
authorized  by  some,  who,  acting  under  a  spi- 
rit of  rebellion  rather  than  sound  judgment, 
presume  to  appeal  from  the  pontiff  of  Rome, 
Vicar  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom,  in  the  per 
son  of  St.  Peter,  it  has  been  said,  "  Feed  my 
sheep;"  and  again,  "Whatsoever  thou  shall 
bind  on  earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven  ;"  to 
appeal,  I  say,  from  his  judgments  to  a  future 
Council  —  a  practice  which  every  man  in- 
structed in  law  must  regard  as  contrary  to 
the  holy  canons,  aud  prejudicial  to  the  Chris- 
tian republic '    The  Pope  then  proceeded 

to  paiut  in  vague  and  glowing  expressions 
the  frightful  evils  occasioned  by  such  appeals  ; 
and  finally  pronounced  to  be  ipso  facto  ex- 
communicated all  individuals  who  might 
hereafter  resort  to  them,  whether  their  dig- 
nity were  imperial,  royal,  or  pontifical,  as  well 
as  all  Universities  and  Colleges,  and  all  others 
who  should  promote  and  counsel  them. 

Recantation  of  Pius  77.— This  Edict,  pub- 
lished in  January,  1460,  was  no  unworthy 
prelude  to  the  most  remarkable  act  of  the 
pontificate  of  Pius — his  public  retractation  of 
his  early  opinions.  Not  contented  to  leave 
others  to  contrast  his  actual  conduct  with  his 
former  principles,  and  both  were  too  notori- 
ous to  escape  such  contrast,  he  boldly  stepped 
forward  as  his  own  judge,  and  published  the 
most  unequivocal  condemnation  of  himself. 
Before  his  departure  for  Ancona,  in  the  year 
1463,  he  addressed  to  the  university  of  Co- 
logne a  bull  to  the  following  effect,-  —  That 
being  liable  to  human  imperfection,  he  had 
said,  or  written,  much  which  might  unques- 
tionably be  censured  ;  but  that,  as  he  had  sin- 
ned, like  Paul,  and  persecuted  the  Church  of 
God  through  want  of  sufficient  knowledge, 
so  he  now  imitated  the  blessed  Augustine, 
who,  having  fallen  into  some  erroneous  ex- 
pressions, reft-acted  them;  that  he  ingenu- 
ously acknowledged  his  former  ignorance, 
lest  what  he  had  written  while  young  should 
lead  to  some  error  prejudicial  to  the  Holy 
See;  for  if  there   were  any   one   whom   it 


*  '  Execrabilis  el  pristinis  temporibus  inauditus  ' 
are  the  opening  words,  which  give  die  title  to  the 
decree 


506 


HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


peculiarly  became  to  defend  and  maintain  the 
eminence  and  glory  of  the  first  Throne  of 
the  Church,  it  was  assuredly  that  individual, 
whom  God,  in  his  mercy  and  goodness,  had 
raised  to  the  dignity  of  the  vicar  of  Jesus 
Christ.  That,  for  these  reasons,  no  confi- 
dence was  due  to  those  of  his  writings,  which 
offended,  in  any  manner,  the  authority  of 
the  Apostolical  See,  and  established  opinions 
which  it  did  not  acknowledge.  '  Wherefore 
(he  added)  if  you  find  anything  contrary  to 
its  doctrine,  either  in  my  dialogues,  or  my 
letters,  or  any  other  of  my  writings, — despise 
those  opinions,  reject  them,  and  follow  that 
which  I  now  proclaim  to  you.  Believe  me 
now  that  I  am  old,  rather  than  then,  when  I 
spoke  as  a  youth ;  pay  more  regard  to  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff  than  to  the  individual; 
reject  iEneas  —  receive  Pius.  The  former 
name  was  imposed  by  my  parents — a  Gentile 
name, — and  in  my  infancy :  the  other  I  as- 
sumed as  a  Christian  in  my  Apostolate.'*  In 
conclusion,  the  Pope,  anticipating  the  natural 
suspicion  of  ambitious  motives  as  the  occa- 
sion of  his  change,  took  some  pains  to  remove 
that  notion,  by  recounting  the  circumstances 
of  his  introduction  to  the  council,  and  recur- 
ring to  the  seductions  which  misled  his  ten- 
der inexperience.  If  that  change,  of  which 
the  first  indication  was  so  nearly  coincident 
with  his  personal  advancement,  had  been  a 
change  to  a  wiser,  from  a  rash  and  inconsi- 
derate opinion;  had  the  adopted  principles 
of  the  convert  been  calculated  to  advance  the 
permanent  interests  of  his  See,  better  than 
those  which  he  rejected,  the  historian  might 
have  listened  with  some  attention  to  his  as- 
surances of  sincerity.  But  when  we  have 
the  soundest  reasons  to  convince  us,  that  the 
counsels  of  his  youth  were  sage,  and  provi- 
dent, and  generous,  those  of  his  riper  years 
narrow,  and  at  the  same  time  selfish,  there  is 
scarcely  space  to  doubt  what  the  motives 
really  were,  which  determined  his  apostasy. 

His  exertions  against  the  Turks.  —  In  the 
meantime  the  Turkish  arms  were  making 
progress  in  all  quarters,  and  the  tide  of  war 
was  rapidly  descending  to  the  Adriatic.  Italy 
lay  next  in  its  course ;  and  her  contentious 
children  seemed,  for  the  moment,  disposed 
to  suspend  their  intestine  animosities.  The 
Pope  renewed  his  exertions.  '  Life  itself 
(thus  he  spoke  in  consistory)  must  be  laid 
down  for  the  safety  of  the  flock  intrusted  to 
us.     The  Turks  are  wasting  the  provinces 

*  '  ^Eneam  rejicite,  Pium  recipite — illud  Gentile 
nomen  parentes  indidere  nascenli;  hoc  Christianura 
in  Apostolatu  suscepi.' 


of  Christendom  in  succession.  What  expe- 
dients remain  to  us?  To  oppose  arms  to 
their  invasions?  We  have  no  means  to  pro- 
vide them.  What  then?  Shall  we  exhort 
the  princes  to  confront  and  expel  them  ? 
This  has  already  been  attempted  in  vain :  it 
is  in  vain  that  we  tell  them  to  go !  Perchance 
they  would  listen  better,  if  we  should  say  to 
them — Come!  This,  then,  shall  be  our  next 
experiment :  we  will  march  in  person  against 
the  Turks,  and  invite  the  Christian  monarchs 
to  follow  us;  not  by  words  only,  but  by 
example  also.  It  may  be,  when  they  shall 
behold  their  master  and  father — the  Roman 
Pontiff,  the  Vicar  of  Christ  Jesus — an  infirm 
old  man,  advancing  to  the  war,  they  will  take 
up  arms  through  shame,  and  valiantly  defend 
our  holy  religion.  .  .  Not  that  we  propose 
to  draw  the  sword — a  task  incompatible  with 
our  bodily  feebleness  and  sacerdotal  charac- 
ter,— but  after  the  example  of  the  Holy  Fath- 
er Moses,  who  prayed  on  the  mountain,  while 
Israel  was  fighting  with  the  Amalekites,  we 
shall  stand  on  some  lofty  galley  or  mountain's 
brow,  and  holding  before  our  eyes  the  Divine 
Eucharist,  which  is  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
we  shall  implore  Him  to  grant  safety  and 
victory  to  our  contending  armies.'* 

Death  of  Pius  II.  —  These  were  not  vain 
expressions;  a  numerous  force  was  already 
assembled  at  Ancona,  and  the  Venetians  had 
at  length  engaged  to  furnish  maritime  suc- 
cors. The  Pontiff  departed  to  assume,  in 
person,  the  conduct  of  the  expedition.  He 
was  preceded  by  the  Cardinal  of  St.  Angelo 
— an  old  and  venerable  prelate,  remarkable 
for  his  zeal  against  the  Infidel ;  he  followed 
at  slow  journeys,  borne  in  a  litter,  and  debil- 
itated by  sickness ;  and  on  his  arrival  at  the 
camp,  he  was  received  by  a  multitude  im- 
perfectly armed,  without  resources,  without 
discipline,  and,  for  the  most  part,  without 
enthusiasm.  Such  were  the  champions  of 
the  Cross ;  such  the  human  instruments, 
to  which  the  care  of  Christendom  seemed  at 
that  moment  to  be  confided!  Many  of  them 
Pius  immediately  dismissed  with  his  pontifi- 
cal benediction,  and  a  profusion  of  indulgen- 
ces, which  they  no  longer  affected  to  value. 
Those  who  remained  he  still  proposed  to 
lead  against  the  enemy,  and  only  awaited 
the  arrival  of  the  Venetian  galleys.  They 
arrived ;  but  scarcely  were  their  white  sails 
visible  from  the  towers  of  Ancona,  when  the 
Pope  expired.  On  this  event  the  whole 
expedition  immediately  dispersed ;  and  it 
seemed  as  if  so  many  spectators  had  assem- 


*  Raynaldus,  aim.  1463,  sect.  25. 


PAUL  II. 


507 


bled,  from  such  various  and  distant  regions, 
for  no  other  purpose  than  to  witness  the  death 
of  their  chief,  and  swell  his  funeral  proces- 
sion. 

The  treasure  which  was  found  in  his  chest 
was  sent,  by  his  express  command,  to  Cor- 
vinus,  king  of  Hungary;  but  it  bore  no  pro- 
portion to  the  sums  which  had  been  placed 
at  his  disposal  for  crusading  purposes;  and 
there  was  reason  to  believe  that  much  had 
been  diverted  by  the  pontiff  for  the  establish- 
ment of  Ferdinand  on  the  throne  of  Naples. 
And  thus  Pope  Pius  II.,  who  was  fortunate 
in  many  circumstances  of  his  life,  may  not 
have  been  least  happy  in  the  moment  of  his 
departure ;  at  least,  it  is  manifest  that  he  had 
engaged  with  very  slender  resources,  and 
little  promise  of  support,  in  a  dangerous  en- 
terprise, which  could  scarcely  have  terminat- 
ed otherwise  than  in  defeat  and  dishonor. 

Nevertheless,  Pius  II.  was  the  most  accom- 
plished, the  most  liberal,  perhaps  the  most 
enlightened,  individual  of  his  time.  Like 
Nicholas  V.,  he  obtained  his  ecclesiastical 
advancement  by  his  literary  powers,  by  the 
acquisition  of  learning,  and  the  useful  appli- 
cation of  it.  Like  Cardinal  Julian,  he  was 
intrusted  with  the  conduct  of  difficult  nego- 
tiations; he  influenced  the  councils  of  courts; 
he  swayed  the  deliberations  of  ecclesiastical 
assemblies.  Like  both  those  eminent  church- 
men, he  displayed  unremitting  zeal  for  the 
defence  of  Christendom  against  the  Turkish 
aggression.  And  herein  he  imitated  the 
merit  of  the  former,  that  it  was  his  strenuous 
exertion  in  this  cause,  which  gave  the  color 
and  character  to  his  pontificate;  and  in  one 
respect  he  accomplished,  in  some  manner, 
the  destiny  of  the  latter,  that  he  died  in  the 
heart  of  a  Christian  camp;  prepared  to  move, 
under  his  own  personal  direction,  in  a  hope- 
less enterprise,  against  the  armies  of  the  In- 
fidel. 

Conditions  imposed  in  Conclave.  —  It  was 
now  so  common  for  the  cardinals,  while  in 
conclave,  to  bind  themselves  to  the  observ- 
ance of  certain  stipulations,  in  case  of  election 
to  the  pontificate,  and  so  invariable  for  the 
cardinal  elected  to  violate  his  engagement, 
that  we  have  ceased  to  notice  acts  of  habitual 
— it  might  almost  seem  authorized — perjury. 
But  the  articles  which  were  imposed  by  the 
college,  on  the  death  of  Pius  II.,  were  such 
as  to  require  attention,  from  their  own  im- 
portance. The  following  were,  in  substance, 
the  principal: — 'That  the  pope  shall  con- 
tinue the  war  with  the  Turks,  re-establish 
the  ancient  discipline  of  the  Roman  Court, 


and  assemble  a  Council  General  within  three 
years.  That  he  shall  not  augment  the  num- 
ber of  cardinals  to  more  than  twenty-four, 
nor  create  any  one  who  is  less  than  thirty 
years  of  age,  or  deficient  in  the  knowledge 
of  civil  and  canon  law  and  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures ;  nor  more  than  one  from  among  his 
own  relatives.  That  he  shall  condemn  no 
cardinal,  except  according  to  the  legal  and 
canonical  forms ;  that  he  shall  enter  into  no 
war,  nor  sign  any  treaty  without  the  consent 
of  the  college ;  that  he  shall  leave  to  the  sub- 
jects of  the  Roman  court  entire  liberty  to 
make  their  wills;  that  he  shall  establish  no 
new  imposts,  nor  increase  those  existing; 
that  he  shall  take  the  votes  of  the  cardinals 
aloud,  and  not  in  a  whisper,  so  that  the  result 
of  their  deliberations  may  be  faithfully  ex- 
pressed ;  and  lastly,  that  the  cardinals  shall 
assemble  twice  a  year,  apart  from  the  Pope, 
to  examine  whether  these  conditions  have 
been  observed.' 

Paid  II. — From  these  stipulations  we  per- 
ceive, that  it  was  no  light  or  lenient  yoke  to 
which  the  courtiers  of  Rome,  with  all  their 
outward  show  and  pomp  of  licentiousness 
were,  in  fact,  subjected;  and  if  they  had 
indeed  acquired  the  efficacy  of  laws,  the 
constitution  of  the  Vatican  would  have  un- 
dergone an  entire  change, — from  a  slightly 
limited  despotism,  it  would  have  assumed 
much  more  of  the  oligarchical  character.  It 
may  be  questioned,  whether  the  Catholic 
Church  would  have  gained  any  advantage 
by  that  alteration — whether  the  dominion  of 
the  Sacred  College  would  not  have  been  at 
least  as  oppressive,  as  despotic,  as  fruitful  in 
abuses,  as  hostile  to  reformation,  as  that  of 
the  Pope.  But  the  experiment  was  not 
made  ;  the  oath  was  indeed  administered  with 
great  solemnity,  and  accepted  by  all.  One 
among  those  who  had  taken  it  (the  cardinal 
of  St.  Marc)  was  immediately  raised  to  the 
pontificate ;  and  his  first  official  act  was  to 
confirm  his  obligation.  But  Paul  II.  (he 
assumed  that  name),  alike  imperious  and 
vain,  pompous  and  frivolous,  was  not  so  con- 
stituted, as  to  sacrifice  any  interest  to  the 
sanctity  of  any  engagement.  He  presently 
expressed  his  contempt  for  the  laws  imposed 
by  the  conclave ;  he  enacted  others  on  his 
own  authority  ;  he  demanded  the  approbation 
of  the  cardinals,  and  after  a  very  feeble  resist- 
ance, partly  by  menaces,  partly  by  promises, 
partly  by  granting  them  some  childish  indul- 
gences,* he  obtained  it.     He  then  proceeded 


*  He  permitted  them  to  wear  mitres  of  silk,  such 
as  had  hitherto  been  confined  to  the  pontiffs  alone 


508 


HISTORY    OF   THE   CHURCH. 


to  administer  the  Church,  according  to  the 
established  maxims  of  government.* 

His  abominable  policy. — Paul  II.  was  a  na- 
tive of  Venice,  and  his  election  was,  in  some 
measure,  occasioned  by  that  circumstance ; 
for  it  was  manifest,  that  no  Italian  confed- 
eration could  act  with  any  vigor  against  the 
Turkish  power,  unless  Venice  should  place 
herself  at  its  head  ;  and  it  was  hoped  that  her 
co-operation  would  be  effectually  secured  by 
the  choice  of  a  Venetian  pontiff.  Italy  was 
now  at  peace  ;  the  impulse  towards  the  East 
had  been  given  by  Pius  II.,  and  all  circum- 
stances seemed  favorable  to  the  enterprise. 
Much  unquestionably  depended,  at  that  mo- 
ment, on  the  character  and  policy  of  the  Pope. 
Now  the  measures  taken  by  Paul  II.,  during 
his  whole  pontificate,  were  precisely  those 
which  a  council  of  Mahometans  assembled  at 
Constantinople  would  have  dictated.  He  be- 
gan his  reign  by  a  nefarious  attempt  to  em- 
broil the  states  of  Italy  in  civil  confusion. 
He  failed ;  and  then  he  engaged  in  a  differ- 
ent project,  which  has  made  him  more  hate- 
ful, because  it  was,  for  the  moment,  more 
successful.  Corvinus,  the  son  of  Huniades, 
was  defending  the  frontiers  of  Christendom 
with  courage  and  honor.  He  had  gained 
several  advantages  over  the  enemy,  which  he 
might  with  efficient  succors  have  converted 
into  substantial  triumphs.  Let  us  mark  the 
policy  of  Paul  II.  Thirsting,  as  it  would 
seem,  for  Christian  blood,  that  Pope  proposed 
to  divert  the  war  from  the  Turks,  and  turn  it 
against  the  Hussites.  He  professed  a  Cath- 
olic ardor  to  punish  the  priests  who  fostered 
those  errors,  to  reduce  the  rebels  to  obedience 
to  the  Apostolical  See,  and  to  extirpate  every 
heresy.  Accordingly,  he  offered  to  Corvinus 
the  crown  of  Bohemia  on  those  terms,  and 
the  boon,  was  accepted.  For  the  space  of 
seven    infamous    years,  those  arms,  which 

he  forbade  their  use  to  all  other  prelates.  He  like- 
wise allowed  them  to  adorn  their  horses  and  mules 
with  trappings  of  a  scarlet  color. 

*  One  of  his  first  acts  was,  to  dismiss  from  their 
offices  all  the  abbreviators  appointed  by  his  pre- 
decessor. The  biographer  Platina  was  one  of  them. 
And  when  he  remonstrated  with  the  pontiff,  and 
threatened  to  bring  the  case  before  the  judges  of  the 
Rota,  Paul  regarded  him  fiercely,  and  said, — '  Nos 
ad  judices  revocasl  Ac  si  nescires  omnia  jura  in 
scrinio  pectoris  nostri  collocata  esse  ?  Sic  stat 
sententia.  Loco  cedant  omnes  ;  eant  quo  volunt  ; 
nihil  eos  moror;  pontifex  sum  ;  mihique  licet  arbitrio 
animi  aliorum  acta  et  rescindere  et  approbare.' 
Platina,  notwithstanding,  was  contumacious,  and  the 
Pope  placed  him,  for  some  months,  in  rigorous  con- 
finement.   See  his  Life  of  Paul  II. 


might  have  chastised  the  foreign  aggressor, 
were  fiercely  directed  against  the  kings  of 
Bohemia  ;  and  it  is  no  alleviation  of  the  pon- 
tiffs guilt,  that  those  reiterated  efforts  were 
finally  defeated.  While  he  pursued  the  prin- 
ciples of  Innocent  III.,  his  conduct  was  even 
less  pardonable,  because  he  pursued  them 
under  circumstances  of  greater  danger  to 
Christendom,  and  in  an  age  in  which  the 
increase  of  knowledge  left  less  excuse  for 
crime. 

If  it  was  the  object  of  this  pontiff  to  make 
his  internal  government  as  detestable  as  his 
external  policy,  he  took  an  effectual  measure 
to  accomplish  it.  We  have  observed  with 
what  ardor  the  taste  for  polite  learning  was 
cultivated  in  Italy  at  this  time,  and  what  great 
encouragement  it  had  received  from  two  re- 
cent pontiffs.  In  furtherance  of  those  objects 
a  literary  society  was  formed  at  Rome  during 
the  reign  of  Paul  II.  But  Paul  affected  to 
discover  in  that  institution  a  dangerous  con- 
spiracy against  the  safety  of  the  Pope  and 
the  peace  of  the  Church.  The  stupid  jeal- 
ousy, which  suggested  that  suspicion,  was 
supported  by  the  cruelty  usually  inherent  in 
narrow  and  passionate  minds ;  and,  as  if  the 
blood  of  the  Bohemians  flowed  in  too  scanty 
profusion,  the  Pope  commenced  the  work  of 
inquisition  at  Rome.  Several  innocent  indi- 
viduals, of  great  literary  *  and  moral  reputa- 
tion, suffered  on  the  rack ;  one  in  particular, 
Agostino  Campino,  died  under  the  torture. 
Paul  persevered  in  his  persecution,  but  he 
did  not  succeed  in  eliciting  any  confession, 
or  discovering  any  shadow  of  heresy  or  con- 
spiracy, in  excuse  for  so  much  harbarity ;  nor 
did  it  produce  any  other  result,  than  to  create 
one  additional  motive  for  execrating  his  name. 
He  died  in  1471,  in  possession  of  treasures 
which  he  had  hoarded  through  the  mere  love 
of  gold  ;  and  in  the  very  year  preceding  his 
death,  he  increased  an  ecclesiastical  abuse  (in 
the  belief,  no  doubt,  that  he  should  personally 
reap  the  fruits  of  his  change,f)  by  reducing 
once  more  the  intervals  between  the  cele- 
brations of  the  Jubilee,  from  thirty-three  to 
twenty-five  years. 

Sixtus  IF. — Sixtus  IV.  (a  Franciscan  Monk) 
commenced  an  unusually  long  pontificate,  of 


*  A  long  account  of  this  affair  is  given  by  Platina 
(himself  a  sufferer)  in  his  Life  of  Paul  II.  That 
Pope's  hatred  for  learning  was  so  great,  that  he  held 
the  terms  studious  and  heretical  to  be  synonymous, 
and  carefully  impressed  upon  his  subjects  the  advan- 
tages of  ignorance.  The  historian  died  in  the  year 
1481. 

f  Thus  the  year  1475  became  a  year  of  jubilee. 


SIXTUS  IV. 


509 


thirteen  years,  by  professiug  the  policy  and 
affecting  the  designs  of  Pius  II.  He  called 
for  the  enforcement  of  the  decrees  of  Man- 
tua; he  promised  indulgences  to  all  who 
should  march  against  the  Turk  in  person,  or 
find  efficient  substitutes,  or  contribute  to  the 
expense  of  the  expedition  ;  he  sent  letters  and 
legates  to  all  the  Courts  of  Europe.  All  dis- 
regarded his  solicitations,  some  through  apa- 
thy, others,  perhaps,  through  suspiciousness ; 
others  through  the  nearer  occupation  of 
civil  dissension.  The  Pope  was  easily  di- 
verted from  an  object  on  which  he  may  have 
never  been  sincerely  bent.  His  boiling  zeal 
presently  evaporated;  his  clamors  were  si- 
lenced by  the  first  repulse  ;  and  he  appeared 
to  resign  his  daring  projects,  and  subside  into 
the  ordinary  channel  of  papal  misgovern- 
ment,  without  a  sigh  or  a  struggle. 

His  dispute  with  Florence.  —  In  the  year 
1478,  during  some  disturbances  between  the 
Medici  and  the  Pazzi  at  Florence,  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Pisa  suffered  an  ignominious  death 
at  the  hands  of  the  former.  There  is  little 
doubt,  that  he  had  promoted  a  sanguinary 
tumult  —  nevertheless,  this  was  an  outrage 
upon  the  prerogative  of  the  hierarchy,  which, 
in  an  earlier  age,  would  have  been  visited  with 
signal  vengeance,  and  which  even  Sixtus  IV. 
was  not  prepared  to  overlook.  He  placed 
the  offending  city  under  an  interdict,  excom- 
municated Lorenzo  de'  Medici,*  and  pub- 
lished a  declaration  of  war.  The  Florentines, 
even  the  ecclesiastics,  defended  the  cause  of 
their  compatriot;  they  treated  with  scorn  the 
pontifical  menaces;  they  continued  to  cele- 
brate the  divine  offices  in  defiance  of  the  in- 
terdict ;  they  assembled  a  Synod  of  the  Bish- 
ops of  Tuscany,  in  order  to  appeal  with 
greater  solemnity  to  a  general  Council.  At 
the  same  time  they  retorted  all  the  blame  of 
the  original  offence  upon  the  Pope  himself, 
and  called  upon  France  and  Milan  to  aid 
them  against  his  oppression. 

Soon  afterwards  Louis  XI.  held  an  As- 
sembly at  Orleans,  principally  for  the  purpose 
of  restoring  the  Pragmatic  Sanction,  which 
he  had  previously  and  hastily  annulled.  Put 
an  embassy,  subsequently  sent  to  Rome,  was 
likewise  charged  to  exhort  the  Pontiff  to 
make  peace  with  Florence,  and  to  assemble, 
without  any  delay,  ft  General  Council.  These 
solicitations  were  seconded  by  certain  mena- 
ces, to  which  Louis  could  have  given  efficacy, 
had  he  so  chosen.  But  he  had  either  no  se- 
rious intention  of  enforcing  his  demands,  or 


*  The  Bull  is  given  at  length  by  Roseoe,  Life  of 
Lorenzo  de'  Medici.     Appendix,  IS'o.  XXVI. 


he  allowed  it  to  melt  away  before  the  tempo* 
rizing  policy  of  the  Vatican.*  In  the  meau 
time  the  Pope  persevered  in  measures  of  hos- 
tility, and  the  blood  of  the  Archbishop  cried 
so  loudly  for  vengeance,  that  all  external  dan- 
gers were  forgotten,  and  the  hosts  of  Mahomet 
If.  approached  unheard  to  the  gates  of  Italy. 
The  same  Pontiff  who  had  so  lately  preached 
the  blessings  of  union  to  the  Christian  Courts, 
even  while  the  danger  was  more  remote,  per- 
sisted in  hostility  against  a  Christian  State, 
when  it  was  already  impending  over  his  head. 
At  length  he  relented ;  but  it  was  not  till  the 
city  of  Otranto  had  been  stormed  by  the  In- 
fidel that  the  conditions  of  peace  were  dictat- 
ed,! and  the  Florentine  ambassadors  admitted 
to  receive  their  absolutions  at  the  entrance 
of  St.  Peter's ;  and  even  then  they  appear  to 
have  been  subjected  to  more  than  the  cus- 
tomary circumstances  of  humiliation.  The 
Pope  was  presently  relieved  from  immediate 
apprehension  by  the  death  of  Mahomet,  and 
he  then  had  leisure  to  return  to  what  had 
been,  indeed,  the  favorite  object  of  his  ponti- 
ficate, the  aggrandizement  of  his  nephews. 

His  Nepotism. — The  nepotism  of  no  former 
Pontiff  had  been  indulged  with  so  scandalous 
a  sacrifice  of  the  interests  of  the  Church  as 
that  of  Sixtus  IV.  One  of  his  nephews, 
Leonardo  della  Rovera,  he  married  to  a  nat- 
ural daughter  of  Ferdinand  of  Naples  ;  and 
on  this  occasion  he  abandoned  to  that  mon- 
arch some  estates  and  fiefs,  which  his  prede- 
cessors had  spared  no  toil  to  acquire  and  re- 
tain. Another,  named  Julian,  the  same  who 
was  afterwards  Julius  II.,  was  enriched  with 
several  ecclesiastical  benefices.  For  a  third, 
named  Jerome  Riario,  the  principality  of 
Imola  was  purchased  from  the  resources  of 
the  Apostolical  Treasury.  But  it  was  on 
Pietro  Riario,  the  youngest,  that  the  profusion 
of  his  fondness  was  principally  lavished. 
Without  talents,  without  virtues,  from  a  sim- 


*  The  advice  tendered  to  the  Pope  on  this  occasion 
by  the  Cardinal  of  Pavia,  the  most  accomplished 
politician  in  his  Court,  affords  an  excellent  illustra- 
tion of  the  great  principle  of  ecclesiastical  statesman- 
e/hip — not  to  remove  the  grounds  of  complaint;  but 
to  gain  time,  to  preserve  the  abuse,  to  defer  the  hour 
of  danger,  rather  than  avert  it  altogether  h\  limelv 
concession. 

•f  This  scene  is  described  at  length  by  Machiave), 
Stor.  Fiorent.,  lib.  viii.  The  particulars  of  the  dis- 
pute are  detailed  by  Paul  Jovius,  in  bis  First  Book 
of  his  Life  of  Leo  X.  This  connexion  of  Pope  Sixtua 
with  the  history  of  Florence  has  procured  for  him  a 
peculiar,  and  not  very  enviable,  celebrity.  «  Di  grossi 
conti  (eaya  Muratori,  Anna),  v.  9)  avra  avuto  questo 
j  Ponte/ice  ncl  tribunale  di  Dio.' 


510 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


pie  Franciscan  Monk,  Pietro  was  immediate- 
ly elevated  to  the  dignity  of  Cardinal.  He 
was  made  titular  Patriarch  of  Constantino- 
ple ;  he  was  raised  to  the  Archiepiscopal  See 
of  Florence  ;  he  received,  besides,  two  other 
Archbishoprics,  and  a  multitude  of  inferior 
benefices.  In  the  meantime  his  splendid 
prodigality,  the  pride  of  his  attendants,  his 
equipage,  and  his  sumptuousness,  kept  pace 
with  the  abundance  of  his  resources,  and  he 
expended  on  the  pomp  of  a  single  ceremony, 
or  the  festivities  of  a  single  night,  sums  which 
exceeded  the  revenues  of  kings. 

The  Minimes. —  The  same  Pope,  as  if  to 
atone  for  the  laxity  of  one  extreme  of  the 
ecclesiastical  establishment  by  the  austerity 
of  the  other,  gave  his  confirmation  to  a  new 
religious  body,  called  the  Minimes  —  the  least 
among  the  servants  of  Christ.  They  were 
founded  by  one  Francisco  of  Paula ;  and  to 
the  usual  monastic  obligations  they  added  a 
fourth  vow,  of  perpetual  fast  and  abstinence 
from  all  nourishment,  except  herbs  and  roots. 
The  popular  appetite  for  such  extravagance 
was  not  yet  wholly  satiated ;  and  though  the 
Minitnes  never  acquired  the  celebrity  which 
would  certainly  have  attended  them  in  the 
thirteenth  age,  there  were  still  not  wanting 
devotees  to  swell  their  numbers,  and  recom- 
pense their  vain  enthusiasm  by  reverence  and 
by  gold. 

When  we  shall  come  to  examine  the  spir- 
itual condition  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
during  this  period,  and  the  character  of  the 
papal  edicts  which  were  more  particularly 
directed  to  that  object,  we  shall  find  that  no 
one  descended  more  deeply  into  superstition 
than  Sixtus  IV.  At  present  we  shall  only 
mention  the  singular  venality  introduced  in- 
to his  government  by  the  creation  of  certain 
new  offices,  which  he  publicly  sold,  and 
which  he  created  for  the  purpose  of  selling. 
This  was  a  new  scandal  in  the  history  of  the 
Vatican ;  and  when  the  same  Pontiff"  raised 
to  the  dignity  of  Cardinal  a  youth,  named 
Jacopo  di  Parma,  his  own  valet,  he  may  seem 
to  have  offered  the  last  insult  to  his  Court  and 
his  Church.  The  deeper  outrage,  which  was 
now  continually  cast  upon  the  religion  of 
Christ,  has  almost  ceased  to  be  matter  of 
mention  with  us,  because  the  name  of  Chirst 
was  now  seldom  appealed  to,  unless  in  sup- 
port of  some  monstrous  ecclesiastical  preten- 
sion ;  and  the  rulers  of  the  Apostolical  Church 
had  for  some  time  learned  to  dispense,  both 
in  their  morals  and  their  administration,  even 
with  the  semblance  of  holiness,  even  with  a 
decorous  affectation  of  religious  motives. 


Character  of  Siodus.  —  Sixtus  IV.  was  not 
deficient,  as  a  political  character,  in  quickness 
and  sagacity,  and  even  grandeur  of  concep- 
tion. But  his  character  (as  Sismondi  has  well 
observed)  corrupted  his  talents,  and  stained 
his  noblest  projects  with  falsehood  aud  perfi- 
dy. As  he  could  discern  no  distinction  be- 
tween virtue  and  crime,  he  employed  the 
basest  means  to  attain  the  best  ends,  and  dis- 
honored his  own  designs  by  the  instruments 
with  which  he  chose  to  accomplish  them. 
His  private  life  has  not  escaped  the  suspicion 
of  the  foulest  enormities  —  it  cannot,  at  least, 
pretend  to  the  praise  of  piety  or  innocence. 
His  learning,  the  exertions  which  he  made, 
and  the  funds  which  he  appropriated  to  en- 
rich the  Library  of  the  Vatican  from  every 
quarter ;  his  architectural  labors,  and  the  noble 
buildings  *  with  which  he  adorned  his  capital ; 
these  are  the  only  monuments  by  which  he  is 
honorably  known  to  posterity.  His  capacity 
was  considerable,  and  it  was  enlarged  and 
enlightened  by  his  literary  accomplishments. 
But  if  these  were  unable  to  infuse  into  his 
soul  any  disinterested  virtue,  or  generous 
principles  of  action,  they  failed  to  accomplish 
the  only  purpose,  for  which  they  are  really- 
valuable,  and  they  left  the  possessor  the  more 
dangerous  aud  the  more  detestable,  from  the 
authority  which  they  added  to  his  talents,  and 
the  aid  which  they  lent  him  to  abuse  them. 

Election  of  Innocent  VIII. — Sixtus  IV.  died 
in  1484,  and  the  election  of  his  successor  was 
attended  by  some  circumstances  more  scan- 
dalous than  any  which  had  yet  polluted  the 
recesses  of  the  Conclave.  Julian  della  Rove- 
ra,  Cardinal  of  St.  Peter  ad  Vinculo,  had  un- 
dertaken the  negotiations  requisite,  and  the 
price  of  every  vote  was  already  arranged, 
when  the  College  proceeded  to  invoke  the 
Holy  Spirit.  The  terms  are  expressly  speci- 
fied by  a  contemporary  writer  ;f  they  were 
faithfully  observed  by  the  successful  candi- 
date ;  and  they  might  be  ascertained  from  the 
various  castles  and  benefices,  which  he  im- 
mediately bestowed  on  his  supporters.  John 
Baptist  Cybo,  a  native  of  Genoa,  was    the 

*  The  Ponte  Sesto  was  his  great  work.  His  lit- 
erary monuments  were  of  a  less  durable  construction ; 
for,  indeed,  the  subjects  which  he  chose  were  not 
always  the  most  favorable  to  their  perpetuity.  One 
treatise  he  composed  on  The  Blood  of  Jesus  Christ; 
another  on  Indulgences  accorded  to  Souls  in  Purga- 
tory; another  on  the  Conception  of  the  Holy  Virgin, 
&c.  &c.  Such,  however,  were  the  controversies  of 
the  day. 

f  The  letter  of  Guidantonio  Vespucci  to  Lorenzo 
de'  Medici  on  this  subject,  is  given  entire  by  Roscoe, 
Append.  44,  and  without  suspicion  of  its  truth. 


ALEXANDER  VI. 


511 


individual  thus  elevated  to  the  throne  of  the 
Church,  and  he  assumed  the  name  of  Inno- 
cent. 

Notwithstanding  the  recent  perfidy  of  Paul 
II.,  defended  by  the  constitution  of  Innocent 
VI.,*  and  countenanced  by  the  example  of  so 
many  Pontiffs,  the  members  of  the  Conclave 
once  more  attempted  to  bind  the  future  Pope 
by  a  similar  engagement  It  were  tedious  to 
repeat  the  stipulations  which  were  accepted 
in  the  name  of  God,  on  his  holy  altar,  and 
which  were  even  then  intended  for  imme- 
diate violation.  Their  object  was  ever  the 
same — to  increase  the  power  of  the  Cardinals 
at  the  expense  of  that  of  the  Pope  —  and  it 
was  ever  frustrated  by  the  most  deliberate 
perjury.  On  the  day  of  his  installation,  In- 
nocent VIII.  confirmed  and  repeated  his  oath, 
and  bound  himself,  on  pain  of  anathema, 
neither  to  receive  nor  give  absolution  from 
it  —  for  the  Pontiff  possessed  exclusively  the 
power  of  self-absolution.  Howbeit,  he  no 
sooner  felt  his  strength,  and  the  independence 
of  his  despotism,  than  he  cancelled  the  treaty, 
and  annulled  both  his  oaths. 

If  Sixtus  IV.  had  wasted  the  resources  of 
the  Church  upon  his  profligate  nephews,  In- 
nocent introduced  a  still  more  revolting  race 
of  dependants,  in  the  persons  of  his  illegiti- 
mate offspring.  Seven  children,  the  fruits  of 
various  amors,  were  publicly  recognised  by 
the  Vicar  of  Christ,  and  became,  for  the  most 
part,  pensioners  on  the  ecclesiastical  Treas- 
ury. This  was  yet  a  new  scandal  for  the 
Apostolical  Church!  Again,  if  Sixtus  IV. 
was  bold  and  unprincipled,  Innocent  was,  at 
least,  destitute  of  any  positive  virtue ;  and  the 
extreme  weakness  which  distinguished  him 
was,  in  his  circumstances,  little  less  pernicious 
than  wickedness.  With  power  so  vast  and 
arbitrary,  in  a  Court  so  utterly  depraved,  the 
personal  excesses  of  a  vigorous  character 
might  even  have  been  less  hurtful  to  the 
Church,  than  the  unrestrained  license  of  so 
many  masters.  Fewer  crimes  would,  per- 
haps, have  been  perpetrated,  had  the  Pontiff 
resolved  to  be  the  only  criminal.  But  with 
all  his  weakness,  Innocent  was  animated  by 
a  spirit  of  avarice,  which  attracted  observa- 
tion even  in  that  age  of  the  popedom.  And 
he  performed  at  least  one  memorable  exploit, 
as  it  were,  in  the  design  to  surpass  his  prede- 
cessor by  a  still  bolder  insult  on  the  sacred 
College  ;  he  placed  among  its  members  a  boy, 
thirteen  years  old,  the  brother-in-law  of  his 
own  bastard.f     But  the  Court  of  Rome  did 

*  Published  in  1353.      See  Chapter  XXII.  p.  3!>0. 
t  This  boy  was  John,  the  son  of  Lorenzo  tie'  Medici, 


|  not  resent  the  indignity  —  it  was  sunk  even 
;  below  the  sense  of  its  own  infamy. 

The  Pontiff  sounded,  like  most  of  his  pre- 
decessors, the  trumpet  of  a  general  crusade 
against  the  Infidel ;  in  his  addresses  to  the 
European  ambassadors,  he  set  forth,  in  elo- 
quent expressions,  the  blessings  of  concord, 
and  the  calamities  of  international  warfare ; 
and  he  preached  with  the  usual  inefficacy. 
Some  Italian  States  did,  indeed,  exhibit  a 
slight  disposition  to  support  him,  owing  to 
the  greater  proximity  of  the  danger,  and  In- 
nocent persisted,  to  the  end  of  his  reign,  in 
pressing  his  first  solicitations.  But  the  only 
effects  proceeding  from  them  were  those 
which  flowed  into  the  Apostolical  Treasury, 
and  which  the  Pope  consumed,  partly  ia  his 
own  personal  expenses,  partly  in  family  hos- 
tilities against  the  King  of  Naples.  He  died 
in  1492. 

Mexander  VI. — In  the  downward  progress 
of  pontifical  impurity,  from  Paul  II.  we  de- 
scend to  Sixtus  IV. ;  from  Sixtus  to  Innocent 
VIII. ;  from  Innocent  to  Alexander  VI :  and 
here,  at  length,  we  are  arrested  by  the  limits, 
the  utmost  limits,  which  have  been  assigned 
to  papal  and  to  human  depravity.  The  eccle- 
siastical records  of  fifteen  centuries,  through 
which  our  long  journey  is  now  nearly  ended, 
contain  no  name  so  loathsome,  no  crimes  so 
foul  as  his ;  and  while  the  voice  of  every  im- 
partial writer  is  loud  in  his  execration,  he  is, 
in  one  respect,  singularly  consigned  to  infa- 
my, since  not  one  among  the  zealous  annalists 
of  the  Roman  Church  has  breathed  a  whisper 
in  his  praise.  Thus,  those  who  have  pursued 
him  with  the  most  unqualified  vituperations 
are  thought  to  have  described  him  most  faith- 
fully ;  and  the  mention  of  his  character  has 
excited  a  sort  of  rivalry  in  the  expression  of 
indignation  and  hatred. 

The  College  assembled  for  this  election 
amidst  the  tumults  of  the  Roman  people,  who 
were  venting  their  curses  against  the  avarice 
of  the  deceased  Pontiff;  and  it  was  not  till  the 
Conclave  had  been  garrisoned  by  soldiers, 
and  fortified  by  cannon,  that  the  Cardinals 
ventured  to  proceed  to  their  deliberations.  It 
was  presently  discovered  that  the  candidates, 
who  had  any  prospect  of  success,  were  two  f 
the  same  who  became  Leo  X.  It  should  be  observed, 
that  Innocent,  on  making  the  creation,  stipulated  that 
the  boy  should  not  take  his  seat  in  Consistory  till  he 
was  sixteen.  Some  state  the  age  of  creation  at  fifteen, 
that  of  admission  at  eighteen.  See  Raynaldus,  ann 
1489. 

*  Ascagna  Sforza,  who  appeared  at  first  to  possess 
some  claims,  very  soon  resigned  them  in  favor  of 
Borgia. 


512 


HISTORY   OF   THE   CHURCH. 


only.  One  of  them  was  Roderic  Borgia,  who 
was  nephew  of  Calixtus  III. ;  the  other  was 
Julian  della  Rovera,  nephew  of  Sixtus  IV. 
Nepotism  now  formed  so  conspicuous  a  fea- 
ture in  the  pontifical  policy,  that  we  shall  not 
be  surprised  to  see  the  popedom  disputed  by 
the  nephews  of  Popes.  Roderic  was  far  ad- 
vanced in  years ;  he  abounded  in  wealth,  ac- 
cumulated in  the  service  of  the  Church  ;  he 
was,  at  the  same  time,  in  the  enjoyment  of 
three  archbishoprics  in  Spain,  besides  numer- 
ous other  benefices  in  other  quarters  of  Eu- 
rope. All  these  would  be  vacated  by  his 
elevation,  and,  falling  into  his  patronage, 
would  be  bestowed,  of  course,  according  to 
the  measure  of  private  services.  Borgia  was, 
moreover,  a  man  of  some  abilities,  of  great 
address  and  versatility  in  negotiation  and  in- 
trigue, and  of  morals  which  opposed  no  im- 
pediment to  any  means  of  compassing  any 
purpose.  .  .  Julian  possessed  more  powerful 
talents,  and,  though  his  habits  had  been  chiefly 
military,  a  much  less  exceptionable  charac- 
ter. But  he  was  younger ;  his  preferment  was 
not  nearly  so  valuable,  and  the  private  wealth 
at  his  disposal  bore  no  proportion  to  that  of 
his  competitor.  The  College  was  principally 
composed  of  the  creatures  of  the  two  last 
Popes,  Sixtus  and  Innocent,  educated  in  those 
principles,  on  which  the  morals  of  the  Roman 
Court  were  at  this  time  founded.  .  .  .  Ac- 
cordingly the  election  was  not  long  doubtful ; 
indeed,  Borgia  had  taken  a  sure  precaution 
to  preclude  hesitation,  by  placing  two  mules 
laden  with  gold  *  at  the  disposal  of  a  faithful 
Cardinal,  to  be  bestowed  as  occasion  might 
require. 

Manner  of  his  election.  —  Alexander  VI. 
immediately  proceeded,  after  the  example  of 
his  predecessor,  to  fulfil  the  conditions  pri- 
vately stipulated  with  the  cardinals,  who 
had  simoniacally  elected  him.  On  Ascagna 
Sforza  he  conferred  the  profitable  dignity  of 
vice-chancellor  ;  to  Cardinal  Oraini  he  ceded 
his  palace  at  Rome,  together  with  two  other 
mansions;  to  Cardinal  Colonna  he  gave  an 
abbey,  with  numerous  dependences ;  to  the 
cardinal  of  St.  Angelo,  the  bishopric  of  Porto, 
together  with  his  furniture  and  a  cellar  of 
delicious  wines ;  to  others,  churches  or  towns ; 
to  others,  undisguised  gold.  Five  only  in 
the  whole  college  —  one  of  whom  was  Julian, 
his  rival  —  are  believed  to  have  resisted  all 
these  varieties  of  corruption.  In  the  mean- 
time, the  Roman  people,  as  if  they  gloried 
in  the  iniquity  of  their  rulers,  hailed  the  de 


*  Some  say,  four  mules  laden  with  silver.      The 
difference,  in  a  moral  point  of  view,  is  not  important. 


cision  of  the  Conclave  with  unusual  expres* 
sions  of  satisfaction.  On  no  other  occasion 
had  the  holy  city  arrayed  herself  in  such 
festive  splendor,  or  descended  to  such  loath- 
someness of  adulation,*  as  on  that,  when  she 
placed  in  the  apostolical  chair  the  most  prof- 
ligate of  mankind,  and  offered  the  last  insult 
—  we  say  not  to  the  name  of  Christ,  for  that 
had  long  been  scorned, —  but  to  a  Church 
which  still  called  itself  Christian,  and  to  the 
nations  which  still  recognised  that  Church. 

In  early  life,  during  the  pontificate  of  Pius 
II.,  Roderic  Borgia,  already  a  cardinal,  had 
been  stigmatized  by  a  public  censure  for 
his  unmuffied  debaucheries.  Afterwards  he 
publicly  cohabited  with  a  Roman  matron 
named  Vanozia,  by  whom  he  had  five  ac- 
knowledged children.  Neither  in  his  man- 
ners nor  in  his  language  did  he  affect  any 
regard  for  morality  or  for  decency;  and  one 
of  the  earliest  acts  of  his  pontificate  was,  to 
celebrate,  with  scandalous  magnificence,  in 
his  own  palace,  the  marriage  of  his  daughter 
Lucretia.  Those  cardinals,  who  had  con- 
spired for  his  elevation,  could  not  pretend 
either  surprise  or  offence  at  this  outrage. 
But  Julian  della  Rovera  refused  his  counte- 
nance to  thos,e  festivities,  and  shut  himself  up 
in  the  fortress  of  Ostia. 

Negotiations  with  Bajazet. —  At  this  period 
in  the  annals  of  papacy,  the  spiritual  exertions 
of  the  See  were  so  very  insignificant,  com- 
pared with  its  struggles  for  temporal  objects, 
and  these  struggles  were  now  so  interwoven 
with  the  general  politics  of  Europe,  that  to 
trace,  with  any  accuracy,  the  exploits  of 
Alexander,  or  Julius  II.,  would  be  to  trans- 
cribe the  civil  history  of  Italy,  France,  and 
Germany.  Such  a  task  is  consistent  neither 
with  the  limits  of  this  work,  nor  its  design  ; 
and  since  the  various  vices,  which  peculiarly 
distinguished  this  Pope,  are  chiefly  exempli 
fied  in  his  political  transactions,  we  must 
refer  the  reader  to  the  circumstantial  narra- 
tives of  Sismondi,  or   Guicciardinif  —  con- 

*  The  following  distich  was  published  on  this  oc- 
casion : — 

Caesare  magna  fuit,  nunc  Roma  est  maxima;  Sextus 
Eegnat  Alexander  :  ille  vir,  iste  Deus. 

This  was  the  serious  flattery  of  the  day:  some  other 
verses,  published  after  some  little  experience  of  the 
Pope's  divine  administration,  are  'ess  discreditable 
to  the  city  of  Caesar  and  Pasquin 

Vendit  Alexander  Claves,  Altat.n,  Christum. 

Emerat  ille  prius :  vendere  jure  potest. 
De  vitio  in  vitium,  de  flamma  transit  in  ignem; 

Roma  sub  Hispano  deperit  imperio. 
Sextus  Tarquinius,  Sextus  Nero,  Sextus  et  iste — 
Semper  sub  Sextis  perdita  Roma  fuit. 

f  We  shall  cite  the  words  in  which  this  author  has 
drawn  the  character  of  Alexander  VI.     ■  In  Alcssan- 


ALEXANDER  VI. 


513 


tented  in  our  more  contracted  course  to  men 
tion  such  incidents,  as  are  more  closely  con- 
nected either  with  the  religion  of  Christ,  or 
the  economy  of  the  Church,  or  the  preten- 
sions of  the  Apostolical  See.  Thus  shall  we 
not  pass  unnoticed  the  celebrated  project 
of  alliance  against  Charles  VIII.  of  France, 
which  was  proposed  by  Alexander  VI.  to 
Bajazet,  emperor  of  the  Turks.  The  Pope 
appeared,  on  this  occasion,  as  the  Suzerain 
Lord  of  Naples ;  and  in  his  overtures  he  rep- 
resented to  the  Sultan,  that  that  kingdom 
was  menaced  by  foreign  invasion  ;  that  it  was 
the  design  of  Charles  to  subject  it  to  his  au- 
thority, and  then  to  turn  his  arms  into 
Thrace,  against  the  walls  of  Constantinople  ; 
that  the  French  king  was  full  of  ambition, 
and  careless  about  the  means  of  indulging  it ; 
while  for  himself  he  had  nothing  more  at 
heart,  than  the  repose  of  the  Turk,  in  consid- 
eration of  the  good-will  and  mutual  friend 

ship  subsisting  between  them The  nature 

of  the  engagements,  into  which  Bajazet 
consequently  entered,  does  not  certainly  ap 
pear,  but  when  the  crisis  arrived,  he  took 
no  measures  to  fulfil  them  ;  and  the  Vicar  of 
Christ,  after  having  invoked  the  Mahometan 
irms  into  the  heart  of  Europe  against  a 
Christian  prince,  was  pursued  by  the  addi- 
tional, and  to  him  more  bitter,  reflection,  that 
he  had  incurred  that  infamy  in  vain. 

Donation  of  the  newly  discovered  Regions. — 
On  the  return  of  Columbus  to  Spain,  Ferdi- 
nand and  Isabella  announced  to  the  Pope, 
their  compatriot,  the  success  of  his  expedition. 
Alexander  VI.  hastened  to  avail  himself  of  so 
magnificent  an  occasion  to  exhibit  the  plen- 
itude of  his  authority  :  accordingly,  he  con- 
ferred upon  the  crown  of  Castille  the  full 
right  to  possess  all  that  had  been  discovered, 
and  all  that  might  hereafter  be  discovered, 
whether  islands  or  continents,  whether  situ- 
ated in  the  Indies  or  in  any  other  region.  In 
a  succession  of  bulls  published  on  this  subject, 
in  the  year  1493,  at  a  season  when  the  power 

dro  Sesto  fu  solerzia  e  sagacita  singolare.  consiglio 
eccellente,  eificacia  a  persuadeic  mara*'ighosa,  e  a 
tutte  le  faccende  gravi  sollecitudine  e  destrezza  in- 
credibile— ma  crano  quesie  virtu  avanzate  di  grande 
intervallo  da'  vizii  —  costumi  oscenissimi,  non  sin- 
cerita,  non  vergogna,  non  verita,  non  fede,  non  re- 
ligione,  avarizia  insaziabile,  ambizione  immoderata, 
crudeltd  pi:''  chc  barbara,  e  ardpntissiiua  cupidita  di 
esaltare  in  qualunque  medo  i  iigliuoli,  i  quali  erano 
molu ;  e  tra  questi  qualcuno.  .  non  meno  detestabile 
In  parte  alcuna  del  padre.'  Storia  d'  Italia,  lib.  i. 
Guicciardini  was  ten  years  old  when  Borgia  was 
raised  to  the  pontificate,  and  his  history  begins  with 
that  year. 


of  the  See  bore  no  proportion  to  its  ancieDl 
grandeur,  and  when  the  character  of  the  pre- 
lates, who  administered  it,  was  not.  certain- 
ly such  as  to  redeem  its  degradation,  Pope 
Alexander  drew  a  line  along  the  map,  from 
the  north  to  the  south,  and  gave  away,  by  a 
stroke  of  his  pen,  half  the  habitable  world. 
And  so  much  seriousness  did  he  affect  to 
attach  to  his  donation,  that  he  descended  to 
specify  the  exact  distance  from  his  line,  at 
which  the  rights  of  Spain  should  begin,  and 
those  of  other  nations  end. 

It  is   proper  to    add,  that   the    Portuguese 
contested  the  validity  of  the  act.     Let  us  in- 
quire,  then,   on  what   ground   did   they   rest 
their  opposition  1      Did  they  dispute   the  au- 
thority by  which  the  edict  had  been  issued? 
Far  otherwise ;  only  they  maintained  that,  by 
a   similar  act,   Eugenius   IV.   had   previously 
bestowed   the  same   rights  upon  themselves. 
It  was  no  contest  between  the  king  of  Portu- 
gal and  the  See  of  Rome,  but  only  a  question 
whether  a  Pope  could  confer  upon  one  prince, 
what  a  preceding  Pope  had  already  bestowed 
upon  anothei.     And  in  this  dispute,  between 
a  living   and   a   departed   pontiff,   after  many 
assemblies   had   been  held,  and   new  bounda- 
ries delineated,  and  great  violence  displaced, 
Alexander  persisted,   and  succeeded,  i*  defi- 
ance of  every  right  and  every  semblance  even 
of  pontifical  justice.     In  the   yea-'  following, 
Africa  became  the  subject  of  *  very  similar 
dispute  ;  but  on  this  occasio-n  the  Pope  showed 
thus  much  respect  to  the  authority  of  Pius  II., 
who  had   conferred  the  contested    provinces 
upon  Portugal,  that  he  confined  the  conquests 
of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  to  the  kingdoms 
of  Algiers  and   Tunis,  leaving  Fez   and   the 
contiguous  regions  to  the  possession   of  Por- 
tugal.    VTe  may  smile  at  the  arrogance  of  a 
declining  despotism  ;    nor  shall  we  be   aston- 
sbed    by  the    obsequiousness    of  those    who 
found   their   interest   in   obsequiousness.      At 
J  the  same  time,  if  the  right  of  the  See  was  not 
i  disputed,  the  motives  which  it  pretended  were 
certainly  such  as  to  justify  the  exercise  of  its 
right.     For  it  was  expressly  stipulated  in  the 
act  of  donation,  that  holy  and  pious  missiona- 
ries should   be  despatched  forthwith,  for  the 
conversion  of  the  newly  conquered  tracts,  and 
the  extension  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  and  of 
the  Catholic  Church. 

Charles  VIII.  at  No  ,c.— When  CMrlcs  VIII. 
entered  Rome,  in  the  year  1494,  Julian  del- 
la  Kovera  (as  well  as  some  other  cardinals) 
was  in  his  suite,  and  shared  in  his  counsels.* 


65 


*  Guicciardini  (lib.  i.  cap.  iii.)  does  not  hesitate- 
to  ascribe  the  accomplishment  of  Charles's  designs 


514 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


Frcm  the  determined  hostility  of  Julian; 
from  the  wish  for  reformation,  which  had 
so  often  heen  manifested  by  the  court  and 
people  of  France ;  from  the  undue  estimate 
then  formed  of  the  character  of  the  actual 
king,  Alexander  felt  reason  to  apprehend  the 
accomplishment  of  the  menace  so  frequently 
repeated, — the  assembly  of  a  general  council ; 
and  he  easily  foresaw,  that  the  first  act  of  that 
council  would  be,  to  depose  himself.  From 
the  castle  of  St.  Angelo  he  opened  negotia- 
tions with  the  conqueror;  but,  whether  it  had 
never  been  the  intention  of  Charles  to  press 
the  Holy  See  to  any  extremities,  or  whether, 
as  is  believed  by  the  best  writers,  Alexander 
found  means  to  corrupt  the  most  intimate 
advisers  of  the  king  by  largesses  and  pro- 
mises, the  designs  of  Julian  were  frustrated, 
and  the  dignity  of  the  Pope  was  preserved 
by  a  favorable  convention.  He  returned  to 
the  pontifical  palace;  he  resumed  his  former 
state  ;  he  gave  the  king  a  formal  reception  at 
St.  Peter's,  with  the  usual  solemnities;  and 
the  king  did  not  disdain  to  submit  to  the 
usual  humiliation.  He  bent  his  knees,  and 
kissed  the  pontiff's  foot  and  hand  ;  and,  sub- 
sequently, on  the  celebration  of  the  pontifi- 
cal moss,  took  his  seat  below  the  first  cardinal, 
and  mhustered  water  to  the  hands  of  the 
pope.*  SmcIi  were  the  marks  of  deference 
which  had  long  been  exacted  by  Popes,  and 
paid  by  Sovereigns ;  but  never,  till  now,  had 
they  been  prostituted  so  gratuitously — never, 
till  now,  had  they  been  tendered  in  the  place 
of  chastisement  and  infamy,  by  a  powerful 
and  victorious  prince,  to  a  pontiff  as  destitute 
of  strength,  as  he  was  notoriously  polluted 
with  crimes. 

Zizim  the  brother  of  Bajazet.—  There  was 
one  article  in  the  above  treaty  which  leads  to 
the  mention  of  a  singular  episode  in  papal 
history.     The  Sultan  Bajazet  had  a  brother 


and  ambition,  made  him  dangerous  to  the 
throne.  The  morals  of  the  Seraglio  permit- 
ted the  destruction  of  such  rivals;  and  Zizim, 
fearing  that  fate,  had  escaped  to  Rhodes,  and 
placed  himself  in  Christian  hands.  From 
Rhodes  he  was  carried  to  France,  and  thence 
he  passed  into  the  custody  of  Pope  Innocent 
VIII.  It  was  then  that  Bajazet,  availing  him- 
self of  the  avarice  of  the  vicars  of  Christ  as 
the  means  of  preserving  the  concord  of  an 
empire  hostile  to  the  Christian  faith,  engaged 
to  pay  to  the  See  a  yearly  sum  of  forty  thou- 
sand ducats — nominally,  for  the  keeping  and 
entertainment  of  his  brother;  really,  to  make 
it  the  interest  of  the  Vatican  to  secure  the 
prisoner  at  Rome,  and  not  to  resign  him  to 
any  enemy  of  the  empire.*  The  money  was 
faithfully  paid,  and  Zizim  remained  a  safe 
and  profitable  captive  at  the  apostolical  court. 
Charles  VIII.,  who  seems  at  that  time  to 
have  really  harbored  some  ulterior  designs 
against  the  Turkish  power,  stipulated  with 
Alexander  for  the  possession  of  Zizim.  The 
pontiff  observed  his  engagement ;  but  the 
prisoner  carried  with  him  from  bis  confine- 
ment the  seeds  of  a  mortal  disorder.  He  died 
very  soon  afterwards  ;  and  there  seems  some 
reason  to  believe,  that  the  cause  of  his  death 
was  a  slow  and  subtle  poison  administered 
under  the  superintendence  of  Alexander.! 

The  Duke  Valentino.  —  Caesar  Borgia  was 
the  second,  and  favorite,  and  worthy  son  of 
Alexander  VI.  He  commenced  his  career 
as  a  Churchman  ;  but  in  1498,  he  found  it 
more  politic  at  once  to  throw  off  that  profes- 
sion ;  and  he  then  received  the  title,  which 
he  has  rendered  one  of  the  most  famous  in 
history.  As  Duke  Valentino,  or  Valentiuois, 
he  took  the  field  in  Romagna,  the  temporal 
champion  of  the  Holy  See,  for  the  destruction 
of  its  enemies,  the  confirmation  of  its  author- 
ity over  the  city,  and  the  enlargement  of  its 


named  Zizim,  or  Jem,  (like  himself,  the  son  j|  territories.  _  Supported    by  the   talents  and 
of  Mahomet  II.,)  whose  popularity,  courage, 


against  Italy  to  this  Cardinal — '  fatale  instrumento  e 
allora,  e  prima,  e  poi  de'mali  d'ltalia.' —  The  King 
at  one  moment  certainly  relaxed  in  his  zeal,  and  was 
reanimated  by  the  authority  and  vehemence  of  Julian. 
*  Guicciardini  mentions,  that  the  Pope,  to  preserve 
the  memory  of  these  ceremonies  to  all  posterity,  caused 
them  to  be  represented  in  painting,  in  one  of  the  cham- 
bers of  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo.  It  is  to  be  remark- 
ed, that  they  were  the  formal  ceremonies  following 
the  reconciliation  of  the  parties.  On  their  first  meet- 
ing, which  was  not  thoroughly  official,  some  of  the 
most  humiliating  were  dispensed  with.  The  '  Capit- 
ula  Conventionis  Papae  et  Regis  Francis,  &c.,'  are 
cited  from  the  '  Diary  of  Burchard,'  by  Roscoe,  Life 
of  Leo  X.,  Appendix,  No.  xxxv 


resources  of  his  father,  he  succeeded  in  these 
designs  to  an  extent  attained  in  no  preceding 
age,  and  by  means  which  are  known  to  every 
reader.  But,  in  seeking  thus  to  advance  the 
interests  of  the  Church,  Alexander  had,  in 
truth,  no  other  design  than  to  aggrandize  his 


*  Guicciaid.,  lib.  i.  cap.  iii. 

t  Of  course  this  fact  is  not,  not  could  it  well  have 
been,  undisputed.  Raynaldus  (arm  1495,  s.  8,  &c.) 
refers  to  Burchardus  to  prove  that  the  captive  died 
from  a  change  of  diet.  The  words  of  Burchardus 
are  — '  15  Feburier,  le  fils  du  grand  Turc  vnourut  a 
Naples — ex  esu  sive  potu  non  convenient  naturae  suse 

et  consueto  '      At   the    same    time,  Raynaldus 

mentions  the  vulgar  account,  which  is  affirmed  by 
Guicciardini.    See  Roscoe,  Life  of  Leo  X.,  chap,  iv 


ALEXANDER  VI. 


516 


son ;  nor  did  Valentino  toil  through  such  a 
mass  of  crimes  with  any  more  distant  object, 
than  to  erect  a  principality  for  himself.*  To 
this  end  he  had  calculated,  as  seemed  to  him, 
every  possible  contingency  ;  by  much  daring, 
great  address,  and  an  entire  contempt  of  every 
scruple,  of  all  faith,  and  of  all  shame,  he  had  al- 
ready accomplished  much  :  and,  to  secure  the 
stability  of  his  power,  he  had  employed  every 
expedient  within  the  reach  of  human  fore- 
sight—  when  the  realization  of  his  schemes 
was  put  to  an  unexpected  trial,  by  the  death 
of  his  father,  and  his  own  dangerous  sick- 
ness. 

Death  of  Alexander  VI.  —  The  following 
are  the  circumstances  relating  to  the  death  of 
Alexander,  which  stand  on  the  most  extensive 
evidence  : — The  Duke  Valentino,  being  great- 
ly in  want  of  money  to  pay  his  troops,  appli- 
ed to  his  father  for  assistance  ;  but  the  apos- 
tolical treasury  was  exhausted,  and  neither 
resources  nor  credit  were  then  at  hand  to 
replenish  it.     On  which  the  duke  suggested 

*  '  Yet  what  lie  did  (says  Machiavel)  turned  to 
tlie  Church's  advantage;  which,  after  the  death  of 
the  Pope,  and  the  removal  of  the  Duke,  became  the 
heir  of  all  his  pains.'  The  partiality  of  this  writer 
to  the  public  character  of  the  Duke  (with  whom  he 
was  personally  acquainted)  is  known  to  every  one. 
Yet  there  is  a  passage  (in  the  Prince,  chap,  vii.) 
which  is  worth  citing.  '  Having  thus  collected  all 
the  Duke's  actions,  methinks  I  could  not  well  blame 
him,  but  rather  set  him  as  a  pattern  to  be  followed 
by  all  those  who,  by  profane  and  other  means,  have 
been  exalted  to  an  empire Whoever,  there- 
fore, deems  it  necessary,  on  his  entrance  into  a  new 
principality,  to  secure  himself  from  his  enemies,  and 
gain  his  friends;  to  overcome,  either  by  force,  or  by 
cunning  ;  to  make  himself  beloved  or  feared  of  his 
people  ;  to  be  followed  and  reverenced  by  his  soldiers ; 
to  root  out  those  that  can  hurt  him,  or  owe  him  any 
hurt;  to  change  the  ancient  orders  for  new  ways;  to 
be  severe,  and  yet  acceptable,  magnanimous,  and  lib- 
eral; to  extinguish  the  unfaithful  soldiery,  and  create 
new;  to  maintain  to  himself  the  amities  of  kings  and 
princes,  so  that  they  shall  either  with  favor  benefit, 
or  be  wary  how  they  offend  him  —  cannot  find  more 
fresh  and  lively  examples  than  in  the  actions  of  this 
roan.'  In  a  separate  narrative,  usually  published  in 
the  same  volume,  Machiavel  relates  at  length  (what 
is,  no  doubt,  one  of  those  lively  example')  the  methods 
which  the  Duke  employed  to  rid  himself  of  certain 
enemies  —  Vitellozzo  Vitelli,  Oliverotto  of  Fermo, 
Paul,  and  the  Duke  of  Gravina;  and  a  more  black 
and  scandalous  tissue  of  perfidy,  cruelty,  and  villany 
cannot  possibly  be  imagined.  That  he  was  the  author 
of  the  assassination  of  his  elder  brother,  the  Duke  of 
Gandi.l,  is  believed  by  most  historians;  and  thai  the  \ 
motive  was  an  incestuous  jealousy  respecting  their 
common  sister  is  a  further  imputation  advanced  by 
many,  and  not  rejected  by  Sismondi ;  but  there  is  no 
sufficient  evidence  to  establish  either  of  these  charges. 


to  the  Pope  an  easy,  and,  as  it  would  seem, 
not  very  unusual  method  of  supplying  their 
wants.  The  Cardinal  Corneto,  as  well  as 
some  others  of  the  sacred  college,  had  a  great 
reputation  for  wealth  ;  and  it  was  then  the 
practice  at  Koine  for  the  property  of  cardinals 
to  devolve,  on  their  decease,  to  the  See.  He 
proposed  to  get  rid  of  this  Corneto.  The 
Pope  consented ;  and,  accordingly,  invited 
the  cardinals  to  an  entertainment,  which  he 
prepared  for  them  in  his  vineyard  of  Corneto, 
for  it  was  near  the  Vatican.  Among  the 
wines  sent  for  this  occasion,  one  bottle  was 
prepared  with  poison ;  and  instructions  were 
carefully  given  to  the  superintendent  of  the 
feast  respecting  the  disposal  of  that  bottle. 
It  happened  that,  some  little  time  before  sup- 
per, the  Pops  and  his  son  arrived,  and,  as  it 
was  very  hot,  they  called  for  wine.  And 
then,  whether  through  the  error  or  the  ab- 
sence of  the  confidential  officer,  the  poisoued 
bottle  was  presented  to  them.  Both  drank 
of  it,  and  both  immediately  suffered  its  vio- 
lent effects.  Valentino,  who  had  mixed  much 
water  with  his  wine,  and  was,  besides,  young 
and  vigorous,  through  the  immediate  use  of 
powerful  antidotes,*  was  saved.     But  Alex- 


*  He  is  said  to  have  been  inclosed  in  the  belly  of  a 

living  mule,  and  so  preserved The  following 

is  the  brief  account  given  by  Paul  Joviusof  this  trans- 
action, in  the  beginning  of  lib.  ii.,De  Vita  Leonis  X. 
'  Nam  Pontifex  inopiae  metu  rapax  atque  illo  immani 
ingenio  ssevus,  ut  Caesari  filio  magnos  aleflti  exercitus 
et  regio  luxu  liberalitatem  passim  ostendenli  pecuniam 
suppeditaret,  ditissimura  quvrnque  Cardinalium  veneno 
stistulerat,  haud  dubie  i»  relfquos  aulas  sacerdotiis  at- 
que opibus  insignes  naereditatis  spe  saeviturus,  nisi 
admirabili  deorura  pjwVidentia  homo  in  religionis 
causa  probrosus  et  quod  omnium  fortunae  interfuit,  ad 
exitium  Italne  nattis,  sibi  mortem,  supremam  vero 
Ca?sari  lih'o  cafainitntem,  peperisset — hilariori  scilicet 
in  cosiia  dnm  ad  umbrosum  Vaticani  foutem  venenum 
bibunt,  lagena  pocillatoris  errore  commutata,  quam 
dira  fraude  opulentia  aliquot  senatoribus  honoris 
spee'e  paravissent.  Rfortuo  Alexandre,  et  Cajsare 
exquisitis  anlidolis  vel  in  ipso  juventae  robore  veneni 
iinpetum  vix  sustincntc,  Comitia  sunt  habila,'  &c.  &c. 
The  same  author  describes  the  same  event  (De  vita 
Magni  Consalvij  lib.  ii.)  with  little  variation,  but 
with  the  following  addition: — '  Accepi  ego  ab  Ad- 
riano  Cardinal"  Cornetano,  in  cujus  villa  co?nabatur, 
se  eodeni  mortifero  poculo  petitum  ita  exarsisse  eo 
sjnbito  viscerum  fervore,  ut  obortae  caliginea  oppressta 
sensibus    sibi    rationem    excuterent,   sese    in    solium 

frigitla   plenum  mergere  c retur,  neque  prius  per- 

usiis  inleraneis  ad  vitain  rediisse,  quam  ei  extrema 
cutis  in  exiivias  alliens  toio  corpora  decideret.' 
Raphael  Voljitcn aims,  in  his  life  of  Alexander  VI., 
likewise  mentions  the  illness  of  the  cardinal,  simul- 
taneous with  that  of  the  Pope.  Voltaire  disbelieves 
the  whole  story,  owing  to  its  extreme  improbability; 


516 


HISTORY   OF   THE  CHURCH. 


ander  having  taken  his  draught  nearly  pure, 
and  being  likewise  enfeebled  by  age,  died  in 
the  course  of  the  same  evening. 

It  is  proper  to  add,  that  there  are  two  other 
accounts  of  this  transaction,  differing  from 
that  which  is  here  given  on  the  general  agree- 
ment of  numerous  authorities.  One  is  that 
of  Pietro  Martin  d'Angleria,  a  councillor  of 
Ferdinand,  of  whom  an  epistle  is  extant,  in 
which  the  Pope  is  exculpated  from  all  par- 
ticipation in  the  crime,  and  the  whole  guilt 
thrown  upon  the  duke.  And  this  has  been 
received  by  some  writers  as  the  more  prob- 
able, through  consideration  of  the  general 
hatred  then  subsisting  against  Alexander,  and 
the  prevalent  disposition  to  propagate  and 
believe  any  evil  rumor  respecting  him  ;  but 
Ave  are  not  aware  that  it  rests  on  any  other 
original  testimony.  The  other  account  is 
extracted  by  Raynaldus  (ann.  1503,  sect,  xi.,) 
from  a  manuscript  journal  of  the  house  of 
Borgia;*  and  herein  we  are  entertained  by 
a  circumstantial  description  of  the  last  na- 
tural illness  of  Alexander,  the  character  of 
the  fever,  the  practice  of  the  physicians,  the 
piety  of  the  departing  pontiff,  the  reverence 
with  which  he  received  the  last  sacrament, 
the  demeanor  of  the  cardinals  and  others 
who  were  present  at  the  edifying  scene.  But 
this  family  narrative,  being  at  variance  with 
the  less  partial  accounts  of  the  same  transac- 
tion, may  be  rejected  without  much  hesita- 
tion. 

Such,  then,  was  the  probable  end  of  Alex- 
ander VI. :  he  was  poisoned  by  the  cup  pre- 
pared for  his  own  guest  by  his  own  hand, 
or,  at  least,  by  the  hand  of  a  beloved  son, 
whose  notorious  crimes  he  had  long  endured 
and  fostered,  and  whom  he  seems  to  have 
loved  for  those  very  crimes ;  so  that,  in  res- 
pect to  his  general  character,  it  imports  not 
very  much,  whether  he  was  an  accomplice 
or  not  in  that  last  offence,  of  which  he  was 
the  deserving  victim.  'All  Rome  (says 
Guicciardini)  rushed  to  St.  Peter's  to  behold 


while  he  allows  that  the  father  and  son  were  '  les  deux 
plus  grands  scelerats  panni  les  puissances  de  l'Europe.' 
Is  the  story,  then,  so  very  improbable'?  But  if  it  were, 
mere  probability  is  a  very  faithless  test  of  historical 
truth.  Things  contrary  to  all  calculation  are  happen- 
ing every  day,  and  have  always  happened. 

*  Sismondi  likewise  refers  to  the  '  Letters  of  the 
Ambassador  of  the  House  of  Este,'  and  to  Muratori, 
Annali  d'  Italia,  torn,  x.  p.  15.  According  to  Guic- 
ciardini (lib.  vi.),  the  death  of  Alexander  took  place 
on  August  17,  1503,— 'e  il  giorno  seguente  e  portato 
morto  secondo  1'  uso  dei  Pontilic  inella  Chiesa  di  San 
Piero,  nero,  infiato  e  bruttissimo  segni  manifestissirai 
di  veleno.' 


his  corpse  with  incredible  festivity  ;  nor  was 
there  any  man  who  could  satiate  his  eyes 
with  gazing  on  the  remains  of  a  serpent, 
which,  by  his  immoderate  ambition  and  pes- 
tiferous perfidy,  and  every  manner  of  fright- 
ful cruelty,  of  monstrous  lust  and  unheard- 
of  avarice,  trafficing  indiscriminately  with 
things  sacred  and  profane,  had  impoisoned 
the  whole  world.'  Yet  the  world  still  con- 
tinued to  acknowledge  the  vicegerent  of 
Christ,  and  to  bow  before  the  throne  of  St. 
Peter.  The  cup  was  not  yet  full ;  some  few 
remaining  iniquities  were  still  to  be  accom- 
plished ;  the  arm  of  vengeance  was  still  sus- 
pended, and  Luther,  the  destined  instrument, 
had  not  yet  commenced  his  noviciate  among 
the  Augustinian  Mendicants. 

Election  and  Death  of  Pius  ///.  —  After 
the  funeral  honors  had  been  duly  paid  to  the 
departed  pontiff,  eight  and  thirty  cardinals 
entered  into  Conclave  to  choose  a  successor. 
The  unusual  number  of  the  electors  may  be 
one  reason  why  the  present  election  was  not 
charged  with  simony;  but  it  presented  a 
scene  of  treacherous  intrigue,  scarcely  less 
shameful,  in  which  Julian  della  Rovera  was 
the  principal  actor — for  as  no  man  was  more 
daring  in  warfare,  so  was  not  any  one  more 
astute  in  duplicity,  than  he.  By  the  success 
of  his  machinations,  a  sick  and  feeble  old 
man,  the  nephew  of  Pius  II.,  was  raised  to 
the  pontificate  on  September  22,  1503;  and 
scarcely  had  he  received  the  ordination  to 
the  priesthood,  (which,  though  a  cardinal,  he 
had  not  previously  received,)  and  undergone 
the  ceremony  of  coronation,  and  assumed  the 
name  of  Pius  III.,  when  he  died — six  and 
twenty  days  after  his  election.  Great  expect- 
ations were  excited  by  his  reputed  virtues 
and  piety  and  his  ardently  expressed  desire 
for  a  reformation  of  the  Church  ;  and  it  may 
be  fortunate  for  his  memory  that  they  were 
disappointed  by  his  death,  rather  than  by 
some  act  of  apostasy,  by  which  he  might  not 
improbably  have  imitated  so  many  of  his  pre- 
decessors. 

Julian  II. —  Julian  celebrated  the  mass  at 
his  obsequies ;  and  scarcely  was  that  office 
performed  when  he  re-opened  his  former 
intrigues  in  the  design,  on  this  occasion,  of 
procuring  his  own  election.  He  gained  the 
leading  cardinals;  he  gained  the  Duke  de 
Valentinois,  who  directed  the  Spanish  party 
in  the  conclave,  by  magnificent  promises, 
and  the  confidence  that  they  would  be  ob- 
served. On  the  very  first  scrutiny,  Julian 
della  Rovera  was  unanimously  raised  to  the 
chair  of  Alexauder  VI.      We  should  here 


PIUS   III.  — JULIUS    II. 


517 


mention  that,  before  the  election  of  Pius  III., 
the  cardinals  in  conclave  had  bound  the 
future  Pope,  among  other  conditions,  to  con- 
voke a  council  general  for  the  reform  of  the 
Church,  within  two  years  from  the  time  of 
his  election,  and  to  make  the  assembly  of 
such  councils,  hereafter,  triennial.  It  appears 
that  Julian,  on  his  elevation,  gave  his  assent 
to  the  same  stipulations.* 

His  military  character.  —  He  took  the  name 
of  Julius  II.,  thereby  intending,  as  many 
suppose,  to  avow  his  preference  of  the  mili- 
tary to  the  sacerdotal  character,  and  to  declare 
his  greater  disposition  to  imitate  the  glories 
of  Pagan,  than  of  Christian,  Rome.  Assur- 
edly his  whole  pontificate  was  directed  by 
such  motives;  and  if  the  ten  years,  through 
which  it  extended,  are  not  wholly  destitute 
of  events  properly  appertaining  to  ecclesias- 
tical history,  those  events  did  scarcely  ever 
originate  with  the  Pope,  and  were  unconnec- 
ted with  the  principles  of  his  government. 
It  was  not  that  he  neglected,  in  the  progress 
of  his  negotiations  and  campaigns,  to  carry 
on  his  lips  the  name  of  St.  Peter,  to  whet  the 
material  upon  the  spiritual  sword,  and  to 
thunder  forth  bulls  and  anathemas  with  all 
the  majesty  of  former  days ;  but  it  was  in 
this  respect  only  that  he  was  distinguished 
from  the  other  temporal  sovereigns,  with 
whom  he  leagued  or  contended. 

After  so  long  a  course  of  pontifical  degen- 
eracy, in  the  hands  of  a  Pope  so  absolutely 
secular  as  Julius,  it  might  have  been  expected 
that  those  bolts  had  lost  their  force  and  their 
terrors;  and  that  the  bishop  of  Rome,  having 
descended  to  the  policy  of  a  secular  prince, 
would  have  been  treated  by  his  brother  prin- 
ces with  no  superior  reverence.  Yet  was  it 
otherwise;  the  fetters  of  the  inveterate  preju- 
dice were  not  yet  wholly  unloosed,  and  the 
spiritual  weapon  was  still  an  object  of  appre- 
hension even  to  the  king  of  France.  So  late 
as  the  year  1510,  Louis  XII.,f  being  deeply 
embroiled  with  the  Pope,  and  struck  with 
the  sentence  of  excommunication.  assembled 
a  council  of  his  clergy  at  Tours,  and  formally 
demanded  their  opinions  on  Mich  points  as 
these: — 'Whether  the   Pope  had  a  right  to 


*  The  form  of  the  oath  deserves  to  bo  cited  in  its 
very  words.  *  Pnemissa  omnia  et  singula  promitto, 
voveo  et  juro  observare  et  adimplere,  in  omnibus  et 
per  omnia,  pure  et  simpliciter  et  bona  fide,  realitcr, 
et  cum  effectu  perjurii  et  anathematis,  a  quihus  nee 
me  ipsum  absolvaui,  nee  alieni  absolutionem  commit- 
tam.  Ita  me  Dens  adjuvet,  &e.'  It  appears  in 
Beausobre,  Hist.  Refov*n.  liv.  i. 

f  The  same  who  caused  a  coin  to  be  struck,  bear- 
ing the  inscription,  Perdam  Babylonis  nomen. 


make  war,  when  neither  the  interests  of  reli- 
gion, nor  the  domains  of  the  Church  were  in 
danger?  Whether  a  prince  might  seize  the 
ecclesiastical  states,  in  case  the  Pope  were 
his  declared  enemy,  and  keep  temporary  pos- 
session of  them,  until  he  should  have  hum- 
bled his  adversary  ?  Whether,  under  the 
same  circumstances,  a  subtraction  of  obedi- 
ence, under  certain  restrictions,  were  lawful? 
Whether  a  prince  might  defend  another 
prince  —  his  ally  —  against  the  pontifical 
arms?'  Such  were  the  scruples  which  still 
were  felt  even  in  the  court  of  France.  They 
were  removed  by  the  loyalty  of  the  episcopal 
assembly:  nevertheless,  even  after  their  re- 
moval, enough  remained  to  distinguish  the 
apostolical  from  all  other  governments ;  and 
as  those  distinctions  were  founded  jii  popular 
opinion,  fostered  by  priestly  influence,  it  was 
not  very  easy  to  counteract  their  effect,  or 
foresee  their  termination. 

His  successes.  —  Julius   II.    knew   better 
than  any  one  the  advantage  which  he  thus 
possessed,  and  he  likewise  knew  the  precise 
extent  of  it,  so  that  in  using  it  constantly,  he 
seldom  abused  it ;  and  thus  it  proved  that  he 
was  successful  beyond  all  expectation  in  the 
accomplishment  of  his  most  difficult  designs. 
When  he  ascended  the  throne,  he  found  the 
Duke  de  Valentinois  in  possession  of  many 
cities  in  the  Rcmagna,  rfhich  the  latter  had 
usurped  during  the  reign  of  Alexander,  and 
of  which  he  appropriated  the  revenues.   Him, 
the  most  dissembling  of  men,  Julius  in  some 
measure  supplanted  by  dissimulation.*    From 
another  nobleman  (Paolo  Baglioni)  he  recov- 
ered the  city  of  Perugia  by  singular  audacity  ; 
he  suddenly  entered  the  hold  of  his  enemy 
with  his  cardinals  only,  attended  by  no  es- 
cort, and  in  such  guise  reclaimed  and  recov- 
ered his  rights  of  sovereignty.     He  compelled 
the  Venetians  to  restore  several  places  which 
they  had  conquered   from  the  Holy  See  — 
Rimini,  Faenza,  Ravenna,  Cervia;  and  before 
the  end  of  bis  pontificate,  he  had  established 
a  direct  authority  over  all  the   cities  which 
constitute  the  ecclesiastical  states.     Even  in 
Milan  he  was  almost  paramount,  while  Mo- 
dena,  Reggio,  Parma,  Piacenza,  were  held  in 


*  Alexander  VI.,  who  detested  Julian,  always  ad- 
1 1 1 i 1 1 r- .  1  that  lie  had  one,  though  only  one,  redeeming 
quality :  it  was  veracity.  This  reputation,  Guiceiar- 
diui  says,  gave  him  great  opportunities  of  lying  with 
advantage.  Nevertheless,  in  this  case,  having  the 
Duke's  person  entirely  in  his  power,  lie  certainly  did 
not  treat  him  so  ill  as  the  principles  of  his  enemies, 
and  even  of  his  age  would  have  justified,  nor  nearly 
so  severely  as  many  expected  and  hoped. 


518 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


the  name  of  the  Church.*  And  some  have 
supposed,  that,  had  his  reign  been  prolong- 
ed for  a  very  few  years,  the  whole  extent 
of  Italy  would  have  been  united  under  the 
sceptre  of  St.  Peter. 

The  object,  however,  which  he  more  open- 
ly professed,  and  which  was  at  least  honor- 
able to  his  patriotism,  was  the  expulsion  of 
all  foreigners  (Barbari)  from  the  soil  of  Italy. 
The  measures,  by  which  he  pursued  that 
object,  belong  to  civil  history,  as  well  as  the 
splendid  reputation  which  they  acquired  for 
him.  The  talents  and  the  qualities  of  Philip 
and  Alexander  are  described  by  the  panegyr- 
ists of  Julius,  as  combined  in  him:  even  in 
their  vices  he  resembled  them — anger  and 
intemperance.  Respecting  the  particulars 
of  his  policy,  it  is  recorded  that  he  never 
would  listen  to  any  proposal  of  peace,  so  long 
as  war,  with  any  promise  of  success,  was 
open  to  him :  yet  that  he  so  conducted  war, 
as  to  be  in  perpetual  negotiation.  Enemies, 
as  well  as  friends,  were  made  to  serve  his 
designs,  and  distant,  as  well  as  neighboring, 
powers.  He  was  so  fierce  and  indefatigable 
a  warrior,  that  at  an  age  almost  decrepit  he 
did  not  shrink,  when  necessary,  from  sharing 
the  severest  toils  of  the  meanest  soldiers:  but, 
at  the  same  time,  no  one  ever  wielded  the 
spiritual  weapon  with  more  imposing  author- 
ity than  Julius.  His  energy  in  the  Vatican 
was  scarcely  surpassed  by  his  bravery  in  the 
field ;  and  he  dictated  a  Ynill  with  the  same 
energy  with  which  he  commanded  an  army. 
It  was,  moreover,  particularly  remarked,  that 
he  directed  the  ecclesiastical  functions,  and 
mingled  in  the  holy  services,  with  wonderful 
decorum  and  solemnity:  thus  under  no  cir- 
cumstances forgetting  the  advantages  to  be 
derived  from  his  sacred  office,  nor  ever  failing 
to  make  it  the  means  of  raising  his  personal 
dignity,  or  advancing  his  political  purposes. 

His  patronage  of  the  Arts. — Another  proof 
of  the  expanded  mind  of  Julius  II.  was,  his 
patronage  of  the  arts  of  peace,  which  had 
suffered  in  the  general  degradation  of  the 
preceding  pontificates.  Many  celebrated  mas- 
ters flourished  during  his  reign,  and  his  en- 
couragement was  never  wanting  to  animate, 
nor  Iiis  liberality  to  support  them.  The  foun- 
dations of  St.  Peter's  after  being  designed  by 
Nicholas  V.,  were  finally  laid  by  Julius ;  and 
to  prove  the  value  which  he  attached  to  that 
undertaking,  he  placed  the  first  stone  with 
his  own  hand.  The  accumulation  of  so  many 
and  such  various  qualities  in  one  character 

*  See  Denina,  Rivol.  d'  Ital.,  lib.  xix.  cap.  vii. 
and  lib.  xx.  cap.  i.,  ii.,  iii. 


leaves  no  space  to  doubt  his  extraordinary 
capacity.  And  could  we  be  contented  to 
consider  him  only  as  a  secular  prince — could 
we  forget  that  he  was  really  the  chief  of  the 
Church  of  Christ,  and  that  he  professed  to 
be  his  vicegerent — the  homage  which  is  ex- 
torted by  his  genius,  his  audacity,  and  the  am- 
bitious grandeur  of  his  spirit,  however  qual- 
ified by  his  political  immorality,  would  be 
offered  with  less  reluctance. 

Some  Cardinals  convoke  a  Council  at  Pisa. 
—  But  the  Popes,  even  during  this  their  sea- 
son of  licentiousness,  had  not  wholly  forgot- 
ten the  lessons  inculcated  at  Constance  and 
Basle ;  and  among  the  various  dangers  to 
which  they  were  liable,  the  name  which  ever 
filled  them  with  the  deepest  apprehension, 
was  that  of  a  general  Council.  And  thus, 
when  Julius  engaged  *  to  convoke  such  an 
assembly  within  two  years  from  his  election, 
nothing  was  farther  from  his  intention  than 
to  keep  his  faith,  and  in  effect  he  constant- 
ly eluded  every  proposition  tending  to  that 
end.  The  king  of  France  saw  the  advantage 
thus  given  him  ;  and  as  there  was  also  a  party 
in  the  sacred  college,  which,  through  an  hon- 
est regard  for  the  Church,  or  a  personal  dis- 
pleasure against  the  Pope,  (for  Julius  II.,  by 
an  ungracious  and  disdainful  manner,  fre- 
quently offended  even  those  whom  he  in- 
tended to  oblige,)  boldly  clamored  for  the 
redemption  of  his  pledge,  Louis  at  length 
prevailed  upon  them  to  summon  the  council 
on  their  own  authority.  They  were  nine  in 
number;  and  the  city  which  they  appointed 
for  the  assembly  was  Pisa ;  it  was  a  place 
convenient  to  the  French  and  Italian  prelates, 
and  it  contained,  in  its  own  history,  the  pre- 
cedent of  a  general  council,  summoned  by 
cardinals.  The  emperor  Maximilian  gave 
only  a  cold  assent  to  these  proceedings.  Ju- 
lius exerted  every  nerve  to  crush  the  project : 
nevertheless,  the  prelates  met  together,  and 
the  council  was  formally  opened  on  the  1st 
of  November,  1511.  Presently  some  tumults 
between  the  French  and  Florentine  soldiers 
alarmed  the  fathers;  and  after  the  third  ses- 
sion they  retired  to  Milan,  where  they  were 
entirely  under  French  protection.  During 
that  winter  and  the  following  spring  they 
held   five   other  sessions;  and   then,   as  the 

*  Raynaldi,  Annales,  1503,  s.  i.,  ho.  It  should, 
perhaps,  be  mentioned,  that  Julius  published,  in  1506, 
a  severe  edict  against  the  simoniacal  election  of 
Popes.  He  pronounced  Popes  so  elected  to  be  Here- 
siarchs,  and  consequently  degraded  and  deposed. 
The  decree  was  confirmed  in  the  Latei^n  Council 
which  followed. 


I.EO   X. 


519 


German  bishops  had  never  joined  them,  and 
as  the  emperor  had  at  length  withdrawn  even 
the  equivocal  countenance  hitherto  vouch- 
safed to  them,  they  retired,  for  the  second 
time,  from  Milan  to  Lyons.  But  on  this  last 
removal,  notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  Louis 
to  give  dignity  and  power  to  the  refugees,  the 
council  became  virtually  extinct. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  particularize  the  re- 
spective acts  of  the  eight  sessions  of  that 
assembly,  not  only  because  they  were  never 
carried  into  effect,  but  because  they  were 
entirely  directed  to  one  subject — the  relative 
authority  of  the  council  and  the  Pope.  Ju- 
lius, on  his  side,  thundered  from  the  Vatican  ; 
he  excommunicated  all  the  members;  he  de- 
graded and  deprived  the  cardinals.  They, 
on  their  part,  alter  some  verbose  declarations, 
summoned  the  Pope  into  their  presence,  de- 
clared him  contumacious,  and  finally  sus- 
pended him.  But  this  was  their  last  effort, 
and  the  signal,  as  it  were,  for  their  extinction  ; 
and  the  blow  thus  impotently  dealt  by  the  ex- 
piring assembly  was  not  felt  on  the  Throne 
of  St.  Peter.* 

The  Fifth  Lateran  Council. — Nevertheless, 
this  short-lived  council  in  some  measure 
achieved  its  professed  purpose.  Julius,  in  the 
first  instance,  really  feared  it ;  and  he  then 
saw  no  effectual  method  of  crushing  it,  ex- 
cept the  convocation  of  a  rival  council.  He 
therefore  issued  a  summons  to  the  Catholic 
hierarchy,  to  assemble  at  Rome,  in  April, 
1512,  for  the  celebration  of  the  fifth  Lateran 
council ;  and  on  the  3rd  of  May  he  opened  it 
in  person,  with  extraordinary  dignity  and  so- 
lemnity. Fifteen  cardinals,  and  about  eighty 
archbishops  and  bishops  were  present ;  but  it 
must  not  be  forgotten,  that  almost  all  were 
Italians.  During  the  nine  following  months 
five  sessions  were  held,  in  which  no  sub- 
ject of  any  ecclesiastical  importance  was  pro- 
posed, f  except  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  ;  and 
this  was  treated  in  a  spirit  of  such  undisguised 
hostility  to  the  French  court  and  Church,  as 
to  show  very  clearly  what  were  the  uses  to 
which  Julius  intended   to   turn  his  council. 

*  The  contest,  literally  speaking,  did  not  cease 
here.  Julius  pursued  his  adversaries  into  France, 
and  laid  the  kingdom  which  harbored  them  under  an 
interdict.  But  though  some  fresh  controversies  then 
arose  on  the  old  subject — ths  comparative  auferibil- 
ity  of  a  council  and  a  Pope, — it  was  clearly  the  king, 
who  was  now  fighting  the  battle,  not  the  council. 

f  The  confirmation  of  Julius's  former  decree  against 
the  simotiiacal  election  of  Popes,  should,  perhaps,  be 
considered  as  important,  though  there  could  be  no 
great  hope  of  its  efficacy — not,  at  least,  till  tl>e  con- 
stitution of  the  sacred  college  was  wholly  changed. 


But  he  was  interrupted  by  a  fatal  sickness. 
On  the  nigbl  of  February  20,  1513,  lie  died; 
and  it  was  the  last  recorded  act  of  his  life,  to 
refuse  the  cardinal's  hat  to  an  undeserving 
claimant  When  the  Pope  was  on  the  point 
of  death,  the  boon  was  earnestly  solicited  by 
a  very  near  relative, — a  woman,  for  her  own 
brother.  Julius  coldly  replied,  'that  the  per- 
son was  unworthy,'  and  then  turned  his  head 
away,  and  expired. 

Leo  X. —  He  was  succeeded  by  Leo  X. — 
a  name  which  belongs  to  the  history  of  the 
Reformation,  and  with  which,  in  this  work, 
we  are  no  further  concerned,  than  as  we 
propose  to  follow  the  council,  assembled  by 
his  predecessor,  through  its  remaining  delib- 
erations. Before  the  end  of  the  year  it  held 
three  more  sessions,  under  the  presidency  of 
the  new  Pope:  the  sixth  and  seventh  pro- 
duced no  memorable  enactments,  but  the 
eighth  was  somewhat  more  important.  On 
this  occasion  the  king  of  France  at  length 
announced  his  adhesion.  A  bull  was  like- 
wise published,  for  the  purpose  of  establishing 
the  separate  existence  and  immortality  of  the 
soul  against  the  dangerous  and,  as  it  would 
seem,  prevalent  theories  of  certain  philoso- 
phers; and  at  the  same  time  an  edict  of 
safe-conduct  was  granted  to  the  Bohemian 
schismatics,  with  an  invitation  to  assist  at  the 
council:  for  their  heresy  was  again  rising 
into  formidable  attention.  These  measures 
were  followed  by  a  decree,  directed  against 
the  officers  of  the  apostolical  court,  for  the 
diminution  of  their  fees  or  salaries. 

Canons  of  Reformation.  —  On  the  5th  of 
May,  1514,  the  prelates  proceeded  from  the 
abuses  of  their  dependants  to  the  considera- 
tion of  their  own  ;  and  on  this  occasion  they 
published  an  imposing  body  of  regulations 
for  the  reformation  of  the  Roman  court,  and 
the  general  discipline  of  the  Church.  It  was 
enacted,  that  only  persons  of  worth  and  mor- 
ality should  be  appointed  to  benefices:  to 
bishoprics,  at  an  age  not  earlier  than  twenty- 
seven  years;  to  abbeys,  not  earlier  than 
twenty-two;  and  that  care  should  be  taken 
to  ascertain  their  merit,  before  their  names 
were  proposed  in  consistory.  That  depri- 
vation should  only  be  inflicted  after  due  ex- 
amination. That  monasteries  and  abbeys 
should  not  beheld  in  commendam,  unless  for 
the  better  preservation  of  the  authority  of  the 
Holy  See,  and  by  cardinals  or  other  persons 
qualified;  and  that  cures  and  dignities  of 
little  value  (less  than  200  ducats  a  year) 
should  not  be  so  held  even  by  cardinals. 
That  there  be  no  separation  or  union  of 


520 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


Churches,  unless  for  a  reasonable  cause.  That 
no  dispensation  be  granted  to  hold  more  than 
two  incompatible  benefices,  unless  to  persons 
qualified,  and  for  sufficient  reasons.  That 
persons  possessing  more  than  four  benefices, 
cures,  or  dignities,  be  obliged,  within  two 
years,  to  reduce  them  to  the  number  of  four, 
by  resigning  the  rest. 

It  was  likewise  ordained,  that  the  cardinals 
should  lead  an  exemplary  life,  —  celebrating 
mass  in  their  chapels,  observing  perfect 
sacerdotal  modesty  in  their  house,  furniture, 
and  tables,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  secular 
pomp  ;  treating  with  honor  and  respect  those 
about  them  ;  attentive  to  the  interests  of  the 
poor,  no  less  than  to  those  of  princes  ;  visiting 
in  person,  or  by  deputy,  their  titular  church- 
es ;  providing  for  the  prosperity  of  the  mon- 
asteries, or  benefices,  which  they  might  hold 
in  commendam ;  avoiding  every  show  of 
luxury,  and  every  suspicion  of  avarice  in 
their  attendants.  Respecting  the  inferior 
members  of  the  court  of  Rome,  a  number  of 
laws  were  published  against  blasphemy,  con- 
cubinage, and  simony.  It  was  strictly  pro- 
hibited to  all  kings,  princes,  and  lords,  to 
seize  or  sequestrate  the  ecclesiastical  property, 
unless  by  permission  of  the  Pope.  All  the 
laws  concerning  the  exemption  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal persons  and  goods  from  lay  jurisdiction 
were  confirmed.  And  lastly,  the  inquisitions 
were  stimulated  to  proceed  zealously  against 
heretics  *  and  Jews ;  especially  against  those 
who   had  relapsed,  from  whom  every  hope 

of  pardon  was  withheld On  the  above 

regulations,  which  formed  the  substance  of 
the  most  important  decree  of  this  council,  it 
is  scarcely  necessary  to  observe,  that  they 
touched  very  ineffectually  even  those  few 
among  the  multifarious  corruptions  of  the 
Church,  which  they  touched  at  all ;  that,  in 
respect  to  the  Court  of  Rome,  as  no  attempt 
was  made  to  reduce  one  fraction  of  its  power 
and  wealth,  it  was  superfluous  to  publish 
general  exhortations  of  modesty  and  humili- 
ty ;  and,  besides,  that  the  principal  points  in 
dispute  with  France  and  Germany  were  en- 
tirely overlooked  in  this  reformation  of  the 
Catholic  Church. 

The  Press.  —  A  year  afterwards,  (on  May 
4,  1515,)  the  council  held  its  tenth  session. 
It  then  published  a  decree  to  restrain  some 
of  the  abuses  of  chapters;  to  moderate, 
though  very  slightly,  the  granting  of  exemp- 


*'  How  ill,  alas!  (says  Raynaldus,)  these  most  holy 
laws  were  observed,  appears  from  the  hydra-birth  of 
the  Lutheran  heresy,  which  came  so  soon  afterwards.' 
Ann.  1514.  sect.  31,  &c. 


tions ;  to  refer  the  decision  of  trifling  suits 
respecting  the  smaller  benefices  to  the  ordi- 
naries ;  and  to  encourage  provincial  councils. 
Another  decree  peremptorily  cited  the  eccle- 
siastics of  France  to  appear  at  the  council, 
and  show  sufficient  reasons  why  the  Pragma  • 
tic  Sanction  should  not  be  wholly  abolished 
Another,  promulgated  on  the  same  occasion, 
was  levelled  against  the  presumed  abuses  of 
the  press.  The  Pope  (an  enlightened  and 
literary  Pope)  pronounced  to  the  effect,  'thar, 
though  knowledge  was  acquired  by  reading, 
and  though  the  press  much  facilitated  sucti 
acquirement,  the  cultivation  of  the  mind,  the 
instruction  of  Christians,  and  the  consequent 
propagation  of  the  faith  and  the  Church ; 
yet,  as  it  had  reached  the  ears  of  his  Holiness, 
how  some  printers  had  published  many  Latin 
translations  from  the  Greek,  Hebrew,  Arabic, 
and  Chaldean,  which  contained  false  and 
pernicious  dogmas,  and  offended  the  reputa- 
tion of  persons  in  dignity,  he  was  bound  to 
ordain,  in  his  desire  to  remedy  that  evil,  that 
no  book  should  be  hereafter  printed  at  Rome, 
or  in  any  other  city  or  diocese,  until  it  had 
been  examined  —  at  Rome  by  the  vicar  of 
his  Holiness,  and  the  master  of  the  sacred 
palace — in  other  dioceses,  by  the  bishop,  or 
some  doctor  appointed  by  him,  or  by  the  in- 
quisitor of  the  place,  on  pain  of  immediate 
excommunication.'  * 

Abolition  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction.  —  The 
next  session  was  not  held  till  the  19th  of 
December,  1516.  The  Pope  found  himself 
at  the  head  of  a  very  tractable  assembly,  still 
consisting  almost  entirely  of  Italian  prelates, 
and  yielding  obsequious  approbation  to  de- 
crees dictated  from  the  Vatican.  Thus,  with- 
out any  display  of  impatience,  he  steadily 
pursued  that  which  seems  to  have  been  the 
only  object  of  his  predecessor  in  this  matter, 
and  which  was  clearly  the  leading  one  with 
himself,  —  the  abolition  of  the  Pragmatic 
Sanction.  In  the  present  session  he  accom- 
plished that  design ;  and  the  bull  which  he 
published  on  the  occasion  is  worthy  of  the 
proudest  days  of  pontifical  despotism.  He 
began  by  asserting  the  implicit  obedience  due 
by  divine  authority  to  the  Holy  See,  and 
afterwards  took  occasion  especially  to  con- 
firm and  renew  the  constitution  Unam  Saiic- 
lam  of  Boniface  VIII.     He  showed  the  ille- 


*  This  was  not  the  first  effort  of  the  Popes  against 
what  they  considered  the  abuses  of  the  press.  In  1501, 
Alexander  VI.  ordained,  under  the  severest  penalties, 
that  no  books  should  be  printed  in  any  diocese,  with- 
out the  sanction  of  the  bishop  (Raynaldus,  1501,  s. 
36).  But  Sixtus  IV.  has  the  distinction  of  being  the 
first  who  established  that  inquisition. 


LEO  X. 


521 


gality  and  schismatic  nature  cf  the  '  Sanc- 
tion, '  by  disparaging  the  councils  of  Bourges 
and  Basle,  and  proclaimed  the  unlimited 
control  of  the  Pope  over  such  assemblies : 
and  finally,  by  his  certain  knowledge,  by  the 
plenitude  of  his  power,  and  with  the  appro- 
bation of  the  holy  council,  he  annulled  all  the 
decrees,  statutes,  and  regulations  contained  in 
the  offensive  enactment. 

The  bull  received  the  assent  of  the  council, 
with  only  one  dissentient  voice.  The  bishop 
of  a  small  diocess  in  Lombardy  had  the  bold- 
ness to  express  his  veneration  for  the  coun- 
cils of  Bourges  and  Basle,  and  his  reluctance 
to  disturb  their  inviolable  decisions.  But  he 
was  immediately  overborne;  the  authority  of 
the  present  (it  was  argued)  was  not  inferior  to 
that  of  preceding  assemblies ;  and  in  ancient 
times  St.  Leo  had  revoked  at  Chalcedon, 
what  had  been  too  rashly  ordained  at  Ephe- 
sus.  Yet  such  arguments  might  not  effectu- 
ally have  served  the  Pontiff,  had  not  Francis 
1.  conspired  to  betray  the  liberties  of  his 
Church.  The  abolition  of  the  Sanction  was 
immediately  followed  by  the  publication  of  a 
concordat,  which  tacitly  restored  the  posses- 
sion of  Annates  to  the  Pope,*  and  openly 
transferred  a  valuable  portion  of  the  eccle- 
siastical patronage  to  the  king.  During  the 
same  session,  certain  restrictions  were  impos- 
ed upon  the  license  of  preachers,  and  generally 
upon  the  discipline  of  the  monastic  orders : 
but  these  last  were  compensated  by  some  pri- 
vileges, which,  though  of  no  great  apparent 
importance,  offended  the  jealousy  of  the 
bishops,  and  roused  some  opposition  in  the 
council.  The  assembly  divided,  but  the  ma- 
jority was  in  favor  of  the  papal  measures. 


*  The  Annates  were  not  expressly  mentioned  in  the 
Concordat.  But  as  the  Pragmatic,  which  had  alone 
abolished  that  payment,  was  itself  abolished,  the  right 
to  the  payment  was  restored ;  at  least,  it  was  left  on 
the  same  footing  on  which  it  stood  before  the  Sanc- 
tion, and  then  it  was  commonly  levied  by  the  Pope. 
In  fact,  in  the  ecclesiastical  writers  on  this  subject, 
the  words  pragmatic  sanction,  and  annates,  are  so 
constantly  connected,  as  to  make  it  very  clear,  that 
the  recovery  of  that  contribution  was  a  great  object 
with  the  Popes  in  their  enmity  to  the  Sanction,  as 
the  exemption  from  it  may  have  been  a  great  cause 
of  attachment  to  their  liberties  with  the  clergy  of 
France.  The  question  continued  where  it  was  then 
placed,  till  the  arrangement  brought  about  by  Bossuet, 
in  1682.  The  arguments  by  which  the  conduct  of 
Francis  has  been  defended  are — that  many  of  the  sees 
and  monasteries  were  of  royal  foundation;  that  much 
confusion  was  occasioned  by  the  popular  method  of 
election  ;  that  when  subjects  intrust  the  sovereign 
with  the  government  of  the  state,  that  of  the  Church 
is  therein  included,  &c.  kc. 
66 


Dissolution  of  the  Council. — On  the  16th  of 
the  following  March  (1517,)  the  council  met 
for  the  twelfth  and  concluding  session,  and 
after  prohibiting  the  popular  practice  of  pil- 
laging the  mansion  of  the  Pope  elect,  and  or- 
daining nn  imposition  of  tenths  for  the  service 
of  the  Turkish  war,  it  was  dissolved.  The 
bull  of  dissolution  announced  the  accomplish- 
ment of  every  object  of  the  assembly :  peace 
had  been  re-established  among  the  princes  of 
Christendom  ;  the  schismatic  synod  of  Pisa 
abolished  ;  and,  above  all,  the  reformation  of 
the  Church  and  court  of  Rome  had  been 
sufficiently  provided  for !  There  were,  indeed, 
some  fathers  who  ventured  to  argue,  that 
every  abuse  had  not  even  yet  been  removed, 
and  that  the  lasting  interests  of  the  Church 
would  be  better  promoted  by  the  further  con- 
tinuance of  the  council  —  but  the  majority 
supported  the  Pope ;  and  the  last  universal 
assembly  of  the  western  Cflurch,  after  having 
deliberately  regulated  all  matters  requiring 
any  attention,  and  restored  the  establishment 
to  perfect  health  and  security,  separated  with 
complacency  and  confidence!  And  here  we 
may  mention,  (for  the  coincidence  is  remark- 
able,) that  in  the  very  same  year,  almost  be- 
fore the  assembled  prelates  had  concluded 
their  mutual  congratulations  on  the  peace, 
and  unity,  and  purity,  of  the  apostolical 
Church,  Luther  commenced,  in  the  schools 
of  Wittenberg,  his  public  preaching  against 
its  most  revolting  corruption. 

Degeneracy  of  the  See.  —  Though  it  is  not 
strictly  true,  that  the  history  of  the  Popes, 
from  Nicholas  V.  to  Leo  X.,  presents,  so  far 
as  their  personal  characters  are  concerned,  a 
series  of  uniform  degeneracy  ;  yet  the  prin- 
ciples of  their  government  being  bad,  and 
not  being  corrected,  became  gradually  and 
necessarily  worse.  And  thus,  though  the 
name  of  Julius  II.  fills  us  with  much  less 
abhorrence  than  that  of  Alexander  VI.,  the 
policy  of  the  apostolical  See  was  never  so 
directly  opposed  to  every  spiritual  object,  as 
when  guided  by  the  former:  ends  purely 
temporal  were  never  pursued  with  such  un- 
disguised vehemence,  or  by  means  so  san- 
guinary ;  the  keys  of  St.  Peter,  though  not 
wholly  cast  away,  were  never  before  so  merely 
subsidiary  to  the  sword  of  St.  Paul;*  inso- 


*  The  popular  story,  that  Julius  II.  actually  threw 
the  keys  into  the  Tiber,  and  drew  the  sword  of  St. 
Paul,  seems  to  be  bunded  (at  least  so  thinks  Bayle) 
on  the  following  utfama  est  of  au  obscure  poet,  Gil- 
bertus  Dttcherius  Vulto: — 

In  Galium,  ut  fama  est,  helium  gesturus  acerbum, 
Armatam  educit  Julius  Urbe  manum. 


622 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


much,  that  the  hand  of  a  retributive  provi- 
dence might  almost  seem  to  be  traced  in  this 
circumstance  —  that  the  long  succession  of 
spiritual  usurpers,  who  were  the  chiefs  of  a 
religion  of  peace  and  the  professed  vicegerents 
of  the  God  of  love,  should  terminate  at  length 
in  a  military  pontiff.  The  patience  of  angels 
and  of  men  was  exhausted  by  this  last  mock- 
ery ;  and  the  more  daring  the  exploits  of  the 
soldier,  and  the  more  splendid  the  conquests 
of  the  prince,  the  more  awful  was  the  bolt 
which  was  even  then  descending  to  rend  his 
spiritual  empire. 

We  should  also  observe,  respecting  the 
Popes  described  in  this  chapter,  that  there 
was  scarcely  one  whose  government  did  not 
deteriorate  as  it  proceeded.  Almost  all  began 
their  reign  with  some  promises  of  religious 
practice,  or  ecclesiastical  reform,  or  broad 
European  policy  ;  and  some,  for  the  first  year 
or  two,  observed  %uch  promises.  But  their 
reigns,  upon  the  whole,  much  exceeded  the 
usual  duration  of  pontifical  power,  and  they 
had  space  to  imbibe  the  corruption  which 
surrounded  them  ;  so  that  even  those  who 
carried  with  them  into  the  Vatican  the  ordi- 
nary principles  of  human  conduct,  presently 
forgot  them  in  the  society  of  debauched  par- 
asites, in  the  iniquities  of  a  simoniacal  court, 
in  the  administration  of  a  system  Full  of  every 
impurity.  Thus  are  we  in  no  manner  sur- 
prised, when  we  observe  these  sovereigns 
engrossed  by  the  temporal  interests  of  their 
states,  and  engaged  in  securing  their  power 
within  the  city,  and  extending  their  sway 
without  it:  this  was  merely  to  govern  like 
secular  princes,  and  to  pursue  the  policy 
which  some  of  the  greatest  among  their  own 
predecessors  had  bequeathed  to  them.  But 
the  vice  peculiarly  characteristic  of  this  race, 
and  that  which  reduced  them  below  the  level 
of  former  pontiffs,  was  Nepotism.*  It  was 
for  this  that  the  keys  and  the  sword  co-ope- 
rated ;  that  benefices  were  publicly  sold,  and 
the  pontificate  all  but  publicly  bought — that 

Accinctus  gladio  Cloves  in  Tybridis  amnem 
Projicit,  et  soevus  talia  verba  facit— 

Quum  Petri  nihil  efficiant  ad  pra>lia  Claves, 
Auxilio  Pauli  forsitan  ensis  eiit. 
*(1.)  Eugenius  IV.  was  nephew  of  Gregory  XII.; 
(2.)  Paul  II.,  of  Eugenius  IV.;  (3.)  Alexander  VI., 
of  Calixtus  III.;  (4.)  Pius  III.,  of  Pius  II.;  (5.) 
Julius  II.,  of  Sixtus  IV.;  (6.)  and  finally,  Leo  X. 
was  brother -in-law  of  the  bastard  of  Innocent  VIII. 
We  should  remark,  however,  that  the  thirst  for  ag- 
grandizing their  own  families  was  not  peculiar  lo  the 
Popes,  though  peculiarly  disgraceful  to  them.  It  was 
connected  with  that  general  struggle  for  super-emi- 
nence among  private  families  which  distinguished  the 
history  of  Italy  during  this  century. 


the  nephews  and  bastards  of  a  profligate 
Pope  might  be  enriched  and  aggrandized. 
Many  fiefs  of  the  Church  were  alienated  for 
that  purpose ;  and  what  was  of  worse  con- 
sequence than  this,  the  chief  of  the  Church 
thus  acquired  a  new  motive  for  attachment 
to  its  abuses,  and  repugnance  to  any  serious 
reformation.  If  Julius  II.  was  less  tainted 
with  this  vice  than  those  who  immediately 
preceded  him*  —  for  Julius  mingled  some 
magnanimity  with  his  worldliness,  —  it  was 
presently  restored  to  honor  by  Leo  X.,  and 
resumed  its  dominion  over  the  counsels  of 
the  Vatican. 

Degradation  of  the  Sacred  College. — Anoth- 
er circumstance  that  strikes  us,  in  the  consid- 
eration of  this  period,  is  the  utter  debasement 
to  which  the  Sacred  College  finally  descend- 
ed. The  influence,  which  the  most  wicked 
Pope  invariably  acquired  in  consistory,  may 
be  ascribed  to  the  less  direct  operation  of  his 
power  and  patronage.  But  the  secrets  of  the 
conclave,  which  have  been  transmitted  by 
contemporary  writers,  abound  with  the  par- 
ticulars of  intrigue,  and  undisguised  perfidy, 
and  unblushing  venality.  Such  was  the  mu- 
tual consciousness  with  which  the  Pope  and 
his  senate  assembled  to  govern  the  Church 
of  Christ!  such  the  councils,  from  which 
edicts  were  issued  for  the  suppression  of 
simony  and  the  correction  of  the  morals  of 
the  clergy !  .  .  .  .  Again,  it  was  now  become 
almost  the  practice  of  the  Conclave  to  bind 
the  future  Pope  by  a  solemn  obligation,  in- 
tended to  influence  the  nature  of  his  govern- 
ment. The  cardinal,  while  on  the  point  of 
being  elected,  voluntarily  took  this  oath,  in 
common  with  his  colleagues  ;  and  immediate- 
ly after  his  election  he  confirmed  it.  In  a 
similar  manner,  restrictions  were  at  that  time 
not  uncommonly  imposed  by  the  elective 
body  on  the  emperor  of  Germany  and  the 
king  of  Poland,  and  they  were  found  effectu- 
al. But  at  Rome  the  result  was  so  far  other- 
wise, that  among  the  many  who  undertook 
such  engagements,  there  seems  not  to  have 
been  one,  who  faithfully  observed  what  he 
had  sworn,  first  as  cardinal,  next  as  Pope. 
This  distinction,  so  shameful  to  the  Court  of 
Rome,  confirms  the  charges  of  supereminent 
immorality  commonly  brought  against  it:  it 


*  '  Julius  designed  to  make  himself  master  of  Bo- 
logna, and  extinguish  the  Venetians,  and  chase  the 
French  out  of  Ilaly  ;  and  these  projects  all  proved 
fortunate  to  him,  and  so  much  the  more  to  his  praise, 
in  that  he  did  all  for  the  goo.l  of  the  Church,  and  in 
no  private  regard.'  Machiavel  (Principe,  cap.  xi.) 
is  no  great  eulogist  of  Julius. 


LEO  X. 


523 


proceeds,  however,  from  the  singular  princi- 
ples of  the  papal  hierarchy.  In  the  first  place, 
the  Pope,  who  enjoyed  power  unlimited  over 
the  obligations  of  others,  might  reasonably 
elaim  the  right  to  dispense  with  bis  own.  In 
the  next,  be  bad  means  of  influencing  those 
who  might  release  him  from  bis  engagements, 
or  connive  at  his  contempt  of  them,  such  as  : 
the  crown  did  not  possess,  either  in  Germany 
or  Poland.  The  immense  extent  of  his  pa- 
tronage, his  authority  over  the  property  and 
persons  of  the  cardinals,  and  his  prerogative 
of  creating  others,  gave  him  irresistible  in- 
struments  both  of  seduction  and  terror.  He 
exercised  them  unsparingly  ;  and  the  result 
was,  that  among  the  various  crimes  of  the 
Vatican,  that  which  became,  as  it  were,  pe- 
culiarly pontifical,  was  perjury. 

While  the  crimes  of  the  Vatican  were  in- 
deed so  various,  as  to  embrace  almost  every 
denomination  of  ungodliness,  there  was  not 
one  among  the  Popes  of  this  period,  who 
made  even  the  slightest  pretension  to  piety ; 
scarcely  one,  by  whom  decency,  as  well  as 
morality  and  religion,  was  not  grossly  out- 
raged. Indeed,  when  we  consider  the  enor- 
mity of  the  scandals  permitted  and  perpetrat- 
ed by  Popes  and  cardinals  during  the  latter 
years,  it  seems  a  matter  of  wonder  that  the 
whole  Christian  world  did  not  rouse  itself, 
as  by  an  earthquake,  and  destroy  them.  But 
here  it  must  be  observed,  that  however  noto- 
rious was  the  infamy  of  the  Roman  court  to 
the  nobles,  and  even  the  people  of  Rome; 
however  generally  it  might  be  related  and 
credited,  even  throughout  Italy,  that  country 
profited  too  extensively  by  the  tributes  of 
foreign  superstition,  to  feel  any  desire  to  close 
their  sources:  besides  which,  Italy,  having 
long  exhibited  less  regard  than  any  other  land 
for  the  spiritual  treasures  and  censures  of 
Rome,  was  less  disgusted  by  the  spectacle  of 
her  vices.  But  beyond  the  Alps,  where  a  just 
indignation  would  really  have  been  excited, 
the  private  arrangements  of  the  conclave,  and 
even  the  secrets  of  the  pontifical  palace  did 
yet  rarely  or  imperfectly  transpire  —  a  sacred 
veil  still  continued  to  conceal  the  impurities 
of  the  Fathers  of  the  Church,  nor  was  it  rais- 
ed, until  the  barriers  were  at  length  broken 
by  Charles  VIII.,  and  the  natives  of  every 
country  were  admitted  to  a  nearer  view  of 
the  pontifical  mysteries. 

Literary  Popes.  —  Another  circumstance, 
which  made  men  less  disposed  to  rebellion 
against  the  Holy  See,  was  the  literary  char- 
acter of  some  of  the  later  pontiffs.  The  ge- 
nius and  accomplishments  of  Nicholas  V.,  of 


Pius  II.,  and  even  of  Sixtus  IV.,  threw  a  light 
round  the  chair  of  St.  Peter,  which  dazzled, 
and  for  awhile  deceived,  the  Cisalpine  na- 
tions. Besides,  the  vices  of  the  court  were 
really  less  general  during  those  reigns  ;  for  if 
the  example  of  the  Pope  did  not  necessarily 
influence  all  bis  cardinals,  at  least  his  own 
character  directed  him  in  the  choice  of  those 
whom  he  created  ;  so  that  it  is  not  uncommon, 
during  this  period,  to  find  respectable  au- 
thors,* as  well  as  patrons  of  learning,  among 
the  members  of  the  Sacred  College.  But  in 
the  example  of  Sixtus,  evil  upon  the  whole 
predominated  ;  and  those  who  next  succeeded, 
presented  models  of  flagitiousness  almost  un- 
qualified, so  that  the  effect  produced  upon  the 
Christian  world  by  the  brilliancy  of  those  for- 
mer reigns,  gradually  faded  away ;  and  when 
Leo  X.  restored  the  image  of  a  splendid  pon- 
tificate, it  was  too  late  to  prevent  the  out- 
breaking of  settled,  deliberate  discontent. 

Efforts  against  the  Turks. — The  period  de- 
scribed in  this  chapter  was  also  marked  by  one 
other  feature  very  deserving  of  attention;  — 
the  hostility  of  the  Turk,  and  the  consequent 
clamor  for  a  grand  Christian  confederacy.  In 
former  ages  the  calamities  of  the  Holy  Land 
and  the  pollution  of  the  tomb  of  Christ  were 
motives  sufficient  to  arm  the  indignation  of 
the  west.  As  time  proceeded,  and  knowledge 
slowly  advanced,  and  wisdom  still  more  slow- 
ly followed  it,  that  rage  at  length  evaporated : 
but  not  till  the  Popes  had  turned  it,  in  various 
manners,  to  their  own  profit,  to  enrich  and 
aggrandize  their  See,  and  to  units  the  Catho- 
lic Church.  Precisely  after  the  same  fashion, 
as  far  as  the  altered  principles  of  the  age 
would  allow,  did  the  Vatican  treat  the  ques- 
tion of  the  Turkish  conquests.  In  this  case, 
there  was  more  of  reason  in  the  outcry,  and 
proportionally  less  of  superstition  ;  the  danger 
was  sometimes  imminent;  it  was  never  very 
remote ;  and  the  projected  crusade  was  vir- 
tually defensive.  It  is  not  that  some  Popes 
were  not  very  sincere,  especially  in  the  be- 
ginning of  their  reigns,  in  their  exhortations 
to  arm  against  the  infidel — and  some  had  been 
equally  earnest  in  former  aires,  in  their  exer- 
tions  for  tiie  liberation  of  Palestine — but  many 


*  .Sonic  of  these — for  instance  Cardinal  Bessarion, 
who  died  under  Sixtiu  IV. — were  tlie  creations  of  an 
earlier  period — the  turbulent  times  of  Constance  and 
Basle,  when  the  Roman  court  was  obliged,  in  self- 
defence,  to  adopt  men  of  some  learning  and  talents. 
The  works  of  Bessarion  are  enumerated  and  describ- 
ed by  the  Continuator  of  Fleury  (|>.  113,  126).  His 
defi  nee  of  platonism  (in  Calumniatorem  Platonis) 
against  George  of  Trebisoiid  is  the  most  celebrated 
of  his  writings. 


524 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


more  were  not  so :  yet  these  raised  the  same 
outcry,  and  repeated  as  loudly  the  same  ar- 
guments and  declamations.  One  of  them, 
indeed,  Paul  II.,  so  closely  imitated  the  worst 
exploit  of  Innocent  III.,  as  to  divert  the  course 
of  war  from  its  purposed  channel,  and  direct 
it  against  Christian  heretics.  But  the  others, 
when  not  absolutely  threatened  by  invasion, 
had,  for  the  most  part,  two  objects  in  their 
vociferations;  the  one,  to  bring  money  into 
the  apostolical  chamber;  the  other,  to  drown 
the  reviving  demands  for  Church  reform, 
and  turn  the  thoughts  of  men  to  any  subject, 
rather  than  a  general  council.*  In  both  these 
objects  they,  for  a  time,  succeeded — unhappi- 
ly for  the  age  in  which  they  lived,  unhappily 
for  the  permanence  of  their  own  empire. 
But  it  was  God's  providence  which  ordered 
this — to  the  end  that  the  reformation  should 
be  more  full  and  perfect,  owing  to  the  very 
blindness  which  had  retarded  it,  and  to  the 
very  bigotry  which  thought  to  withhold  it  for 
ever.  For,  however  various  the  opinions 
prevalent  at  the  moment,  there  can  now  be  no 
question,  that  if  the  court  of  Rome  had  zea- 
lously employed  itself,  during  this  period  of 
seventy-four  years,  in  removing  its  scandals, 
in  amending  its  morals,  in  retrenching  its 
more  extravagant  claims,  in  reducing  its  ex- 
penses, and  moderating  its  exactions,  it  might 
have  continued,  according  to  all  human  cal- 
culation, to  sway  for  some  time  longer  the 
spiritual  destinies  of  Europe. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

PRELIMINARIES  OF  THE  REFORMATION. 

Section  I. — On  the  Power  and  Constitution  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

(1)  Origin,  progress,  and  prosperity  of  the  Pope's  secular 
monarchy— Character  and  policy  of  Julius  II.— Excuse 
for  the  union  of  the  two  powers  in  the  Pope— Evils  pro- 
ceeding from  it.     (2)  The  spiritual  supremacy  of  Rome 

its  rise,  character,  and  extent— Usurpation  of  Church 

patronage— pretensions  to  personal  infallibility  —  con- 


*  Sixtus  IV.,  when  pressed,  in  1472,  by  the  king 
of  Fiance,  to  call  a  general  council,  openly  pleaded, 
as  an  objection,  the  urgency  of  the  Turkish  war.  «  It 
was  out  of  season  (the  Pope  replied)  to  demand  the 
convocation  of  a  council,  which  required  considerable 
time,  when  the  evil  was  pressing,  and  the  progress  of 
the  Turks  rendered  the  slightest  delays  prejudicial  to 
religion;  the  other  Christian  princes  had  either  kept 
their  engagements,  or  were  on  the  point  of  keeping 
them;  and  the  king  of  France  should  rather  join  them 
in  so  holy  a  work,  and  permit  the  levying  of  tenths, 
and  other  charitable  contributions,  throughout  his 
kingdom,  &c.'     See  Contin.  Fleury,  L.  113,  s.  145. 


trol  over  the  general  morality — in  Penance,  Purgatory, 
and  Indulgences — decline  of  the  power — not  of  the  pre- 
tensions. (3)  Claims  of  Rome  to  universal  tempora. 
supremacy  —  as  advanced  by  Gregory  VII.  —  on  what 
founded — by  what  means  supported— use  and  abuse  of 
this  power.  (4)  Constitution  of  the  Church.  Origin 
and  gradual  aggrandizement  of  the  Cardinals  —  to  the 
rank  of  kings  —  The  capitulations  sworn  in  Conclave, 
and  invariably  violated  —  Relative  interests  and  influ- 
ence of  the  Pope  and  the  Sacred  College — to  the  advan- 
tage of  the  former  —  its  usual  co-operation  with  the 
Pontiff — General  Councils — subordinate  machinery  of 
the  Church — highest  dignities  accessible  to  .all  ranks — 
Good  and  evil  of  this — Envoys  and  emissaries — Men- 
dicants—  Inquisition  —  Moral  extremes  permitted  — 
Maxims  of  policy  —  Methods  of  securing  the  obedience 
of  the  lowest  classes. 

Section  II. — On  the  Spiritual  Character,  Disci- 
pline, and  Morals  of  the  Church. 

(1)  Conservation  of  the  most  essential  doctrines — Various 
innovations — Original  system  of  penance — the  Peniten- 
tial of  Theodore,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  —  subse- 
quent abuses  —  The  intermediate  state  —  Purgatory  — 
Original  object  and  gradual  abuse  of  indulgences  —  in 
nature  and  in  object  —  Translation  of  an  indulgence 
published  by  Tetzel  —  Prayers  for  the  dead  —  Masses, 
public  and  private.  The  mystery  of  the  Eucharist  — 
The  elevation  of  the  Host — use  of  the  bell — worship  of 
the  Host — Communion  in  one  kind  only — its  object  and 
impolicy  —  Prohibition  of  the  Scriptures  —  Miraculous 
impostures  —  Saints,  relics,  &.c. — More  recent  disputes 
and  superstitions — on  the  ring  of  St.  Catharine  —  and 
her  Stigmata — on  the  Immaculate  Conception — on  the 
Worship  due  to  the  blood  of  Christ — the  inscription  on 
the  Cross  —  the  reed  and  sponge.  (2;  Discipline  and 
morals  —  Concubinage  of  the  Clergy — Influence  of  the 
laity  —  Perpetual  acknowledgment  of  Church  abuses 
from  St.  Bernard  downwards  —  Cardinal  Ximenes  — 
Benefits  conferred  by  the  Church — in  ignorant  ages 
— Truce  of  God — Exercise  of  charity — Law  of  asylum 
— penance,  &c.  —  Original  character  of  Monachism  — 
Merits  of  the  Mendicants  —  chiefly  as  Missionaries  — 
their  success  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  ages 
— Morality  in  the  fifteenth  century  comprised  in  the 
Mystics  and  the  lower  Clergy  — Progress  and  preser- 
vation of  Mysticism  in  the  Western  Church  — Great, 
though  obscure,  virtues  of  many  of  the  inferior  Clergy. 

Section  III. — On  various  Attempts  to  reform  or 
subvert  the  Church. 

(1)  Attempts  at  self-reform — The  era  of  Boniface  VIII 

subsequent  decline — Necessity  of  some  reform  generally 
admitted — Designs  of  the  Church  reformers,  as  compar- 
ed with  the  real  nature  of  the  corruptions  —  confined 
wholly  to  matters  of  revenue  and  discipline — very  im- 
perfect even  in  that  respect — and  never  really  enforced 

—  Learning  and  blindness  of  the  papal  party  —  their 
momentary  success  —  Progress  of  improvement  and 
knowledge  to  final  and  certain  triumph  —  Tardy  re- 
formation in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  (2)  Attempts 
of  Protestants  to  trace  their  Church  to  the  Apostolic 
times  —  how  far  successful— where  they  fail — Vaudois 
and  Albigeois — Bohemian  Brethren — JVotc  on  Bossuet — 
Errors  of  those  Dissenters— On  the  Paulicians— On  the 
Mystics  —  Real  value  and  merit  of  the  sects  of  the 
twelfth  and  following  centuries.  (3)  Treatment  of 
heretics  by  the  Churcn  —  Canon  of  Innocent  III.  —  its 
fair  explanation — consequence— Inquisition — Unity  of 
the  Church— A  more  moderate  party— Principle  of  in- 
tolerance adopted  by  the  Laity  also  —  Conduct  of  the 
Church  in  the  fifteenth  age.  (4)  On  some  individual 
witnesses  of  the  truth — John  of  Wesalia — Wesselus  — 
Jean  Laillier — Savonarola — his  history  and  pretensions 

—  Erasmus.  (5)  Particular  condition  of  Germany  — 
Great  scene  of  clerical  licentiousness  and  papal  extor- 


POWER,  &c.  OF  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH. 


525 


tion  —  Political  hostilities  of  Rome  and  the  Empire  — 
Violation  of  the  Concordats  — '  The  Hundred  Griev- 
ances '—Thirst  of  the  people  for  the  Bible— Character 
of  Leo  X. — Conclusion. 


Section  I. — On  the  Powrr  and  Constitution  of 

the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 
I- — 1>"  retracing  the  steps  by  which  Papacy 
descended  to  that  ground  whereon  it  received 
its  effectual  overthrow,  we  shall  observe  in 
most  of  its  elements  signs  of  increasing  cor- 
ruption and  decay ;  but  there  was  one  cir- 
cumstance, in  which  its  singular  prosperity 
ran  counter  to  the  general  current.  The 
temporal  monarchy  of  the  Pope  was  at  no 
former  period  so  extensive  and  so  secure  as 
at  the  accession  of  Leo  X.  At  no  time  had 
the  limits  of  the  Ecclesiastical  states  been  so 
widely  stretched,  or  the  factions,  which  alien- 
ated the  capital  from  the  government  of  its 
Bishop,  so  depressed  and  helpless  as  then. 
We  have  shown,  in  former  chapters,  how  the 
Pope's  political  authority  originated  under  the 
Exarchs  of  Ravenna,  through  the  neglect  or 
weakness  of  the  Eastern  empire ;  and  how  it 
was  rivetted  by  the  vigor  and  the  virtues  of 
some  who  then  occupied  the  Chair.  Soon 
afterwards  the  domains  of  the  See  were 
formed  and  enlarged  by  Pepin  and  Charle- 
magne, though  still  held  by  the  latter  as  a 
dependent  portion  of  his  empire. 

We  have  mentioned  the  donation  of  Ma- 
tilda to  Gregory  VII.,  and  the  exertions  after- 
wards made  to  secure  those  various  posses- 
sions. In  this  struggle,  Innocent  III.,  and 
some  other  Popes  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
obtained  partial,  though  never  permanent, 
successes;  and  the  territories  of  Boniface 
VIII.  were  more  respectable  in  magnitude, 
than  united  in  allegiance  and  fidelity.  But 
the  secession  to  Avignon  was  the  signal  for 
general  insubordination  ;  on  every  side  the 
Barons  rose  and  seized  whatever  lay  within 
their  grasp;  and  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter 
was  torn  in  pieces  by  their  petty  ambition  and 
rapacity.* 

The  Schism  followed  :  and,  if  the  residence 
of  an  Antipope  recovered  some  portion  of 
that  authority  which  had  been  forfeited    by 


*  '  Je  regarde  Rome  (says  Voltaire,  Pyrrlionisme 
de  l'Histoire)  depuis  le  temps  de  1'Empercur  Leo  III. 
l'Isaurien,  nomine  line  ville  libre,  protegee  par  les 
Francs,  ensuite  par  les  Germnins,  qui  se  gouverne 
tant  qu'elle  put  en  republique,  plutot  sous  le  patronage 
que  sous  la  puissance  des  Empereurs,  dans  laquelic  le 
souverain  Pontife  eut  toujours  le  premier  credit,  et 
qui  enfin  a  ete  entierement  soumise  aux  Papes.'  It 
is  observed,  that  no  Pope  ever  assumed  the  title  of 
King  of  Rome.  This  subject  is  remarkably  well 
treated  by  Gibbon,  in  his  49th  chapter. 


I  the  absence  of  the  Pope,  yet  it  was  not  much 
that  was  resumed,  nor  was  it  held  with  firm- 
ness or  confidence.  But  when  the  Schism 
had  ceased,  and  a  Bishop  of  undisputed  le- 
gitimacy became  again  resident,  though  Mar- 
tin, Eugenitis,  Nicholas,  and  Sixtus*  even 
then  had  some  storms  and  reverses  to  en- 
couuter,  the  machine  of  temporal  power  upon 
the  whole  moved  onwards;  and  at  length, 
under  the  guidance  of  Alexander  VI.  and 
Julius  II.,  it  reached  those  ample  boundaries, 
from  which  it  has  never  since  receded. 

The  dangerous  feuds  of  the  Colonna  and 
Orsini  were  extinguished  ;  the  usurpations  on 
the  states  of  the  Church  were  extorted  from 
the  nobles  who  had  made  them ;  even  the 
turbulence  of  the  Roman  people  was  worn 
down  by  severity,  or  softened  by  luxury  and 
licentiousness;  and  a  compact  and  fruitful 
kingdom  bowed  in  secular  servitude  before 
the  sceptre  oi"  St.  Peter. 

The  emperor  Maximilian  designed  himself 
as  the  successor  of  Julius  II.  and  solicited 
the  votes  of  several  members  of  the  college, 
some  little  time  before  the  death  of  that  Pope. 
He  did  not  strongly  press  his  project ;  but 
the  very  attempt  may  show  how  little  neces- 
sary any  pretensions  to  the  spiritual  char- 
acter were  then  thought  for  the  enjoyment 
of  the  loftiest  spiritual  dignity.  Julius  was, 
in  all  essentials,  a  temporal  prince ;  and  had 
he  not  been  so,  he  could  scarcely  have 
crowned  his  ambition  with  such  extraordi- 
nary triumphs.  Yet  the  spectacle  of  a  secu- 
lar aud  military  Pope  f  was  not  well  calcu- 

*  Gibbon  has  remarked,  that  Eugenius  IV.  was  the 
last  Pope  expelled  by  the  tumults  of  the  Roman  people 
(in  1434);  and  Nicholas  V.  (in  1447)  the  last  im- 
portuned by  the  presence  of  the  Emperor.  The  same 
writer  places  the  last  disorder  of  the  Nobles  of  Rome 
under  Sixtus  IV.  and  considers  the  papal  dominion 
to  have  become  absolute  about  the  year  1500.  Ma- 
chiavel  (Prencipc,  cap.  xi.)  lias  observed,  that  the 
great  difficulty  in  crushing  the  two  rival  factions  in 
Rome  arose  from  the  short  reigns  of  the  Popes,  and 
the  inconstancy  of  their  policy:  for  when  any  Pontiff 
had  succeeded  in  humbling  one  of  those  families,  his 
successor  might,  very  probably,  raise  it  up  again  and 
depress  the  opposite.  On  the  other  hand,  the  exist- 
ence of  this  find  Recounted,  in  a  great  degree,  for  the 
temporal  weakness  of  the  Popes.  At  length,  Alexan- 
der VI.  and  his  sun  overthrew  the  Parous  from  monies 
of  family  ambition,  and  Julius  II.  reaped  the  fruits 
of  their  victory  for  the  advantage  of  the  Church. 

•f  A  plausible  precedent  was  afforded  by  the  per- 
sonal expedition  made  by  that  simple,  pious  Pontiff, 
Leo  IX.  against  the  Normans  who  so  signally  over. 
threw  li i in.  But  it  should  be  recollected,  that  Let 
never  repeated  the  experiment  —  his  military  thirst 
was  satisfied  by  a  single  enterprise. 


526 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


lated  to  conciliate  to  the  See,  in  the  most 
critical  moment  of  its  history,  the  affection  or 
respect  of  any  description  of  Christians.  The 
deep  penetration  of  Julius  may  possibly  have 
foreseen  the  approaching  downfall  of  the 
spiritual  supremacy,  and  for  that  reason  he 
may  have  lahored  the  more  zealously  to  give 
strength  to  the  temporal  fabric.  If  he  did  so. 
it  was  a  wise  and  salutary  providence  ;  for, 
in  that  controversy  so  often  raised — whether 
the  secular  dominion  of  the  Pope  has  tended, 
upon  the  whole,  to  increase  or  to  diminish 
his  general  influence,— there  is  ample  room 
for  difference,  in  respect  to  early  times ;  but 
after  the  first  movements  of  the  Reformation, 
it  is  quite  clear  that  it  produced  to  him  no- 
thing but  advantage:  and  from  that  moment 
the  question  rather  becomes,  whether  any 
Ehred  or  fragment  of  his  ghostly  authority 
could  have  been  saved  without  it.- 

Argumentfor  the  Pope's  Secular  Monarchy. 
— The  enjoyment  of  secular  power  and  pride 
by  the  Vicegerent  of  Him  whose  kingdom  is 
not  of  this  world,  is  justified  on  the  ground 
of  his   independence.     It  is  plausibly  main- 


ly appears  that  they  had,  for  the  most  part, 
the  plea  of  justice.  It  was  generally  their 
object,  (notwithstanding  some  deplorable  ex- 
ceptions.) not  to  make  conquests  in  the  do- 
minions of  others,  but  to  defend  or  to  recover 
their  own.  There  was  no  province  in  Eu- 
rope so  harassed  by  rebellions  and  usurpa- 
tions as  the  states  of  the  Church.  We  need 
not  pause  to  account  for  this  circumstance  ; 
but  it  is  unquestionably  true  that  no  other 
prince  was  so  commonly  liable  to  depredation 
and  insult  as  the  Pope.  Accordingly,  his 
wars  were  usually  defensive,  and  (it  may  be) 
necessary — hut  that  very  necessity  annihilat- 
ed the  pastoral  character,  and  despiritualized 
the  Vicar  of  Christ. 

Tlie  Tributes  which  he  levied.— Again,  these 
contests  were  not  carried   on  without  great 
expense ;  and  the  holy  See,  despoiled  of  its  pa- 
trimony, was  at  the  same  time  deprived  of  its 
natural  resources.     Thence  arose  an  obliga- 
tion to  seek  supplies  in  other  quarters  ;  *  and 
I  with  an  obedient  clergy  and  a  superstitious 
j  people  it  was  not  difficult  to  make  the  whole 
|  of  Christendom  tributary.     Once  in  posses- 


tainerl,  that  the  Chief  of  the  (Ecumenic  i  sion  of  this  ample  treasury,  and  of  the  keys 
Church,  scattered  throughout  so  many  na-  |  which  unlocked  its  innumerable  chambers, 
tions,  ought  to  stand  unconstrained  by  any  !  the  Pontiffs  explored  and  ransacked  it  with 
earthly  potentate,  and  owe  no  other  allegiance 


than  that  to  Heaven.  The  principle,  which 
would  prevent  him  from  being  a  subject, 
compels  him  to  be  a  monarch, — no  other 
condition  can  be  conceived,  which  could  se- 
cure him  from  the  control  of  the  temporal 
sceptre.  The  above  argument  acquires  some 
confirmation  from  the  decline  which  did,  in 
fact,  take  place  in  the  pontifical  domination 
during  the  exile  at  Avignon,  though  the  Pope 
was  there  resident  rather  as  a  guest  than  as  a 
subject,  free  from  the  direct  authority  of  the 
prince,  the  slave  only  of  his  influence.  In 
truth,  the  Catholic,  after  he  has  assumed  the 
divine  establishment  of  one  spiritual  univer- 
sal monarchy,  wants  not  sufficient  plea  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  temporal  government, 
as  secondary  and  subsidiary.  But  the  Prot- 
estant, thoughtfully  surveying  the  perplexities, 
the  intrigues,  and  the  crimes  in  which  a  Chris- 
tian Prelate  is  thus  necessarily  involved — the 
armies  which  he  levies,  the  contributions 
when  he  extorts,  the  blood  which  he  sheds — 
receives  from  the  sad  spectacle  only  fresh 
reason  to  doubt,  whether  the  family  of  Christ 
has  really  been  consigned  to  the  rule  of  one, 
who  can  scarcely  rule  it  in  innocence. 

And  this  remark  is  the  more  striking,  be- 
cause, when  we  reflect  on  the  different  wars 
which  the  Popes  have  waged  in  Italy,  it  real- 


out  restraint,  without  decency,  without  dis- 
cretion. Their  emissaries  were  dreaded  as 
the  tax-gatherers  of  the  Christian  world. 
Their  name  was  associated  with  donations, 
fees,  contributions,  exactions  —  with  every 
name  that  is  most  vile  and  unpopular  in  secu- 
lar governments.  And  thus,  besides  the  great 
scandal  thereby  reflected  upon  themselves, 
they  exhausted  the  affection,  the  endurance, 
and  almost  the  credulity  of  the  faithful.  It  is 
not  that  the  moneys  thus  levied  were  applied 
entirely  to  the  defence  of  the  Ecclesiastical 
States,  or  even  that  they  were  generally  levied 
under  that  pretence ;  but  in  the  first  instance, 
during  the  thirteenth  century,  and  afterwards, 
more  especially  under  the  Avignon  succes- 
sion, a  very  large  proportion  was  certainly 
absorbed  by  the  temporal  exigencies  of  the 
See,  and  the  increasing  demands  and  extra- 
vagance of  the  Court  of  Rome.  The  same 
system  was  continued  through  the  Schism 
and  the  century  which  followed  it,  as  far  as 
the  Popes  had  power  to  continue  it ;  and  there- 
fore, when  we  admire  their  final  success  in 
erecting  a  permanent  principality,  we  shall,  at 
the  same  time,  recollect  the  methods  which 

*  This  system  no  doubt  began  soon  after  the  eleventh 
awe  when  the  Popes  were  so  commonly  expelled  from 
Rome,  to  Orvietto,  Viterbo,  Anagni,  &c.,  and  obliged 
to  look  to  all  parts  of  Christendom  for  their  resources 


POWER,  &c.  OF  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH. 


they  had  so  long  and  so  vainly  employed  on 
that  object,  and  the  deep  disaffection  towards 
their  Government  which  those  methods  had 
every  where  created. 

II.  The  Spiritual  Supremacy  of  Rome. — 
It  is  not  necessary  to  retrace  the  process, 
by  which  the  spiritual  supremacy  of  Rome 
was  engendered  and  nourished.  We  have 
observed  with  sufficient  distinctness,  how 
equivocal  and  circumscribed  it  was  in  nature 
and  dimensions,  when  it  entered  into  the  ages 
of  gloom  and  ignorance, — how  it  grew  rod 
dilated  in  its  mysterious  passage  through 
them;  —  how  portentous  in  magnitude  and 
majesty  it  emerged  from  the  cloud.  We  have 
followed  it  through  its  meridian  course  of 
disastrous  glory  ;  and  wc  have  seen  that,  even 
in  its  decline,  it  did  not  suddenly  lose  either 
its  fierceness  or  its  ascendency.  Indeed, 
however  strange  it  may  seem,  that  an  author- 
ity, so  predominant  in  its  power,  so  universal 
and  searching  in  its  influence,  so  extravagant 
in  its  pretensions,  should  have  been  at  all 
created,  and  out  of  materials  seemingly  so  in- 
congruous ;  it  would  have  been  much  more 
strange,  had  it  been  easily  or  hastily  extin- 
guished. An  authority,  which  claimed  the 
sanction  of  Heaven,  and  which  stood  on 
human  imposture;  which  pleaded  the  holi- 
ness of  antiquity,  and  which  innovated  every 
hour ;  which  combined,  in  its  composition, 
learning  with  fanaticism,  the  use  of  reason 
with  its  grossest  abuse,  extreme  austerities 
with  lawless  licentiousness,  much  true  piety 
with  much  vulgar  and  impious  superstition 
—  and  which  so  applied  those  various  qual- 
ities, as  at  length  to  acquire  an  influence  in 
the  policy  of  every  Court,  in  the  institutions 
of  every  Government,  in  the  morals  of  every 
people,  in  the  habits  of  every  family,  in  the 
bosom  of  almost  every  individual — an  au- 
thority, so  constructed,  supported,  acknow- 
ledged, and  felt,  could  not  possibly  fall  in 
pieces  without  a  protracted  struggle  and  a 
final  convulsion.  It  was  impressed  by  the 
perseverance  of  fraud  upon  credulous,  abject 
ignorance ;  but  so  deeply  impressed,  that, 
before  it  could  be  effaced,  the  substance 
whereon  it  was  engraven  must  first  change 
its  nature  ;  so  that  ages  of  gradual  improve- 
ment were  required  to  repair  the  mischief, 
which  ages  had  conspired  to  inflict. 

For  if  we  examine  the  extent  of  this  power, 
with  respect  to  the  objects  on  which  it  was 
more  immediately  exerted,  shall  we  find  any 
department,  religious  or  moral,  into  which,  in 
its  triumphant  days,  it  did  not  penetrate  ?    In 


527 

the  first  place,  the  Pope  was  the  fountain  of 
all  ecclesiastical  legislation.  All  the  Canons 
and  Constitutions  of  the  Church  were  sub- 
ject to  him.*  He  could  enact,  suspend,  abro- 
gate, as  might  seem  good  to  him,  and  that, 
not  only  with  the  advice  or  consent  of  the 
Consistory,  or  (as  it  sometimes  happened) 
merely  in  its  presence,  but  in  the  plenitude 
of  his  power,  and  by  his  own  spontaneous 
movement,  f  At  the  same  time,  while  he  was 
supreme  in  his  dominion  over  the  laws,  he 
claimed  an  entire  exemption  from  their  con- 
trol, and  found  a  powerful  party  in  the 
Church  to  support  his  claim. 

In  the  next  place,  he  was  the  source  of  all 
pastoral  jurisdiction.  The  final  determination 
of  every  spiritual  cause  rested  with  him.  He 
was  the  object  of  appeal  from  all  the  episco- 

*  Immediately  after  burning  the  Pope's  bull,  Luther 
published  several  propositions,  extracted  from  the  De- 
cretals, among  which  are  the  following:  — '  that  the 
successors  of  St.   Peter  are  not  subject  to  the  com- 
mandment of  the  apostle  to  obey  the  temporal  powers; 
that  the  power  of  the  emperor  is  as  much  below  that 
of  the  Pope  as  the  moon  is  below  the  sun ;   that  the 
Pope  is  superior  to  councils,  and  can  abolish   their 
decrees;    that  all  authority  resides  in  his  person;   that 
no  one  has  a  right  to  judge  him  or  his  decrees;   that 
God  has  given  him  sovereign  power  over  all  the  king- 
doms of  the  earth,  and  that  of  heaven;  that  he  can 
depose  kings,  absolve  all  oaths  and  vows;    that  he  is 
not  dependent  on  Scripture,  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
Scripture  derives  all  its  authority, force,  and  dignity, 
from  him,'  &c.     (See  Bcausobre,  Hist.   Reform,  liv. 
iii.)     It  is  unnecessary  to  repeat,  that  the  above  pro- 
positions were  either  drawn  from  the  False  Decretals, 
or  were  of  subsequent  origin.     Till  the  timeofVal- 
entinian  III.  neither  the  Eastern  nor  Western  Church 
had  any  other  collection  of  canons  than  the  '  Code  of 
Canons  of  the  universal  Church, '  compiled  by  Stephen, 
bishop  of  Ephesus.     In  the  first  year  of  Justinian,  the 
'  Collection  of  Dionysius  the  Little  '  was  published. 
He  was  a  monk,  In  ing  at  Rome — the  same  who  in- 
troduced   the   practice   of  computing   time  from   the 
birth  of  Christ  —  a  friend,  fellow-monk,  and  fellow- 
student  of  Cassiodorus.     His  collection  contained  the 
fifty  Apostolical  Canons,  the  Canons  of  Chalcedon, 
Sardica,  and  the  African  Councils  ;    and  the  Decretals 
of  Pope  Siricius  (who  died  in  398);   and  it  had  au- 
thority  in   the   Wot   under   the   name  of  '  Codex  or 
Corpus  Canomim.'     Some  other  collections,  of  little 
repute,  or  only  partial  authority,  were  published  soon 
afterwards.     (See  Giannone,  Stor.  Napol.  lib.  iii.  c. 
v.)     Then  came  the  forgeries  of  the  eighth  age,  and 
the  pretensions — first  proceeding  from  them,  presently 
surpassing    them  — though    it    was    scarcely   till  the 
twelfth  century  that   the   new  maxims  and  principles 
came  into  full  operation. 

t  De  motti  propria*.  It  appears  that  Bulls  pro- 
ceeding dc  motu  proprio  were  received  with  great 
hesitation  in  Prance.  Put  they  were  held  by  the 
high  Papists  to  be  as  valid  as  any  other  Decrees  or 
Canons. 


528 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


pal  Courts ;  and  he  delivered,  confirmed,  or 
reversed  decisions,  according  to  the  arbitrary 
dictates  of  his  justice,  or  his  interest. 

Usurpation  of  Church  Patronage.  —  The 
apostolical  character  of  the  ministry,  perpet- 
uated by  the  uninterrupted  communication 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  was  held  to  centre  in  the 
successor  of  St.  Peter:  and  thus  not  only  did 
all  sacerdotal  sanctity  emanate  from  him,  but 
all  the  offices  and  dignities  of  the  Church 
were  vested  in  his  See.  We  may  observe, 
however,  that  there  was  not  one  among  his 
pretensions  which  cost  hirn  so  much  toil  and 
conflict  to  substantiate,  as  this.  In  his  ear- 
liest attempts  to  usurp  the  ecclesiastical  pat- 
ronage he  was  contented  to  proceed  by  sim- 
ple recommendation  ;  and,  as  he  had  already 
great  power,  his  applications  were  seldom 
despised.  Hence  arose  the  practice ;  and  from 
the  practice,  the  right.  The  prerogative  of 
institution,  of  which  he  had  gradually  de- 
spoiled the  Metropolitans  for  the  augmenta- 
tion of  his  own  dignity,  was  serviceable  as 
an  instrument  of  further  encroachment.  The 
fierce  and  protracted  contest  respecting  inves- 
titures, between  the  See  and  the  empire,  was 
inflamed  by  the  same  design  in  the  former ; 
and  when  it  terminated,  the  Pope  found  him- 
self in  legal  possession  of  that  power  of  oc- 
casional interference  in  the  collation  of  ben- 
efices, which  it  needed  no  great  address  to 
improve  and  extend.  Still,  time  and  boldness 
were  required  to  complete  the  usurpation  ; 
and  the  merit  of  achieving  that  work  is  per- 
haps justly  attributed  to  Innocent  III.*  Soon 
afterwards  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  of  St. 
Louis  was  levelled  against  it;  and  in  later 
periods  it  has  been  obtruded  so  commonly 
upon  our  attention,  as  almost  to  convert  the 
records  of  Christ's  Church  into  a  detail  of 
disgusting  squabbles  about  its  temporalities. 
A, new  vocabulary  was  introduced  into  the 
history  of  religion  ;  and  as  the  magnificence 
of  the  Court  of  Rome  kept  pace  with  the 
majesty  of  the  monarch,  and  as  its  avarice 
emulated  his  ambition,  the  field  of  Reserva- 
tion and  Provision3^  was   enlarged   with   no 


*  See  Mosheiin,  Cent.  xiii.  p.  ii.  ch.  ii.  It  was 
probably  at  this  time  that  a  new  pretext  for  this  ex- 
tension of  the  papal  authority  was  discovered  :  viz. 
that  through  the  Pope's  vigilance,  the  gates  of  the 
Church  might  be  secured  against  the  intrusion  of  any 
Heretic. 

f  Even  by  the  more  moderate  and  acknowledged 
claims  of  the  Popes,  all  benefices  in  the  possession  of 
Cardinals,  or  any  of  the  officers  of  the  Court  of  Rome ; 
those  held  by  persons  who  happened  to  die  at  Rome, 
or  within  forty  miles  from  it;  and  all  such  as  became 
vacant  by  translation,  were  reserved.    The  invention 


limit,  and  the  whole  patronage  of  the  umver 
sal  Church   seemed  to  be  absorbed   by  the 
cupidity  of  one  man. 

The  same  power  which  thus  created  Car- 
dinals and  Bishops,  and  ail  other  dignitaries, 
presumed  by  the  same  right  to  confirm,  cen- 
sure, suspend  or  depose  them ;  *  so  that  the 
whole  hierarchy  of  the  west  was  placed  at 
its  arbitrary  disposal,  f  And  though  this  in- 
ordinate despotism  was  continually  resisted 
and  restrained  by  the  princes  and  parlia- 
ments of  Europe,  it  had  no  effectual  check 
within  the  Church,  nor  was  there  any  country 


of  mental  reservation  demanded  the  more  refined  in- 
genuity of  the  sixteenth  century  ;  it  is  ascribed  to 
Leo  X.,  or  at  least,  to  bis  predecessor.  Respecting 
provisions,  we  may  refer  to  the  history  of  our  own 
Church,  to  see  with  what  pertinacity  the  battle  was 
fought,  and  how  the  statutes  enacted  against  them 
were  perpetually  confirmed,  and  perpetually  eluded  or 
violated.  We  may  observe,  however,  that  the  Kings 
of  Europe  were  not  uncommonly  neutral  or  lukewarm 
in  this  quarrel;  the  Pontiffs  were  sometimes  found 
more  tractable  than  the  chapters,  and  a  concession 
seasonably  made  to  the  former  might  become  the 
means  of  reciprocal  advantage.  Again,  we  some 
times  find  the  Universities  on  the  side  of  the  Pope — 
not  from  any  abstract  conviction  of  his  right,  but  be- 
cause his  appointments  were  often  more  judicious, 
more  encouraging  to  the  hopes  of  learned  men,  than 
those  of  the  Ordinaries,  who  usually  chose  their  own 
relatives  or  dependents.  The  Popes  had  procurators 
established  in  England,  and  probably  in  all  other 
countries,  to  look  after  their  interests;  and  the  fury 
with  which  they  pursued  them  during  the  fifteenth 
century,  is  strongly  depicted  by  Giannone,  lib.  xxx. 
cap.  6. 

*  The  Council  of  Sardica  in  347  (not  a  General 
Council)  allowed  a  bishop,  deposed  by  his  neighbor- 
ing prelates,  to  appeal  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome  —  it 
likewise  permitted  this  last  to  send  legates,  to  re- 
examine the  case  together  with  those  prelates.  .  .  . 
These  decrees  (if  they  be  genuine,  which  Mosheim 
sees  reason  to  doubt),  prove  that  the  power  of  de- 
position was  not  then  exercised  by  the  Roman  bishop, 
but  by  the  provincial  synods;  but  they  also  indicate 
a  disposition  in  the  western  clergy  even  thus  early  to 
distinguish  the  prelate  of  the  imperial  city,  and  to 
confer  greater  power  on  him  than  on  any  of  his 
brethren.  This  inference  no  one  can  reasonably  dis- 
pute, neither  can  any  one  reasonably  infer  more  than 
this  from  the  canons  in  question.  See  Dr.  Cook, 
Historical  View  of  Christianity,  book  iii.  chap.  ii. 

t  The  object  of  the  '  Oath  of  Fidelity'  to  the  Pope, 
taken  by  the  higher  clergy  on  their  admission  to  be- 
nefices, was  to  bind  them  —  that  henceforward  they 
would  be  faithful  and  obedient  to  St.  Peter,  the 
apostle,  and  to  the  Holy  Roman  Church,  and  to  the 
Pope  and  his  successors  ;  that  he  should  suffer  no 
wrong  through  their  advice,  consent,  or  connivance; 
that  they  would  maintain  and  promote  all  his  rights, 
honors,  privileges,  and  authorities,  and  resist  and 
denounce  all  attempts  against  him. 


POWER,  &c.  OF  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH. 


529 


in  which  it  was  not  sometimes  practically 
felt. 

On  the  Personal  Infallibility  of  the  Pope. — 
It  is  more  difficult  to  determine,  how  far  the 
Pope  was  held  at  any  particular  period  to  be 
personally  absolute  in  matters  of  faith.  No 
doubt,  disputed  points  were  perpetually  re- 
ferred to  his  decision,  and  the  decision  was 
considered  as  final.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  have  been  Popes  at  various  times,  who 
have  incurred  the  charge  of  heresy  from  very 
faithful  Catholics.  Now  the  very  suspicion 
of  error  presumes  the  fallibility  of  the  person 
suspected,  at  least  in  the  opinion  of  the  accu- 
sers; and  in  the  affair  of  John  XXII.  and  the 
process  against  Boniface  VIII.,  we  have  not 
observed  that  the  friends  of  those  Popes  de- 
nied their  liability  to  error.  Again,  in  sotne- 
what  later  times,  in  the  councils  of  Pisa, 
Constance,  and  Basle,  we  find  it  a  principle 
admitted  by  both  parties,  that  a  Pope  might 
be  deposed  on  conviction  of  heresy;  whence 
we  may  draw  the  same  inference  respecting 
other  periods  of  Papal  history.  The  claim  of 
infallibility  was  not  preferred  in  the  delibera- 
tions at  Florence,  though  conducted  in  the 
presence  of  the  Pope  and  his  Court,  and  en- 
tering very  deeply  into  the  subject  of  papal 
authority;  nor  was  it  advanced  at  any  later 
period  in  the  same  century.  So  that,  how- 
ever clearly  it  might  be  deduced  from  the 
general  expressions  of  various  bulls  and  con- 
stitutions, and  even  though  it  should  have 
been  asserted  by  some  individuals  and  ac- 
knowledged and  maintained  by  others,  yet  it 
would  be  too  much  to  account  it  among  the 
authorized  pretensions  of  the  Roman  See.* 
Howbeit  the  doctrines  which  proceeded  from 
the  chair  (ex  Cathedra)  were  seldom  disput- 
ed; and  the  Pontiff  might  forget  the  possibil- 
ity of  error  in  the  reverence  which  awaited 
and  embraced  his  most  questionable  decis- 
ions. 


*  The  claim  to  infallibility  is  not  contained  in  the 
Creed  of  Pius  IV.,  compiled  out  of  the  Canons  of 
Trent,  which  Roman  Catholics  consider  as  the  most 
accurate  summary  of  their  faith  ;  and  the  Universities 
have  generally  opposed  it.  But  it  has  been  main- 
tained (as  a  matter  of  opinion,  however,  not  of  faith) 
by  many  distinguished  individuals,  among  whom  the 
most  notorious  is,  perhaps,  Bellarmine.  It  is  mor- 
tifying to  humanity  to  observe  the  genius  of  Pascal 
stooping  to  draw  elaborate  distinctions  between  in- 
fallibility in  matters  of  faith  and  in  matters  of  fact, 
and  exhausting  itself  to  prove,  that,  though  the  Pope 
does  really  possess  the  former,  it  does  not  follow  that 
he  is  also  invested  with  the  latter — that  is,  that  though 
he  cannot  err  in  judgment,  he  may  possibly  be  deceiv- 
ed by  falsehood  ! 

67 


Again,  in  the  regulation  of  the  moral  duties 
of  the  faithful,  the  same  searching  hand  in- 
terposed with  the  same  rigorous  inquisition. 
A  general  power  of  dissolving  obligations  was 
claimed  by  the  successors  of  St.  Peter,  and 
they  applied  it  in  various  manners,  as  suited 
their  policy,  or,  it  might  be,  their  conscience 
— sometimes  in  divorcing  a  prince  from  his 
queen,  sometimes  in  separating  a  nation  from 
its  monarch.  The  most  sacred  oaths  were 
annulled  with  the  same  ease,  which  dispensed 
with  the  slightest  promise ;  and  as  there  were 
many  who  profited,  or  might  hope  to  profit, 
by  that  papal  prerogative,  and  as  it  was  made 
familiar  by  constant  exercise,  so  were  there 
few  who  cared  to  question  it,  however  shame- 
ful the  ends  to  which  it  was  sometimes  ap- 
plied. 

Penance  and  Pnrgaton/. — It  is  the  doctrine 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  that,  besides 
the  eternal  punishments  denounced  against 
sin,  there  are  also  temporal  penalties  attached 
to  it,  which  are  still  due  to  the  justice  of  God, 
even  after  he  may  have  remitted  the  former; 
and  that  those  penalties  may  consist  either  of 
evil  in  this  world,  or  of  temporal  suffering  in 
the  next  and  intermediate  condition  of  purga- 
tory. It  is  also  an  article  of  faith,  that  a  sat- 
isfaction in  their  place  has  been  instituted  by 
Christ,  as  a  part  of  the  Sacrament  of  Penance, 
and  that  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  as  ex- 
ercised by  the  Pope,  extends  to  the  remission 
of  that  satisfaction.  The  act  of  remission  is 
called  an  Indulgence ;  it  is  partial  or  com- 
plete, as  the  indulgence  is  for  a  stated  time  or 
plenary,  and  the  conditions  of  repentance  and 
restitution  are  in  strictness  annexed  to  it. 
Through  this  doctrine,  the  Popes  were,  in 
fact,  invested  with  a  vast  control  over  the 
human  conscience,  even  in  the  moderate  ex- 
ercise of  their  power,  because  it  was  a  power 
which  overstepped  the  limits  of  the  visible 
world.  But  when  they  proceeded,  as  they 
did  soon  proceed,  flagitiously  to  abuse  it,  and 
when,  through  the  progress  of  that  abuse, 
people  at  length  were  taught  to  believe,  that 
perfect  absolution  from  all  the  penalties  of 
sin  could  be  procured  from  a  human  being  ; 
and  procured  too,  not  through  fervent  prayer 
and  deep  and  earnest  contrition,  but  by  mil- 
itary service,  or  by  pilgrimage,  or  even  by 
gold — it  was  then  that  the  evil  was  carried  so 
far,  as  to  leave  the  historian  doubtful,  whether 
any  thing  be  any  where  recorded  more  aston- 
ishing than  the  wickedness  of  the  clergy,  ex- 
cept the  credulity  of  the  vulgar. 

We  shall  recur  to  this  scandal,  for  it  was 
the  immediate  cause  of  the  Reformation  ;  but 


530 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


it  is  proper  to  remark  that,  in  the  general  pic- 
ture which  has  been  drawn  of  Rome's  spir- 
itual despotism  and  pride,  some  features  had 
already  been  effaced  before  the  approach  of 
Luther.  From  the  death  of  Boniface  VIII., 
the  colors  had  been  gradually,  though  insen- 
sibly, fading  away.  The  dependent  Popes 
of  France  sustained  the  character  of  Gregory 
VII.  and  Innocent  IV.  with  feebleness  and 
degeneracy.  The  profligacy  and  rapacity  of 
their  Court  began  to  dissolve  the  hereditary 
spell,  and  withdraw  the  sacred  veil,  which 
had  hitherto  concealed  their  real  weakness. 
During  the  Schism,  the  rival  Antipopes  railed 
against  each  other,  while  they  covered  them- 
selves with  crimes  ;  and  the  nations  who  were 
appealed  to,  as  arbiters  of  the  dispute,  could 
scarcely  fail  to  detect  the  unworthiness  of 
both  parties.  In  the  Councils  which  follow- 
ed, some  principles  were  advanced  and  es- 
tablished which,  though  still  too  narrowly 
limited  by  inveterate  prejudices,  were  at  least 
subversive  of  the  absolute  monarchy  of  the 
Pontiff.  When  the  Councils  were  dissolved, 
and  the  duty  of  convoking  others  successfully 
eluded  by  the  Popes,  the  Court  of  Rome,  lib- 
erated from  that  terror,  once  more  plunged 
into  debauchery,  more  shameless,  yet  more 
notorious,  than  the  abominations  of  former 
days ;  and  the  various  scandals  of  the  tenth 
century  were  surpassed  by  Innocent  VIII.,  by 
Alexander,  and  Julius,  in  an  age  of  compar- 
ative civilization.  It  is  true,  that  in  its  pre- 
tensions the  See  had  abated  nothing  of  its 
ancient  arrogance,  and  we  have  observed 
what  awe  it  was  sometimes  capable  of  inspir- 
ing even  in  its  decay.  But  the  light  had  bro- 
ken in  ;  the  slow,  yet  irresistible  hand  of 
knowledge  had  commenced  its  labors;  and 
the  basis  of  opinion,  on  which  alone  the  spir- 
itual despotism  rested,  was  already  shaken 
and  shattered. 

III.  Hie  claims  of  Rome  to  universal  Tem- 
poral Supremacy.  —  The  effect  of  successful 
usurpation  is  to  aggravate  ambition,  and  the 
more  disproportionate  the  success  to  all  rea- 
sonable hope  and  calculation,  the  wilder  are 
the  schemes  which  take  their  rise  from  it. 
The  spiritual  despotism  of  the  Pope  transcends 
any  exhibition  of  human  power  described  in 
any  history,  until  we  approach  the  surpassing 
magnitude  of  his  temporal  pretensions.  The 
design  of  Gregory  VII.  was  the  most  daring 
imagination  of  human  ambition.  To  estab- 
lish the  Chair  of  St.  Peter  as  the  source  of  all 
power,  secular  as  well  as  pastoral,  civil  as 
well  as  ecclesiastical — to  subject  all  kings  and 


all  governments  to  the  crosier  of  an  unarmed, 
aged  priest  —  to  regulate  the  politics  of  the 
world  by  the  annual  meeting  of  a  Senate  of 
Ecclesiastics,  under  the  eye  of  that  autocrat 
— to  dispose  of  all  countries  and  of  all  thrones 
— to  create  monarchs  and  then  to  suspend,  or 
depose  them  —  to  sport,  as  it  were,  with  all 
that  is  sublime  and  mighty  in  earthly  things 
—  such  was  a  scheme  beyond  the  boldest 
conception  of  secular  pride ;  and  it  was  en- 
gendered, where  alone  it  could  have  found 
any  nourishment,  in  the  breast  of  a  monk. 

The  temporal  supremacy  of  the  Pope  was 
projected  not  in  the  darkest  moment  of  su- 
perstition and  barbarism ;  it  was  promoted 
during  a  period  more  enlightened  than  that  in 
which  it  originated;  it  reached  the  height  of 
its  triumph  during  the  latter  part  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  when  Frederic  II.  had  given 
an  impulse  to  literature,  when  Dante  was 
earning  immortality  ;  and,  but  for  that  French 
intrigue  which  transplanted  Papacy  for  a  sea- 
son into  a  foreign  soil,  it  might  have  advanced 
still  farther;  it  would  not,  at  least,  have  reced- 
ed so  soon.  Yet  its  fate  must  naturally  have 
followed  the  decline  of  the  spiritual  authority 
of  the  See,  since  it  had  absolutely  no  other 
foundation  than  that ;  and  as  it  was  of  later 
origin,  and  more  obviously  insulting  to  every 
man's  reason,  so  was  its  overthrow  more 
rapid  and  more  complete.  Yet  its  latest  pre- 
tensions were  not  unworthy  of  its  ancient 
insolence  ;  and  the  presumption  with  which 
it  distributed,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  king- 
doms and  oceans,  and  continents,  is  recollect- 
ed with  astonishment  even  by  the  Catholics 
themselves — since  the  Catholics  now  for  the 
most  part  admit,  that  that  branch  of  the  Pon- 
tifical authority  was  an  indefensible  usurpa- 
tion. 

Nevertheless,  it  found  much  support  in  the 
temporary  interests  of  the  great;  it  held  forth 
a  plausible  pretence  in  the  pacific  objects 
which  it  professed,  and  it  was  really  instru- 
mental in  conferring  some  benefits  on  man- 
kind. Probably  there  is  no  Court  in  Europe, 
in  which  the  Papal  right  to  dispose  of  thrones 
has  not  at  some  time  been  virtually  recognis- 
ed. It  was  never  disputed  by  any  prince, 
who  found  his  immediate  profit  in  its  ac- 
knowledgment— when  the  crown  was  offered 
by  the  Pontifical  hand,  the  validity  of  the 
donation  was  never  questioned  ;  and  thus  did 
sovereigns  sharpen  for  the  chastisement  of 
their  rivals,  a  weapon,  which  was  so  easily 
turned  against  themselves. 

In  the  worst  periods  of  feudal  government, 
a  mediatory  influence  over  the  various  chiefs 


POWER,  &c.  OF  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH. 


531 


of  the  European  Republic,  vested  in  the  head 
of  the  universal  religion,  if  exercised  wiih 
moderation,  with  disinterestedness,  with  dis- 
cretion, according  to  the  rules  of  Evangelical 
charity,  might  have  conferred  the  most  sub- 
stantial blessings  on  society  ;  and  since  the 
Papal  interference  was  sometimes  so  regu- 
lated, it  had  not  been  wholly  destitute  of  ad- 
vantage. Divisions  have  been  healed,  wars 
have  been  prevented,  crimes  have  been  pun- 
ished, justice  has  been  honored,  tyranny  has 
oeen  checked,  by  the  arbitrary  decrees  of  the 
Vatican  —  the  Popes  were,  upon  the  whole, 
is  wise  and  as  virtuous  as  the  princes  around 
them  ;  and  when  we  consider  the  holy  ground 
on  which  their  government  professed  to  stand, 
it  is  very  shameful,  that  they  were  not  much 
more  so.  But  the  good  which  they  conferred 
was  confined  to  evil  times,  and  even  then  it 
was  alloyed  with  much  mischief.  The  mo- 
tives of  their  mediation  were  at  least  as  com- 
monly found  in  anger  or  ambition,  as  in  re- 
ligion or  philanthropy ;  and  it  may  be  ques- 
tioned whether  the  political  benefits  which 
proceeded  from  it,  such  as  the  establishment 
of  a  liberal  party  in  Italy,  and  occasional  re- 
straints on  kingly  despotism,  were  not  rather 
the  consequence,  than  the  design,  of  their 
policy^.  The  means  employed  by  their  ambi- 
tion were  sometimes  lower  than  the  ordinary 
level  of  political  immorality.  To  rouse  sub- 
jects against  their  sovereigns  is  a  detestable 
method  of  effecting  even  a  beneficial  purpose 
— yet  it  is  common  and  human  ;  but  to  arm 
the  hands  of  children  against  the  thrones  and 
lives  of  their  parents  is  a  policy  suggested  by 
the  counsels  of  Satan. 

IV.  The  Constitution  of  the  Church.  — "it 
was  a  position  advanced  by  Pierre  d'Ailly, 
that  a  Council  General  had  no  power  over 
the  Pontifical  dignity,  which  was  of  divine 
authority,  but  only  over  the  abuse  of  that  dig- 
nity. '  And  on  that  account  (he  adds)  the 
monarchical  system  of  the  Church  is  temper- 
ed by  an  admixture  of  the  aristocratical  and 
democratical  principle.'*  In  the  balance  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  polity,  the  Papal  despo- 
tism was,  in  fact,  mitigated  by  two  restraining 
powers  —  whatever  may  be  the  political  de- 
nominations properly  belonging  to  them — the 
College  of  Cardinals  and  General  Councils ; 
bv  the  former  as  the  electors,  the  constitutional 


*  '  Et  idcirco  status  monarchicus  Ecclesiae  regiinine 
aristocratico  et  democratico  temperatur.'  A  position 
laid  down  by  Gerson  on  the  same  subject  is  not  at 
variance  with  this  — '  Ecelesiastica  I'olitia  ita  est 
nionarchica,  ut  non  mutari  possit  in  aristocraticam 
But  democraticam.' 


counsellors  and  coadjutors  of  the  Pope;  by 
the  latter  as  the  states-general  of  the  Universal 
Church. 

Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Cardinals.  —  Until 
the  edict  of  Nicholas  II.  in  1059,  the  name 
of  Cardinal  *  possessed  little  dignity  or  dis- 
tinction, and  the  body  had  no  existence,  as 
an  acknowledged  branch  of  the  Ecclesiastical 
system.  The  important  share  which  it  then 
received  in  the  election  of  the  Pope  was  con- 
firmed and  extended  by  the  further  regulations 
of  Alexander  III.  The  consent  of  two-thirds 
of  the  body  was  made  sufficient  for  a  legal 
choice  ;  and  the  College  was  at  the  same  time 
enlarged  by  some  considerable  permanent  ad- 
ditions. To  conciliate  the  higher  class  of 
the  clergy,  the  priors  of  some  of  the  principal 
churches  .were  enrolled  among  the  electors — 
the  acquiescence  of  the  inferior  orders  was 
secured  by  the  admission  of  the  cardinal 
deacons — and  the  civil  authorities,  who  rep- 
resented the  interests  of  the  people,  were 
appeased  by  the  elevation  of  the  seven  Pala- 
tine judges  to  the  same  office.  Indeed,  it  is 
from  this  time,  more  properly  than  from  the 
decree  of  Nicholas,  that  we  should  date  the 
foundation  of  the  Sacred  College. 


*  The  sixty-first  dissertation  of  Muratori  treats 
'  De  Origine  Cardinalatus;'  and  he  arrives,  through 
much  learning,  at  the  probable  conclusion,  that  the 
term  was  in  Italy  originally  applied  to  all,  whether 
bishops,  priests,  or  deacons,  who  were  iiDCDOreably, 
and  in  perpetuity,  established  in  a  cure  or  dignity,  in 
contradistinction  to  the  Vicarii,  or  temporary  and 
occasional  ministers.  Parochial  churches  (originally 
called  Baptismal)  and  Diaconia:  (pious  houses  for  the 
reception  of  the  poor,  mendicants,  infirm,  and  strang- 
ers) were  respectively  administered  by  the  priest  and 
deacon:  and  when  he  was  fixed  therein  for  life,  he 
was  called  Cardinal.  The  term  implied  the  stability 
of  the  office — its  dignity  and  superiority  was  associated 
with  that,  and  was  a  secondary  accompaniment.  So 
of  Bishops.  Vacant  sees  were,  originally,  often  com- 
mended to  some  one  in  the  interim,  '  donee  ibi  con- 
stitueretur  proprius  et  titularis.'  But  when  the 
permanent  prelate  was  appointed,  he  was  said  to  be 
incardinated  (incardinari)  in  the  see,  and  became 
cardinal.  .  .  .  Respecting  the  subsequent  aggran- 
dizement of  the  Sacred  College,  we  may  mention, 
that  Nicholas  IV.  in  1289,  divided  the  Roman  rev- 
enues equally  between  the  Pope  and  the  Cardinals 
(Pagi.Vit.  Nic.  IV.  s.  xxii.);  and  that  they  profited 
by  the  ultra-papal  Decretals  of  Gregory  IX.  The 
title  of  Eminence,  in  the  place  of  Illustrissimiis,  was 
given  them  by  Urban  VIII.;  but  it  is  an  observation 
of  Floury,  (Discours  4me.  sur  la  Discipline,)  that 
their  frequent  appearance  in  the  character  of  Legates 
a  latere,  on  which  occasions  they  took  precedence  of 
all  ecclesiastical  dignitaries,  and  ruled  as  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Pope,  contributed  more  than  any 
other  cause  to  their  exaltation. 


532 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


That  event  marks  an  important  epoch  in 
the  history  of  the  Church ;  not  only  because 
it  secured  the  more  peaceful  election  of  the 
Popes,  and  prevented  those  perpetual  broils 
and  schisms  which  arrested  the  flight  and 
dimmed  the  eye  of  Papacy  ;  but  also  because 
it  introduced  a  new  element  into  the  Eccle- 
siastical polity,  which  gradually  expanded, 
and  acquired  in  process  of  time  a  great  and 
unforeseen  preponderance. 

We  observe  an  edict  published  by  Hono- 
rius  III.  in  1225,  for  the  especial  protection 
of  the  cardinals  from  all  personal  assaults 
and  offences ;  and  other  proofs  are  afforded 
of  the  tenderness  with  which  the  monarch- 
popes  had  begun  to  regard  the  Court  of  St. 
Peter.  But  the  first  public  occasion,  which 
was  turned  to  the  aggrandizement  of  the 
College,  and  which  raised  its  members  to  an 
ideal  level  with  mere  worldly  princes,  was 
the  first  Council  of  Lyons,  held  (in  1245)  by 
Innocent  IV.  From  that  moment  they  be- 
came essentially  distinguished  from  the  rest 
of  the  clergy  in  rank  and  in  pride ;  and  the 
counsellors  and  associates  of  that  Power 
which  overshadowed  the  majesty  of  kings,* 
looked  down  with  disdain  upon  the  petty 
bishopsf  who  occupied  the  inferior  regions  of 
the  hierarchy.  But  their  prosperity  was  not 
favorable  to  their  virtue  or  their  concord. 
In  the  discharge  of  that  very  duty,  which 
gave  birth  to  their  dignity,  they  disgraced 
themselves  and  scandalized  the  Church  by 
their  dissensions ;  and  instead  of  promptly 
repairing  her  loss,  they  frequently  allowed 
long  intervals  to  elapse,  in  which  she  remain- 
ed without  a  head,  and  Christ  without  a  vice- 
gerent upon  earth.  This  had  been  particu- 
larly the  case  before  the  election  of  Gregory 
X. ;  and  that  excellent  pontiff  accordingly 
undertook  to  remedy  the  evil  which  had 
touched  himself  so  closely.  And  then  follow- 
ed (in  1274)  the  institution  of  the  Conclave. 


*  Louis  II.  seems,  from  Pagi  (Vit.  Nicolai,  s.  iii.) 
to  have  been  the  first  emperor  who  held  the  Pope's 
bridle;  and  Nicholas  I.  (858—867)  the  first  Pope 
who  exacted  that  proof  of  inferiority  — '  humillima 
ilia  Imperatoris  Ludovici  erga  Nicolaum  Pontificem 
obsequia  refert  Anastasius  Bibliothecarius.' 

t  Episcopelli  was  the  term  by  which  the  cardinals 
loved  to  designate  prelates  who  had  not  received  the 
hat — according  to  Nicholas  of  Clemangis.  About  the 
6ame  time,  Pierre  d'Ailly  in  his  Discourse  De  Ec- 
clesim  Auctoritate  (Opera  Gersoni,  vol.  i.  p.  901) 
takes  some  pains  to  make  out,  that  the  cardinals  are 
the  legitimate  representatives  of  the   Apostles,   the 

Council  of  the  representative  of  Christ We 

should  never  forget  that  Pierre  d'Ailly  was  a  reformer, 
and  decidedly  opposed  to  the  high-papist  party. 


The  cardinals,  after  some  ineffectual  at- 
tempts to  shake  off  the  constraint  thereby 
imposed  on  them,  presently  turned  their  at- 
tention to  lay  such  restrictions  on  the  Pon- 
tifical authority,  as  might  still  farther  enlarge 
the  privileges  and  interests  of  the  College; 
and  they  proposed  to  make  their  right  of 
election  subservient  to  this  end.*  The  Con- 
claves of  Avignon  were  the  first  in  which 
the  future  pontiff  was  invited  to  bind  himself 
by  that  sacred  oath,  which  he  never  hesitated 
to  take,  which  he  never  omitted  to  confirm, 
and  which  he  never  failed  to  violate.  The 
introduction  of  that  practice  demonstrates  the 
power  of  the  Sacred  College,  as  well  as  its 
ambition  ;  but  in  tempting  the  morality  of  its 
masters,  and,  exhibiting  itself  as  a  fruitful 
nursery  for  Pontifical  perjurers,  it  did  not 
well  consult  either  its  own  interests,  or  the 
honor  of  the  holy  See,  or  the  stability  of  the 
Church.  It  is  true  that  the  mysteries  of  the 
Conclave  were  not,  in  those  days,  very  gen- 
erally divulged,  nor  did  they  descend,  per- 
haps, to  the  knowledge  of  those  ranks  in  so- 
ciety, which  are  most  sensible  to  the  scandal 
of  great  crimes.  But  as  knowledge  gained 
ground,  and  as  the  reformers  of  the  Church 
multiplied,  while  its  enemies  grew  more 
powerful,  those  secret  iniquities  were  brought 
to  light,  and  the  tales  of  former  days  were 
accredited  by  the  deeds  of  the  existing  gene- 
ration. In  truth  it  would  seem,  that,  in  the 
general  corruption  of  the  hierarchy  of  Rome, 
the  disorders  of  the  Court  excited  louder  and 
more  general  indignation,  even  than  those 
of  the  monarch  of  the  Church. 

Relative  Power  and  Interests  of  the  Pope 
and  Cardinals.  —  The  relative  situation  and 
reciprocal  influence  of  the  Pope  and  the 
Sacred  College  were  such,  in  appearance,  as 
to  promise  a  moderate  government  under  a 
limited  monarchy:  they  were  such,  in  reality, 
as  to  present,  under  that  show,  an  imperious 
and  oppressive  despotism.     According  to  an- 


*  The  professed  object  of  the  oath  taken  in  con- 
clave previously  to  the  election  of  Eugenius  IV.  was 
'  ad  conservandum  statum  ecclesi?e  Romanae  et  mon- 
archiam  ecclesiasticam  cum  cardinalium  dignitate; 
qui  cum  sint  lumina  et  ornamenta  prope  Papam, 
Sedem  Apostolicam  illustriantia,  et  columna?  firmis- 
simae  sustentantes  ecclesiam  Dei,  cum  Romano  Pon- 
tifice  eadem,  ut  membra  suo  capiti,  concordia  inso- 
lubili  debent  esse  conjuncti.'  On  the  same  occasion 
it  was  stipulated  that  the  formula  '  de  consilio  fratrum 
nostrorum '  should  be  changed  to  '  de  consensu;'  that 
the  Pope  should  not  create  new  cardinals  without  the 
consent  of  the  old  ;  that  half  the  revenues  of  the 
Church  should  be  paid  to  the  College,  &c.  See 
Pagi,  Vit.  Eugenii  IV. 


POWER,  &c.  OF  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH. 


533 


cient  Canons,  and  the  Constitutions  of  later 
Councils,  the  Consistory  was  the  permanent 
Senate  of  this  Church  ;  and  its  sanction  was, 
in  strictness,  required  to  give  force  to  all  the 
decrees  of  the  Vatican.*  It  was  likewise  re- 
stricted by  the  same  laws  to  a  fixed  and  mode- 
rate number — none  were  to  be  admitted  into 
it  except  men  of  mature  age,  acknowledged 
learning,  approved  piety ;  and  its  morality 
(the  surest  source  of  ecclesiastical  power)  was 
provided  for  by  severe  injunctions.  These 
regulations  were,  indeed,  for  the  most  part 
disregarded  ;  nevertheless  the  body  did  in 
fact  contain  many  elements  of  strength.  It 
consisted  of  individuals,  most  of  whom  were 
in  the  flower  of  life,  practised  in  the  affairs 
of  the  world,  familiar  with  courts,  possibly 
connected  with  princes;  subtle  in  the  con- 
ception of  their  designs,  unscrupulous  in  the 
pursuit  of  their  interests.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  Pope  was  commonly  enfeebled  by  age.  f 
His  election  was  placed  entirely  in  their 
hands  ;  and  by  their  perseverance  in  attempts 
to  make  this  power  the  means  of  abridging 
his  authority,  they  sufficiently  manifested 
their  inclination  to  do  so. 

Where  then  was  the  point  of  their  weak- 
ness ?  How  was  it,  that  their  design  was  so 
effectually  frustrated?  Of  the  reasons,  which 
may  be  mentioned  for  their  failure,  the  first 
was  the  corruption  of  the  College  itself;  for 
without  that,  all  the  various  resources  of  the 
Pope  could  not  have  upheld  his  predomi- 
nance. The  second  was  the  power  which 
he  possessed  over  the  persons  and  property 
of  the  Cardinals,  which  reached  to  imprison- 
ment, spoliation,  torture,  and  even  death,  and 
which  was  not  uncommonly  exerted.  But 
this  required  at  least  a  pretext  for  its  exercise  ; 
whereas  that  to  which  we  next  come,  was  of 
easy  and  universal  operation.  The  patronage 
of  the  Church  was  placed  to  a  great  extent  at 
his  disposal ;  and  where  menaces  might  not 
prevail,  the  most  certain  method  of  persua- 
sion remained  to  him.  Lastly,  he  enjoyed 
the  prerogative  of  multiplying  the  members 
of  his  refractory  senate,  and  thus  creating  a 
majority  subservient  to  his  views  —  for  the 
laws,  which  had  been  enacted  o>  restrain  that 
power,  do  not  appear  at  any  time  to  have 
been  seriously  observed.  By  the  dexterous 
application  of  these  various  means,  the  Pon- 
tiff was  enabled  to  command  with  great  cer- 
tainty the  suffrages  of  the  Consistory. 


*  The  Cardinals  were  the  Brothers  of  the  Pope, 
and  edicts  were  published  by  their  counsel. 

f  The  average  reign  of  the  Popes  during  the  first 
fifteen  centuries  was  of  about  seven  years. 


General  Councils.  —  Notwithstanding  the 
restraints  which  the  Cardinals  endeavored  to 
impose  upon  the  Papa!  authority,  they  were 
zealously  united  in  its  defence,  whenever  it 
was  assailed  from  any  other  quarter  ;  because 
their  own  dignity  was  essentially  involved  in 
the  majesty  of  the  See.  This  was  sufficiently 
proved  by  the  proceedings  of  Constance  and 
Basle :  and  on  the  same  principle  it  became 
the  object  of  those  two  Councils  to  reform 
the  Court,  no  less  than  the  Chair,  of  St.  Peter. 
The  real  extent  of  the  lawful  power  possessed 
by  those  august  bodies  was  furiously  contested 
both  in  that  and  succeeding  ages ;  nor  has  it 
yet  ceased  to  be  a  matter  of  speculative  differ- 
ence among  Roman  Catholics.  Again,  the  de- 
crees which  they  published  for  the  reformation 
of  the  Vatican  were,  for  the  most  part,  eluded, 
or  openly  outraged.  But  the  effects  which 
they  really  produced  on  the  destinies  of  Pa- 
pacy, though  less  immediate,  were  more  dura- 
ble, and  far  more  extensive,  than  their  authors 
had  contemplated.  The  association  of  pow- 
erful and  learned  laymen  in  ecclesiastical 
deliberations,  the  habit  of  free  discussion,  the 
popular  constitution  of  the  assemblies,  espe- 
cially the  last,  the  public  promulgation  of 
anti-papal  principles,  and  the  practice  of  con- 
tending with  Popes  and  deposing  them,  pro- 
duced a  deep  impression  in  every  quarter  of 
the  Catholic  world.  Rome  alone  might  fail 
to  comprehend  the  warning,  or  affect  to  des- 
pise it ;  and  she  reaped  the  fruits  of  her 
blindness  or  perversity.  For  the  truth  is,  thai 
the  springs  which  were  then  opened,  had 
they  been  allowed  by  the  Papal  policy  to  take 
the  course  originally  marked  out  for  them, 
would  but  have  cleansed  away  some  of  the 
corroding  abuses  of  the  See,  and  thus  increas- 
ed its  strength ;  but  being  dammed  up  and 
diverted  by  a  short-sighted  opposition,  they 
were  indeed  repressed  for  the  moment — yet 
they  presently  broke  forth  in  another  quarter 
with  redoubled  violence,  and  finally  swept 
away  the  mansion,  which  they  were  at  first 
intended  to  purify. 

Various  Principles  atid  Instruments  of  the 
Roman  Church. —  The  sketch  which  is  here 
presented  of  the  general  constitution  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  of  its  tendency 
to  decline  during  the  two  centuries  which 
preceded  the  Reformation,  should  be  filled  up 
by  some  of  the  less  preceptible  portions  of  the 
fabric;  that  we  may  not  wholly  overlook  the 
subordinate  machinery,  which  alone  enabled 
it  to  subsist  so  long.  First,  then,  let  us  men- 
tion that  popular  principle  in  its  construction, 
by  which  it  threw  open  its  benefices  and  dig 


534 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


nities,  even  the  Apostolical  Chair,  to  every 
rank  in  society.  It  appealed  to  the  ambition 
of  all  mankind :  nor  was  this  any  faithless 
lure,  to  excite  the  industry  of  the  faithful, 
and  then  to  elude  their  hopes;  so  far  other- 
wise, that  several  of  the  most  eminent  and 
honored  among  the  Pontiffs  were  of  ignoble 
and  even  unknown  origin.  As  long  as  the 
level  of  ecclesiastical  morality  approached  at 
all  near  to  the  pretensions  of  ancient  purity ; 
as  long  as  virtue  and  piety  were  held  requi- 
site for  high  offices,  no  less  than  talents  and 
learning  —  so  long  the  emulation  awakened 
among  Churchmen  was  serviceable  not  only 
to  the  prosperity  of  the  Church,  but  to  the 
general  welfare  of  society,  and  the  general 
interests  of  religion.  But  when,  in  the  first 
stage  of  sacerdotal  corruption,  other  paths 
were  discovered  of  ascending  the  spiritual 
pyramid ;  *  when  the  bigot  or  the  parasite 
was  found  to  reach  the  summit  more  surely 
than  the  man  of  holy  and  humble,  yet  upright, 
industry — then  it  became  probable  that  men 
so  promoted  would  throw  scandal  on  the 
Church  ;  and  it  was  certain,  that  they  would 
confer  no  benefits  on  mankind.  But  when 
at  length,  in  days  of  deeper  iniquity,  the  most 
odious  vices  formed,  as  it  were,  the  morals 
of  Rome,  ecclesiastical  ambition  became  very 
closely  connected  with  anti-Christian  princi- 
ples, and  avarice,  licentiousness,  and  perfidy, 
too  frequently  prepared  the  way  to  the  throne 
of  St.  Peter.  Howbeit,  the  talent  and  in- 
genuity of  men  were  still  stimulated  by  the 
splendid  prospect,  and  all  the  energies  of  the 
mere  intellect  f  were  still  exercised  and  abus- 
ed in  the  service  of  the  Church.  Nor  yet 
were  they  always  abused — the  love  of  letters 
was  sometimes  a  passport  to  the  most  elevated 
dignities,  and  the  instrument  which  was  des- 
tined to  overthrow  the  See  was  sometimes 
employed  to  illustrate  and  support  it.  Nicho- 
las V.  and  Pius  II.  eminently  proved  the  great 
advantage  which  the  democratical  principle 
might  confer  upon  the  church,  even  in  its 
worst  age.  But  the  occasional  success  of  ge- 
nius, of  even  learning,  was  insufficient  for  the 
support  of  a  religious  establishment.  The 
springs  of  morality  were  poisoned.    The  vices 


*  It  is  said,  that  the  tops  of  pyramids  are  accessible 
only  to  two  descriptions  of  animals — the  eagle  and  the 
serpent.  Both  have  found  their  imitators  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Roman  Catholic  Hierarchy. 

j-  The  great  mass  of  business,  carried  from  all 
quarters  to  Rome,  so  as  to  make  it  for  such  matters 
the  school  of  Europe,  drew  thither  men  of  talents  and 
tnbition,  and  gave  them  occupation,  and  consequently 
engaged  them  in  the  defence  of  the  system,  by  which 
they  profited. 


of  the  ecclesiastics  were  those  least  pardon- 
able, and  least  pardoned,  in  the  ecclesiastical 
character.  The  contrast  between  the  de- 
meanor of  the  Hierarchy  and  its  professions 
and  purposes  was  too  violent  and  too  manifest. 
The  tutelary  spirit  of  piety  had  deserted  the 
temple,  and  its  gates  were  thrown  open  to  in- 
vite the  invasion  of  the  Reformer. 

The  hand  of  arbitrary  power  must  some- 
times be  seen  as  well  as  felt,  in  order  that  its 
commands  may  always  be  obeyed.  And  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  soon  discovered  the  policy 
of  visiting  the  more  distant  communities  of 
the  faithful  by  envoys  and  emissaries.  In 
earlier  ages,  the  pomp  and  haughtiness  of  his 
Legates  sufficiently  represented  the  pontifi- 
cal presence.  They  awed  the  assemblies  of 
the  great,  and  insulted  the  dignity  of  princes. 
In  succeeding  times,  when  reason  and  heresy 
raised  their  heads,  and  it  became  necessary 
to  exert  a  more  direct  and  searching  influence 
over  the  people,  the  Mendicants  started  into 
existence,  and  spread  like  a  cloud  over  the 
face  of  Europe.  These  men  were  zealous 
and  indefatigable  ministers  of  a  master, 
whom,  if  many  served  from  interest,  many 
revered  with  honest  enthusiasm.  They  prac- 
tised great  austerities;  they  preached  with 
fervor,  sometimes  with  eloquence ;  above  all, 
they  eagerly  embraced  and  appropriated  the 
scholastic  erudition  of  the  day:  aud  thus  it 
was  that  by  feeding  the  false  appetite  for  fal- 
lacies and  subtleties,  they  converted  learning, 
which  was  the  natural  enemy  of  Papacy,  into 
its  useful  instrument.  Among  the  accidents 
(if  accident  it  can  properly  be  called)  which 
conspired  to  prolong  the  dominion  of  Rome, 
the  most  fortunate  was  assuredly  this,  that 
the  first  efforts  of  reviving  reason  were  so 
perplexed  and  tortuous,  as  to  be  capable 
of  ssrving  falsehood  no  less  effectually  than 
truth. 

The  Scholastic  system  was  in  due  season 
supplanted  by  a  better — but  the  influence  of 
the  Mendicants  fell  still  earlier  into  decay: 
because  they  insensibly  departed  from  the 
show  of  moral  excellence,  which  had  recom- 
mended them  to  popular  favor;  because  the 
Pope  had  gradually  converted  them  into  the 
instruments  of  his  cruelty,  and  the  represent- 
atives of  his  avarice.  It  was  thus  that  they 
lost  their  hold  on  the  affections  of  the  vulgar. 
For  the  lowest  classes  of  mankind,  though 
they  may  sometimes  judge  wrong,  will  al- 
ways feel  right;  their  principles  may  be 
shaken  by  the  example  of  their  superiors, 
but  they  will  always  tend  to  rectitude ;  and  if 
they  ever  show  favor  to  any  crime  or  base- 


POWER,  &c.  OF  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH. 


535 


ness,  it  is  because  they  are  deceived,  not 
because  they  are  depraved. 

The  discipline  of  the  Church  of  Rome 
practically  permitted  the  utmost  latitude  of 
rigor  and  laxity.  In  the  same  community, 
under  the  same  government,  within  the  walls 
of  the  same  monastery,  licentiousness  was 
tolerated  and  austerity  encouraged.  The 
lordly  Prelate  transcended  the  pomp  of  secu- 
lar luxury  ;  the  genuine  disciple  of  St.  Fran- 
cis disclaimed  all  right  even  to  the  use  of 
earthly  possessions.  The  Cardinal  and  the 
Carmelite  were  united  by  the  same  ministry, 
by  devotion  to  the  same  master,  by  the  same 
professional  hatred  of  heresy.  But  this  start- 
ling inconsistency  was  not  without  its  use, 
nor  perchance  without  its  design.  For  since, 
in  the  diversity  of  the  human  character,  the 
vulgar  may  either  be  dazzled  by  pageantry, 
or  moved  to  reverence  by  mortification  and 
humility,  so  also  the  exhibition  of  the  one 
was  a  guarantee  against  contempt,  that  of  the 
other  against  envy  and  reproach.  So  that 
the  Church,  in  this  respect  truly  universal, 
had  space  aud  occupation  for  every  character 
and  every  faculty  ;  whilst  it  nourished  a  mul- 
tiform and  incongruous  progeny,  who  con- 
futed (while  at  the  same  time  they  confirmed) 
the  most  opposite  accusations.  The  poverty 
of  the  Mendicant,  and  the  piety  of  the  Mis- 
sionary, redeemed  in  public  estimation  the 
wealth  and  vices  of  the  Hierarchy. 

Policy  of  the  Fatican.  —  We  pass  over  the 
maxims  of  policy  usually  ascribed  to  the 
Vatican — to  confound  the  marks  of  filial  and 
feudal  obligation  ;  to  accept  respect  as  obe- 
dience, and  offer  counsels  as  commands;  to 
obscure  the  limits  of  temporal  and  spiritual 
jurisdiction-,*  to  keep  all  disputed  rights  in 


*  Though,  in  the  progress  of  this  work,  the  author 
has  purposely  abstained  from  any  particular  notice  of 
the  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  England,  in  the  belief  that 
they  are  intended  to  form  the  subject  of  a  separate 
history,  yet  the  following  remarks  on  the  nature  of 
one  branch  of  spiritual  jurisdiction,  as  exercised  in 
this  kingdom,  having  been  kindly  furnished  him  by  a 
leo-al  friend,  are  too  valuable  not  to  be  accepted  and 
inserted  with  gratitude. 

« It  is  asserted  in  several  of  the  old  law  books,  that 
the  spiritual  jurisdiction  within  the  English  realm  is 
derived  from  the  king,  and  that  such  jurisdiction, 
when  exceeded,  is  subject  to  the  control  of  the  king's 
temporal  courts.  The  latter  assertion  is  of  course 
true  at  present;  the  former  perhaps  relates  to  a  ques- 
tion of  words  rather  than  of  fact.  If  the  Church  in 
earlv  times  claimed  the  authority,  and  the  king  as- 
sented to  the  claim,  the  result  might  be  staled  as  an 
act  either  of  obedience  or  of  favor  on  the  part  of  the 
crown. 

'  With  respect  to  one  particular  subject  matter  of 


suspense  and  perplexity,  so  that  the  greater 
craft  might  never  want  pretexts  for  encroach- 
ment ;  to  crush  the  obstinate  and  gain  the 
mercenary,   to  plunder  the  subject  without 

ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  the  wills  of  deceased  per- 
sons, and  the  disposition  of  the  goods  of  those  who 
died  intestate  —  its  origin  has  been  the  occasion  of 
much  controversy.  The  question  relates  simply  to 
personal  property.  A  freehold  interest  in  land  was, 
in  early  times,  with  a  few  exceptions,  not  subject  to 
the  will  of  the  dying  owner.  The  superior  lord's 
rights,  as  they  existed  during  the  vigor  of  the  feudal 
institutions,  would  have  been  prejudiced  by  permitting 
such  a  power  of  devising.  The  restriction  was  only 
to  be  evaded  by  a  transfer  of  the  property,  during  the 
owner's  life,  to  a  person  who  was  to  hold  it  subject 
to  particular  purposes  to  be  declared  by  will ;  and  the 
courts  of  equity,  by  a  proceeding  which  seems  to  have 
originated  with  the  ecclesiastical  chancellors,  com- 
pelled the  party  so  holding  to  apply  the  estate  as  the 
will  directed,  treating  the  matter  as  a  question  of 
conscience.  The  statute  passed  in  the  thirty-second 
year  of  the  reign  of  king  Henry  VIII.  first  gave  the 
direct  power  of  devising  freehold  interests  in  land. 
But  a  devise  deriving  its  validity  from  the  provisions 
of  this  statute  has  been  always  considered  as  a  con- 
veyance of  the  property,  not  a  designation  of  the  heir. 
It  prevents  the  land  from  being  inherited  at  all.  This 
distinction,  although  it  may  appear  rather  technical, 
leads  to  many  practical  results  of  importance;  and  it 
is  a  point  in  which  the  English  law  differs  from  the 
civil  Jaw.  But  it  is  here  sufficient  to  state  that  de- 
vises of  freehold  estates  are  in  no  way  the  subject 
matter  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction.  Even  where  a 
will  contains  a  disposition  of  both  realty  and  person- 
alty, the  authority  of  the  spiritual  courts  operates  only 
so  far  as  the  will  affects  the  personalty. 

'  The  present  authority  of  the  spiritual  courts  over 
the  personal  property  of  deceased  persons  amounts  to 
this.  If  there  be  a  claim  to  establish  a  will,  it  is  to  be 
proved  before  the  spiritual  court ;  that  is,  the  spiritual 
court  determines  whether  it  be  a  valid  will  of  the  de- 
ceased. The  recognition  of  the  validity  is  technically 
expressed  by  saying  that  the  executor  proves  the  will, 
or  obtains  probate,  which  is  granted  by  the  court. 
The  authenticity  of  the  will,  as  to  personalty,  cannot 
be  directly  questioned  in  the  temporal  courts,  after 
probate  has  boon  granted;  nor  can  it  be  asserted 
there,  before  probate  is  granted.  If  there  be  no  iv- 
cutor  named  in  the  will,  or  if  the  executor  named  will 
not  or  cannot  act,  the  spiritual  court  gives  the  admin- 
istration (or  disposal)  of  the  effects  to  an  administra- 
tor, who  is  to  administer  according  to  the  directions 
of  the  will.  Again,  if  there  be  no  will,  the  spiritual 
court  invests  an  administrator  with  the  power  of  ad- 
ministering. 

'  This  jurisdiction  of  the  spiritual  courts  is  certainly 
very  ancient.  Authorities  have  been  produced  to  show 
that,  by  the  Saxon  laws,  the  probate  of  testaments  (») 
was  given  by  the  old  county  court.-.  The  bishop  and 
the  sheriff  sat  together  in  these  courts,  as  presidents. 
A  charter  of  William  the  Conqueror  separated  the 
'  (»)  Originally,  the  form  of  bequeathing  personal  pro- 
perty extended  only  to  n  part ;  the  law  regulated  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  remainder 


536 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


offending  the  vanity  of  the  prince;  to  manage 
by  treaties  those  who  had  been  insulted  by 
bulls ;  to  provoke  war  and  mediate  peace — 
such  were  the  ordinary  rules  of  its  govern- 


ecclesiastical  court  from  tlie  civil ;  giving  to  the  former 
the  cognizance  of  suits  prosecuted  pro  salute  anima. 
But  testamentary  questions  are  not  expressly  men- 
tioned. In  the  second  year  of  the  reign  of  Richard 
the  Second,  the  law  of  William  the  Conqueror  was 
established  and  confirmed  ;  and  it  was  directed  by 
the  king's  charter  that  no  matters  of  ecclesiastical 
cognizance  should  be  transacted  in  the  county  courts. 
This  re-enactment  seems  to  furnish  evidence  of  the 
spiritual  authority  having  fallen  into  desuetude,  so  far 
as  regarded  the  courts.  Whether  or  not  it  had  been 
originally  understood,  at  the  time  of  William's  char- 
ter, that  wills  were  matter  of  spiritual  jurisdiction,  it 
is  clear  that  the  question  had  been  raised  before  the 
time  of  Richard  the  second.  For  by  a  charter  of 
king  Henry  the  first,  the  king's  tenants  (who  were 
the  suitors  in  the  county  courts)  were  enabled  to  dis- 
pose of  their  personalty  for  the  good  of  their  souls. 
It  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that  this  was  effected  by 
the  activity  of  the  clergy;  and,  even  if  we  could  be- 
lieve that  they  had  been  at  first  unconcerned  in  the 
matter,  it  was  quite  certain  that  they  would  instantly 
apply  such  an  enactment  to  their  own  purposes.  Pro- 
bably, therefore,  the  charter  of  Richard  the  second 
was  at  once  interpreted  to  apply  to  testaments.  And, 
on  the  whole,  it  seems  that  this  is  the  epoch  to  which 
we  ought  to  assign  the  undisputed  jurisdiction  of  these 
courts  in  testamentary  matters.  This  history  of  the 
origin  of  the  power  explains  and  accounts  for  the 
opinions  of  most  of  our  old  lawyers,  that  the  probate 
of  wills  came  to  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  not  by  ec- 
clesiastical law,  but  by  devolution  from  the  temporal 
law  of  the  realm,  or,  as  they  express  it,  by  the  custom 
of  England.  And  it  receives  strong  confirmation 
from  the  fact  that,  by  the  local  custom  of  some  par- 
ticular manors,  acknowledged  by  the  English  law, 
the  probate  of  wills  and  the  granting  of  administra- 
tion belongs  to  the  court  baron  or  manor  court.  And 
a  power  of  the  same  sort  belongs,  in  some  boroughs, 
to  the  mayor,  as  to  the  goods  of  the  burgesses. 

'  That  the  disposal  by  will  of  a  dying  man's  goods 
is  a  matter  relating  to  the  good  of  his  soul,  is  a  truth 
in  no  other  sense  than  that  in  which  every  earthly 
act  has  a  relation  to  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  agent. 
But  a  will,  being  frequently  an  act  performed  shortly 
before  death,  might,  by  a  natural  association,  be  con- 
nected most  closely  with  the  eternal  destiny  of  the 
testator.  Besides  which,  the  Roman  Catholic  doc- 
trines asserted  the  dependence  of  the  fate  of  the  de- 
parted soul  upon  the  intercession  of  the  living.  Now 
this  intercession  might  be  purchased  from  the  clergy, 
by  an  application  of  the  goods  of  the  deceased.  From 
these  causes,  the  will  was  asserted  by  the  ecclesiastics 
to  be  a  matter  of  peculiarly  spiritual  interest.  When 
this  was  acknowledged,  it  must  have  been,  according 
to  priestly  logic,  a  very  plain  inference  that  the  dis- 
posal of  the  goods  of  a  man  who  left  no  will,  was  a 
matter  in  which  the  clergy,  for  the  sake  of  his  eternal 
interests,  were  bound  to  interfere.  It  was  beyond 
the  skill  of  the  priests,  or  at  any  rate  of  those  whom 


ment,  and  they  are  best  exemplified  in  the 
exploits  of  its  most  honored  champions.  But 
there  is  one  peculiarity  in  the  construction 
of  its  power,  to  which  sufficient  attention  is 

they  had  to  influence,  to  distinguish  between  the  mo- 
tive and  the  result;  so  that  a  man,  whose  property 
had  been  applied  to  pious  purposes  without  his  own 
consent,  was  thought  to  derive  some  merit  from  the 
application.  Again,  it  was  thought  highly  important 
that  a  part  of  the  property  should  be  applied  to  the 
performance  of  religious  rites,  for  the  good  of  the 
soul  of  the  deceased ;  the  clergy  were  the  persons 
most  fitted  to  ensure  such  an  application.  Hence  the 
ordinary  (or  spiritual  judge)  had  the  absolute  disposal 
of  the  intestate's  property  ;  and  this,  according  to 
Lord  Coke,  was  a  power  previously  exercised  by  the 
kings  of  England.  But,  in  the  thirteenth  year  of  the 
reign  of  Edward  I.  a  statute  was  passed  (commonly 
called  the  statute  of  Westminster  the  second,)  by  one 
of  the  provisions  of  which  the  ordinary  was  bound,  as 
far  as  the  goods  extended,  to  satisfy  the  debts  of  the 
intestate  (b).  Hence,  says  Lord  North,  what  was 
formerly  found  very  beneficial  to  the  ordinaries,  began 
to  be  very  troublesome,  which  obliged  them  to  put  the 
administration  into  other  hands,  taking  security  to 
save  them  harmless  from  suits.  This,  however,  did 
not  entirely  put  an  end  to  the  ordinary's  trouble;  for 
the  persons  named  by  him  were  considered  merely  aa 
his  servants  or  attorneys.  But  a  statute,  passed  in 
the  thirty-first  year  of  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  pro- 
vided that  the  ordinary  should  depute  the  next  and 
most  lawful  friends  of  the  intestate  to  administer  his 
goods;  and  it  gave  the  minister  so  appointed  power 
to  act  in  his  own  right.  A  statute,  passed  in  the 
twenty-first  year  of  Henry  VIII.,  enacted  similar 
provisions  for  the  case  of  a  will,  where  the  executor 
should  refuse  to  act.  The  power  of  the  ordinary  was 
thus  limited  to  deputing  an  administrator ;  but  he  had 
still  some  choice  in  the  selection;  for  he  was  entitled 
to  elect  as  he  pleased  where  persons  of  equal  proxim- 
ity to  the  deceased  made  claim.  The  ordinaries  are 
said  to  have  availed  themselves  of  this  power,  by  ap- 
pointing such  as  they  expected  to  find  most  obsequi- 
ous ;  and  they  further  derived  an  advantage  from 
calling  the  administrator  to  account  for  the  overplus, 
which  they  insisted  upon  his  applying  to  pious  uses 
for  the  good  of  the  deceased's  soul.  At  last,  the  tem- 
poral courts  of  law  decided  that  the  ordinary,  after 
granting  administration,  could  not  exercise  any  au- 
thority over  the  administrator  in  his  disposal  of  the 
property.  This  shifted  the  dangprous  power  to  the 
hands  of  the  administrator  absolutely.  In  the  twenty- 
second  year  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  a  statute  was 
passed  to  prevent  this  mischief.      By  this  act,  the 

'  (<>)  Cum  post  mortem  alicujus  decedentis  intestati,  et 
obligati  aliquibus  in  debito,  bona  deveniant  ad  ordinarium 
disponenda,  obligetur  de  caetero  ordinarius  ad  responden- 
dum de  debitis  quatenus  bona  defuncti  sufficiunt,  eodem 
modo  quo  executores  respondere  tenerentur  si  testamen- 
tum  fecisset.  Cap.  19.  Lord  Coke  says  that  this  was 
only  an  affirmance  of  the  common  law  (2nd  Inst.  3!J7). 
ft  however  was  so  far  a  new  enactment  that  it  put  a  de- 
cisive end  to  any  question  on  the  point.  Many  enact- 
ments of  the  same  statute  are  clearly  intended  to  settle 
disputed  rights. 


POWER,  &c.  OF  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH. 


537 


not  always  directed.  Every  on<-  has  per- 
ceived, how  it  towered  above  all  earthly  prin- 
cipalities, and  veiled  its  sublime  front  in  the 
most  inscrutable  mysteries  of  the  spiritual 
world  ;  but  few  have  observed  the  real  secret 
of  its  strength,  which  lay  in  the  devotion  of 
the  lowest  ranks  of  mankind.  This  general 
conquest  over  the  affections  of  the  vulgar  was 
no  doubt  greatly  facilitated  by  the  general 
ignorance ;  but  it  was  achieved  through  the 
zeal  of  the  inferior  clergy :  and  if  in  some 
degree  ascribable  to  the  peculiar  character 
assumed  by  the  Romish  priesthood,  it  was  no 
less  effectually  advanced  through  their  ple- 
beian condition  and  humble  manner  of  life. 

Mediatorial  character  assumed  by  the  Romish 
Priesthood.  —  According  to  the  literal  inter- 
pretation of  the  New  Testament,  Christ  is 
the  only  sacrificing  priest,  as  he  is  also  the 
only  sacrifice ;  thus,  likewise,  is  he  the  only 
mediator  between  God  and  man.  Hence  it 
followed  that  the  proper  character  of  the 
ministers  of  his  religion  is  essentially  differ- 
ent from  that  of  the  Jewish  or  Pagan  priests. 
The  prerogative  of  the  latter  was  to  offer  the 
sacrifice  to  God,  and  to  intercede  with  him 
for  the  sins  of  the  people.  It  is  the  office  of 
the  former  to  interpret  and  dispense  his  word, 
to  be  the  stewards  of  his  mysteries,  and  to 
point  out  the  only  path  through  faith  to  sal- 
vation— and  such  were  the  earliest  ministers 
of  the  Christian  Church.  But  it  was  not 
very  long  before  the  elder*  insensibly  assumed 
the  loftier  office  of  the  Hiereus,  or  Sacerdos, 
and  affected  the  expiatory,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  the  mediatory  character.  Such  were 
the  priests  of  the  Eastern  Church — ftealrai, 
Mediators — no  less  than  those  of  the  West- 
ern; and  we  are  at  no  loss  to  perceive  what 
an  access  of  reverence  and  authority  accrued 
to  them  through  the  change.  They  were 
supposed  to  be  alone,  initiated  in  the  mvste- 


method  in  which  the  administrator  is  to  distribute  the 
personalty  is  pointed  out.  By  these  successive  steps, 
the  power  of  the  spiritual  authority  has  been  almost 
reduced  to  the  exercise  of  a  limited  discretion  in  the 
appointment  of  a  deputy,  who  is  to  act  according 
to  prescribed  rules.  The  ecclesiastical  courts  have 
ceased,  for  some  ages,  to  l>e  any  instruments  of  power 
to  the  Church,  for  good  or  for  evil.  Their  share  in 
the  distribution  of  justice  is  very  limited;  but  they 
are  still  characterized,  by  die  peculiarity  of  their  forms 
of  process ;  and  by  their  total  departure  from  the 
rules  of  evidence  which  prevail  in  the  courts  of  com- 
mon law.' 

*  The  original  meaning  of  the  won!   Priest  (Pres- 
bytes)  is  ■  Elder.'    This  subject  in  very  well  treated 
by  Archbishop  Whately,   in  bis  '  Errors  of 
ism,'  book  ii. 

68 


ries  of  the  faith — they  were  supposed  to  be 
in  more  immediate  communication  with  its 
divine  founder — they  were  supposed  to  influ- 
ence, if  not  actually  to  administer,  the  judg- 
ments of  Heaven.  But  we  must  also  observe, 
that,  if  such  a  character  was  well  calculated 
to  overawe  an  ignorant  age,  or  the  ignorant 
classes  in  any  age,  it  was  sure  to  be  stripped 
off,  whenever  any  intellectual  independence 
should  be  exercised,  and  to  be  accounted 
among  the  impostures  fabricated  by  an  artful 
priesthood  for  the  delusion  of  mankind. 

Advantages  of  a  Plebeian  Clergy.  —  We 
shall  readily  acknowledge,  that  all  sacerdotal 
influence  is  vicious  and  dangerous,  except 
that  which  is  acquired  by  the  religious  and 
moral  excellence  of  the  priest:  yet  even  the 
highest  qualities  will  often  miss  that  end, 
when  the  condition  of  the  pastor  is  very  far 
removed  above  that  of  his  flock.  And  thus 
was  it  the  profoundest  policy  of  the  Roman 
Church  to  maintain  a  faithful  ministry  of  the 
same  origin,  the  same  language,  almost  the 
same  habits  with  the  people.  The  ecclesias- 
tical chain  extended  through  every  gradation 
of  society,  till  it  was  folded  round  the  Apos- 
tolical throne;  but  it  was  that  lowest  link 
which,  being  fixed  in  a  substantial  support, 
gave  firmness  and  tenacity  to  the  rest.  To 
possess  some  habits  of  familiarity  with  those 
intrusted  to  his  guidance;  to  approach  them 
without  constraint,  to  be  received  without 
diffidence  ;  to  have  the  same  thoughts,  the 
same  expressions,  the  same  sympathies;  to 
observe  the  birth  of  sin;  to  watch  the  work- 
ings of  remorse ;  to  distinguish  the  moments 
proper  for  censnr*',  or  consolation  ;  to  be  near 
at  hand  in  times  of  doubt,  or  sickness,  or  do- 
mestic calamity  —  these,  and  such  as  these, 
are  advantages  peculiarly  belonging  to  a 
plebeian  clergy.  Such  an  order  of  pastors, 
under  the  superintendence  of  a  vigilant  hier- 
archy, may  at  all  times  be  made  serviceable 
to  the  best  purposes  of  religion  ;  and  it 
diffused  many  spiritual  blessings,  even  in  the 
most  secular  ages  of  Home.  But  to  the 
Church — the  external  and  human  establish- 
ment—  it  was  the  very  origin  of  strength, 
and    principle    of  vitality:     it    was    the   root 

which  spread  underground  in  Becrecy  and 

silence;     while    nations    and     their    princes 

worshipped  under  the  golden  bronchi  s, 
gathered  the  bitter  fruit  which  sometimes  tell 
from  them. 

Serviceable  abuses. —  The  very  corruptions 
in  the  ecclesiastical  system  were  for  a  season 
serviceable  in  rivettingits  influence.  Auric- 
ular confession,  the  various  abuses  of  penance, 


538 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


the  adoration  of  the  Host  and  the  attributes 
ascribed  to  it,  all  furnished  additional  instru- 
ments to  the  clergy;  and  as  long  as  they 
were  used  with  moderation,  extended  their 
dominion.  But  it  is  ever  the  mistake  of  the 
usurper  to  despise  the  people,  whose  confi- 
dence he  has  deceived  or  insulted;  and  the 
error  is  seldom  discovered  till  the  moment 
for  correcting  it  has  passed  by.  It  was  thus 
with  the  Hierarchs  of  Rome.  They  increas- 
ed the  measure  of  degradation  and  imposture, 
till  they  exhausted  the  affection,  and  then  the 
patience  of  mankind.  And  it  was  the  last 
excess  of  their  wickedness  and  folly  to  make 
the  inferior  clergy  their  accomplices,  and 
thus  to  poison  the  only  wholesome  fountain 
of  their  own  authority. 

Popular  foundation  of  the  Roman  Despotism. 
—  The  above  outline  of  the  constitution  of 
the  Roman  Church  represents  it  not  such, 
perhaps,  as  it  is  sometimes  painted  in  the  theo- 
ries of  its  advocates ;  but  such  as  it  is  really 
and  long  existed  in  its  practical  operation  on 
society.  Nor  will  it  seem  strange  to  any 
reflecting  mind,  that  that  Government,  which 
was,  in. appearance,  and  in  fact,  the  most  per- 
fect despotism  ever  conceived  by  the  mind 
of  man,  should  be  found  at  the  bottom  to  rest 
on  a  popular  basis.  Even  in  civil  govern- 
ments there  are  instances  of  the  same  anoma- 
ly; but  in  an  empire,  essentially  and  peculiar- 
ly the  empire  of  opinion,  the  support  of  the 
multitude  was  not  so  much  the  only  source 
of  strength,  as  the  only  principle  of  existence. 
If  the  Roman  Church  had  been  more  evan- 
gelical in  doctrine,  more  consistent  in  disci- 
pline, more  moderate  in  pretension,  it  might 
have  appealed  with  greater  safety  to  the 
reason  of  mankind.  But  as  it  appealed  to 
their  ignorance,  to  their  earliest  and  deepest 
prejudices,  so  was  it,  that  it  urged  the  irre- 
sistible predominance  of  authority  —  the  in- 
violable holiness  of  antiquity, —  all  those 
principles  and  all  those  motives,  which  awe, 
when  they  do  not  irritate,  the  human  under- 
standing. Nevertheless,  the  appeal,  howso- 
ever insidiously  made,  was  still  an  appeal  to 
the  mind :  and  thus  was  it  seductive  and 
universal.  And  so  long  as  it  found  hearers 
and  believers  ;  so  long  as  it  retained  its  hold, 
by  whatsoever  means,  on  the  devotion  of  the 
people;  the  dominion  of  Rome  was  not  less 
substantial,  and  more  secure,  than  if  the  sword 
had  raised  or  upheld  it.  But  from  the  mo- 
ment that  the  spiritual  bond  was  loosened,  the 
mere  worldly  fabric,  having  no  longer  any 
element  of  coherence,  subsided  in  progressive 
decay  and  dissolution. 


Section  II. 

On  the  (I.)  Spiritual  Character,  (II.)  Discipline^ 
and  Morals  of  the  Church. 
I.  The  Doctrine  of  the  Roman  Church. — 
The  Roman  Catholics  assert  with  great  truth, 
that  their  Church  has  preserved,  through  the 
most  perilous  times,  the  essential  mysteries 
and  tenets  of  the  Christian  faith.  It  is  with 
reverence  that  we  have  received  them  from 
her  hands,  and  with  gratitude  that  we  ac- 
knowledge the  inestimable  obligation.  Yet 
the  most  zealous  Catholic  must  be  contented 
to  share  that  praise  with  the  schismatics  of 
the  east.  The  same  treasure  has  been  guard- 
ed with  the  same  fidelity  by  the  Church  of 
Greece ;  and  would  thus  have  been  equally 
perpetuated,  if  the  purity  of  the  Roman  creed 
had  been  corrupted  by  the  barbarian  con- 
quest. But  while  those  rival  churches  may 
divide  the  merit  of  having  transmitted  the 
apostolical  doctrines  to  the  latest  generations, 
there  is  this  difference  in  the  manner  of  that 
tradition  —  the  one  has  transmitted  them  such 
as  she  received  them  from  the  highest  anti- 
quity, not  daring  to  violate  by  any  important 
innovation  the  integrity  of  the  pristine  faith  ; 
the  other  augmented  her  confession  by  some 
articles,  which  were  left  by  the  discretion  of 
early  times  to  the  liberty  of  private  judgment. 
We  have  endeavored  (in  the  Thirteenth 
Chapter)  to  indicate  the  sources  whence 
many  of  those  innovations  proceeded.  We 
shall  now  remark  upon  one  or  two  others, 
which,  though  of  distant  origin  also,  did  not 
acquire  any  general,  or  at  least  any  very  per- 
ceptible, prevalence  till  a  later  age.* 

Gradual  changes  in  the  Penitential  System. — 
According  to  the  original  system  of  penance, 
it  was  inculcated,  that  transgressions  could 
be  expiated  by  prayer,  fasting,  and  alms  — 
there  was  no  period  in  the  history  of  the 
Church,  in  which  pious  works  were  not  held 
efficacious  to  redeem  sin,  and  imposed  for 
that  purpose,  either  directly,  or  by  a  partial 
substitution  for  bodily  mortifications.  To 
this  circumstance  many  holy  structures  owed 
their  origin,  many  poor-houses  and  hospitals 
—  the  Xenodochia,  Nosocomia,  Gerontoco- 
mia,  &c,  of  the  ancient  establishment;  and 
these  works  were  considered  satisfactory  to 

*  It  was  a  general,  but  not  quite  correct,  opinion 
of  the  early  reformers,  that  the  Scholastics  had  in- 
vented the  new  Dogmas,  and  the  Monks  the  new 
practices.  But  it  is  quite  certain,  that  the  immediate 
causes  of  the  insurrection  against  Rome  were  the 
later  corruptions  in  her  doctrine — just  as  most  of  the 
edicts  of  Constance  and  Basle  were  levelled  against 
the  later  innovations  in  her  discipline. 


ITS  SPIRITUAL  CHARACTER,  DISCIPLINE,  &c. 


539 


God.  This  system  was  gradually  corrupted, 
and  fell,  especially  in  the  westf  ni  nations, 
into  great  disorder;  when  Theodore  of  Tar- 
sus, Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  published, 
about  the  year  C80,  his  celebrated  Peniten- 
tial. By  the  instructions  herein  delivered,  the 
clergy  were  taught  to  distinguish  sins  into 
various  classes,  and  to  judge  them  according 
to  their  nature,  to  the  intention  of  the  offen- 
der, and  other  circumstances.  The  Peniten- 
tial likewise  pointed  out  the  penalties  proper 
for  every  sort  of  offence ;  prescribed  the 
forms  of  consolation,  exhortation,  absolution, 
and  set  forth  the  duties  of  the  Confessor. 
(Mosh.  Cent.  vii.  p.  ii.  ch.  iii.)  this  new  disci- 
pline, though  of  Greek  origin,  was  eagerly 
embraced  in  the  Latin  churches,  and  it  was 
immediately  corrupted.  The  method  of  re- 
demption of  penance  waa  presently  reduced 
to  a  regular  system  :  iu  the  place  of  so  many 
dcivs  of  lasting,  so  much  alms  were  to  be 
given  ;  or  so  many  psalms  sung,  or  so  many 
masses  celebrated,  by  others,  who  were  to  be 
rewarded  for  the  office  ;  or  so  much  money 
to  be  paid  down.  The-number  of  the  Pen- 
itentials  was  increased,  and  their  character 
altered,  according  to  the  caprice  of  individual 
confessors;  and,  in  spite  of  some  attempts* 


*  Murntori  (Dissertat.  68,)  from  whom  several  of 
these  remarks  are  borrowed,  cites  the  following  as 
the  26th  Canon,  Concil.  II.  Cloveshoviensis,  A.  D. 
747.  '  Sicuti  nova  atlinventio,  juxta  placitom  scili- 
cet propria?  voluntatis  sua;,  nunc  plurimis  perrcnlo3a 
cotisuetudo  est,  non  sit  eleemosyna  porrecta  ad  inin- 
uendam  sed  ad  mutandam  salisfaclionem  per  j<ju- 
nium  et  reliqua  expiationia  opera  a  Sacerdote  Dei 
indicta,'  it  is  ordained,  that  alms  are  to  be  so  offered, 
that  the  person  of  the  Penitent  may  not  be  wholly 
spared.  The  vicarious  recitation  of  Psalms  was  at 
the  same  time  prohibited,  as  well  as  other  abuses. 
This  Council  was  held  by  the  Archbishop  of  May- 
ence,  not  forty  years,  perhaps,  after  the  death  of 
Theodore.  About  twenty  years  earlier,  Gregory  II. 
(•Epist.  13.)  addressed  to  Leo  the  Isaurian  the  fol- 
lowing vigorous  description  of  ecclesiastical,  as  con- 
trasted with  civil,  discipline.  '  Ubi  peccaverit  quia 
et  confessus  fuerit,  suspendii  vel  ampiitationis  capitis 
loco,  evangelium  et  crucein  ejus  cervicibus  circumpo- 
nunt,  eumque,  tanquam  in  carcerein,  in  secretaria 
sacrorumque  vasoruin  a:raria  conjiciunt,  in  Ecclesiae 
Diaconia,  et  in  Catcchmnena  ablegant,  ac  visceribus 
eorum  jejunium  oculisque  vigilias  et  laudalionem  ori 
ejus  iudicunt.  Cumque  probe1  castigaverint,  probeque 
fame  afilixerint,  turn  pretioauin  illi  Domini  Corpus 
impartiunt  et  sancto  ilium  sanguine  potanl ;  et  cum 
ilium  vas  election ie  reslituerinl  ac  immunem  peccati, 
sic  ad  Deuin  purum  insontemqne  Iransuiittunt.  \  i  lea, 
Imperator,  ecclesiarum  imperiorumque  discrimen, 
&c.'  (The  passage  is  cited  by  Giannone,  Stor.  Ilal. 
lib.  i'A.  cap.  vi.)  It  was  not  till  the  eli  \ 
diat  the  practice  of  flagellation  became  cumin  id,  and 


to  repress  the  abuse,  pecuniary  redemption 
became  more  and  more  common,  and  pres- 
ently almost  every  sort  of  penance  had  its 
fixed  price  in  gold.  It  may  seem  needless  to 
add,  that  the  clergy  (the  Semi  Dei)  easily 
proved  themselves  to  be  the  properest  objects 
of  these  eleemosynary  contributions,  and  that 
a  great  proportion  of  the  wealth,  so  expended, 
flowed  almost  directly  into  the  treasuries  of 
the  Church. 

Indulgences.  —  These,  however,  were  only 
corruptions  of  the  ancient  penitential  system, 
they  did  not  effect  its  entire  destruction  ;  but 
that  result  was  afterwards  brought  about  by 
the  abuse  of  indulgences.  An  indulgence,  as 
a  mere  relaxation  of  canonical  penance,  exist- 
ed as  early  as  the  days  of  Cyprian  ;  and  it  was 
not  till  the  council  of  Clermont,  that  the  dis- 
charge of  a  single  duty  was  substituted  for  all 
that  was  due,  or  might  hereafter  be  due,  to 
the  penal  authority  of  the  Church.  When 
people  thenceforward  found  it  so  easy  to  re- 
lease themselves  at  once  from  the  ancient  bur- 
den of  redemption,  they  became  clamorous 
to  receive,  what  the  Pope,  on  sufficient  con- 
sideration, was  never  reluctant  to  grant.  We 
shall  recur  to  this  subject  immediately  :  in  the 
meantime,  it  is  very  true,  that  there  existed 
from  time  to  time  many  ecclesiastics,  even  in 
the  worst  age  of  the  Church,  who  exclaimed 
against  the  abuse  of  that  papal  prerogative, 
— against  the  indiscriminate  distribution  and 
open  venality  of  indulgences.  But  we  have 
not  perceived,  that  any  argued  on  the  false 
principle  on  which  they  were  founded ;  it  was 
not  then  made  a  reason  for  their  condem- 
nation, that  they  disparaged  the  efficacy  of 
Grace;  ami  perverted,  if  they  did  not  wholly 
overthrow,  the  doctrine  of  salvation  through 
the  merits  of  Christ  alone. 

The  existence  and  nature  of  an  intermediate 
state  naturally  awakened  the  speculations  of 
the  early  Christians;  but  the  subjects  were 
long  left  open  to  the  curiosity,  the  vanity,  or 
the  piety  of  contemplative  individuals — these 
were  not  restrained  by  any  ecclesiastical  (dirts, 
and  impunity  yet  attended  the  profession  of 
opposite  doctrines.  Among  the  Greeks  the 
question  was  not  afterwards  pressed  to  any 
practical  system  or  inference.  It  is  true,  in- 
deed, that  a  certain  opinion  was  selected  and 
sanctioned  as  that  most  probable,  and  was 
apparently  inscribed  among  tiJe  authorized 
tenets:  but  it  was  at  no  time  recommended 


it  was  then  that  St.  Dominicus, surnamed  Loricatus, 
the  friend  of  Peter  Damiani,  acquired  his  celebrity. 
!!c  could  discharge  by  stripes  in  six  days  the  penance 
of  a  hundred  years. 


540 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


to  the  peculiar  reverence  of  the  faithful ;  still 
less  was  it  converted  into  an  engine  of  eccle- 
siastical government.  But  during  the  iron 
ages  of  the  Roman  Church,  the  same  inex- 
plicable question  assumed  a  much  more  defi- 
nite and  durable  shape.  Differing  from  the 
Greeks,  who  considered  the  immediate  abode 
of  the  departed  to  be  one  of  obscurity  and 
discomfort,  the  Latins  boldly  lighted  the  pe- 
nal fire  of  purgatory,  and  gave  a  substance, 
a  locality  and  an  object  to  the  timid  and  dis- 
trustful speculations  of  the  early  Christians. 

Doctrine  of  Purgatory. —  It  is  the  modern 
doctrine  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  * 
'  that  there  is  a  purgatory  ;  and  that  the  souls 
imprisoned  there  are  aided  by  the  prayers  of 
the  faithful,  and  the  acceptable  sacrifice  of  the 
altar.'  But  in  this  matter,  it  is  not  so  impor- 
tant to  ascertain  what  has  been,  at  various 
times,  the  outward  profession  of  the  Church, 
as  to  remark  the  consequences  which  have 
practically  flowed  from  the  dogma, and  influ- 
enced the  happiness  and  morality  of  mankind. 
For  the  history  of  the  Church  is  not  a  lifeless 
record  of  its  Canons  and  Confessions,  but  a 
display  of  their  operation,  whether  for  good 
or  for  mischief,  whether  in  their  use  or  in 
their  abuse,  upon  the  Christian  community. 
The  consequence,  which  presently  followed 
from  the  establishment  of  a  place  of  tempo- 
rary punishment,  or  purification,  for  departed 
souls,  was,  that  the  successor  of  St.  Peter 
assumed,  through  the  power  of  the  keys, 
unlimited  authority  there.  By  indulgences, 
issued  at  the  discretion  of  the  Pope,  the  sin- 
ner (in  the  theory,  the  repentant  sinner)  was 
released  from  suffering,  and  immediately 
passed  into  a  state  of  grace.  As  long  as  these 
indulgences  were  granted  with  discrimination 
and  reserve,!  the  ill  effects,  which  they  occa- 

*  Founded  on  the  Canons  of  Trent. — It  is  frequent- 
ly asserted  to  be  the  doctrine  of  that  Church,  that 
the  fund,  whence  the  above  forgiveness  is  drawn,  is 
composed  of  the  supererogatory  merits  of  the  saints, 
(added  to  those  of  Jesus  Christ,)  which  are  inex- 
haustible; and  such,  indeed,  it  is  clearly  laid  down 
by  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  (see  Mosheim,  Cent.  xii.  p. 
ii.  c.  iii.)  Modern  divines  disclaim  this  opinion,  as 
at  variance  with  the  great  doctrine  of  justification — 
and  this  is  not  the  only  instance  of  salutary  change. 
which  has  purified  the  bosom  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  during  the  last  three  centuries. — May  such 
changes  be  multiplied! 

f  Baron i us  (Ann.  817.  s.  iv.)  boasts  the  modera- 
tion of  the  indulgences  granted  in  those  days,  and 
instances  one  (trium  annorum  et  trium  quadragena- 
rum)  given  under  Leo  IV.  Even  as  late  as  the 
eleventh  age  there  are  proofs  (as  Muratori  observes) 
of  similar  discretion  in  the  directors  of  the  Church. 
And  it  is  proper  to  mention,  that  Gregory  the  Great, 


sioned,  do  not  often  meet  the  eye  of  the  his- 
torian. But  as  soon  as  they  were  turned  into 
mere  instruments  of  papal  ambition,  and  as 
such  were  not  only  promiscuously  scattered 
over  the  world,  but  also  extended  in  character 
to  a  plenary  remission,  they  became  simple 
manifest  means  to  poison  the  morality  of  the 
faithful. 

Thenceforward,  their  nature  could  scarcely 
be  further  corru  pted  ;  for  the  only  proof,  which 
was  now  required  of  the  sinner's  spiritual 
mortification  and  amendment,  was  his  willing- 
ness to  perform  a  single  act.  But  on  the  char- 
acter of  that  act,  that  is,  on  the  object  of  the 
indulgence,  it  still  depended,  whether  the 
subversion  of  the  principle  of  evangelical  re- 
pentance was  to  be  made  subservient  to  the 
seeming  advantage  of  the  world,  or  obviously 
instrumental  in  aggravating  its  misery. 

The  object  of  the  indulgence  was  changed 
repeatedly;  yet  never  so  changed,  as  to  take 
the  guise  of  philanthropy.  First,  it  was  the 
recovery  of  the  Holy  Land  and  the  extirpation 
of  the  Infidel.  Then  from  the  general  foe  of 
Christ  it  was  turned  against  the  spiritual  ad- 
versaries of  the  Catholic  Church  ;  from  the 
spiritual  adversaries  of  the  Church  it  descend- 
ed to  the  temporal  enemies  of  the  Pope.  It 
next  assumed  a  more  innocent  shape  (if  su- 
perstition could  ever  be  innocent,)  and  sum- 
moned the  obedient  pilgrims  to  enrich,  on 
stated  Jubilees,*  the  apostolical  shrines  of 
Rome.  Lastly,  it  degenerated  into  a  mere 
vulgar,  undisguised  implement  for  supplying 
the  necessities  of  the  pontifical  treasury,!  — 

in  his  Chapter  on  Purgatory  (Dialogorum,  lib.  iv. 
cap.  xxxix.),  expressly  limited  its  operation  to  venial 
and  very  trifling  offences  (de  parvis  minimisque  pec- 
catis  hoc  fieri  posse  credendum  est,)  such  as  mere 
vain  and  leisurely  discourse,  immoderate  laughter, 
or  an  error  in  unimportant  matters  proceeding  from 
ignorance.  He  adds,  moreover,  that  thus  much  is 
certain — that  no  one  will  obtain  any  purgation  even 
from  the  least  offences,  unless  he  merit,  by  his  good 
works  here,  to  obtain  such  remission  there. 

*  In  the  Jubilee  of  1300  '  Papa  (Boniface  VIII.) 
innumerabilem  pecuniam  ab  iisdem  recepit;  quia  die 
et  nocte  duo  Clerici  stabant  ad  Altare  Sancti  Petri 
tenentes  in  eorum  manibus  rastellos,  rastellantes 
pecuniam  infinitam.' — Guliehnua  Astensis  Ventura 
(an  eye-witness)  Chronicon  Astense,  cap.  26.  ap. 
Muratori.  Again,  in  the  Bull  of  Clement  VI.  for 
the  jubilee  of  1350  are  these  words — '  Et  nihilominus 
prorsus  mandamus  Angelis  Paradisi,  quatenus  animara 
illius  a  Purgatorio  penitus  absolutam  in  Paradisi 
gloiiam  introducant  '  See  Giannone,  lib.  xvii.  cap.  8. 

f  It  should  be  recollected,  that  the  sale  of  indul- 
gences was  faintly  countenanced  by  the  corresponding 
enormities  of  civil  legislation,  according  to  which,  in 
somewhat  earlier  times,  every  crime  had  its  price. 
The  Church  in  every  age  should,  in  some  degree,  be 


ITS   SPIRITUAL   CHARACTER,    DISCIPLINE,   &c. 


541 


and  it  was  in  this  last  form,  that  it  at  length 
aroused  the  scorn  and  indignation  of  Europe. 

The  profane  and  even  blasphemous  expres- 
sions, by  which  the  emissaries  of  the  Vatican 
recommended  their  treasures  to  popular  cre- 
dulity were  tacitly  permitted  by  the  authori- 
ties of  the  Church  ;  yet  we  shall  not  detail 
them  here,  nor  impute  them  to  any  others, 
than  the  individuals  who  uttered  them — they 
may  repose  in  the  same  oblivion.  But  it  is 
proper  to  transcribe  a  specimen  of  the  in- 
dulgences which  were  publicly  sold  in  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  because 
they  were  the  authorized  productions  of  the 
Church.  The  following  is  the  translation  of 
that  which  was  circulated  by  Tetzel :  — 

'May  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  have  mercy 
upon  thee  and  absolve  thee,  by  the  merits  of 
His  most  holy  passion.  And  I,  by  his  author- 
ity, that  of  His  blessed  Apostles,  Peter  and 
Paul,  and  of  the  most  Holy  See,  granted  and 
committed  to  me  in  these  parts,  do  absolve 
thee  first  from  all  ecclesiastical  censures,  in 
whatever  manner  they  have  been  incurred ; 
and  then  from  all  thy  sins,  trangressions,  and 
excesses,  how  enormous  soever  they  may  be, 
even  from  such  as  are  reserved  for  the  cog- 
nizance of  the  Apostolical  See.*  And  as  far 
as  the  keys  of  the  Church  extend,  I  remit  to 
you  all  punishment  which  you  deserve  in 
purgatory  on  their  account ;  and  I  restore  you 
to  the  Holy  Sacraments  of  the  Church,  to  the 
unity  of  the  faithful,  and  to  that  innocence 
and  purity  which  you  possessed  at  baptism ; 
so  that,  if  you  should  die  now,  the  gates  of 
punishment  shall  be  shut,  and  the  gates  of 
the  Paradise  of  delight  shall  be  opened.  And 
if  you  shall  not  die  at  present,  this  Grace 
shall  remain  in  full  force  when  you  are  on  the 
point  of  death.  In  the  name  of  the  Father, 
and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.'  This 
indulgence,  in  spite  of  the  ambiguity  of  one 
or  two  expressions,  is  nothing  less,  when  fair- 
ly interpreted,  than  an  unconditional  permis- 
sion to  sin  for  the  rest  of  life:  and  as  such  ir 
was  assuredly  received  by  those  classes  of  the 
people,for  which  it  was  chiefly  intended,  and 
whose  morality  is  peculiarly  confided  to  the 
superintendence  of  the  clergy.  And  thus  was 

judged  according  to  the  principles  of  thai  age, — yet 
in  such  wise,  that  we  never  lose  sight  of  that  one 
great  and  unchangeable  standard,  by  which  the  ac- 
tions of  a  Christian  ministry  must,  in  every  age,  be 
measured. 

*  The  translation  given  by  Beausobie  (Hist.  Re- 
form, liv.  i.)  here  differs  slightly  from  that  published 
by  Dr.  Robertson  (Hist.  Charles  V.  b.  ii.);  bill  not 
so  as  to  make  any  important  change  in  the  sense  of 
the  whole  passage. 


it,  that  the  destiny  of  the  Church  was  accom- 
plished. 

Private  Masses. — However  easy  the  acqui- 
sition of  pardon  (for  the  moderate  price  of 
indulgences  placed  them  within  the  reach 
of  the  lowest  orders,)  still  many  neglected  to 
profit  by  the  facility,  and  were  accordingly 
consigned  to  the  penal  fire.  Yet  even  thus 
they  were  not  removed  beyond  the  power  and 
mercies  of  the  Church.*  It  was  inculcated, 
that  the  prayers  of  the  living  were  efficacious 
in  the  purification  of  those  departed  souls; 
hut  that  their  release  was  most  speedily  se- 
cured by  the  sacrifice  of  the  altar.  Hence 
arose  in  early  times  f  the  practice  of  offering 
masses,  both  public  and  private,  for  that  pur- 
pose ;  and,  as  these  too  had  subsequently  their 
price  in  gold,  the  piety  of  the  survivors  was 
taxed  to  redeem  the  transgressions  of  the  dead 
— so  various  were  the  devices  of  the  Church, 
to  render  tributary  the  weaknesses,  the  virtues, 
even  the  natural  affections  of  the  faithful.  The 
sale  of  private  masses  was  a  fruitful  source  of 
revenue  to  the  clergy,  especially  to  the  mon- 
astic orders,  and  that  likewise  was  one  of  the 
abuses  first  proscribed  by  the  eloquence  of 
Luther. 

The  Elevation  of  the  Host,  &c. — When  In- 
nocent III.  gave  the  sanction  of  a  General 
Council  to  the  Roman  doctrine  of  the  Eu- 
charist, and  distinguished  it  by  the  name  of 
I  Transubstantiation,t  he  not  only  secured  its 

*  Gerson,  however,  (De  Indulgent! is,  vol.  ii.  p. 
351.)  admits,  that  it  is  a  question  ad  utramque 
partem  probabilis,  whether  the  keys  have  such  power 
in  purgatory,  as  to  remit  the  punishment  of  a  venial 
fault  or  excommunication,  committed  or  incurred 
during  life.  This  doubt  of  the  Chancellor  must  have 
made  him  unpopular  in  the  monasteries.  He  asserts, 
iii  the  >;\me  place,  without  any  hesitation,  —  '  Indui- 
gentiae  ad  ptenas  ex  corruptione  naturse  non  extendunt.' 

f  We  find  it  proclaimed  by  the  Protestants  at 
Augsbourg  (1530,)  that  there  is  no  instance  of  pri- 
vate masses  iii  ecclesiastical  history  earlier  than  the 
time  of  Gregory  the  Great.  Mosheim  is  mm  m,  >l 
to  assert,  that  manifest  Hares  of  them  may  be  found 
in  the  eighth  century,  though  it  be  difficult  to  decide 
whether  they  were  instituted  by  public  law,  or  in- 
troduced  by   private   authority We  are   not 

aware  of  the  existence  d"  any  earlier  public  regula- 
tion on  iliis  subject,  than  the  4Sd  Oanon  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  Mayence,  held  in  818,  and  this  is  expressly 
prohibitory, — '  V>  priest  shall  say  mass  alone.' 

%  The  following  is  a  part  of  the  celebrated  Canon 
(Can.  i.  Lat.  Concil.  IV.)  in  question  —  '  Una  est 
Ii,!,  lei.ii  Universalis  Eccfeflia,  extra  quam  nullus 
omnino  snlvatur.  In  qua  idem  ipse  gacerdos  et 
Bacrificiura   .Jesus   Chi'istus;    CUJHS   corpus   et   sanguis 

in  sanramento  altaria  Biib  speciehm  panis  et  vini 
reraciter  continental-.  trmissubstnntiatisY.anc  in  cor- 
pue  et  vino  i:i  sanguinem,  potestate  divina,'  &c  &c 


542 


HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


universal  reception  in  the  west,  but  also  coun- 
tenanced the  superstitious  practices  which 
flowed  from  it.  It  appears  to  have  been  dur- 
ing his  pontificate,  that  the  custom  was  intro- 
duced of  elevating  the  Host  after  consecration. 
The  use  of  the  bell  to  signify  to  the  people  to 
prostrate  themselves,  while  the  Holy  Sacra- 
ment was  passing,  is  ascribed  to  an  ordinance 
published  in  1201,  by  Guy  Pare\  the  legate  of 
the  same  at  Cologne.  And  that  it  may  be 
shown  how  early  this  practice  was  supported 
by  the  direct  authority  of  the  See,  and  how 
widely  it  was  thought  expedient  to  extend  it, 
we  may  mention  that  Honorius,  the  successor 
of  Innocent,  addressed  an  epistle  to  the  Latin 
prelates  of  the  east,  in  the  Patriarchat  of  An- 
tioch,  in  which  he  instructed  them  to  oblige 
the  people  to  incline,  on  the  appearance  of 
the  Host.*  In  that  age,  and  at  that  distance 
from  the  centre  of  orthodoxy,  it  was  not  held 
advisable  to  inculcate  the  necessity  of  absolute 
genuflexion.  A  simpler  act  of  devotion  was 
deemed  sufficient  to  recognise  the  divinity  of 
the  consecrated  elements. 

The  Retrenchment  of  the  Cup. —  The  suffi- 
ciency of  the  Sacrament  administered  in  one 
kind  only  is  by  many  considered  as  an  imme- 
diate inference  from  the  doctrine  of  transub- 
stantiation,  since  the  bread,  when  converted 
into  the  body  of  Christ,  of  necessity  contains 
his  blood ;  so  that,  the  object  of  the  sacrifice 
being  thus  satisfied,  the  communication  of 
the  cup  may  be  safely  retrenched,  as  a  vain 
and  superfluous  ceremony.  At  what  pre- 
cise period  this  change  in  the  practice  of  the 
Church  (it  was  maintained  to  be  no  more  than 
that,)  was  introduced,  we  cannot  pronounce 
with  certainty  ;  j  but  its  antiquity  was  pleaded 
by  its  defenders  at  Constance  and  Basle,  and 
it  may  be  ascribed,  without  any  great  error, 
to  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
We  may  consider  it  as  completing  the  list  of 
those  peculiar  observances,  which  the  Church 
of  Rome  has  thought  proper,  on  her  own  in- 
fallible authority,  to  impose  upon  her  adher- 
ents. Probably  the  motive  for  this  innovation 
was  to  add  solemnity  to  the  mystery,  by  ex- 


*  Fleury,  1.  lxxviii.  s.  24.  The  Institution  of  the 
Festival  of  the  Holy  Sacrament  or  Body  of  Christ, 
another  early  consequence  of  the  universal  establish- 
ment of  TiansubstantiatioD,  is  generally  ascribed  to 
Robert,  Bishop  of  Liege — who  is  said  to  have  been 
moved  thereto  by  the  pretended  revelations  of  a  fanat- 
ical woman,  named  Juliana.  The  event  took  place 
in  the  year  1246.     Mosli.  Cent.  xiii.  p.  2,  chap.  iv. 

f  We  have  not  observed  that  it  was  formally  and 
universally  established  by  the  highest  ecclesiastical 
authority,  till  it  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Council 
of  Constance. 


eluding  the  profane  from  perfect  initiation, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  exalt  the  dignity  of 
the  priesthood,  by  giving  them  some  exclu- 
sive prerogative,  even  in  communion  at  the 
Lord's  table.  Nevertheless,  even  with  that 
view  its  policy  was  extremely  questionable; 
it  was  founded  on  the  ignorance  of  preced- 
ing ages  ;  it  had  no  foresight  of  the  character 
of  those  which  were  to  come.  And  thus  it 
proved,  that,  after  the  lapse  of  some  few 
generations,  men  were  rather  shocked  by 
the  public,  practical  disregard  of  one  of  the 
plainest  instructions  delivered  in  the  Gospel, 
than  edified  by  the  spectacle  of  sacerdotal 
usurpation.  The  innovation  was  too  rash, 
too  openly  at  variance  with  an  express  com- 
mand, intelligible  to  the  lowest  classes  of  the 
vulgar,  and  sacred  with  all  who  thought  their 
Bible  more  venerable  than  their  Church. 
Accordingly  we  have  observed,  that  the  de- 
privation of  this  privilege,  so  clearly  granted 
by  Christ  to  all  believers,  was  the  grievance 
which  united  the  discordant  sects  of  the  Hus- 
sites— the  restoration  of  the  cup  was  the 
manifest,  incontestable  right,  round  which 
they  rallied.  To  this  extent  too,  they  were 
successful ;  and  their  success  afforded  the 
first  example  of  any  usurpation  having  been 
wrested  from  the  hands  of  Rome  by  the  open 
rebellion  of  her  subjects. 

Prohibition  of  the  Scriptures. — Neither  was 
there  any  one  among  the  peculiar  tenets  or 
observances  of  Rome,  which  so  taxed  the  in- 
genuity of  her  advocates,  as  the  retrenchment 
of  the  cup.  This  perplexity  is  attested  by 
the  records  of  Constance  and  Basle  ;  and  it 
deserves  particular  remark,  that  Gerson,  in 
his  very  elaborate  treatise  against  the  Double 
Communion,  discloses  the  source  of  his  diffi- 
culty in  this  simple  complaint.  'There  are 
many  laymen  among  the  heretics  who  have 
a  version  of  the  Bible  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  to 
the  great  prejudice  and  offence  of  the  Cath- 
olic faith.  It  has  been  proposed  (he  adds)  to 
reprove  that  scandal  in  the  committee  of  re- 
form.' That  scandal  was  as  old  as  the  heresy 
of  Peter  Waldensis  ;  but  the  practice  which 
it  offended  certainly  grew  up  in  much  more 
distant  ages,  nor  was  it  peculiar  to  the  Church 
of  Rome.  As  early  as  the  seventh  century 
the  appropriation  of  the  Scriptures  to  the  use 
of  the  priesthood  was  a  practice  generally 
established  throughout  the  east,*  and  the  La- 
tins speedily  adopted  (if  they  had  not  already 
enforced)  a  precaution  so  necessary  for  pre- 
serving the.  unity  of  the  Church  and  con- 
cealing its  abuses.     It  was  authorized  by  the 


*  See  Chapter  XXVI.,  p.  479. 


ITS    SPIRITUAL    CHARACTER,    DISCIPLINE,   &c. 


543 


Council  of  Toulouse  in  1229;  but  the  spirit 
of  independence  nevertheless  gained  ground. 
From  the  time  of  Wiclif  the  unhallowed  veil 
was  gradually  withdrawn  ;  curiosity  was  more 
keenly  excited,  as  il  had  been  more  tyranni- 
cally repressed  ;  the  invention  of  the  press  in- 
creased the  facility  of  possessing  the  sacred 
oracles  ;  and  before  the  preaching  of  Luther, 
the  scandal,  which  had  been  deplored  a  ceu- 
tury  earlier  by  the  orthodox  reformer  of 
the  Church,  had  made  very  general  progress 
amongst  the  educated  classes,  in  almost  every 
nation  in  Europe. 

False  Miracles. — Those  prodigious  impos- 
tures, which  in  the  eyes  of  Laurentiits  Valla* 
surpassed  the  impiety  of  the  Pagans,  and 
which  were  ascribed  by  Gerson  to  the  phan- 
tastic  somnolency  of  a  decrepit  world,  were 
continued  with  unrestrained  temerity,  even 
to  the  days  of  Erasmus.  The  impostures 
were  the  same,  which  had  so  long  been  em- 
ployed to  delude  the  people  of  Christ — but 
the  people  were  changed.  A  spirit  of  in- 
quiry was  spreading  over  the  surface  of  Eu- 
rope, and  it  was  seen  and  felt  by  all,  except 
the  monks  and  bigots,  to  whom  alone  it  was 
dangerous.  But  these  persevered  in  the  same 
blind  path  of  habitual  fraud  and  momentary 
profit,  which  at  length  conducted  them  to  the 
precipice,  whither  it  had  always  tended. 

Certain  other  unscriptural  practices,  long 
inherent  in  the  Romish  system,  never  had 
flourished  with  greater  luxuriance,  than  at 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The 
abuse  of  images  had  been  carried  at  no  pe- 
riod to  a  more  unpardonable  extent.  The 
popular  adoration  of  the  saints  had  never  de- 
viated farther  from  the  professed  moderation 
of  the  Churchf — relics  had  never  been  ap- 


*  De  Donatione  Constantini.  '  Nostri  Fabula- 
torcs  passim  inducunt  Idola  loquentia;  quod  ipsi 
Gentiles  et  idolorum  cultores  non  dicunt,  et  sinccrius 
negant,  quam  Christian!  affirmant.'  The  p.  - 
Gerson  is, — *  Mundus  senescens  palitnr  phantasias 
falsoruin  iniraciilonnn,  sicut  homo  senex  phtintaxi- 
atur  in  somno;  propterea  sunt  habenda  miracola 
valde  suspecta.'  Both  these  passages  are  cited  l>\ 
Semler.  The  detection  of  the  artilices  practised 
upon  Jetzer  at  Berne,  for  the  confirmation  of  the 
Dominican  opinion  respecting  the  iinmacula 
ception,  created  a  notorious  scandal,  which  assisted 
in  preparing  the  path  for  Zuinglius. 

t  The  following  is  the  doctrine  of  modern  Roman 
Catholic  Divines: — 'That  the  saints  reigning  with 
Christ  ofler  up  their  prayers  to  God  for  men:  that  it 
is  good  and  useful  supplianlly  to  invoke  them  an. I  to 
have  recourse  to  their  prayers,  help  and  assistance, 
to  obtain  favors  from  God,  through  his  Son,  Jesus 
Christ,  our  Lord,  who  is  alone  our  Redeemer  and 
Savior.'     Alas!  ask  the  peasant  of  Romagna  or  the 


proached  with  a  reverence  more  superstitious, 
or  one  more  directly  encouraged  by  the  priest- 
In  od.  The  pomp  and  order  of  the  ceremo- 
nies had  been  at  no  time  more  entirely  at  va- 
riance with  the  character  of  a  spiritual  reli- 
gion. Indeed,  some  of  the  festivals  which 
were  instituted  or  revived  during  the  fifteenth 
century,  seem  designedly  established  to  turn 
away  men's  minds  from  the  substance  of 
Christianity  to  vain  formalities,  or  wicked 
fables.  And  in  this  place  it  will  be  proper  to 
instance,  more  particularly,  in  what  manner 
the  highest  ecclesiastical  authorities  were  sup- 
plying the  spiritual  necessities  of  the  faith- 
ful, at.  the  very  moment  when  the  cry  for  re- 
formation was  resounding  (in  various  notes 
indeed,  but  with  general  concord)  from  one 
end  of  Europe  to  the  other. 

Later  Festivals,  Disputes,  Controvci-sies,  £>t. 
— The  first  regulation  for  the  'Exposition  of 
the  Holy  Sacrament '  was  published  in  1452, 
by  the  Pope's  Legate  in  Germany,  at  a  Coun- 
cil held  at  Cologne  ;  and  the  expressions  of 
the  edict  f  are  entirely  worthy  of  its  object. 
If  a  comet  appeared  (as  in  1456,)  or  the 
country  was  ravaged  by  inundation  or  pesti- 
lence (as  happened  twenty  years  later,)  the 
Pope  of  the  day  immediately  pressed  to  offer 
his  indulgences  to  all  who  should  celebrate 
the  feast  of  the  Holy  Sacrament,  or  of  the 
Immaculate  Conception — to  all  who  should 
thrice  repeat  the  Lord's  prayer,  or  the  Ange- 
lic Salutation.  Ahout  the  end  of  the  year 
1480  Sixtus  IV.  was  invited  to  settle  a  dispute 
between  the  inhabitants  of  Perugia  and  Sien- 
na, on  a  very  remarkable  subject.  The  former 
were  accused  of  having  obtained  fraudulent 
possession  of  the  nuptial  ring  of  St.  Catha- 
rine, the  hereditary  properly  of  the  latter,  her 
compatriots.  The  object  was  holy  ;  anil  its 
sanctity  was  enhanced  (as  a  grave  historian  \ 


Sicilian    mariner    for    his   explanation    of   the    doc- 
trine! 

*  We  refer  the  reader  to  Beausobre's  account 
(Hist.  Reform,  lib.  iv.  p.  243)  of  the  holy  contents 
of  the  {.'lunch  of  All  Saints  at  Wittenberg,  which 
had  been  most  profusely  enriched  by  the  hulls  of 
Julius  II.  and  Leo  X.  The  whole  number  of  relics 
exceeded  19,000;  divided  into  twelve  classes,  accord- 
ing to  the  dignity  of  the  saints.  There  were  bulls 
to  the  effect  'that  all  who  visited  this  Church  on 
certain  da_\s,  might  retain  all  properly  dishonestly 
d,  to  the  amount  of  twenty-five  gol  len  ducats  • 

an  I    lh.it   any   one   who   doubted    the   validity  of  such 

indulgences  was  ipso  facto  excommunicated,  without 
power  of  ohsolution   even   by  the   Pope   himself,  and 

in  articulo  mortis* 

t  See  the  continuator  ofFlenry,  lib.  ex.  s.  97. 

%  Raynaldus,  ami.  1480,  n.  •«.     See  Semler,  cent 
xv.  cap.  ii.,  and  Bzovius,  ann.  1480. 


544 


HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


informs  us)  by  its  various  virtues,  frequently 
experienced  by  the  faithful,  especially  that 
of  reconciling  conjugal  differences.  This 
quarrel  was  prolonged  for  some  time  under 
Sixtus  and  his  successor. 

In  the  'Book  of  Conformities'  between 
the  life  of  Jesus  Christ  and  that  of  St.  Fran- 
cis, the  fanatic  is  exalted  to  the  level,  if  not 
above  the  level,  of  die  Saviour.  To  complete 
the  resemblance,  the  former  carried  about 
with  him  the  marks  of  the  five  wounds  of 
Christ ;  and  the  belief  in  these  stigmata  was 
enjoined  to  all  the  faithful  by  Alexander  V. 
But,  in  the  age  following  St.  Francis,  the 
same  miraculous  impressions  were  claimed, 
on  the  same  authority,  by  the  female  impos- 
tor of  Sienna.*  And  when  Catharine  was  at 
length  canonized  by  Pius  II.,  an  office  was 
instituted  in  her  honor,  of  which  the  hymns 
affirmed  that  she  had  received  the  stigmata. 
This  was  to  offer  an  unpardonable  indignity 
to  the  Franciscans — for  they  were  jealous  of 
the  glory  of  their  patron,  f  and  asserted  his 
exclusive  pretension  to  that  intimate  sympathy 
with  Christ.  Immediately  the  Dominicans 
rose  in  defence  of  St.  Catharine.  The  office 
was,  nevertheless,  denounced  to  Sixtus  IV. ; 
and  that  Pope  presently  published  an  edict, 
prohibiting  any  one,  under  severe  penalties, 
from  representing  the  stigmata  of  St.  Catha- 
rine in  painting ;  but  he  seems  afterwards  to 
have  retracted  his  prohibition.  These  matters 
took  place  about  the  year  1483  —  it  was  the 
same  which  gave  birth  to  Luther. 

About  the  year  1050,  a  daily  office  was 
instituted  to  the  blessed  Virgin,  distinguished 
by  seven  canonical  hours,  in  a  form  anciently 
used  in  honor  of  divine  majesty  ;  and  in  the 
course  of  the  next  hundred  years  the  r*'<e- 
rence  so  paid  grew  into  worship.  Among 
the  attributes  early  \  ascribed  to  her,  was  ex- 
emption from  original  sin  ;  bt«c  this  opinion 
was  for  some  time  confined  to  the  breasts  of 

*  It  is  perhaps  proper  to  mention  that  the  Domin- 
icans likewise  claimed  the  stigmata  for  their  patron; 
but  they  were  compelled  to  admit,  that  his  extreme 
humility  had  prevented  him  from  disclosing  them. 

i  Earlier  in  the  same  century,  an  opinion  was 
propagated  'that  those  who  die  in  the  habit  of  St. 
Francis,  and  making  profession  of  the  third  order, 
remain  only  one  year  in  purgatory;  because  the  saint 
descends  thither  once  a  year,  and  lakes  away  all 
those  of  his  order  to  heaven  with  him.'  This 
proposition  was  not  beneath  the  notice  of  the  Council 
of  Basle — on  the  contrary,  it  was  solemnly  condemned 
(May  19,  1443)  in  the  forty-fourth  or  forty-fifth  ses- 
sion. 

^  As  early  as  the  ninth  century — some  ascribe  the 
origin  of  the  opinion  to  Paschasius  Radbertus. 


a  few  individuals — it  had  no  place  in  ecclesi- 
astical ceremonies,  or  the  arguments  of  the 
learned.*  At  length,  however,  about  the  year 
1136,  the  Canons  of  Lyons  ventured  to  intro- 
duce it  into  the  offices  of  their  Church.  St. 
Bernard  immediately  opposed  that  innova- 
tion, and  attacked  the  indiscreet  zeal  of  those 
ecclesiastics.  But  in  the  following  age,  the 
subject  was  found  to  open  too  large  a  space 
for  disputation,  to  escape  the  polemical  zeal 
of  the  scholastics — it  became,  on  the  contrary, 
their  favorite  field  of  controversy.  And  since 
the  Dominicans  ranged  themselves  on  the  one 
side  and  the  Franciscans  on  the  other,  f  the 
contest  was  heated  and  perpetuated  by  mo- 
nastic jealousy.  But  it  was  reserved  for  the 
Council  of  Basle  to  establish  the  doctrine, 
and  to  excommunicate  all  who  should  preach 
the  contrary.  A  feast  was  then  instituted  in 
honor  of  the  Immaculate  Conception,  and  it 
received  in  1446  the  official  confirmation  of 
Sixtus  I  V.|  Yet  not  thus  was  the  controversy 
composed,  nor  even  the  show  of  concord  res- 
tored between  the  contending  orders. 

Without  closely  pursuing  the  inexhaustible 
subject  of  monastic  dissension,  we  may  men- 
tion that  a  violent  dispute  arose  in  this  age 
between  the  Canons  regular  and  the  hermits 
of  St.  Augustin,  respecting  the  dress  assum- 
ed by  the  original  monks  of  that  father.  The 
clamor  ascended  to  the  Apostolical  chair  and 
commanded  the  attention  of  Sixtus  IV.  He 
published  a  Bull,  in  which  he  wisely  enjoined 
peace  to  both  parties  — wisely,  but  vainly;  — 
for  the  controversy  (as  it  was  called)  continued 
for  some  time  longer  to  disturb  the  harmony 
of  those  holy  brethren. 

A  difference,  respecting  the  kind  of  wor- 
ship, which  is  due  to  the  Blood  of  Christ, 
first  arose  at  Barcelona,  in  1351,  between  the 
Dominicans  and  Franciscans.  It  was  renew- 
ed  at  Brixen  §  in  1462.     James  a  Marchia, 

*  See  Padre  Paolo,  Hist.  Concil.  Trident,  lib.  ii. 

f  Semler  (Sec.  xiv.  cap.  1)  mentions  1384  as  the 
year  in  which  the  controversy  on  the  Immaculate 
Conception  broke  out  between  the  rival  orders  at 
Paris.  In  1387  the  faculty  censured  John  de  Mon- 
tesono  for  maintaining  the  less  exalted  opinion — that 
is,  the  opinion  of  St.  Bernard  and  the  Dominicans. 
Nevertheless,  the  war  continued  to  rage. 

+  The  bull  of  Sixtus  is  given  by  the  continuator 
of  Fleury,  lib.  cxv.  s.  102. 

§  Semler,  cent.  xv.  cap.  ii.  While  such  were  the 
subjects  on  which  monastic  absurdity  was  exhausted, 
a  very  different  description  of  nonsense  was  in  vogue, 
proceeding  more  directly  from  the  scholastic  method 
— the  following  may  serve  as  a  specimen.  One  Jean 
de.  Mercceur  was  condemned  in  1346  for  errors, 
among  which  were  the  following:  '  (1)  Jesus  Christ, 
through  his  created  will,  may  have  willed  something, 


ITS   SPIRITUAL   CHARACTER,   DISCIPLINE,   &c. 


545 


a  Franciscan,  publicly  maintained,  that  the 
blood,  which  Christ  shed  on  the  cross,  did 
not  belong  to  the  divine  nature,  and  conse- 
quently was  not  an  object  of-  worship.  The 
Dominicans  were  roused  to  fury  by  an  asser- 
tion so  derogatoiy  to  the  Redeemer;  anil  the 
preachei  was  immediately  summoned  before 
the  Inquisition.  Pius  II.  made  some  ineffec- 
tual attempts  to  suppress  the  controversy ; 
but,  finding  his  authority  insufficient  for  that 
purpose,  he  at  last  submitted  the  question  to 
a  commission  of  divines.  Howbeit,  both  par- 
ties were  so  highly  inflamed,  that  the  doctors 
were  unable  to  arrive  at  any  decision.  At 
length  the  Pontiff"  published  a  reasonable  de- 
cree, 'that  both  opinions  might  be  lawfully 
maintained,  until  Christ's  vicegerent  should 
find  leisure  and  opportunity  for  examining 
the  question ' — and  so  the  matter  rests  at  this 
moment. 

In  1492,  some  laborers,  repairing  the  foun- 
dations of  the  Church  of  the  Santa  Croce 
at  Rome,  discovered  what  was  immediately 
proclaimed  to  be  the  original  Inscription  on 
the  cross  of  Christ.  The  belief  was  propa- 
gated, that  it  had  been  sent  to  Rome  by  St. 
Helena,  mother  of  Constantine  ;  and  though 
there  was  no  authority  for  this  tradition,  and 
though  the  pious  Catholics  of  Toulouse  pre- 
tended to  have  possessed  the  true  inscription 
undisturbed  for  many  ages,  Alexander  VI. 
pronounced  (four  years  afterwards)  the  au- 
thenticity of  the  Roman  title,  and  recom- 
mended it  by  particular  indulgences  to  the 
devotion  of  the  faithful.  On  the  29th  of  May 
in  the  same  year  an  ambassador  from  Bajazet 
arrived,  bearing,  as  a  present  to  the  Pope,  the 
head  of  the  true  lance.  All  the  clergy  went 
forth  in  procession  to  receive  it,  and  the  Pon- 
tiff" assisted  in  person  at  the  miserable  mum- 
mery. Raynaldus  likewise  assures  us  (on 
the  authority  of  Jacobus  Rosius)  that  the 
sponge  and  the  reed  were  presented  on  the 
same  occasion :  such  were  the  offerings  with 
which  the  Infidel  insulted  the  superstition  of 
Christendom,  and  found  his  ready  agent  and 
most  zealous  accomplice  in  the  Pope. 

But  while  the  spiritual  guides  of  the  faith- 
ful were  thus  degradingly  employed — while 
absurdity  and  imposture  seemed  triumphant 
in  the  Church,  and  the  monks  and  the  clergy 

which  has  never  come  to  pass.  (3)  In  whatsoever 
manner  God  wills,  he  wills  efficaciously,  that  it  come 
to  pass.  (4)  God  wills,  that  such  a  one  sin  and  be 
a  sinner,  and  he  wills  it  by  his  will,  at  his  free  plea- 
sure. (5)  No  one  sins  in  willing  otherwise  than 
God  wills,  that  he  will,'  &c.  More  may  be  found  in 
Fleury,  lib.  xcv.  s.  37. 

69 


were  lending,  in  rivalry,  their  aid  to  nourish 
them — a  far  different  spirit  was  growing  up 
among  those  who  had  sought  their  instruction 
elsewhere.  Many  pious  Laymen  had  already 
explored  the  forbidden  treasures  of  Scripture. 
They  had  long  ago  abhorred  the  vices  of  the 
ecclesiastical  system ;  they  now  discovered 
that  whatever  in  it  was  wicked  was  likewise 
unfounded  in  truth.  They  advanced  with 
increasing  confidence  towards  evangelical 
perfection,  just  as  the  Churchmen  were  rush- 
ing most  wildly  in  the  opposite  direction, 
and  casting  wisdom  and  piety,  as  if  in  scorn 
and  detestation,  behind  them.  Yet  was  there 
some  reason  even  in  this  their  madness.  The 
superstitions  of  Rome  were  closely  connected 
with  her  authority,  and  these  exerted  on  each 
other  a  reciprocal  and  potent  influence.  The 
superstitions  enslaved  the  consciences,  and 
thus  commanded  the  riches  of  the  faithful ; 
and  so  they  ministered  to  the  Papal  power — 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  that  power  estab- 
lished and  canonized  the  abuses:  and  it  had 
so  long  been  efficient  in  protecting  them, 
that  to  many  it  seemed  capable  of  sustaining 
them  for  ever. 

II.  On  the  Discipline  and  Morals  of  the 
Church.  —  The  severe  edicts  of  Gregory  VII. 
against  the  concubinage  of  the  clergy,  and 
the  disorders  which  followed  them,  in  no 
very  dissolute  age  of  the  Church,  sufficiently 
prove  that  a  law,  which  offended  the  prin- 
ciples of  nature,  could  not  command  ob- 
servance, even  though  professional  zeal  and 
worldly  interest  and  morality  itself  pleaded 
against  its  violation.  And  if  the  severity  of 
that  Pontiff* for  the  moment  abated  the  scandal, 
it  was  never  wholly  removed,  but  continued 
sometimes  to  elude,  and  sometimes  to  defy 
the  unremitted  exertions  of  Popes  and  Coun- 
cils. Insomuch  that,  considered  only  as  an 
instrument  of  ecclesiastical  policy,  it  would 
seem  that  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  has 
produced  less  advantage  to  the  Church  of 
Rome  by  the  exclusive  spirit  which  it  en- 
courages, and  the  popular  influence  of  which 
it  facilitates  the  acquisition,  than  it  has  done 
mischief  by  the  reproach  and  shame  to  which 
it  has  given  unceasing  occasion.* 


*  The  following  Canons  of  a  Council  held  at 
Toledo  in  the  year  400,  sufficiently  show  the  practice 
of  the  Church  of  Spain,  nearly  80  years  after  the 
Council  of  Nice.  Canon  I.  '  Married  deacons  or 
priests  who  have  not  preserved  continence  with  their 
vtivrs  .shall  not  be  promoted.'  Canon  VII.  '  If  the 
wife  of  a  priest  has  sinned,  he  may  bind  her  in  his 
noose,  and  make  her  fast  and  chastise  her  ...  he 
should  not,  however,  eat  with  her  until  she  has  done 


546 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHCRCH. 


General  Demoralization.  —  Early  in  the 
twelfth  age,  the  general  relaxation  of  disci- 
pline and  morals  was  deplored  by  St.  Bernard, 
and  it  increased  in  despite  of  his  eloquent 
denunciations.  From  that  time  forward  the 
Reformation  of  the  Church,  in  its  Head  and 
its  members,  became  a  subject  of  frequent 
mention,  and  of  constant  hope  or  apprehen- 
sion, according  to  the  sanctity  or  the  world- 
liness  of  individual  Churchmen.  At  the 
Council  of  Vienne,  the  particulars  of  eccle- 
siastical corruption  were  boldly  exposed,  but 
imperfectly  remedied.  During  the  exile  at 
Avignon  the  pestilence  increased ;  it  was 
inflamed  by  the  schism,  which  succeeded ;  till 
at  length,  whatever  still  remained  of  learn- 
ing and  excellence  in  the  Church,  combined 
against  its  further  progress.  It  is  superfluous 
to  repeat  the  names  or  transcribe  the  indig- 
nant expressions  of  those  Reformers.  The 
truth  of  their  testimony  has  never  been  dis- 
puted ;  *  and  one  of  the  few  circumstances  in 
the  history  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
which  has  escaped  all  controversy,  is  that  of 
its  demoralization.  The  fathers  of  Constance 
and  Basle  having  failed  to  repair  the  discipline 
of  the  Church,  it  received  no  improvement 
during  the  interval  which  succeeded ;  nor 
were  the  examples  of  Innocent  VIII.,  Alex- 
ander VI.,  or  Julius  II.,  well  calculated  to 
re-establish  the  authority  of  the  Canons,  or 
restore  the  model  of  ancient  purity. 

Cardinal  Ximenes. — If  there  was  any  coun- 
try, which  at  that  time  had  escaped  the  gene- 
ral degradation,  the  exception  may  have  been 
formed  by  Spain  :  and  Spain  is  chiefly  indebt- 


penance.'  Canon  XIX.  f  If  she  be  the  daughter 
of  a  bishop,  priest,  or  deacon,'  &c.  And  again,  '  the 
widow  of  a  bishop,  priest,  or  deacon,  who  marries 
again,  shall  not  receive  communion,  except  on  her 
death-bed.'  On  this  subject  Guizot  has  remarked, 
that  the  necessity  of  recruiting  an  unmarried  clergy 
from  the  ranks  of  the  laity  was  one  reason  for  the 
failure  of  the  Papal  scheme  of  universal  monarchy. 
To  have  secured  its  success  (he  adds,)  the  clergy 
ought  to  have  been  a  distinct  caste,  bringing  up  their 
own  children  to  their  own  profession.  But  there  is 
much  to  be  said  against  this  opinion.  A  caste  pro- 
ducing itself  is  a  much  more  separate  and  distinguish- 
able object  for  an  enemy's  aim,  than  a  body  which  is 
incessantly  recruiting  itself  from  the  mass. 

*  La  discipline  ecclesiastique(says  Bossuet)  s'etoit 
relachee  par  toute  la  terre:  les  desordres  et  les  abus 
portes  jusqu'aux  environs  de  l'autel  faisoient  gemir 
les  bons,  les  humilioient,  les  pressoient  a  se  rendre 
encore  meilleurs — mais  ils  firent  un  autre  effet  sur  les 
esprits  aigres  et  superbes.'  Histoire  des  Variations, 
lib.  xi.  s.  294.  We  might  also  refer  to  the  celebrated 
avowal  made  (in  1522)  by  Adrian  VI.  at  the  diet  of  f 
Nuremberg. 


ed  for  that  distinction  to  the  morose,  monastic 
austerity  of  Cardinal  Ximenes.  That  haugh- 
ty Churchman  revived  the  image  of  the  spir- 
itual champions  of  early  days.  Under  the  habit 
of  a  Franciscan,  he  nourished  unbounded  am- 
bition, and  more  than  pontifical  insolence.* 
As  regent  of  the  kingdom,  he  possessed  great 
secular  authority  ;  but  his  religious  profession 
was  ever  nearest  to  his  heart,  and  it  was  his 
favorite  boast,  '  that  he  could  bind  the  gran- 
dees to  then-  duty  by  his  cord,  and  crush  their 
pride  with  his  sandals.'  The  object,  on  which 
he  was  most  ardently  bent,  was  the  conver- 
sion of  the  vanquished  Moors.  His  impa- 
tience permitted  no  method,  except,  compul- 
sion ;  and  no  fewer  than  fifty  thousand  are 
related  to  have  submitted  to  baptism,  and 
made  then  heartless  professions  of  conformity. 
The  triumph  was  applauded  ;  the  tyrant  was 
feared  and  imitated;  and  his  severe  court 
presented  a  remarkable  contrast  to  the  licen- 
tiousness of  Rome.  In  the  opposite  extremi- 
ties of  the  moral  scale  the  evangelical  Chris- 
tian will  discover,  perhaps,  an  equal  departure 
from  the  will  of  the  Saviour.  That  selfish 
arrogance,  which  swells  and  hardens  under 
the  garb  of  religion,  is  scarcely  less  at  variance 
with  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  than  positive 

sensual  sin Yet  both  were  the  inevitable 

produce  of  an  ecclesiastical  system,  which 
was  compelled  to  maintain  its  hold  on  the 
affections  of  men,  by  offering,  at  the  same 
time,  encouragement  to  their  fanaticism,  and 
impunity  to  their  vices. 

Benefits  conferred  by  the  Church.  —  Yet 
should  we  be  very  unjust  to  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church,  if  we  should  allow  it  to  be  sup- 
posed, that  she  opened  no  receptacles  forjjie 
nurture  of  true  excellence — that  in  her  gene- 
ral institutions,  especially  in  her  earlier  ages, 
she  has  overlooked  the  moral  necessities  of 
man — the  truth  is  far  otherwise.  We  have 
repeatedly  observed,  how  commonly,  in  sea- 
sons of  barbarism,  religion  was  employed  in 
supplying  the  defects  of  civil  government 
and  diffusing  consolation  and  security.  The 
Truce  of  God  mitigated  the  fury  of  private 
warfare,  by  limiting  the  hours  of  vengeance, 
and  interposing  a  space  for  the  operation  of 

*  On  one  occasion  Ximenes  opposed  the  levy  of 
tenths  in  Spain,  though  commanded  by  Leo  X.,  under 
the  pretext  of  a  Turkish  war.  The  Cardinal  (should 
we  not  rather  say  the  Regentl)  informed  the  Pope, 
that,  unless  on  the  urgency  of  some  very  pressing 
occasion,  he  would  never  allow  the  clergy  of  Spain, 
under  his  government,  to  become  tributary.  See 
Beausobre,  Hist.  Reform,  liv.  i.  It  should  be  men- 
tioned that  Ximenes  published  a  Polyglott  Bible* 
Cont.  Fleur.  1.  119,  s.  142. 


ITS   SPIRITUAL   CHARACTER,   DISCIPLINE,  &c. 


547 


justice  and  humanity.  The  name  of  the 
Church  was  associated  with  peace  * — and  it 
was  a  prouder  position,  that  when  she  tram- 
pled on  the  necks  of  kings.  The  emancipa- 
tion of  the  Serfs  was  another  cause,  equally 
sacred,  in  which  her  exertions  were  repeated- 
ly employed.  In  her  interference  in  the  con- 
cerns of  monarchs  and  nations,  she  frequently 
appeared  as  the  advocate  of  the  weak,  and 
the  adversary  of  arbitrary  power.  Even  the 
much  abused  law  of  Asylum  f  served  through 
a  long  period  as  a  check  on  baronial  oppres- 
sion, rather  than  an  encouragement  to  crime. 

The  duty  of  charity,  during  the  better  ages 
of  the  Church,  was  by  no  means  neglected 
by  the  secular  clergy,  while  it  was  the  prac- 
tice and  office  of  the  monastic  establishments. 
And  even  the  discipline  so  strictly  inculcated 
by  the  earlier  prelates,  however  arbitrary  in 
its  exercise  and  pernicious  in  its  abuse,  was 
not  unprofitable  in  arresting  the  first  steps 
and  restraining  the  earliest  dispositions  to  sin. 
Confession  and  penance,  and  the  awful  cen- 
sures of  the  Church,  when  dispensed  with 
discretion,  must  have  been  potent  instruments 
for  the  improvement  of  uncivilized  society. 

Principles  of  Monachism.  —  The  original 
principles  of  monachism  were  entirely  guilt- 
less of  the  evils  which  flowed  from  it  in  later 
ages.  In  the  East,  it  was  the  passion  for 
retirement  and  contemplation  which  chiefly 
contributed  to  people  the  mountains  and  wil- 
dernesses with  holy  recluses.  In  the  West, 
it  was  rather  a  desire  of  association  for  useful 
purposes,  which  caused  the  construction  of 
so  many  monasteries — schools  were  connect- 
ed with  their  establishment,  and  whatever 
impulse  was  given  to  the  human  understand- 
ing proceeded  from  them.  In  both,  they  were 
effectual  in  drawing  off  from  the  virtual  ex- 
ercise of  paganism  those  nominal  proselytes, 


*  The  '  Peace  of  the  Church  '  was  first  proclaimed 
early  in  the  eleventh  century.  The  particular  edict, 
which  was  more  formally  promulgated  at  the  Council 
of  Clermont,  prohibited  all  private  warfare  from  sun- 
set every  Wednesday  till  sun-rise  on  the  Monday 
following,  so  that  four  days  a.  week  were  sanctified 
from  acts  of  violence.  On  this  occasion,  we  cannot, 
perhaps,  give  the  Pope  much  credit  for  his  motives; 
but  our  question  is  not  with  motives,  hut  with  facts. 

t  This  subject  was  made  a  matter  of  legislation  in 
the  Theodosian  and  Justinian  codes.  It  drew  a  de- 
cree from  Boniface  V.  in  the  seventh  century;  and  in 
the  eighth  the  Lombard  Kings  passed  some  laws  to 
deprive  the  worst  description  of  criminals  of  such 
protection.  The  Abbots  and  Bishops  were  command- 
ed, under  severe  penalties,  to  give  up  such  fugitives 
into  the  hands  of  civil  justice.  Consult  Giannone, 
lib.  v.  cap.  vi. 


extremely  numerous  in  all  ranks  of  the  laity, 
who  concealed,  under  the  profession  of  Chris- 
tianity, a  lingering  affection  for  the  hereditary 
superstition.  It  is,  indeed,  true,  that  such  an 
institution  could  not  have  originated,  except 
in  a  very  peculiar  and  unhappy  condition  of 
society  ;  that  it  took  root  and  flourished  in 
general  demoralization,  and  public  and  pri- 
vate misery.  But  on  the  other  hand,  it  is 
equally  true,  that  it  operated  for  some  ages 
with  great  efficacy  in  abating  the  evils  out  of 
which  it  sprang. 

The  rule  of  St.  Benedict  was  well  calculat- 
ed to  improve  the  generation  to  which  it  was 
delivered  ;  and  the  retreats  which  he  opened 
gave  security  and  employment  to  multitudes, 
in  the  most  calamitous  period  of  Christian 
history.  No  self-torture  or  maceration  was 
prescribed  to  his  disciples  by  that  reasonable 
legislator — those  were  the  inventions  of  the 
later  and  more  depraved  ages  of  the  Church, 
when  the  fanaticism  of  some  was  found  requi- 
site to  counterbalance  the  profligacy  of  others. 
These  changes  insensibly  took  place,  as  the 
monks  departed  step  by  step  from  the  inde- 
pendence of  their  original  profession  ;  first 
throwing  off  the  character  of  laymen,  and 
obtaining  admission  into  the  ranks  of  the 
clergy,  by  which  they  became  subject  to  se- 
vere oppression  from  the  bishops  ;*  and  then 
gradually  escaping  from  that  yoke  to  the 
more  indulgent,  but  not  less  arbitrary,  despo- 
tism of  the  Pope.  Nevertheless,  even  during 
the  decline  of  the  monastic  principles,  some 
sparks  of  former  virtue  were  revived  by  the 
frequent  reformation  of  the  old  orders  and 
the  establishment  of  new — some  remains  of 
pristine  excellence  were  very  long  preserved 
amid  the  ruins  of  the  system. 

Mendicants  distinguished  as  Missionaries. — 
If  we  have  been  compelled  on  many  occa- 
sions to  notice  the  vices  of  the  Mendicant 
orders,  and  to  observe  how  soon  they  became 
the  zealous  agents  of  the  Holy  See  in  all  its 
worst  practices  and  projects,  so  should  we 
not  forget,  that  the  same  were  for  sometime 
the  most  active  ministers  of  the  Church,  in 


*  See  Guizot  (Hist.  Moderne,  Lee.  14.  and  15.) 
from  whom  some  of  the  above  observations  are  bor- 
rowed. It  is  perhaps  too  hastily  asserted  in  chap, 
xix.  (p.  311)  of  this  work,  that  'as  late  as  the 
eleventh  age  the  monks  were,  for  the  most  part,  lay- 
men.' The  change  had  taken  place  earlier;  and 
though  the  distinction,  such  as  it  now  exist*,  between 
the  monks  and  the  lay  brethren,  was  then  first  estab- 
lished] it  Menu  probable,  that  the  greater  pan  of  the 
monks  were  already  ecclesiastics,  and  that  the  lay 
brothers  were  introduced,  for  the  discharge  of  the 
I  inferior  and  more  laborious  offices. 


548 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


the  discharge  of  its  holiest  offices.  It  is  not  | 
without  reason,  that  Roman  Catholic  writers 
vaunt  the  disinterested  devotion  of  the  early 
Mendicants  —  how  assiduous  they  were  in 
supplying  the  spiritul  wants  of  the  poor,  how 
frequent  in  prisons  and  in  hospitals,  how  for- 
ward to  encounter  the  fire  or  the  pestilence ; 
how  instant  on  all  those  occasions  where  the 
peril  was  imminent,  and  the  reward  not  in  this 
world.  They  were  equally  distinguished  in 
another,  and  not  less  righteous,  duty,  the  pro- 
pagation of  Christianity  among  remote  and 
savage  nations.  We  have  noticed  in  a  former 
Chapter  the  method,  by  which  the  Gospel 
was  introduced  into  the  North  of  Europe, 
before  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century. 
In  the  twelfth,  we  observe  Boleslaus,  Duke 
of  Poland,  opening  the  path  for  its  reception 
in  Pomerania  by  the  sword ;  and  in  like 
manner,  both  the  Sclavonians  and  Finlanders 
were  prepared  for  conversion  by  conquest. 
Again,  Urban  III.  consecrated  Mainhard,  an 
unsuccessful  missionary,  Bishop  of  the  Livo- 
nians,  and  proclaimed  a  holy  war  against 
them;  the  Bishop  conquered  his  See,  and 
promulgated  at  the  head  of  an  army  the 
tidings  of  evangelical  concord.  The  same 
methods  were  pursued  by  Innocent  III.  But 
from  that  time  forward  we  find  much  more 
frequent  mention  of  pious  missionaries,  whose 
labors  were  directed  to  accomplish  their  great 
work  by  legitimate,  or,  at  least,  by  peaceful 
means.  It  may  be  true,  that  some  of  them 
were  satisfied  with  mere  nominal  conversions, 
and  that  others  had  chiefly  in  view  either 
their  own  advancement,  or  the  extension  of 
the  papal  sovereignty.  But  there  were  like- 
wise many,  who  were  animated  by  the  most 
admirable  motives,  and  whose  exertions,  if 
they  failed  of  complete  success,  failed  not 
through  any  want  of  disinterested  devotion. 

The  missions  of  the  thirteenth  and  four- 
teenth centuries  were  principally  directed  to 
the  North  of  Asia.  In  1245,  Innocent  IV. 
sent  an  embassy  composed  of  Dominicans  and 
Franciscans  to  the  Tartars;  and  a  friendly 
communication  was  so  maintained,  that  the 
envoys  of  Abaca,  their  king,  were  present,  in 
1274,  at  the  second  Council  of  Lyons.  Nich- 
olas III.  (in  1278)  and  Nicholas  IV.  (in  1289) 
reuewed  those  exertions.  John  of  Monte 
Corvino,  a  Franciscan,  was  distinguished  dur- 
ing the  conclusion  of  the  century  by  the  suc- 
cess of  his  labors  ;  *  and  in  1307,  Clement  V. 
erected  an  Archiepiscopal  See  at  Cambalu 
(Pekin)  which  he  conferred  upon  that  mis- 


*  He    is  recorded  to   have  translated  the  Gospels 
and  Psalms  into  the  language  of  the  Tartars. 


sionary.  Seven  other  Bishops,  also  Francis- 
cans, were  sent  to  his  support  by  the  same 
Pope ;  and  this  distant  branch  of  the  hierarchy 
was  carefully  nourished  by  succeeding  Pon- 
tiffs, especially  John  XXII.  and  Benedict  XII. 
It  is  certain,  that  the  number  of  Christians  was 
not  inconsiderable,  both  among  the  Chinese 
and  Moguls,  as  late  as  the  year  1370, — and 
they  were  still  increasing,  when  they  were 
suddenly  swept  away  and  almost  wholly  ex- 
terminated by  the  Mahometan  arms.*  How- 
beit,  the  disastrous  overthrow  of  their  esta- 
blishment detracts  nothing  from  the  merit  of 
those  who  constructed  it ;  and  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  the  instruments  in  this  work 
were  Mendicants,  and,  for  the  most  part, 
Franciscans.  But  during  the  following  age 
(the  fifteenth,)  there  are  no  discoverable  traces 
of  the  same  spirit ;  nor  can  we  refer  with  any 
satisfaction  to  the  compulsory  proselytism  of 
the  Moors  of  Spain,  or  to  those  spiritual  con- 
quests which  immediately  followed  the  dis- 
coveries of  the  Portuguese  and  Spaniards. 

When  we  reflect  on  the  various  excellen- 
ces ascribed  in  the  preceding  paragraphs  to 
the  Papal  system,  we  cannot  fail,  however 
unwillingly,  to  make  two  observations;  first, 
that  they  had  declined  and  almost  disappeared 
before  the  conclusion  of  the  fifteenth  century ; 
next,  that  the  greater  part  of  them  were  only 
adapted  to  times  of  civil  anarchy  or  general 
ignorance.  But  are  we  therefore  to  suppose, 
that,  even  during  the  reign  of  Alexander  VI., 
the  great  Christian  community  of  the  west 
was  wholly  destitute  of  religious  instruction, 
or  of  examples  of  sacerdotal  piety  ?  that  the 
practice  of  moral  justice,  or  even  of  Evange- 
lical righteousness,  was  entirely  confined  to 
the  sectarians  of  Bohemia,  or  of  the  Alpine 
valleys?  The  prospect  is  not  quite  so  gloomy ; 
the  destinies  of  man  were  not  thus  abandoned 
by  his  Creator. 

Mysticism  a  source  of  piety.  —  (1.)  Under 
the  respectable  name  of  Mysticism  much 
genuine  devotion  was  concealed,  and  many 
ardent  and  humble  aspirations  poured  forth 
before  the  Throne  of  Grace.  Since  the  intro- 
duction of  the  supposed  works  of  Dionysius 
into  the  west  (in  the  ninth  century,)  the  flame 
has  ever  continued  to  burn  with  more  or  less 

*  If  is  certain  (says  Mosheim)  that  we  have  no 
account  of  any  members  of  the  Latin  Church  residing 
in  Tartary,  China,  or  among  the  Moguls,  later  than 
the  year  1370 ;  nor  could  we  ever  learn  the  fate  of 
the  Franciscan  missionaries,  who  had  been  sent 
thither  from  Rome.  Yet  some  doubtful  records  may 
seem  to  prove,  that  there  were  Nestoriana  in  China 
as  late  as  the  sixteenth  age 


ITS   SPIRITUAL   CHARACTER,  DISCIPLINE,   &c. 


549 


of  intensity  or  languor,  of  purity  or  the  con- 
trary, according  to  the  principles  of  the  age, 
the  policy  of  the  Church,  and  the  character 
of  the  prevalent  literature.  In  the  tenth  and 
eleventh  centuries,  we  may  search,  indeed, 
almost  in  vain  for  any  useful  records  of  the 
piety  of  the  Mystics  —  in  the  latter,  some 
traces,  which  they  have  left,  are  strongly 
marked  by  visionary  enthusiasm,  and  bear 
no  comparison  with  the  more  rational  de- 
votion of  Anselm.  In  the  twelfth,  the  age 
of  Abelard  and  his  scholastic  disciples,  they 
faintly  *  opposed  the  progress  of  that  barren 
system  of  speculative  morality,  which  grew 
out  of  the  theology  of  the  Schoolmen,  and 
which  spread  with  such  freezing  prevalence 
in  the  succeeding  century.  Yet,  while  those 
heartless  teachers  (the  '  Patriarchs  of  Pedan- 
try') were  classifying  the  duties  of  man,  dis- 
tinguishing moral  from  theological  virtues, 
minutely  subtilizing  and  dissecting,  and  sub- 
dividing their  subdivisions — while  they  were 
creating  subjects  for  angry  dispute,  rather 
than  holy  meditation,  and  laboring  in  vain  to 
resolve  the  difficulties  which  themselves  had 
created,  the  Mystic  Moralists  formed  an  op- 
posite, and  not  inconsiderable,  party  in  the 
Church.  They  ventured  openly  to  combat 
the  positions  of  the  Scholastics ;  and  they 
were  followed  by  those  with  whom  religion 
addressed  the  affections,  rather  than  the  rea- 
son, and  who  more  wilingly  abandoned 
themselves  to  an  ardent  emotion,  than  en- 
gaged in  an  intellectual  controversy.  Thus 
numerously  supported,  they  commanded  the 
respect  of  their  adversaries ;  and  some  of 
these  even  deigned  to  write  commentaries  on 
the  Book  of  the  Areopagite. 

Though  not  less  opposed  to  the  fashionable 
'casuistry'  of  the  fourteenth  a?e,  they  were 
then  less  active,  or  at  least  less  prominent;  it 
is  probable  that  they  employed  that  interval 
in  the  purification  of  their  own  system,  and 
in  cleansing  away  those  fanciful  absurdities 
which  had  covered  it  with  dishonor  and  ridi- 
cule. At  least,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  they 
again  came  forward  with  the  show  of  a  far 
more  rational  piety  than  had  heretofore  distin- 
guished them:  insomuch,  that  the  Platonists 
of  the  day  strove  to  reconcile  the  warm  de- 
votion of  the  Mystical  scheme  with  the  plau- 
sible ingenuity  of  the  Scholastic,  and  thus 
to  construct  a  new  and  more  perfect  method 
of  moral  theology.  It  is  unquestionable  ibat 
they  comprehended,  together  with  the  Pla- 
tonists, many  individuals  of  deep  and  ardent, 

*  Mosheiffl  (Cent.  xii.  p.  ii.  chap,  iii.)  mentions 
the  name*  of  a  few  of  their  works. 


though,  it  might  be,  misdirected,  piety,*  and 
of  the  purest  simplicity  of  moral  conversation. 
Yet  the  age  in  which  they  flourished  was  de- 
fective in  expositions  of  Scripture  ;  the  Ora- 
cles of  Truth  were  insufficiently  consulted, 
or  injudiciously  interpreted,  even  by  the  best 
among  the  servants  of  the  Church  ;  and  the 
Book,f  by  which  her  pretensions  were  so  soon 
to  be  tried,  was  studied  most  successfully  by 
her  enemies.  The  merits  of  the  Mystics. 
were  not  sufficient  either  to  reform,  or  to 
preserve,  the  declining  establishment.  Their 
sublime  aspirations  after  the  Divine  presence 
removed  them  too  far  from  the  ordinary 
sphere  of  human  action.  In  the  abstract 
contemplation  of  the  attributes  of  the  Deity 
they  lost  the  power  of  influencing  the  coun- 
sels of  men ;  and  their  warm  imagination 
was  not  controlled  by  that  firm  and  temperate 
judgment,  which  is  as  essential  for  the  good 
government  of  churches,  as  of  empires. 

Virtues  and  Piety  of  the  inferior  Clergy.  — 
(2.)  The  real  heroes  of  Ecclesiastical  history 
are  those,  whose  belief  and  life  are  regulated 
by  the  laws  of  Christ ;  and  the  very  circum- 
stance, which  constitutes  their  excellence, 
ensures  their  obscurity.  They  are  not  with- 
out their  reward  even  in  this  world  —  but  it 
is  not  in  the  enjoyment  of  renown,  or  in  the 
hope  of  worldly  immortality.  It  is  in  silence, 
that  they  perform  their  offices  of  charity  ;  it 
is  in  secrecy,  that  they  fulfil  the  commands 
of  their  Master ;  it  is  in  humility,  that  they 
exalt  their  fellow  creatures ;  and  as  soon  as 
their  peaceful  course  of  usefulness  is  over, 
they  disappear,  and  leave  no  sort  of  trace  or 
record  of  their  virtues.  It  is  to  the  proud,  the 
turbulent,  the  ambitious,  to  the  fanatic  or  the 
hypocrite,  that  the  pages  of  the  annalist  are 
principally  consecrated  ;  and  those  whose  life 
has  been  an  insult  to  their  religion,  stand  far 
more  prominent  in  the  Ecclesiastical  picture, 
than  those  who  have  loved  and  obeyed  it. 
It  is  not,  that  many  have  not  existed,  even  in 
the  worst  ages  of  the  Cluinli.  whose  almost 
spontaneous  piety  has  supplied  its  laws  and 


*  Among  the  Mystics,  Mosheini  places  Thomas  a 
Kempis,  Lanreotina  Justinianiia,  Vincent  Ferrier, 
Savonarola,  Bernafd  of  Si.  una.  Among  the  Platon- 
ists, John  (ler.-ciii,  Nicholas.  Casaous,  Dionysius  the 
Carthusian;  ami  others. 

f  The  Bibk  Divines,  who  had  been  declining  from 
the  thirteenth  century,  were  now  Iwcome  nearly  ex- 
tinct. Books  of  Sentences  anil  Snnis  of  Schoolmen 
were  the  principal  objects  of  study;  and  when,  in 
1515,  Erasmus  published  his  edition  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  thus  'laid  the  egg  which  Luther 
batched,'  the  cli  pgj  ntctaiined  against  the  act  as 
dangerous,  if  not  impious. 


550 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH 


corrected  its  abuses,  and  repaired,  as  far  as 
their  private  influence  extended,  the  ruins  of 
its  discipline  —  under  whose  sacred  guar- 
dianship the  treasures  of  life  have  been  faith- 
fully dispensed,  and  whose  example  has 
given  sanction  to  their  instructions.  It  is  not, 
that  even  monastic  depravity  has  not  been 
redeemed  by  thousands  of  instances  of  mo- 
nastic excellence.  But  it  is,  that  the  vices 
have  been  registered  and  blazoned,  while  the 
opposite  qualities  have  either  attracted  no 
notice,  or  have  generally  been  so  exaggerate 
ed,  as  to  revolt  our  reason  and  belief.  Among 
the  numerous  progeny  of  saints,  so  venerat- 
ed by  Catholics,  so  proscribed  by  Protestants, 
there  have  been  some  examples  of  pure 
Evangelical  holiness  ;  there  have  been  some 
cardinals  who  have  dared  to  deviate  from  the 
rule  of  profligacy  ;  there  have  been  many  pre- 
lates, eminent  for  learning  and  integrity,  as  the 
History  of  National  Churches  and  General 
Councils  sufficiently  demonstrates.  But  such 
characters  were  far  more  common  among 
the  humble  and  undistinguished  jmstors,  who 
were  free  from  the  vanity,  the  enthusiasm,  or 
the  ambition,  which  so  often  lurks  beneath 
the  garb  of  celebrated  sanctity.  Yet  the  eye 
of  the  historian  is  fixed  by  the  austere  and 
wonder-working  Saint,  by  the  pompous  Pre- 
late, and  the  intriguing  and  rapacious  Car- 
dinal, while  it  overlooks  the  plants  which 
flourish  in  the  lower  regions  of  serenity  and 
fruitfulness.  Notwithstanding,  it  is  scarcely 
too  much  to  affirm,  that  it  was  the  zeal  and 
piety  of  the  inferior  clergy,  which  so  long 
supported  the  cumbrous  machinery  of  the 
Court  and  Prelacy  of  Rome.  It  was  their 
virtues,  which  sustained  the  vices  of  their 
superiors  ;  it  was  their  humble  piety,  which 
enabled  mitred  apostates  so  long  to  outrage 
the  name  of  Christ.  And  it  was  not  till  the 
poison  had  descended  to  the  extremities  of 
the  system,  and  communicated  even  to  the 
village  pastor  some  portion  of  its  hierarchical 
malignity,  that  the  Church  of  Rome  reeled  to 
its  foundation,  and  by  its  weakness  and  de- 
pravity invited  and  justified  the  rebellion  of 
its  children. 

Section  III. 

On  various  Attempts  to  reform  or  subvert  the 
Church. 
I.  -^An  attentive  consideration  of  the  facts 
and  remarks  advanced  in  the  preceding  sec- 
tions will  show,  that  in  almost  every  partic- 
ular, whether  of  internal  polity,  or  ghostly 
authority,  or  doctrinal  purity,  or  discipline, 
or  morals,  the  Church  of  Rome  stood  lower 


at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  than  at  any 
preceding  period.  There  was  one  circum- 
stance only  in  which  it  had  gained  ground. 
The  temporal  power  of  St.  Peter  had  been 
exalted  into  a  durable  monarchy,  and  the 
limits  of  the  sacred  patrimony  extended  and 
secured,  during  the  last  decay  of  the  spiritual 
fabric.  The  era  of  Boniface  VIII.  was  prob- 
ably that,  in  which  the  various  pretensions 
of  the  See  combined  with  the  greatest  effect 
for  its  aggrandizement.  Its  territorial  do- 
mains were  then  respectable  ;  its  clergy  were 
generally  exempt  from  civil  jurisdiction  ;  its 
divine  right  to  worldly  power  was  not  uni- 
versally disputed  ;  its  abuses  were  compar- 
atively inoffensive ;  its  domestic  enemies 
were  almost  harmless.  Then  commenced  its 
downfal ;  and  it  was  precipitated  through 
two  centuries  of  progressive  calamity  and 
disgrace.  Its  constitution,  which  by  the  co- 
operation of  the  Pope  with  the  Cardinals  and 
General  Councils  presented  the  means  of 
regeneration,  was  suspended  and  perverted 
by  Eugenius  IV.  and  the  succeeding  pontiffs. 
In  the  pageantiy  of  its  ceremonies,  in  the 
character  of  its  festivals  and  its  controversies, 
it  receded  farther  and  farther  from  the  so- 
berness of  reason  and  the  simplicity  of  the 
Gospel :  and  its  moral  degeneracy  kept  pace 
with  its  other  deprivations.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  general  principles  of  society  were 
improved,  and  the  laity  had  begun  to  shake 
off  the  deep  slumber  of  obedience  and  con- 
formity. The  corruption  was  universal,  the 
danger  imminent ;  many  even  among  the 
prelates  of  the  Church  were  not  insensible  to 
either ;  and  some,  who  might  perhaps  have 
tolerated  the  scandal,  were  moved  by  the 
peril.  Thus  there  grew  up  a  large  party 
within  the  Church,  who  proclaimed  the  ne- 
cessity of  Reform. 

JYature  of  the  Reform  attempted  by  the 
Churchmen.  —  The  necessity  of  some  reform 
having  aroused  the  wisest  and  most  virtuous 
among  the  churchmen,  questions  might  nat- 
urally have  grown  up  among  them,  to  what 
extent,  and  on  what  principles  their  work 
ought  to  be  conducted  ?  Yet  on  this  sub- 
ject no  important  difference  appears  to  have 
arisen.  A  sacred  barrier  was  placed  before 
them  which  separated  that,  which  might  be 
touched,  from  that,  which  was  inviolate  ;  and 
it  was  guarded  by  irresistible  prejudices.  On 
this  side  lay  the  field  of  discipline  and  tem- 
poralities—  on  the  other  were  the  mysterious 
regions  of  Faith,  embracing  all  that  mass  of 
mingled  truth  and  superstition,  which  the 
Infallible  Mother  had   imposed  with   equal 


VARIOUS    ATTEMPTS   TO   REFORM,   &c. 


551 


rigor,  as  equally  holy  upon  her  believing  II  ment  presented  ample  employment  for  the 
children.  Into  the  former  spare  the  Fathers  hand  of  the  reformer,  had  he  entered  upon 
of  Constance  and  Basle  entered  with   Borne    his  work  honestly  and  fearlessly.     Howbeit, 

even  on  this  ground,  unhallowed  as  it  was 
by  any  spiritual  prejudices,  those  fathers  did 
not  penetrate,  in  their  boldest  attempts,  to  the 
roots  of  the  evil.  They  confined  their  hos- 
tility to  the  abuses  which  were  of  modern 
origin.  Their  veneration  for  antiquity,  that 
professional  reverence  for  established  prac- 
tices, which  so  strongly  characterized  the 
clergy  of  that  Church,  forbade  them  to  search 
very  deeply  or  very  generally.  They  endeav- 
ored, indeed,  to  correct  some  disorders,  which 
had  notoriously  grown  up  during  the  two  or 
three  preceding  ages ;  it  was  a  specious  object 
to  abolish  the  corruptions  of  Avignon,  to  re- 
pair the  ruins  of  the  schism !  But  they  were 
awed  by  the  holy  obscurity  of  earlier  times ; 
and  the  clumsy  forgery  of  a  monk  of  the 
eighth  century  arrested  the  most  enlightened 
among  the  doctors  of  Constance  and  Basle. 

Nevertheless,  the  schemes  of  the  reformers, 
though  bearing  no  proportion  to  the  real 
emergencies  of  the  Church,  were  wise  as  far 
as  they  went,  and  calculated  to  prolong  the 
existing  system.  Had  they  been  cordially 
carried  into  effect,  some  useful  improvements 
would  have  been  introduced,  some  unpopular 
scandals  removed;  the  most  distinguished 
ecclesiastics  would  have  rallied  round  the 
Pope,  and  the  laity  would  have  respected,  for 
a  certain  time,  the  concessions  and  the  union 
of  the  clergy.  But  even  this  imperfect  result 
did  not  take  place.  It  has  been  shown  with 
how  great  pertinacity  the  Pope  and  his  profli- 
gate adherents  fought  the  battle  of  corruption, 
and  defended  every  abuse,  which  was  fraught 
with  present  profit,  and  future  and  early  de- 
struction.*    In   the   struggle  which   divided 


boldness  of  upright  determination;  but  it  had 
been  sacrilege  and  heresy  to  have  invaded  the 
latter.     Hence  it  arose  that  the  most  danger- 
ous wounds  were  not  examined,  perhaps  not 
even  suspected.    '  In  a  mortal  disease  lenitives 
were  administered  and  oil  applied  ; '  *  and  if 
some  outward  impurities  were  feebly  reme- 
died,  their   inward    causes   were   purposely 
covered   from   all   inquiry  with  a  venerable 
veil.     Thus,  while  all  the  genius  and  learning 
of   the  Church   were    combined   to   repress 
the  abuses  of  Pontifical  power  —  while  the 
Pontiff  was  essaying  every  art  in  defence  of 
those  abuses  —  while  anathemas  were  inter- 
changed, and  the  contending  parties  seemed 
to   be   emulating   each   other's   rancor  —  no 
question  was  for  a  moment  started  as  to  the 
legitimacy  of  that  power.      It  was  thought 
much  to  deny  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope,  to 
contest  his  absolute   despotism ;  but  his  su- 
premacy was  as  sacred  as  the  Church  itself, 
and  the  Church  was  identified  with  the  re- 
ligion.     In  this  delusion  both   parties  were 
equally  sincere ;  and  though  the  high  Papists  I 
were  certainly  the  farthest  removed  from  any 
consideration   of  Gospel   truth,   it  must  be 
admitted,  that  their  opponents  were   almost 
equally   destitute   of   evangelical    principles. 
The    Church  was  the   exclusive    object,   to 
which   their  education,  their  interests,  their 
prejudices,  their  enthusiasm,  their  very  piety 
attached  them.    Within  it  whatever  was  holy 
and   righteous  was   concentrated.     Without 
it,  all  was  blindness  and  rebellion  and  blas- 
phemy ;  and  their  belief  was  not  so  much,  that 
the  Church  was  founded  on  the  Bible, as  that 
the  Bible  was  comprehended  in  the  Church. 
From  men  with  such  principles,  it  was  to 
be  expected,  that  those  who  pleaded  Scripture 
as  an  independent  testimony  of  truth — that 
those  who  spoke  even  of  truth  as  independent 
of  ecclesiastical  authority,  would  meet  with 
no  sympathy,  and  little  mercy.     Accordingly, 
their  advances   towards  reform  were   made 
in  the  very  bosom  of  orthodoxy.      The  most 
frivolous  superstitions  were   rather  encour- 
aged,  than    restrained ;    no   innovation   was 
introduced,  which   could   have   startled   the 
bigotry  of  the  most  rigid  Romanist.    Nothing 
was  even  remotely  intended  for  change,  ex- 
cept the  discipline.    Yet  even  this  depart- 

♦Tlie  Bishop  <>f  Segovia  addressed  this  expression 
to  the  Fathers  of  Trent,  who,  under  still  more  dan- 
gerous circumstances,  were  following  the  same  policy. 
See  Padre  Paolo,  b.  vi. 


*  It  might  seeem  unnecessary  to  fortify  this  position 
by  any  authority-  Yet  the  opinion  of  one  of  the  most 
clear-sighted  prelates,  who  have  ever  adorned  and 
defended  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  may  not  by 
some  be  thought  superfluous.  '  C'est  ainsi  (saya 
Bossuet)  que  dans  le  qufnzieme  siecle  le  Cardinal 
(Julien),  le  plus  grand  bomme  de  son  temps,  en 
deplorait  lea  maux,  el  en  prevoyait  la  suite  fnneste: 
par  on  il  scmblc  avoir  predit  ceux,  que  Luther  allait 
appreter  a  toote  la  Cbrestient6,  en  commeneant  par 
PAilemagne;  et  il  ne  sVst  pas  trompe1  lorsqu'il  a 
ert,  que  la  Reformation  miprisie,  et  la  hainr 
rvdoublve  contre  le  Clergi  allait  enfanler  unr 
&ecle  plus  redoutable  a  VEglisc,  que  cellc  des 
Bohimiens.  Elle  est  venue  celle  secte  sous  la  con- 
duite  de  Luther;  et  en  prenant  le  litre  <le  Reforme, 
elle  s'est  rantee  d'avoir  urcompli  les  vceux  de  toute 
la  Chreslient6,  puisqlie  la  reformation  estoit  desiree 
par  les  peoples,  par  les  docteura,  et  par  les  prelate 
Catholiques.'     Histoire  des  Variations,  liv.  i. 


552 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


the  Church,  the  policy  of  the  hour  prevailed. 
The  unity  of  power  and  design,  the  keen 
sense  of  personal  interest,  the  tyranny  of  in- 
veterate prejudice,  gave  the  triumph  to  the 
less  virtuous,  the  less  provident,  even  the  less 
numerous  party ;  and  after  the  fathers  of  Basle 
had  reluctantly  dispersed,  and  their  creature 
Felix  V.  resigned  the  name  of  Pontiff,  the 
bark  of  St.  Peter  was  urged  forward  by  a  gale 
of  unruffled  prosperity,  until  suddenly,  and 
soon,  and  in  the  moment  of  most  exulting  se- 
curity, it  was  dashed  against  the  rocks  and 
shattered  irreparably. 

A  circumstance,  which  may  have  suspend- 
ed the  downfal  of  the  Church,  was  the  ele- 
vation of  two  Popes  (Nicholas  V.  and  Pius 
II.),  whose  reputation  and  pursuits  were  in 
harmony  with  the  popular  passion  for  reviving 
letters.  Their  personal  qualities  concealed 
for  a  moment  the  vices  of  the  system,  and 
substituted  in  public  observation  the  splendor 
of  a  literary  court.  Again,  the  overthrow  of 
the  Eastern  Empire,  and  the  danger  of  Turk- 
ish invasion,  became  powerful  instruments 
for  diverting  attention  from  ecclesiastical 
grievances:  and  the  clamor  for  reform  was, 
for  awhile,  drowned  in  specious  appeals  to 
the  policy  of  princes,  and  the  enthusiasm 
of  their  subjects — but  for  awhile  only.  The 
spirit  of  the  age,  when  once  decided  and 
pronounced,  can  neither  be  long  eluded,  nor 
safely  resisted.  A  little  time  may  be  gained: 
the  progress  of  improvement  may  be  slightly 
retarded ;  but  it  will  presently  spring  forward 
the  more  rapidly,  as  it  has  been  the  longer 
held  back.  Now,  the  preceding  century  (the 
fourteenth)  was  one  of  mixed  and  conflicting 
principles  ;  it  had  not  assumed  any  marked 
or  definite  character;  and  thus  the  Church 
marched  safely  through  it,  with  all  its  de- 
pravity on  its  head.  But  in  the  fifteenth,  the 
principles  of  society  were  fixed ;  the  general 
voioe  of  Christendom  proclaimed  the  necessi- 
ty of  reformation;  the  high-church  dominant 
party  presumed  to  disobey,  or,  with  equal 
impolicy,  descended  to  evasion  ;  and  through 
their  own  perversity  they  fell.  And  whether 
it  was,  that  they  were  too  blind  to  see  their 
danger,  or  too  obstinate  to  sacrifice  then- 
vices,  they  fell  by  a  fate,  which  few  will 
affect  to  deplore,  and  which  none  can  deem 
undeserved. 

Howbeit,  since  the  secession  of  the  Protes- 
tant communities,  a  gradual  though  tardy 
reformation  has  been  virtually  accomplished 
in  the  bosom  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 
Its  most  extravagant  pretensions  have  been 
generally  withdrawn;  and  if  no  important 


change  has  been  introduced  into  the  body  of 
its  doctrine,  yet  the  abuse  of  some  of  its  tenets 
has  been  in  some  places  mitigated ;  and  its 
discipline  has  been  every  where  amended 
and  purified.  When  it  had  lost  the  half  of 
its  dominions,  it  turned  itself  to  improve  and 
preserve  the  rest — from  the  blow  which  cleft 
its  triple  crown,  it  first  began  to  learn  the 
wisdom  of  moderation;  and  to  discover  in 
sackcloth  and  ashes,  that  its  wisest  counsellors 
and  truest  friends  had  ever  been  those,  who 
had  warned  it  to  repent  and  amend. 

II.  Attempts  to  trace  the  continuity  of  the 
Protestant  opinions  to  the  Apostolical  times. — 
Several  learned  and  pious  Protestants  have 
attempted  to  trace  the  uninterrupted  descent 
of  their  doctrines,  or  at  least  of  some  essen- 
tial portion  of  them,  even  from  the  apostolic 
times.  Great  ingenuity  and  research  have 
been  employed  for  this  purpose,  partly  to 
make  it  thus  manifest,  that  the  Almighty, 
while  he  permitted  so  much  iniquity  to  be 
perpetrated  in  his  name,  did  still  nourish  in 
secret  his  true  and  perpetual  Church  ;  partly, 
that  the  perpetual  succession  of  the  ministry 
might  not  seem  wanting  to  the  reformed 
communities;  partly,  because  the  reverence 
for  antiquity,  especially  in  ecclesiastical  mat- 
ters, has  a  powerful,  perhaps  an  undue,  influ- 
ence on  the  greater  part  of  mankind.  For 
these  reasons  very  much  has  been  written 
about  the  'Lutheranism  which  was  prevalent 
before  Luther ; '  the  unbroken  series  of '  Wit- 
nesses of  the  truth  ; '  the  unceasing  protesta- 
tions which  have  been  silently  breathed  in  all 
ages,  against  the  abuses  of  Rome.* 


*  This  subject  lias  been  treated  by  Bossuet,  in 
the  eleventh  chapter  of  his  Variations,  eloquently, 
learnedly,  and  of  course  not  impartially:  and  thus, 
while  he  has  unquestionably  established  many  of  his 
positions,  he  has  advanced  others  which  are  untena- 
ble. (1)  Respecting  the  Albigeois.  He  has  estab- 
lished that  they  were  wholly  distinct  from  the  Vau- 
dois:  and  that  they  held  many  opinions  which  are 
condemned  by  all  Protestants.  But  he  has  failed  in 
proving  their  Manichean  origin — still  more  their 
Manichean  doctrines — for  to  make  out  this  identity 
he  has  invented  so  many  marks  or  characters  of 
Manicheism,  wholly  unconnected  with  its  original 
and  only  true  mark,  the  doctrine  of  the  two  princi- 
ples, as  to  embrace  under  that  name  errors  entire- 
ly dissociated  from  it.  He  calls  them  indeed  new 
Manicheans,  and  admits  that  •  tliey  had  softened 
some  of  their  errors.'  But  they  had  parted  with  the 
characteristic  error,  or,  in  fact,  they  had  never  held 
it.  For  the  same  reason  he  has  failed  in  confounding 
them  with  the  Catharists,  Bulgari,  &c,  who  were 
the  real  descendants  of  the  Paulicians.  (2)  Respect 
ing  the  Vaudois.     He  shows  the  great  uncertainty 


VARIOUS    ATTEMPTS    TO   REFORM,   &c. 


5d3 


It  is  unquestionable,  that  so  early  as  tin: 
beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  some  ot*tbe 
Protestant  opinions  were  openly  professed,  anil 
atoned  for  by  death.  And  it  is  equally  certaio, 
that,  from  the  preaching  of  Peter  de  Bruia  to 
that  of  Luther,  there  have  subsisted  in  some 
quarter  or  other  of  the  western  community 
various  bodies  of  Sectaries,*  who  were  at  open 
or  secret  variance  with  the  Church  of  Rome 
— who  rejected,  according  to  their  respective 
principles,  in  part  or  in  whole,  her  tenet-,  or 
her  ceremonies,  or  her  ministry.  It  may  be 
doubted,  whether  the  Albigeois,  in  spite  of 
the  crusades  of  Innocent,  and  the  Inquisition 
of  Toulouse,  were  ever  entirely  extirpated. 
The  Vaudois  were  certainly  preserved  through 


perhaps  die  entire  vanity,  of  their  claims  to  a  sepa- 
rate descent  from  the  Antcnicene  Church.  He  shows 
that,  at  their  first  appearance,  their  differences  with 
Rome  were  less  numerous  and  important  than  they 
became  afterwards:  that  they  adopted  some  new 
opinions  after  their  union  with  the  Protestants:  that 
they  were  the  same  with  the  Leonists  and  the  Insab- 
bates.  But  he  does  not  establish  his  assertion,  that 
they  were  founded  by  Peter  Waldo  of  L\ons.  (3) 
Respecting  the  Bohemian  Brethren.  He  rightly 
supposes,  that  the  Hussites  were  not  descended  from 
the  Vaudois;  and  that  the  '  Brethren  '  made  some 
doctrinal  concessions  on  their  union  with  the  Luther- 
ans. But  w'len  he  asserts  that  Huss  had  no  doctrinal 
difference  with  the  Church,  except  on  the  single 
communion;  and  that  the  same  was  the  only  subject 
of  disaffection  with  the  Calixtines;  he  has  not  fairly 
represented  either  the  one  or  the  other.  The  '  here- 
sies '  of  Huss  were  less  bold  and  numerous  than  those 
of  Wieliff;  those  of  the  Calixtines  than  those  of  the 
Thaboriles;  and  that  respecting  the  cup  was  the 
most  publicly  professed;  but  it  was  associated  with 
others  less  notorious.  In  the  meantime,  we  must 
admit,  that  he  has,  in  our  opinion,  established  his 
two  leading  positions;  viz.,  that  the  Protestants  fail 
in  their  attempts  to  prove  an  uninterrupted  succes- 
sion; and  that  those  whom  they  claim  as  their  ances- 
tors differed  from  them  in  numerous  points  of  doc- 
trine. We  might  notice  some  rash  assertions  on  less 
important  points — but  our  readers  are  aware  that 
they  should  be  cautious  in  following  Bossuet  mi  his 
own  unsupported  assertion — on  that  parole, '  toujour* 
eloquente  '  (as  Voltaire  truly  says  of  it)  *  et  quelque- 
fois  trom  peuse.' 

*  It  might  seem  scarcely  necessary  to  remark,  that 
we  have  frequently,  in  the  course  of  this  work,  used 
the  word  Sect  in  its  original  and  proper  sens) — of  a 
body  of  men  united  by  certain  tenets, — the  sense  in 
which  Terlulliau  used  it  (Apol.  cap.  v.)  when  he 
called  the  whole  Christian  community  hum-  Sectam. 
Only  it  is  a  common  error  to  connect  with  this  term 
the  idea  of  cutting  off,  and  thus  to  attach  ■> 
ing  notion  to  it.  In  the  same  manner,  the  term 
Heresy  (in  its  origin  equally  inoffensive,)  we  have 
commonly  applied    to  those,   whom    the    church    has 

denounced  as  heretics — without  any  reference  what- 
ever to  the  nature  of  their  opinions. 
70 


the  perils  of  four  centuries  of  oppression.  The 
ashes  of  Wiclill'  were  not  lost  in  their  rough 
il' scent  into  the  ocean  ;  and  the  spirit,  which 
rose  out  of  the  funeral  flames  of  Huss,  sur- 
vived to  expand  in  the  bosoms  of  his  com- 
patriots. 

From  this  short  catalogue  we  have  pur- 
posely excluded  innumerable  denominations 
of  heresy,  of  which  there  were  scarcely  any 
which  did  not,  in  some  one  respect,  or  in 
more  than  one,  anticipate  the  Confession  of 
Augsbourg.  The  various  forms  of  3Iysticism 
were  universally  opposed,  in  their  progress  as 
in  their  origin,  to  the  outward  pageantry  of 
the  Roman  Church.  The  spiritual  Francis- 
cans, who  questioned  the  omnipotence  of  the 
Pope,  and  denounced  the  corruptions,  no  less 
than  the  wealth,  of  the  Clergy,  are  even  plac- 
ed by  Mosheim  among  the  forerunners  of  tho 
Reformation.  At  least,  it  is  certain,  that  their 
continued  insubordination,  combined  with 
such  high  pretensions  to  sanctity,  had  its  effect 
in  preparing  the  downfal  of  Papacy;  and  thus 
they  may  properly  be  numbered  among  the 
instruments  appointed  to  divide  its  strength, 
and  betray  its  fortress  by  intestine  discord  to 
the  foe  without. 

Again,  among  the  sects,  which  we  have 
mentioned  as  the  more  genuine  precursors  of 
Luther  and  ZuJQgliss,*  there  was  not  one 
which  furnished  in  all  respects  a  faithful  mo- 
del for  their  more  perfect  reformation.  There 
were  points  on  which  the}'  differed  from  each 
other.  There  were  points  on  which  they  dif- 
fered both  from  Roman  Catholics  and  Protes- 
tants. There  were  even  points  in  which  they 
agreed  with  the  former,  ami  fell  far  short  of  the 
subsequent  doctrine  of  the  latter.  Rut  there 
Were  also  many  articles  of  essential  impor- 
tance^! which  they  opposed,  with  premature 
independence,  their  reason  and  their  Rible,  to 
the  abuses  and  even  to  the  authority,  of  the 
Church. 

Such  were  the  sects,  from  which  the  Pro- 
testants claim  their  descent,  and  to  which  they 
are  justly  grateful  for  having  prepared  their 
path,  and  set  the  example  of  nou-i •onlbrmity. 
Rut  they  sprang  up  before  their  season  ;  their 
imperfect  lights  were  unable  to  preserve  them 
from  error;    curiosity  and    knowledge  were 


*  Sender  (Secul.  w.  cap.  it.  p.  218)  enumerates 
u  variety  of  opinions  hostile  to  the  Chinch,  in  the 

design  to  show  that   I.utlicr    was  n. it  so    much  the  first 

w  ho  came  into  the  design  of  vindicating  the  public 

Christian  religion,  as  thai  lie  trod  in  footsteps  clearly 

traced   before  him — so  that  those  are  in  error,  who 

the  Reformation  as  a  political,  rather  than  a 

•  meiit. 


554 


HISTORY    OF   THE   CHURCH. 


yet  too  scantily  distributed  among  the  mass 
of  the  people  to  give  them  a  substantial  foot- 
ing there;  and  thus  they  fell  before  the  es- 
tablished despotism,  and  shed  their  precious 
blood,  both  as  an  eternal  testimony  against 
the  Church,  and  as  the  seed  of  more  enlarged 
principles  in  a  happier  age. 

The  Vaudois. — In  our  journey  back  towards 
the  apostolical  times,  these  separatists  conduct 
us  as  far  as  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  centu- 
ry ;  but  when  we  would  advance  farther,  we  are 
intercepted  by  a  broad  region  of  darkness  and 
uncertainty.  A  spark  of  hope  is  indeed  sug- 
gested by  the  history  of  the  Vaudois.  Their 
origin  is  not  ascertained  by  any  authentic  re- 
cord ;  and  being  immemorial,  it  may  have  been 
coeval  with  the  introduction  of  Christianity. 
Among  their  own  traditions  there  is  one, 
which  agrees  well  with  their  original  and  fa- 
vorite tenet,  which  objects  to  the  possession 
of  property  by  ecclesiastics.  It  is  this  —  that 
their  earliest  fathers,  offended  at  the  liberality 
with  which  Constantine  endowed  the  Church 
of  Rome,  and  at  the  worldliness  with  which 
Pope  Sylvester  accepted  those  endowments, 
seceded  into  the  Alpine  solitudes;  that  they 
there  lay  concealed  and  secure  for  so  many 
ages  through  their  insignificance  and  their 
innocence.  This  may  have  been  so — it  is  not 
even  very  improbable,  that  it  was  so.  But 
since  there  is  not  one  direct  proof  of  their 
existence  during  that  long  space  ;  since  they 
have  never  been  certainly  discovered  by  the 
curiosity  of  any  writer,  nor  detected  by  the 
inquisitorial  eye  of  any  orthodox  bishop,  nor 
named  by  any  Pope  or  Council,  or  any  Church 
record,  chronicle,  or  memorial,  we  are  not 
justified  in  attaching  any  historical  credit  to 
their  mere  unsupported  tradition.  It  is  suffi- 
cient to  prove,  that  they  had  an  earlier  exist- 
ence than  the  twelfth  century  ;  but  that  they 
had  then  been  perpetuated  through  eight  or 
nine  centuries,  uncommemorated  abroad,  and 
without  any  national  monument  to  attest  their 
existence,  is  much  more  than  we  can  venture, 
on  such  evidence,  to  assert.  Here  then  the 
golden  chain  of  our  apostolical  descent  dis- 
appears ;  and  though  it  may  exist,  buried  in 
the  darkness  of  those  previous  ages,  and 
though  some  writers  have  seemed  to  discern 
a  few  detached  links  which  they  have  dilli- 
gently  exhibited,  there  is  still  much  wanting 
to  complete  the  continuity.* 


The  Mbigeois. — When  we  turn  to  the  his- 
tory of  the  Albigeois,  we  find  there  still  less 
to  flatter  our  hopes,  or  encourage  our  pursuit. 
For  if  we  adopt  the  more  probable  opinion 
respecting  the  origin  of  that  sect — that  it  was 
engendered  by  the  contrast,  so  perceptible 
even  to  the  least  instructed,  between  the  cha- 
racter of  the  Church  and  the  first  principles 


*  Tlie  claims  of  the  Protestant  Mountaineers  in 
Pauphine  appear  to  be  somewhat  stronger  than  those 
of  the  Vaudois;  because  (as  has  been  mentioned) 
neither  the  worship  of  images,  nor  the  pontifical 
jurisdiction  was  established  in  France,  so  early  as 


in  Italy — probably  not  till  the  middle  of  the  ninth 
century.  Now,  as  soon  afterwards  as  the  year  1025 
we  have  records  of  the  existence,  at  Arras,  of  certain 
erroneous  opinions,  which  were  supposed  to  have 
proceeded  from  '  the  Alpine  borders  of  Italy.'  In 
this  case,  the  interval  of  silence  is  reduced  to  rather 
less  than  two  centuries:  and  though  this  space  will 
seem  to  many  sufficient  to  destroy  all  historical  ground 
for  asserting  an  uninterrupted  succession,  nevertheless, 
upon  the  whole,  we  are  disposed  to  consider  it  aR 
very  probable,  that  on  the  sides  and  under  the  brows 
of  those  desolate  mountains  there  may  have  existed 
in  every  age  a  few  obscure  peasants,  whom  all  the 
innovations  of  Rome  have  never  reached.  Different 
persons  will  attach  different  degrees  of  importance 
to  this  result — we  therefore  refer  the  curious  reader, 
with  great  pleasure,  to  Mr.  Gilly's  '  Memoirs  of 
Neff,'  where  the  subject  is  argued  with  learning  and 
earnestness.  At  the  same  time  it  is  proper  to  men- 
tion what  those  opinions  really  were  which  were 
condemned  at  Anas  in  1025;  lest  it  should  be  sup- 
posed, that  they  were  at  variance  only  with  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  strictly  in  accordance 
with  apostolical  truth.  (1.)  It  was  asserted,  that 
the  sacrament  of  baptism  was  useless,  and  of  no 
efficacy  to  salvation.  (2.)  That  the  sacrament  of 
the  Lord's  Supper  was  equally  unnecessary.  (It 
would  seem  that  the  objections  of  the  heretics  on  this 
point  went  beyond  the  mere  denial  of  the  change  of 
substance.)  (3.)  That  there  was  no  peculiar  sanc- 
tity in  churches,  (4.)  nor  holiness  in  the  altar.  (5.) 
That  the  use  of  bells,  &c,  to  summon  the  people  to 
worship,  was  objectionable.  (6.)  That  the  sacred 
orders  of  the  ministry  were  not  of  divine  institution 
(7.)  That  the  Church  rites  of  sepulture  are  to  be 
ascribed  to  the  avarice  of  the  clergy.  (8.)  That 
penance  was  altogether  inefficacious.  (This  appears 
to  have  been  an  inference  from  their  denial  of  the 
efficacy  of  baptism.)  (9.)  That  alms,  vicarious 
penance,  &c,  are  of  no  use  to  the  dead  (which  in- 
volved the  denial  of  purgatory.)  (10.)  That  mar- 
riage in  general  was  contrary  to  the  evangelical  and 
apostolical  laws.  (11.)  That  saint-worship  is  to  be 
confined  to  the  apostles  and  martyrs — not  extended 
to  the  confessors,  i.  e.  holy  men,  not  martyrs  (12.) 
That  church  music  is  reprehensible.  (13.)  That  the 
cross  is  not  an  object  of  worship,  (14.)  nor  the 
Saviour's  image  on  the  cross,  nor  any  other  image. 
(15.)  That  the  orders  of  the  hierarchy  are  objection- 
able. (16.)  That  the  doctrine  of  works  (Justilia) 
supersedes  that  of  divine  grace,  and  every  man's 
hope  of  salvation  lies  in  his  own  deserts  (see  Labbaei 
Concil.  torn.  xix.  p.  423.  Ex  Dacherii  Spicileg. 
2  ed.  vol.  i.  p.  607.)  So  mixed  and  various  is  the 
substance  of  those  opinions,  to  which  learned  writers 
on  this  subject  appeal  with  so  much  satisfaction. 


ITS  TREATMENT  OF  HERETICS. 


555 


of  Christianity— its  birth  must  at  least  have 
succeeded  the  manifest  corruption  of  the 
Church ;  nor  is  there  any  evidence  to  prove 
it  more  ancient,  than  the  twelfth  or  perhaps 
eleventh  century.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  we 
should  identity  those  Dissenters  (as  sonic  ha\e 
done)  with  the  Cathari,  the  Gazari,  Paterini, 
Publicaui,  and  others  of  the  same  age,  who 
were  collateral  branches  of  the  Paulician 
family,  we  are  not,  indeed,  any  longer  at  a 
loss  to  trace  the  succession  to  very  high  an- 
tiquity. It  is  also  true,  that  the  contempt  of 
images,  the  disbelief  in  transubstantiation,  and 
some  other  protestant  principles,  were  faith- 
fully perpetuated  in  that  heretical  race.  But 
these  attractive  characteristics  were  tainted, 
more  or  less  deeply,  by  the  poison  of  Man- 
ichajism :  and  since  it  is  our  object  to  establish 
a  connexion  with  the  primitive  Church,  we 
shall  scarcely  attain  it  through  those,  whose 
fundamental  principle  was  unequivocally  re- 
jected by  that  Church,  as  irrational  and  im- 
pious.* 

Mysticism.— If  the  claim  again  be  reduced 
from  a  succession  of  sects  to  a  series  of  pious 
individuals,  who  in  every  age  of  the  Church 
may  have  secretly  protested  against  its  abuses 
and  its  worldliness,  it  becomes  equally  im- 
possible to  prove  its  existence,  and  to  deny  its 
probability.  The  aspirations  of  mysticism, 
sometimes  degraded  into  absurdity,  sometimes 
exalted  into  the  purest  piety,  have  unques- 
tionably pervaded  and  warmed  every  portion 
of  the  ecclesiastical  system,  from  the  earliest 
sera  even  to  the  present.  Its  perpetual  exist- 
ence alone  shows,  that  in  private  bosoms, 
and  especially  in  the  abstractions  of  the  mon- 
astery, a  disaffection  towards  the  ceremonies, 
towards  the  grosser  abuses,  and  perhaps  to- 
wards some  of  the  sacraments  of  the  Church, 
has  been  unceasingly  nourished,  even  within 
its  own  precincts.  But  the  names  of  these  con- 
templative and  unambitious  individuals  are, 
for  the  most  part,  lost  in  oblivion  ;  and  eveu 
if  they  were  not  so,  the  truth  of  the  Protes- 
tant principles   would   gain  little  assurance, 

*  Manes,  a  Persian,  (the  pretended  Paraclete,) 
propounded  his  system,  for  reconciling  the  Magian 
with  the  Christian  opinions,  in  the  third  century. 
The  system  was,  indeed,  original,  in  as  far  only  as  it 
was  a  new  application  of  the  doctrine  of  the  two 
principles — but  the  doctrine  itself  had  been  (as  we 
have  seen)  employed  by  the  Gnostics  for  the  corrup- 
tion of  Christianity,  long  before  the  time  of  Mains. 
It  is  for  this  reason,  that  we  have  not  bestowed  thai 
attention  on  the  system  of  the  Persian  fanatic,  which 
it  usually  receives  from  ecclesiastical  writers.  It  may 
suffice  to  refer  the  ordinary  reader  to  Mosheim,  cent, 
iii.  p.  11.  chap,  v.,  and  Bay le,  Article — Jlanichcens. 


and  their  dignity  little  increase,  from  so  slen- 
der, imperfect  and  precarious  a  connexion 
with  the  apostolical  purity. 

Upon  the  whole,  then,  it  seems  impossible 
to  establish  on  historical  ground  the  theory 
of  an  uninterrupted  transmission  of  the  or- 
riginal  faith  from  the  primitive  times  to  those 
of  Luther.  Indications  of  its  occasional  ex- 
istence may  be  discovered,  but  no  proof  of 
its  continuity.  Yet  is  this  no  disparagement 
to  those  faithful  witnesses,  who  were  called 
into  existence  in  the  iron  days  of  the  Church. 
They  bequeathed  to  their  more  fortunate  suc- 
cessors their  principles  and  their  example. 
Nor  were  they  in  their  own  times  without 
influence,  nor  even  without  peril  to  the  pon- 
tifical predominance.  Innocent  III.  did  not 
despise  their  iufancy:  he  beheld  it,  on  the 
contrary,  with  such  anxious  apprehension,  as 
to  divert  the  engine,  with  which  he  was 
armed  for  other  purposes,  to  their  destruction. 
He  knew  the  real  character  of  his  own  des- 
potism, and  the  secret  of  its  weakness ;  aud 
while,  by  his  clamor  for  the  crusades,  he  sub- 
dued the  understanding  of  mankind,  his  own 
deeper  penetration  taught  him,  from  what 
quarter  the  storm  must  really  issue,  which 
would  finally  overthrow  his  throne:  and  in 
the  lineaments  of  that  little  cloud,  which 
raised  its  prophetic  hand  in  the  horizon  of 
heresy,  he  read  the  denunciation  of  future 
wrath,  and  heard  the  distant  murmur  of  ad- 
vancing reason. 

III.  On  the  treatment  of  Heretics  by  the 
Church.— It  was  not  till  the  Popes  had  estab- 
lished their  authority  in  most  of  the  Courts 
of  Europe,  that  the  principles  of  persecution 
were  displayed  in  their  full  extent,  or  the 
practice  attended  with  much  barbarity.  The 
previous  efforts  of  Alexander  III.  and  Ca- 
lixtus  II.  betrayed  the  disposition  and  show- 
ed the  sting — but  it  was  not  yet  armed  and 
poisoned.  The  execution  of  the  mystics  of 
Orleans,  at  a  still  earlier  period,  was  perpe- 
trated by  the  king  and  the  bishop,  without 
any  excuse  of  pontifical  interference.  In  fact, 
the  unity  of  the  Church  was  not  protected 
by  the  authorized  use  of  the  sword,  until  the 
reign  of  Innocent  III.  His  great  power  en- 
abled  him  not  only  to  turn  a  casual  storm 
against  a  particular  sect  of  the  heretics  of  the 
day;  but  to  engage  the  temporal  weapon,  by 
a  general  and  perpetual  edict,  in  the  service 
of  the  spiritual. 

The  third  Canon  of  the  Lateran  council, 
held  by  that  Pontiff,  contained  an  injunction 
to  the  effect,  'that  temporal  lords  be  admon- 


556 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


ished,  and,  if  necessary,  compelled  by  cen- 
sures, to  take  a  public  oath  to  exterminate 
heretics  from  their  territories.  If  any  one, 
being  thus  required,  shall  refuse  to  purge  his 
land,  he  shall  be  excommunicated  by  the  Me- 
tropolitan and  his  suffragans  ;  and  if  he  shall 
give  proofs  of  still  further  contumacy,  the 
Pope  shall  absolve  his  subjects  from  their 
fealty*.  .  .'  Of  Roman  Catholic  writers,  those 
who  would  willingly  cleanse  their  Church 
from  the  stain  of  blood,  and  those  who  dis- 
approve of  its  claims  to  temporal  authority, 
are  equally  perplexed  by  this  edict.  But 
while  there  are  some  who  affect  to  doubt  its 
genuineness  ;  while  others  affirm,  that  it  was 
directed  only  against  feudatories,  not  against 
the  supreme  Lord  ;  others,  that  it  was  dic- 
tated by  Innocent  to  a  council  so  servile,  as 
even  to  impeach  its  authority ;  others  again, 
that  it  was  only  levelled  against  the  contem- 
porary heretics,  whose  detested  Manicheism 
deserved  the  sentence — a  more  plausible  ex- 
cuse may  be  alleged  in  the  consent  or  silence 
of  the  princes  and  ambassadors,  who  were 
present  at  the  council.  In  fact,  on  Innocent's 
death,  which  followed  soon  afterwards,  Hon- 
orius,  his  successor,  applied  to  Frederic  II.  to 
insert  the  Canon  among  the  constitutions  of 
the  empire.  He  did  so.  And  having  thus 
embarked  the  State  in  the  same  conspiracy 
with  the  Church,  and  degraded  it,  besides, 
to  be  the  mere  executioner  of  the  sentences 
of  its  accomplice,  he  loaded  the  former  with 
ignominy,  and  shared  without  in  any  respect 
diminishing  the  guilt  of  the  latter. 

Henceforward,  the  ecclesiastical  and  civil 
authorities  legally  and  systematically  co-op- 
erated in  the  destruction  of  many  bold  and 
virtuous  spirits,  who  for  three  successive 
centuries  asserted,  under  different  forms  and 
names,  the  private  right  of  reading  and  inter- 
preting the  Gospel.  Henceforward,  the  se- 
cular arm  was  ever  in  subservient  attendance 
on  the  decisions  of  sacerdotal  barbarity ;  and 
it  was  in  this  subordinate  ministry  of  an  in- 


*  The  words  are  these: — '  Si  vero  Dominus  Tem- 
poralis requisitns  et  monitus  ab  ecclesia  terram  suara 
purgare  neglexerit  ab  hac  heretica  fceditate,  per 
metropolitanos  et  cueteros  episcopos  comprovinciales 
excommunicationis  vinculo  innodetur.  Et  si  satis- 
facere  contempserit  infra  annum,  signifieetur  hoc 
summo  pontifici:  et  extunc  ipse  vassallos  ab  ejus 
fidelitate  denuntiet  absolutos,  et  terram  exponet  ca- 
tholicis  occupendam  .  .  .  salvo  jure  domini  principa- 
lis, dummodo  super  hoc  ipse  nullum  pra?stet  obsta- 
culum,  nee  aliquod  irnpedimentuni  opponat:  eadern 
nihilominus  lege  servata  circa  eos,  qui  non  habent 
dominos  principales.'  See  Labb.  Concil.  Collect,  torn, 
xxii.  p.  981,  et  seq.,  et  supra  chap,  xviii.  p.  349. 


dependent  power,  that  the  real  executioners 
found  a  pretext  to  proclaim  their  own  unsul- 
lied charity — that  their  hands,  at  least,  were 
undefiled  ;  that  the  Church  was  merciful  and 
long-suffering,  and  that  the  penal  flames  were 
lighted  by  the  vengeance  of  the  temporal 
powers! 

The  Inquisition  embodied  the  principles 
and  practice  of  persecution  ;  and,  notwith- 
standing the  abhorrence  which  it  raised  in 
some  places,  it  was  an  engine  of  good  service 
in  protecting  the  Unity  of  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church.  That  fatal  principle,  of  which 
the  name,  at  least,  and  even  the  seeds  may 
be  traced  to  the  earliest  ages,  occasioned  more 
than  half  the  crimes  that  stain  the  ecclesias- 
tical annals.  Every  hope  of  salvation  was 
confined  to  the  bosom  of  the  Church  ;  should 
any  dare  to  abandon  that  exclusive  sanctuary, 
their  heritage  was  eternal  perdition — if,  then, 
by  the  fear  or  endurance  of  mere  temporary 
torture  men  could  be  preserved  from  eternal 
inflictions,  was  not  the  office  salutary  ?  was 
not  the  duty  peremptory  ?  Alas !  for  the  pre- 
sumption of  those  who  were  sincere  in  this 
profession.  But,  if  any  there  were  who 
falsely  joined  the  cry,  with  no  further  object, 
than  to  support  the  system  by  which  they 
profited,  there  may  be  pardon  reserved  for 
them  in  the  mercy  of  God,  but  there  is  no 
term  in  the  vocabulary  of  crime  which  can 
express  their  guilt. 

It  would  be  an  insult  on  human  nature  not 
to  suppose,  that  among  the  ministers  of  the 
Roman  Church  there  were  many,  who  indi- 
vidually abhorred  the  practice,  and  softened 
by  their  private  tolerance  the  rigor  of  the 
ecclesiastical  code.  But  the  high  and  domi- 
nant party  in  the  Church  was  always  that, 
which  stretched  the  principle  of  its 'Unity' 
to  its  extreme  length,  and  pursued  the  victims 
of  that  principle  with  as  much  severity,  as 
the  policy  of  princes  and  the  endurance  of 
the  laity  would  permit.  As  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  so  was  it  in  the  fifteenth  ;  as  in  the 
Lateran,  so  was  it  in  the  halls  of  Constance; 
as  with  Innocent,  so  with  Gerson  and  Cle- 
niangis,  and  the  reformers  of  Innocent's 
abuses.*     The   spirit  possessed  the  Church: 


*  It  must  not  be  understood  that  Innocent  III. 
deliberately  corrupted,  or  even  relaxed,  the  ecclesias- 
tical discipline — on  the  contrary,  he  published  many 
excellent  decrees  for  its  severer  observance  —  only, 
by  unduly  aggrandizing  papal  authority  he  rendered 
those  decrees  in  effect  nugatory.  Thus,  for  instance, 
respecting  the  abuses  of  pluralities  and  non-residence 
— the  fourteenth  canon  of  the  Third  Lateran  Council 
(held  by  Alexander  III.)  denounced  both  those  prac- 
tices in  very  strong  terms,  as  in  direct  violation  of 


INDIVIDUAL   REFORMERS. 


557 


thence  it  emanated  and  swelled  the  bosoms 
of  its  ministers  ;  and  the  more  devoted  was 
the  individual  to  the  service  of  that  Church, 
the  more  thoroughly  was  his  soul  impregnat- 
ed with  the  venom. 

It  was  not,  that  even  these  Ecclesiastics 
were  necessarily  destitute  of  private  virtues, 
or  that  they  lost,  in  the  exercise  of  official 
barbarity,  all  sense  of  justice  and  all  feeling 
of  mercy.  They  might  be  compassionate, 
they  might  even  be  charitable.  It  might  be, 
that  they  were  only  cruel  and  unjust,  and 
uncharitable,  in  as  far  as  they  were  imbued 
with  the  high  ecclesiastical  principle— in  as 
far  as  they  identified  the  religion  of  the  Gos- 
pel with  their  own  modification  of  it — in  as 
far  as  they  mistook  the  interests  of  their  order 
for  the  honor  of  Christ. 

A  practice  sanctified  by  the  authority,  and 
enforced  by  the  zeal  of  the  sacred  body, 
found  innumerable  advocates  among  the  laity, 
and  it  was  never  in  more  general  favor,  than 
at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Even 
the  philosophers  of  that  age  were  hostile  to 
the  exercise,  or  perhaps  ignorant  of  the  name, 
of  tolerance.  The  Popes  pressed  with  unre- 
lenting rigor  the  hereditary  usage ;  and  the 
arm  of  the  Inquisition  was  lengthened,  and 
its  ingenuity  sharpened  and  refined.  In  the 
rarity  of  Christian*  victims — for  the  Hussites 


the  ancient  canons — and  added:  'Cum  igitur  eccle- 
sia,  vel  eoclesiasticum  rainisterium  committi  debuerit, 
talis  ad  hoc  persona  quaeratur,  quae  residere  in  loco, 
et  curam  ejus  per  seipsum  valeat  exercere  ' — on  the 
penalty  of  deprivation  to  the  minister,  and  loss  of 
patronage  to  the  patron.  Innocent  III.,  thirty-six 
years  afterwards,  published  a  canon  (tl>e  twenty- 
ninth)  in  the  Fourth  Lateral),  on  the  same  subject. 
Herein,  lie  referred  to  the  law  of  Alexander,  men- 
tioned the  little  fruit  which  it  had  produced,  and 
decreed  in  confirmation  of  it,  '  at  quicunque  receperit 
aliqtiod  beneficiuiu  habeas  curam  animarum  annex- 
am,  si  prius  tale  beneficium  obtinebat,  eo  sit  jure  ipso 
privatua:  et  si  forte  illud  retinere  contenderit,  alio 
etiam  spolietur.'  He  added,  moreover,  that  no  one 
should  hold  two  dignities  in  the  same  church,  even 
without  cure  of  bouIs.  But  then  he  concluded  with 
a  salvo,  which  Alexander  had  not  interposed,  in 
favor  of  the  Pope's  dispensing  power;  "  Circa  sub- 
limes tamen  et  literates  peisonas,  qu;e  majoribus  sunt 
beneficiis  honorandae,  cum  ratio  postulaverit,  per 
tedem  apostolicam  poterit  dispensari.' 

»  It  should  not,  however,  be  forgotten  that  the 
Vaudois  suffered  several  severe  outrages  during  this 
period.  In  1400  they  were  attacked  in  the  Valley 
of  Tragela  and  driven  to  the  summits  of  the  moun- 
tains, where  many  died  from  starvation.  In  14C0 
the  Separatists  in  the  Val  Fressiniere  (on  the  French 
side)  were  persecuted  by  a  Franciscan,  under  the 
authority    of   the    Archbishop    of  Amhrun.       Every 


were  not  victims,  but  enemies  and  warriors 

attention  was  turned  to  the  perversity  of  the 
Jews;   and   Sixtus  IV'.,  Innocent  VIII.  and 
Alexander  VI.  added  to  their  other  offences 
the  crime  of  persecution.     Persecution  was, 
indeed,  at   this  time   almost  the  only  proof 
which  the  Court  of  Rome  affected  to  exhibit 
of  its  attachment  to  religion.     It  was  become 
the  apparent  object  of  the  spiritual  govern- 
ment ;  and  the  perpetrator  of  every  enormity 
sought  atonement  for  his  guilt  in  the  blood 
of  the   misbeliever.     It  was   become  a  part 
of  ecclesiastical   morality;   and   it  was  now 
founded  not  so  much  on  hostility  to  any  par- 
ticular opinion,  or  any  bigoted  belief  in  the 
opposite,  as  on  the  determination,  that  no  new 
opinion  should  be  broached  with  impunity. 
It  was  not  against  the  results  of  thought,  but 
against  the  liberty  of  thinking,  that  the  bolts 
were    now  really   levelled.      The   rebellion 
was  more   detestable   than   the  heresy;  and 
the  wretches,  who  dared  to  plead  their  Bible 
against  their  Church,  were  marked  out,  not 
for  conversion,  but  for  massacre.*     The  end, 
being  holy,  sanctified  the  means ;  and  in  pur- 
suing the   details   of  religious   warfare,   we 
shall   commonly  observe,  that,  if  the   deeds 
of  pure  atrocity  are   equally   balanced,  the 
superiority  in  fraud,  perfidy  and  perjury,  is 
without  any  comparison  on  the  side  of  the 
Catholics. 

IV.     Some  individual  Reformers  of  the  Fif- 
teenth Century.  —  It  is  needless   here   to  re- 


that  occasion  to  have  been  practised  against  them. 
In  1487  and  14S8  fresh  bulls  were  issued,  followed  by 
military  violence.  Albert  de  Capitaneis,  Archdeacon 
of  Cremona,  was  deputed  by  Innocent  VIII.  to  com- 
mand the  attack.  But  the  fortune  of  war  appears 
For  this  time  to  have  favored  the  oppressed.  See 
Milner,  Cent.  xiii.  chap.  iii. 

*  '  On  ne  voulait  point  eonvertir  les  BoheaiieM 
(says  Sismondi,)  on  voulait  les  trainer  sur  le  biicher.' 
We  may  plead  the  authority  of  that  historian  for  the 
justice  of  some  of  these  last  remarks.  See  likewise 
Sender,  Secul.  xv.  cap.  iii.  p.  51,  &c.  &c.  Still  it 
should  he  observed,  that  a  certain  latitude  of  private 
it,  on  certain  subjects,  was  generally  indulg- 
ed to  the  members  of  the  Church,  as,  for  instance, 
(o  many  Mystics;  but  this  was  either  when  die 
'  Latitudinal  inns  '  were  in  themselves  deemed  inno- 
cent, or  when  the  opinions  touched  none  of  the  essen- 
tials of  tlic  ecclesiastical  system,  none  of  the  .-■ 
of  dignity,  revenue,  &c.  Thus,  for  example,  in  the 
dispute  between  Luther  and  Cardinal  Carvajal,  there 
wire  two  grand  subjects  of  difference,  indulgences 
and  justification.  Luther  was  disposed  to  attach  by 
far  the  highest  importance  to  the  latter;  but  the 
Cardinal   assured   him,  that   if  be  would   retract  his 


error  respecting   indulgences,  the  other  affair  could 
thing  that  fraud  and  calumny  could  invent  teems  on  II  be  c.isiU  arranged. 


558 


HISTORY  OF   THE  CHURCH. 


peat  the  names  of  the  anti-papal  adherents  of 
Louis  the  Bavarian,  or  of  the  more  eminent 
reformers  of  Constance  and  Basle.  Nor  shall 
we  recur  to  the  premature,  hut  not  fruitless, 
efforts  of  Wiclif  and  Huss.  But  it  is  proper 
to  make  some  mention  of  those  individuals 
who  were  distinguished  for  their  opposition 
to  ecclesiastical  abuses  during  the  latter  part 
of  the  fifteenth  century.  These  were  the 
immediate  precursors  of  Luther;  and  though 
differing  on  many  matters  from  each  other 
and  from  him ;  and  though  his  inferiors 
in  evangelical  wisdom,  in  intellectual  power 
and  personal  character,  they  were  not  with- 
out their  use  in  preparing  the  path  for  his 
triumph. 

John  of  Wesalia. —  In  1479,  John  of  Wes- 
alia  incurred,  by  some  opinions  unfavorable 
to  the  pretensions  of  the  hierarchy,  the  in- 
dignation of  the  Monastic  Orders.  He  pro- 
nounced indulgences  to  be  of  no  avail — that 
the  Pope,  bishops  and  priests  were  not  instru- 
ments for  the  obtaining  of  salvation.  He 
spoke  with  disparagement  of  the  fasts,  of  the 
holy  oil,  of  pilgrimages,  of  the  Pope  and  his 
Councils.  He  advocated  the  Greek  doctrine 
on  the  procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  More- 
over, he  was  a  zealous  Nominalist,  at  a  mo- 
ment when  the  violence  of  the  rival  scholastics 
equalled  any  recorded  display  of  theological 
rancor.  He  was  brought  to  trial ;  among  his 
judges  Monks  and  Realists  preponderated; 
'  if  Christ  (said  he)  were  now  present,  and  ye 
were  to  treat  him  as  ye  treat  me,  He  might 
be  condemned  by  you  as  a  heretic'  He  was 
pronounced  guilty  ;  and,  in  spite  of  a  tardy 
retractation,  was  committed  to  penitential 
confinement  in  a  monastery,  where  he  pre- 
sently died. 

John  Wesselus. —  John  Wesselus,  of  Gron- 
ingen,  was  more  eminent  in  genius  and  learn- 
ing, and  more  fortunate  in  the  circumstances 
of  his  fate;  since  he  enjoyed  the  friendship 
of  Sixtus  IV.,  and  died  in  peace  (in  1489) 
in  his  native  city.  His  general  attainments 
were  such  as  to  acquire  for  him  the  title  of 
the  'Light  of  the  World; 'and  among  the 
numerous  witnesses  of  the   truth,*  it  is  he 


*  The  '  Catalogus  Testiuin  Veritalis,'  by  Flacius, 
is  intended,  we  presume,  to  contain  every  name  and 
thing  which  has  in  any  age  and  by  any  means  done 
any  ill  to  Papacy.  Out  of  the  various  particulars  of 
this  Catalogue  (which  begins  with  Sacra  Scriptura 
and  ends  with  Concilia  XV.  Seculi,)  we  select  as 
specimens  the  following  names: — Coustantine,  Greg- 
ory the  Great,  Bede,  Charlemagne,  Claudius  of  Turin, 
Hincmar,  Paschasius  Radbertus,  Otho  Frisingensis, 
Nicholaus  Orem.,  Scotus,  Occam,  Dante,  Petrarch, 
Wiclif,  Gerson,  Ziska,  Peter  of  Lima,  ^Eneas  Syl- 


who  has  been  more  peculiarly  designated  the 
Forerunner  of  Luther.  The  resemblance 
between  them  was,  indeed,  remarkable,  not 
only  as  to  the  conclusions  at  which  they 
arrived,  but  as  to  the  steps  by  which  they 
reached  them.  Insomuch,  that  Luther  him- 
self, in  a  preface,  in  which  he  recommended 
to  more  general  attention  some  of  the  works 
of  Wesselus,  used  the  following  expressions: 
— '  It  is  very  plain  that  he  was  taught  of  God, 
as  Isaiah  prophesied  that  Christians  should 
be ;  and  as  in  my  case,  so  with  him,  it  can- 
not be  supposed  that  he  received  his  doctrines 
from  men.  If  I  had  read  his  works  before, 
my  enemies  might  have  supposed  that  I  had 
learnt  every  thing  from  Wesselus,  such  a 
perfect  coincidence  there  is  in  our  opinions. 
As  to  myself,  I  not  only  derive  pleasure,  but 
strength  and  courage  from  this  publication. 
It  is  now  impossible  for  me  to  doubt,  whether 
I  am  right  in  the  points  which  I  have  incul- 
cated, when  I  see  so  entire  an  agreement  in 
sentiment,  and  almost  the  same  words  used 
by  this  eminent  person,  who  lived  in  a  dif- 
ferent age,  in  a  distant  country,  and  in  cir- 
cumstances very  unlike  my  own.  I  am 
surprised  that  this  excellent  Christian  writer 
should  be  so  little  known — the  reason  may 
be  that  he  lived  without  blood  and  contention, 
for  this  is  the  only  thing  in  which  he  differed 

from  me '     This  was  written   in  1522, 

when  Luther  had  made  some  progress  to- 
wards evangelical  perfection.  His  testimony 
makes  it  unnecessary  to  particularize  the 
opinions  of  Wesselus;  but  we  may  relate  one 
anecdote  respecting  him,  which  proves  that 
the  humbie,  unambitious  spirit  of  the  Gospel 
had  penetrated  to  his  heart,  and  influenced 
his  conduct  under  powerful  temptation. 

When  Sixtus  IV.  was  raised  to  the  chair, 
not  forgetful  of  his  ancient  friendship  with 
Wesselus,  he  offered  to  grant  him  any  re- 
quest. Wesselus  replied  by  a  solemn  exhor- 
tation to  the  Pontiff,  faithfully  to  discharge 
his  weighty  duties.  'That  (replied  Sixtus) 
shall  be  my  care:  but  do  you  ask  something 
for  yourself — 'Then  (rejoined  Wesselus),  I 
beg  you  to  give  me  out  of  the  Vatican  library, 
a  Greek  and  a  Hebrew  Bible.' — 'You  shall 
have  them  (said  Sixtus) ;  but,  is  not  this  folly  ? 
Why  do  you  not  ask  for  some  Bishopric,  or 
something  of  that  sort?' — 'Because  I  want 
not  such  things.' — It  is  recorded,  that  the  He- 
brew Bible,  which  was  given  in  consequence 

vius,  Plalina,  Trithemius,  Wesalia,  Wesselus,  Savo- 
narola, Machiavel,  and  above  all  Germania  vulgus 
Reasons  are  alleged  under  each  of  these  names  for  its 
insertion  in  the  honorable  list 


INDIVIDUAL   REFORMERS. 


559 


of  this  dialogue,  was  long  preserved  in  the 
library  at  Groningen.* 

John  Laillier. —  John  Laillier,  licentiate  in 
theology,  advanced,  at  Paris,  in  July,  1483, 
various  offensive  positions,  derogating  from 
the  power  and  primacy  of  St.  Peter;  assert- 
ing an  equality  of  ranks  in  the  ecclesiastical 
hierarchy,  the  uselessness  of  even  pontifical 
indulgences,  and  the  human  institution  of 
confession.  He  argued,  that  the  decrees  and 
decretals  were  mere  mockeries,  that  the  Ro- 
man Church  was  not  the  key  of  the  other 
churches,  with  other  matters  of  a  like  nature, 
and  he  defended  his  opinions  in  public  dis- 
putation against  the  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne. 
We  find  nine  of  his  propositions  expressly 
specified,  together  with  the  censure  affixed 
to  each  of  them,  and  we  shall  here  insert  two 
or  three  of  the  most  curious: — Proposition 
(III.)  'Rich  saints  are  now  canonized  and 
poor  saints  abandoned ;  wherefore  I  am  not 
.obliged  to  believe  that  such  are  saints,  if 
the  Pope  receives  money,  though  he  should 
mount  on  twenty  scaffolds  to  canonize  a 
saint,  I  am  not  bound  to  believe  him  such ; 
'  nor  is  he,  who  disbelieves,  in  sin.'  Censure. 
'This  proposition  is  false,  offensive  to  pious 
ears,  injurious  to  the  holy  apostolical  See, 
contrary  to  the  piety  of  the  faithful, — and  the 
third  part  of  it,  according  to  the  sense  which 
it  presents,  is  heretical.'  Proposition  (V.) 
'  The  priests  of  the  Eastern  Church  do  no 
sin  in  marrying;  and  I  think  that  we,  in  the 
Western  Church,  should  be  equally  free  from 
sin,  if  we  were  to  marry.'  Censure.  '  The  first 
part  of  the  proposition  in  the  sense  which  it 
presents,  viz.  that  the  Eastern  priests  marry 
after  taking  orders,  is  false.  The  second, 
which  is  the  profession  of  the  author's  faith, 
makes  him  guilty  of  error;  if  he  adds  obsti- 
nacy, of  heresy.'  Proposition  (IX.)  'One  is 
no  more  obliged  to  believe  the  legends  of  the 
saints,  than  the  chronicles  of  the  kings  of 
France.'  Censure.  'This  proposition  is  false, 
and  capable  of  offending  pious  ears ;  it  dero- 


*  '  Ha?c  nobis  erunt  curse;  tu  pro  te  aliquot!  pete. 
Rogo,  ergo,  intuit  WesseluB,  ut  mini  detia  ex  Bibli- 
otheca  Vaticana  Grpeca  et  Hebrnea  Bibliu.  Ea, 
inquit  Sextus,  tibi  dabuptur — Sed  tu  atulte;  quare 
nou  petis  episcopalum  aliquem,  aut  simile  quidpiaml 
Respondit  Wesseltts,  quia  iis  non  indigeo.'  See 
Vita  Wesseli  inter  Vitas  Professorum  Gronin- 
gens.  The  story  is  there  related  as  one,  that  was 
frequently  told  by  Wesselus  himself.  Some  valuable 
abstracts  from  the  writings  of  this  reformer  are  given 
by  Milner,  History  of  the  Church,  end  of  cenr.  xv. 
and  Sender,  cent.  xv.  cap.  iv.  p.  212 — 219.  Bayle 
calls  him  '  un  de3  plus  habiles  homines  du  quiuzieme 
siecle.' 


gates  from  the  authority  of  the  Church,  and, 
if  taken  universally,  is  even  heretical.' 

Sentence  of  condemnation  was  passed  in 
the  following  year,  and  the  offender  was  com- 
manded to  retract  He  did  so  with  perfect 
humility.  The  Bishop  of  Paris  immediately 
granted  him  full  and  unconditional  absolution. 
Hut  tln>  faculty,  less  placable,  prohibited  him 
from  proceeding  to  his  doctor's  degree,  and 
appealed  from  the  bishop's  decision  to  the 
Pope.  Innocent  VIII.  seems  even  to  have 
surpassed  the  hopes  of  his  petitioners;  for 
he  issued  an  order  that  Laillier  should  be 
thrown  into  prison.  But  whether  the  sen- 
tence was  executed,  or  whether  the  protec- 
tion of  the  bishop  availed  to  preserve  him 
from  it,  does  not  appear  from  the  records  of 
this  transaction.*  They  are  sufficient,  how- 
ever, to  show  us,  that  the  theological  faculty 
of  Paris,  notwithstanding  the  boasted  Liber- 
ties of  the  Church,  was  very  little  disposed  to 
encourage,  or  even  to  endure  any  evangelical 
truth,  which  might  endanger  the  spiritual 
despotism  of  Rome.  Nor  is  this  wonderful ; 
since  Paris  was  the  very  centre  and  nursery 
of  the  scholastic  system. 

Jerome  Savonarola.  —  Such  were  the  prin- 
cipal Cisalpine f  '  witnesses'  of  that  age;  and 
their  obscurity  may  be  ascribed  to  their  own 
timidity  or  to  the  overwhelming  power  of 
the  hierarchy.  But  Italy,  at  the  same  time, 
produced  a  far  more  celebrated  champion  of 
reform;  such  a  man,  so  enthusiastic  in  his 
piety,  so  wild  in  his  enthusiasm,  so  daring  in 
his  spiritual  pretensions, — as  might  have  been 
expected  to  rise  up  in  that  country,  where 
the  vices  of  the  Church  were  best  known  ; 
and  among  that  people,  which  h;is  seldom 
tempered  religious  zeal  with  any  discretion; 
which  loves  to  be  addressed  through  the  im- 
agination rather  than  the  reason,  and  whose 
emotions,  if  strong,  are  always  violent  and 
generally  transient  Jerome  Savonarola  was 
horn  at  Ferrara  in  1453,  the  descendant  of 
an  illustrious  family.     His   early  years  gave 


*  This  account  ia  taken  from  the  continuator  of 
Firm;,  (liv.  c\\i.  s.  30 — 38)  who  refers  to  D^Ar- 
genlrd  Cottectio.  Judir.,  torn.  i.  p.  308.  ann.  1484. 

t  Lest  Spain  should  seem  to  have  had  no  candidate 
for    adaiisMnn     into    this    Venerable   bust,    We   should 

mention  that  one  Peter  of  Oama,  profecaor  of  theolo- 
gy at  Salamanca,  published  some  anti-papal  and  anti- 
ecclesiasncal  opiniona  in  the  year  147!).  It  is  re- 
markable, that  the  Pope,  in  condemning,  refused  to 
spicily  them,  ou  account  of  their  enormity — 'to  the 
end,  that  those,  who  already  know  thcui,  may  the 
sooner  forg  t  them;  and  that  those,  who  know  them 
not,  may  learn  no  new  sin.'  See  the  continuator  of 
lib.  cxv.  s.  J. ::.  &c. 


560 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


indications  of  a  profound  religious  feeling, 
and  lie  presently  assumed  the  habit  of  a  Do- 
minican. In  1483  he  first  felt  those  impulses, 
which  gave  the  peculiar  character  to  his  mis- 
sion ;  he  began  to  preach  on  prophecy,  and 
himself  assumed  the  mission  of  a  prophet. 
His  first  effusions  were  delivered  at  Brescia; 
but  in  1489  he  desired  a  more  extensive  field 
for  his  powers,  and  proceeded  to  Florence. 

Most  of  the  Italian  cities  were  distracted  by 
political  factions,  and  none,  perhaps,  so  fierce- 
ly as  Florence.  These  agitations  reached 
down  to  the  lowest  classes,  and  in  the  bosom 
of  the  meanest  citizen  there  was  a  nerve  ex- 
quisitely sensible  to  all  appeals,  respecting  his 
public  rights.  Thus,  whether  in  the  design 
to  enlarge  the  range  of  his  influence,  or  be- 
cause he  really  shared  the  popular  passion, 
Savonarola  combined  the  politician's  with  the 
prophet's  character,*  and  made  each,  as  the 
circumstances  of  the  moment  required,  sub- 
servient to  the  other.  Reform  was  the  sub- 
ject on  which  he  preached,  reform  and  peni- 
tence— reform  in  the  discipline  of  the  Church, 
in  the  disorders  of  the  clergy,  in  the  morals 
of  the  people — reform  instant  and  immediate, 
ere  the  tempest  of  divine  vengeance,  which 
was  already  impending  over  Italy,  should  de- 
scend and  overwhelm  it.  He  made  no  ap- 
peals to  reason,  none  to  the  ordinary  princi- 
ples, or  even  passions  of  men — it  was  in  the 
name  of  heaven,  that  he  commanded  them  to 
amend;  it  was  inspiration  from  above  —  the 
unerring  prescience  of  imminent  calamities — 
which  filled  him  with  eloquence,  and  armed 
his  eloquence  with  authority  and  terror.  It 
was  no  dew  of  persuasion  that  fell  from  his 
lips — it  was  the  word  of  an  offended  God, 
clothed  in  thunder  and  hail,  announcing  the 
approach  of  desolation. 

At  the  same  time  he  promised  the  divine 
protection  to  the  republican  party.  He  de- 
nounced the  usurpation  of  Lorenzo  de'  Med- 
ici, and  refused  to  acknowledge  his  power,  or 
show  deference  to  his  person.  He  pursued 
with  fierce  anathemas  the  luxury  and  despo- 
tism of  the  aristocracy  ;  and  his  genius  was  so 
extraordinary  and  his  enthusiasm  so  resistless, 
as  almost  to  give  a  color  to  his  claims  of  su- 
pernatural communications.  At  least  we  need 

*  '  11  vouloit  (as  a  French  writer  observes)  jouer 
a  la  fois  le  role  de  Jeremie  et  de  Demosthenes.' 
We  may  recollect  that  Arnold  of  Brescia,  who,  like 
Savonarola,  was  an  Italian,  a  reformer,  and  a  martyr, 
like  him  also  denounced,  in  the  same  breath,  political 
and  ecclesiastical  abuses.  And  we  should  retnind  the 
reader,  that  Sismondi  compares  the  sort  of  mixed 
influence,  acquired  by  Savonarola  over  the  people  of 
Florence,  to  that  exercised  by  Calvin  at  Geneva. 


not  discredit  the  accounts  we  read  of  his  con- 
trolling influence  over  the  people,  and  of  the 
various  acts  by  which  their  devotion  was  dis- 
played. Multitudes  believed  in  his  heavenly 
mission  ;*  and  the  effect  of  his  moral  exhor- 
tations was  speedily  perceptible  throughout 
the  city.  'By  the  modesty  of  their  dress, 
their  discourse,  their  countenance,  the  Flo- 
rentines gave  evidence,  that  they  had  embrac- 
ed the  reform  of  Savonarola ;  and  it  was  easy 
to  forsee  (says  Sismondi)  that  the  political 
lessons  of  the  preacher  would  not  produce 
less  impression  on  his  audience,  than  his 
moral  instructions.' 

The  political  impression  was  more  violent, 
and  proportionally  less  beneficial.  Savona- 
rola had  promised  the  citizens  of  Florence — 
or  they  understood  him  to  have  promised  — 
that  a  pure  theocracy  should  be  substituted 
for  their  actual  government,  and  that  Christ 
himself  should  deign  to  rule  over  them.  On 
this,  the  popular  fury  rose  beyond  all  restraint.  < 
It  was  in  vain,  that  the  Pope  thundered  from 
the  Vatican.  It  was  in  vain,  that  the  clergy 
refused  to  bury  the  bodies  of  any,  who  believ- 
ed the  announcement  of  the  prophet.  The 
people  thronged  to  listen  to  his  sermons ;  and 
not  unfrequently,  when  the  harangue  was 
concluded,  rushed  forth  from  the  churches 
and  assembled  in  the  squares  and  public 
places,  with  tumultuous  cries  of  Viva  Christo .' 
They  would  then  dance  in  circles,  formed  by 
a  citizen  and  a  friar  placed  alternately,  and 
commit  every  kind  of  absurdity,  f 

Savonarola's  interview  with  Charles  VIII. — 
In  1494,  Savonarola  conducted  the  Florentine 
embassy  to  Charles  VIII.  at  Lucca.  It  was 
in  Charles  that  his  prophecies  (as  he  confi- 
dently declared)  were  accomplished — Charles 
was   the    promised    minister   of   vengeance, 

*  It  seems  probable  that  the  enthusiasm  for  this 
man — we  may  even  call  it,  the  belief  in  him — was 
not  confined  to  the  lowest  classes.  The  story  of  his 
interview  with  Benvieni,  (told  by  Nardi,  Stor. 
Fiorent.  lib.  ii.,  and  cited  by  Roscoe,)  proves,  at 
least,  his  authority  over  those  in  command.  Nardi 
likewise  mentions  the  hesitation,  and  even  apprehen- 
sion, with  which  the  inquisitors  themselves  made  the 
first  application  of  the  torture. 

f  Roscoe  (whom  we  have  consulted  with  profit  on 
the  subject  of  Savonarola)  cites  from  Girolamo  Ben- 
vieni, who  composed  songs  for  these  occasions,  the 
following  specimen  (it  can  scarcely  be  a  fair  speci- 
men) of  the  popular  effusions: — 

'  Non  fit  mai  piu  bel  solazzo 
Piu  grande,  nd  maggiore, 
Che  per  zelo  e  per  amore 
Di  JESU — diventar  pazzo— 
Ognun  gridi,  com'  io  grido, 
Sempre1  pazzo,  pazzo,  pazzo.' 


INDIVIDUAL  REFORMERS. 


561 


commissioned  to  chastise  the  crimes  of  Italy. 
The  monk  presented  himself  before  the  vic- 
torious monarch,  as  the  ambassador  of  a  sup- 
pliant city — but  he  did  not  lose  in  the  char- 
acter of  the  monk  or  of  the  envoy  the  con- 
sciousness of  his  heavenly  mission:  he  did 
not  forget,  that  the  man  whom  he  addressed 
was  the  mere  instrument  sent  to  fulfil  his  pre- 
dictions, and  accomplish  the  work  of  Provi- 
dence. Himself  was  the  prophet  of  the  Lord 
—  he  maintained  the  superiority,  communi- 
cated by  a  nearer  intercourse  with  God,  and 
preserved  his  customary  tone  of  admonition 
and  command.* 

In  the  meantime,  the  enemies  of  Savona- 
rola, if  less  numerous  and  enthusiastic,  were 
more  constant  and  determined  than  his  friends. 
The  aristocracy  of  Florence,  supported  by 
the  Pope  and  all  the  superior  clergy,  were 
patiently  watching  for  the  moment  to  destroy 
him.  A  ready  weapon  was  furnished  by 
monastic  dissension  :  the  Franciscans,  already 
jealous  of  the  fame  of  a  rival,  were  eager  to 
enter  the  lists  against  him.  At  the  proper 
season  they  commenced  their  attack — and  the 
object,  of  course,  was  to  withdraw  from  their 
adversary  the  only  foundation  of  his  strength, 
the  confidence  of  the  people. 

It  was  not  by  assailing  him  from  the  pulpit, 
that  this  could  be  effected  ;  his  great  powers 
and  irresistible  authority  forbade  any  hope 
of  overthrowing  him  in  a  field  which  was 
peculiarly  his  own.  Accordingly,  the  Francis- 
cans proceeded  by  a  very  different  method  ; 
agaiust  the  popular  impostor  they  made  their 
appeal  to  the  grossest  popular  superstition. 
A  Franciscan  challenged  Savonarola  to  go 
through  his  trial  by  fire,  together  with  him- 
self. The  prophet  reserved  his  own  person 
for  greater  occasions ;  but  a  faithful  Domini- 
can undertook  the  ordeal  in  his  place:  and 
had  he  not  thus  anticipated  the  general  devo- 
tion, a  multitude  of  citizens,  of  women,  and 
even  of  priests,  would  have  pressed  to  the 
flames  with  eagerness,  as  the  substitutes  of 
Savonarola.     The  government  gave  its  sanc- 


*  '  Come,  come  with  confidence,  come  with  joy  and 
triumph;  for  the  Being  who  sends  dice  is  even  he, 
who,  for  our  salvation,  triumphed  on  the  cross. 
Nevertheless,  listen  to  my  words,  most  Christian 
king,  and  engrave  them  in  thy  heart.  The  perroal 
of  God,  to  whom  these  things  have  been  revealed  by 
divine  communication,  warns  even  thee,  who  art 
sent  by  the  Majesty  of  heaven,  that,  after  his  exam- 
ple, it  is  thy  duty  to  show  mercy  every  where,'  &c. 
Such  were  the  opening  ser:.jnces  of  the  prophet's 
harangue.  Sismondi  (who  displays  even  more  than 
his  usual  eloquence  in  his  account  of  this  enthusiast) 
has  translated  the  whole  address,  chap,  xciii. 
71 


tion  ;  the  day  (April  17,  1498)  was  fixed  for 
the  trial ;  the  necessary  preparations  were 
made  ;  and  the  entire  population  of  Florence 
and  the  neighboring  towns  and  villages 
thronged  to  the  spot,  in  devout  expectation  of 
some  visible  sign  of  the  divine  interposition. 
The  two  parties  presented  themselves ;  the 
flames  were  kindled  —  but  even  then,  in  the 
presence  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Republic  and 
the  impatient  multitudes,  a  dispute  arose, 
which  finally  prevented  the  exhibition.  The 
people  dispersed,  disappointed  and  irritated. 
It  also  happened,  that  the  subject  of  the  dis- 
pute had  been  such,  as  to  raise  a  prejudice 
against  Savonarola.  The  Dominican,  his 
substitute,  had,  in  the  first  instance,  required 
to  enter  the  flames  in  his  sacerdotal  habits,  to 
which  the  Franciscans  reasonably  objected. 
The  former  then  expressed  his  readiness  to 
enter  naked,  on  the  condition  only  that  he 
should  carry  the  host  in  his  hand.  The  Fran- 
ciscans again  refused  their  consent ;  and,  as 
Savonarola  persisted  in  that  condition,  the 
ordeal  did  not  take  place.  Now,  besides  the 
appearance  of  some  secret  design  in  his  per- 
severance in  this  last  demand,  the  people  were 
easily  taught  to  believe  that  it  contained  no 
slight  mixture  of  impiety.  To  commit  the 
body  of  Christ,  under  any  human  guarantee 
for  its  security,  to  the  raging  flames,  was,  to 
treat  with  irreverence,  to  profane,  nay  per- 
haps to  expose  to  destruction,  the  most  holy 
of  all  things.  Savonarola  was  not,  indeed, 
without  his  advocates ;  but  it  was  clear,  that 
the  popular  current  had  turned.  The  advan- 
tage was  instantly  pursued ;  the  prophet  was 
seized,  imprisoned,  tortured  ;  and  immediate- 
ly on  the  arrival  of  two  legates  from  Alexan- 
der VI.  he  was  condemned  to  death,  and  ex- 
ecuted. His  ashes,  according  to  the  usual 
precaution,  were  cast  into  the  Arno — and  it 
does  not  appear,  that  his  exertions,  either  re- 
ligious or  political,  extraordinary  as  they  cer- 
tainly were,  and  for  the  time  successful  too, 
impressed  any  lasting  trace  of  any  description 
even  on  the  history  of  that  city,  to  which  they 
were  exclusively  confined. 

Reuchlin  and  Erasmus.  —  John  Reuchlin 
(or  Capnio,  as  he  was  called,)  a  German  of 
great  reputation  and  integrity,  lent  his  indi- 
rect assistance  to  the  cause  of  religion  by  his 
labors  for  the  restoration  of  learning.*     He 


*  It  was  Reuchlin  (in  the  representation)  who 
threw  down  the  straight  and  crooked  billets,  which 
Erasmus,  tried  in  vain  to  accommodate:  then  camo 
Luther,  and  set  fire  to  the  crooked  ones,  &c.  Reuch- 
lin was  honored  by  the  hatred  of  the  monks,  who  would 
willingly  have  fixed  upon  him  the  imputation  of  heresy. 


662 


HISTORY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 


died  in  1522,  and  received  his  apotheosis  from 
the  pen  of  Erasmus,  who  had  entered  on  the 
same  career  with  still  higher  powers  and 
greater  celebrity.  Of  Erasmus  much  need 
not  here  be  said,  since  his  merits  and  weak- 
nesses are  generally  known  and  not  improperly 
estimated.  His  writings  rendered  the  highest 
service  to  the  first  reformers — he  had  already 
stigmatized  numerous  abuses  ;  he  had  reject- 
ed the  Scholastic  divinity,  and  recommended 
and  facilitated  the  study  of  the  Bible  and  the 
Fathers;  he  had  covered  with  ridicule  and 
contempt  the  vices  of  the  monks,  and  their 
love  for  the  ignorance  in  which  they  groveled. 
By  such  means  as  these  he  had  contributed 
to  the  success  of  the  Reformation,  even  more 
perhaps  than  he  had  himself  designed;  for 
his  predominant  passion  was  that  for  litera- 
ture ;  and  though  by  no  means  indifferent  to 
the  interests  of  religion,  he  was  fearful  of  all 
great  practical  changes,  and  could  never  shake 
off  that  irresolute  timidity  so  commonly  as- 
sociated with  literary  habits. 

V.  The  Abuses  of  the  Church  especially 
displayed  in  Germany. —  If  the  oppression  of 
Rome  was  now  generally  felt  and  acknow- 
ledged throughout  Europe  ;  if  the  scandals  of 
the  court  were  now  becoming  every  where 
notorious,  and  the  vices  of  the  monks  and 
clergy  had  inflamed  the  general  hatred  of 
Christendom  ;  there  was  no  country  in  which 
either  the  tyranny  or  the  licentiousness  of  the 
Church  was  so  shamelessly  exhibited  and  so 
deeply  detested  as  in  Germany.  While  the 
first  Othos  imitated  the  policy  of  Charlemagne 
in  exalting  the  sacred  order,*  they  even  ex- 
ceeded his  generosity  ;  and  some  of  the  lead- 
ing German  ecclesiastics  became  at  the  same 
time  bishops  and  powerful  princes.  Nor  was 
there  any  region  more  pregnant  with  popular 
superstitiou,  and  with  the  fruits  so  diligently 
gathered  from  it  by  a  worldly  priesthood. 
From  these  causes  the  wealth  of  the  German 
Clergy  had  grown  to  an  inordinate  excess ; 
and   their  secular  habits   and  vulgar   vices  f 


*  Their  motive  too  was  the  same,  to  counterpoise 
the  power  of  the  barons;  and  it  is  a  deed,  for  which 
they  are  almost  invariably  praised  by  ecclesiastical, 
and  condemned  by  civil,  historians. 

f  The  Bavarian  ambassador,  addressing  the  Coun- 
cil of  Trent  in  1562,  asserted,  respecting  the  morality 
of  his  clerical  fellow  subjects,  that  there  were  not 
more  than  three  or  four  in  a  hundred  who  were  not 
either  secretly  or  openly  married,  or  living  in  a  state 
of  concubinage  (P.  Paolo,  Hist.  Cone.  Trident. 
ib.  vi.)  The  saying  of  Pius  II.  on  this  subject, 
that  if  there  were  good  reasons,  for  enacting  the  law 
of  celibacy,  there  were  better  for  repealing  it,  was 
now  in  every  man's  mouth. 


are  stigmatized  in  every  age  of  history.  The 
proceedings  of  the  Council  of  Vienne  —  the 
remonstrance  of  the  Emperor  Charles  IV.  to 
the  archbishop  of  Mayence,  and,  above  all, 
the  prophetic  denunciations  of  Cardinal  Ju- 
lian, at  the  Council  of  Basle,  display  at  the 
same  time  the  immorality  and  the  insecurity 
of  the  German  Church. 

From  the  time  of  Gregory  VII.  the  politi- 
cal interests  of  the  empire  and  the  Popedom 
had  been  at  perpetual  variance.  And  not 
only  was  Italy  divided  between  their  conflict- 
ing parties,  but  even  the  internal  concord  of 
Germany  had  been  incessantly  disturbed  by 
pontifical  interference.  Its  emperors  had 
been  insulted  and  deposed;  Italian  intrigues 
had  distracted  all  its  provinces ;  children  had 
been  raised  up  against  their  parents  ;  and  the 
battles  and  miseries  of  four  centuries  had 
been  inseparably  associated  with  the  name 
and  enmity  of  Rome.  It  was  the  consequence 
of  this  inveterate  hostility,  not  only  to  nour- 
ish public  animosity,  but  also  to  raise  up  pri- 
vate opponents  against  the  See,  who  had  at 
various  times  uncloked  its  abuses  and  de- 
nounced them  to  the  people.  So  that,  when 
the  appointed  season  at  length  arrived,  the 
prejudices  of  the  lower  classes  had  been  in 
a  great  degree  removed ;  and  they  listened 
without  repugnance,  and  frequently  with  in- 
tense satisfaction,  to  any  thing  that  reflected 
upon  the  See  or  Court  of  Rome. 

Concordats  violated.  —  The  Germans  had 
endeavored  to  protect  their  Church  against 
the  pontifical  depredators  by  the  Concordats 
of  Constance  and  Aschaffenburg  ;  and  how- 
ever narrow  the  field  of  amendment  which 
they  comprehended,  still,  had  they  been  strict- 
ly observed,  some  advantage  would  have  been 
produced,  and  some  irritation  allayed.  But 
so  far  were  the  Popes  from  any  desire  to 
correct  usurpation  by  timely  concession,  or 
sincerely  to  conciliate  those  whom  they  had 
injured,  and  whom  they  ought  to  have  feared, 
that  they  made  it  their  policy  to  elude  the 
conditions  which  they  had  reluctantly  accord- 
ed, and  to  resume  in  substance  the  spoils 
which  they  had  in  semblance  restored.  By 
this  conduct  they  not  only  nourished  without 
any  remission  the  prevalent  animosity  agaiust 
them,  but  they  inflamed  it  still  further,  when 
they  aggravated  former  oppressions  by  recent 
perfidy.  There  was,  indeed,  no  part  of  Chris- 
tendom, wherein  the  whole  machinery  of  the 
apostolical  chancery*  had  worked  with  such 

*  About  the  time  of  the  Diet  of  Augsbourg  (in 
1518)  an  archbishop  of  Mayence  declared,  during 
his  last  moments,  that  his  greatest  regret  in  dying 


ABUSES   DISPLAYED   IN   GERMANY. 


563 


pernicious  efficacy  as  in  Germany.  The 
privileges  of  the  Jubilee,  so  fruitful  to  the  See 
which  granted,  so  expensive  to  the  districts 
which  enjoyed  them,  were  dispensed  during 
the  schism  principally  to  that  country ;  the 
fathers  of  Constance  and  Basle  published, 
though  they  failed  to  remove,  its  complaints 
and  the  circumstances  of  its  oppression  ;  and 
the 'Hundred  Grievances'*  which  were  af- 
terwards presented  to  the  Diet  of  Nuremberg 
(in  1523)  formed  only  a  catalogue  of  heredi- 
tary wrongs,  the  subjects  of  perpetual  remon- 
strance, and  of  remonstrance  which  was  per- 
petually despised. 

The  People  of  Germany. — The  papal  usur- 
pations enumerated  in  that  celebrated  doc- 
ument are  severally  placed  under  three  heads 
—  such  as  tended  to  enthral  the  people; such 
as  impoverished  and  despoiled  them ;  such 
as  withdrew  them  from  the  secular  jurisdic- 
tion. Thus  the  interests  of  the  people  were 
become  the  foundation  of  the  remonstrances 
of  their  rulers;  thus,  too,  was  it  in  their  af- 
fections that  the  Reformer  had  fixed  his  surest 
asylum.f  At  a  somewhat  earlier  moment 
(on  April  1,  1520,)  Frederic,  Elector  of  Sax- 
ony, addressed  to  his  Envoy  at  Rome  the  fol- 
lowing remarkable  expressions : — '  Germany 
is  no  longer  such  as  it  has  been  ;  it  is  full  of 
accomplished  men  in  all  the  sciences.  The 
people  exhibit  an  extraordinary  passion  for 
reading   the   Scriptures  ;  \  and  if  the  Court 


was  to  leave  to  liis  poor  subjects  the  burden  of  buying 
the  pallium  of  his  successor.  About  27,000  florins 
appear  to  have  been  advanced  on  these  occasions, 
and  it  was  chiefly  levied  upon  the  poor.  Robertson 
asserts  (Hist.  Charles  V.)  that  companies  of  mer- 
chants openly  bought  the  benefices  of  different  dis- 
tricts from  the  Pope's  agents,  and  retailed  them  at 
advanced  prices. 

*  The  Centum  Gravamina  comprehended  the 
following  abuses: — Payments  for  dispensations  and 
absolutions;  sums  of  money  drawn  by  indulgences; 
appeals  to  Rome ;  reservations,  coiiimenJums,  annates ; 
exemptions  of  ecclesiastics  from  the  legal  punish- 
ments; excommunications  and  unlawful  interdicts; 
secular  causes  tried  before  ecclesiastical  tribunals; 
great  expenses  in  consecrating  churches  aud  cemete- 
ries; pecuniary  penance;  fees  for  sacraments,  burials, 
&c.     P.  Paolo,  Hist.  Cone i I.  Trident,  lib.  i.  n.  65. 

f  On  Aug.  23,  1520,  Luther  wrote  to  Spalatin, 
*  that  he  dreaded  neither  censures  nor  violence;  that 
he  had  a  safe  asylum  in  the  hearts  of  the  Germans, 
and  that  his  enemies  should  beware,  lest,  in  destroy- 
ing one  adversary,  they  should  give  birth  to  man;,.' 
Beausobre,  Hist,  de  la  Reformation,  liv.  ii. 

X  '  The  world  (said  Erasmus  in  1521,  in  his  Ad- 
vice to  the  Emperor)  is  weary  of  the  ancient  theolo- 
gy, which  is  only  a  mass  of  useless  questions  and 
vain  subtleties,  in  which  the  sn|jlil~is  exercise  their 
ingenuity.     The  people  are  thirsting  for  the  doc- 


of  Rome  shall  obstinately  persist  in  rejecting 
the  offers  of  Luther  and  in  treating  the  affair 
with  haughtiness,  instead  of  replying  to  his 
arguments,  .she  must  prepare  herself  for  trou- 
bles which  will  hardly  be  appeased,  and  for 
revolutions  which  will  be  no  less  fatal  to  her- 
self than  to  others.'  To  this  wise  admonition 
Leo  X.  addressed  a  reply,  in  which  he  desig- 
nated Luther  '  as  the  most  wicked  and  detes- 
table of  all  heretics — a  man  who  had  no  other 
mission  than  that  which  he  had  received  from 
the  Devil ! ' 

The  condition  of  Germany  being  such  as 
the  Elector  represented  it,  and  the  disposition 
of  the  Vatican  such  as  is  betrayed  in  the  an- 
swer of  the  Pope,  it  is  not  difficult  to  com- 
prehend the  nature  or  the  result  of  the  con- 
flict which  fallowed.  On  the  one  side,  we 
are  led  to  expect  a  succession  of  just  demands 
commencing  in  moderation,  and  rising  in  ex- 
act proportion  to  the  contempt  with  which 
tiny  were  rejected— on  the  other,  a  fierce  and 
selfish  determination  to  maintain  the  estab- 
lished system  in  its  full  integrity,  without 
distinction  of  good  or  evil,  of  use  or  abuse, 
of  truth  or  falsehood,  of  divine  or  human 
authority.  And  the  conclusion  was  such  as 
must  certainly  follow,  sooner  or  later,  from 
collision  between  such  principles. 

Conclusion. — When  the  train  is  thus  pre- 
pared, the  moment  of  explosion  will  com- 
monly depend  on  what  is  called  accident ; 
and  thus  it  will  frequently  arrive  when  it  is 
least  expected.  Thus  was  it  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Reformation.  Never  was  the 
Court  of  Rome  more  confident  in  the  sense 
of  security,  than  at  that  instant.  The  various 
heresies  which  had  so  long  disturbed  the 
Church  were,  for  the  most  part,  dismayed  and 
silenced  ;  the  complaints  and  petitions  of  the 
faithful  had  long  been  rejected  with  insolent 
impunity;  the  Council  which  had  last  been 
held  had  effaced  by  its  subservience  the 
memory  of  Basle  and  Constance;  and  the 
warnings  of  Julian  Cesarini  were  despised 
or  forgotten.  The  temporal  monarchy  of 
Rome  was  more  firmly  established  than  at 
any  former  period,  and  her  power  and  influ- 
ence were  still  considerable  in  every  part  of 
Europe — her  ecclesiastical  agents  were  never 
more  numerous  or  more  zealous  iu  her  ser- 
vice. The  pillars  of  her  strength  were  vis- 
ible and  palpable,  and  she  surveyed  them 
with  exultation  from  her  golden  palaces;  but 


trine  of  the  Gospel,  and  if  it  shall  be  attempted 
to  close  the  source  against  them,  they  will  open  it 
for  themselves  by  force.'  This  letter  is  translated 
by  Beausobre.     Hist.  Kef.  liv.  iv. 


664 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


she  did  not  so  readily  discern  the  mora]  cau- 
ses which  were  combining  for  her  dissolution, 
and  slowly  and  secretly  sapping  the  founda- 
tions of  her  pride. 

The  qualities  of  Leo  X.,  though  not  des- 
picable, were  not  calculated  for  that  crisis — 
fond  of  letters,  devoted  to  pleasure,  contemp- 
tuous of  morality — ignorant  of  the  science, 
careless  of  the  duties,  neglectful  even  of  the 
decencies,  of  religion;  vain,  extravagant, 
necessitous  and  venal,  he  had  not  the  char- 
acter which  could  prevent  the  rebellion,  or 
crush  the  rebel.  Tempered  in  the  schools 
of  courtly  negotiation,  the  weapons  of  the 
Vatican  were  of  no  service  against  a  popular 
enemy  ;  and  the  Pcpe  himself  at  length  con- 
descended to  complain,*  that 'the  present  dis- 
ease was  not  in  the  princes  and"  great  prelates, 
with  whom  familiarity  and  interest  prevailed, 
but  in  the  people,  with  whom  it  was  neces- 
sary to  use  reality,  and  make  a  true  reforma- 


*  Padre  Paolo,  Hist.  Concil.  Trident,  liv.  i. 


tion.'  In  that  people,  so  long  the  object  of 
pontifical  contempt  and  spoliation,  new  en- 
ergies had  insensibly  replaced  the  incurious 
and  servile  ignorance  of  former  days.*  An 
occasion  and  an  instrument  were  alone  re- 
quired to  bring  them  into  action.  The  for- 
mer was  furnished  by  the  vices  and  blindness 
of  the  Church ;  the  latter  was  raised  up  by 
Providence  in  the  person  of  Luther.  Yet 
Luther  himself,  endowed  as  he  was  with 
great  and  ardent  qualities,  was  but  the  voice 
that  called  the  laborers  to  their  office.  The 
abuses  were  so  ripe  and  pregnant,  and  the 
perception  of  them  so  deep  and  so  general, 
that,  even  had  Luther  never  been  born,  the 
harvest  could  not  long  have  needed  bold 
and  holy  ministers  to  gather  it.  'I  do  not 
doubt,  (they  are  the  words  of  the  Reformer 
himself  addressed  to  Melancthon,)  that  if  we 
are  unworthy  to  bring  this  work  to  its  con- 
clusion, God  will  raise  up  others,  worthier 
than  we  are,  who  will  accomplish  it.' 


A  CRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

OF 

EMINENT  MEN,  AND  OF  THE  PRINCIPAL  COUNCILS. 


Popes. 

Died. 

Eminent   Persons   connected   with 
Ecclesiastical  History. 

Important  Councils 

Linus     - 

-        •        - 

78 

Anacletus 

_ 

91 

Clement 
Alexander 
Sixtus     - 

- 

100 
116 
126 

Pliny  the  Younger.     Ignatius. 
Tacitus. 

Telesphorus 

- 

137 

Hyginus 

_ 

141 

Justin  Martyr. 

Pius 

_ 

157 

Polycarp. 

Anicetus 

- 

168 

Montanus. 

Soter 

Eleutherus* 

Victor 

- 

177 

192 
196 

219 
224 
231 

Pantaenus. 
Irenaeus. 

Ammonias  Saccas. 
Clemens  Alexandrinus. 

Zephyrinus 
Callistus 
Urban   - 

- 

Tertullian. 
Origen.     Celsus. 

Pontianus 

. 

235 

Anterus 

_ 

236 

Fabianus 

. 

251 

Sabellius. 

A    Synod    at    Rome 

Cornelius 

_ 

253 

Cyprian. 

against        Novatian 

A  Schism  between  Corne- 

(251). 

lius  and  Novatian. 
Lucius            - 
Stephen           - 
Sixtus  II. 

255 
257 
259 
271 
275 
283 

Paul  of  Samosata. 

Synod    at    Carthage 
(•<?56),   by    Cyprian, 
on  the  Baptism  of 

Heretics. 

Dionysius 

_ 

Manes. 

Synod     at     Antioch 

FelLx 
Eutychianus 

- 

Porphyry. 

(269),  against    Paul 
of  Samosata. 

Caius 

_ 

296 

Marcellinus 

_ 

304 

Marcellus 

. 

309 

Lactantius. 

Eusebius 

. 

311 

iMelchiades 

f314 

Constantine.   Eusebius  of  Ca?- 
sarea.     Arius.     Eusebius  of 
Nicomedia.    Athanasius. 

Aries    (314),    against 

the  Donatists. 
1.     {Gencraltj      Tlie 

Sylvester 

_ 

335 

Council     of     JVice 
(325). 

Mark 

_ 

336 

Constantius. 

Synod  of  Tyre  (335), 

Julius     - 

■ 

352 

Martin  of  Tours. 

against  Athanasius. 

Council    of    Seleucia 

Liberius 

. 

367 

Julian.  A  mmian us  Marcellinus. 

(:r>!>),  held    by  the 

A   Schism  between    Liber 

Chrysostom. 

Snni-arians. 

and  Felix. 

Gregory  Nazianzenus. 
Basil     Gregory  of  Nyssa. 
Priscillian. 

Council  of  Rimini 
(360). 

Synod  of  Saras'—a 
(380)  against  Priscil- 
lian. 

*  The  succession  of  the  earliest  Bishops  of  Rome  and  the  duration  of  their  government  arc  involved  in  inexplica- 
ble confusion.     We  have  followed  Spanheim. 

t  The  Imliction  was  a  cycle  of  three  lustres,  or  a  revolution  of  fifteen  years.  It  was  Instituted  by  Constantine  soon 
after  his  victory  over  Maxentius  (September  94.  319),  ami  the  financial  account*  for  tli«'  payment  of  tribute  wen'  reg 
ulated  by  this  term.  At  the  Council  of  Nice  the  method  of  hldicUofl  was  substituted  lor  that  of  Olympiads.  The 
year  of  the  first  Indiction  began  January  1,313;  consequently,  to  find  this  [ndtctf on,  subtract  319  from  the  given 
year  or  add  three  to  it ;  divide  the  difference,  or  sum  by  15,  and  the  remainder,  if  any,  will  be  the  year  of  the  Indic- 
tion.'   The  Popes  still  use  this  cycle  in  th«ir  bulls  and  diplomas. 

X  The  Italics  designate  the  Councils  held  General  by  the  Latin  Church. 


566 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  OF  EMINENT  MEN, 


Popes. 


Damasus         - 
Schism  between  Damasus 
and  Ursicinus 


Siricius  -         -        -         - 

Anastasius      - 
Innocent         ... 
Zosimus  ... 

Boniface  ... 

Schism  between  Boniface 

and  Eulalius 
Celestine         - 


Sixtus  III. 


Leo  the  Great 
Hilary   - 
Simplicius       - 
Felix  II. 
Gelasius  - 

Anastasius  II. 
Schism    between  Symma- 
chus  and  Laurentius 

Symmachus     - 

Hormisdas       ... 

John       - 

Felix  III. 

Boniface  II.    - 

A  Schism  between  Boni- 
face and  Dioscoras. 

John  II. 

Agapetus         ... 

Sylverius        ... 

Schism  between  Sylverius 
and  Vigilius. 

Vigilius  - 

Pelagius  - 

John  III. 

Benedict         - 


Pelagius  II.    - 

Gregory  the  Great 

Sabinianus 

Boniface  III.  - 

Boniface  IV.  - 

Deodatus 

Boniface  V. 

Honorius 

Severinus 

John  IV. 

Theodore 

Martin 

Eugenius 

Vitalianus 

Adrodatus 

Domnus 

Agatho  - 


385 


398 

402 
417 
418 
423 


432 
440 


461 
467 

483 
492 
496 
498 


514 
523 
526 
530 
532 


535 
536 
540 


555 

559 
573 

577 


590 

604 
605 
606 
614 
617 
625 
638 
639 
641 
648 
655 
656 
669 
676 
678 
682 


Eminent  Persons  connected  with 
Ecclesiastical  History. 


Theodosius  the  Great. 
Ambrose  of  Milan. 
St.  Martin,  A.  B.,  of  Tours. 
Jerome.     Jovinian. 
Vigilantius. 
Augustin.     Donatus. 
John  Cassian,  author  of  the  In- 
stitutions. 

Pelagius  and  Celestius. 
Sulpicius  Severus. 

Socrates. 

Sozomen. 

Nestorius. 

Theodoret. 
Zosimus. 


Eutyches. 

Sidonius  Apollinaris    (Bishop 

of  Clermont). 
Paulinus  of  Nola. 
Clovis. 
Vigilius  Tapsensis. 


Boethius. 

Benedict  of  Nursia. 
Justinian. 


St.  Gregory,  Bishop  of  Tours. 

Isidore  of  Seville. 

John  the  Faster,  Ph.  of  C.  P. 

St.  Columban. 

St.  Austin,  Apostle  of  England. 


Mahomet. 

St.  Eligius,  Bishop  of  Noyon. 
Fredegarius  of  Burgundy. 


Heraclius. 


Important  Councils. 


II.  First  of  Constanti- 
nople (381),  on  the 
Divinity  of  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

Council  of  Milan  (390), 
against  Jovinian. 

Council  of  Carthage 
(398),  prohibited  se- 
cular studies. 

Conference  at  Car- 
thage, against  the 
Donatists  (411). 

III.  Council  ofEphe- 
sus  (431 ),  against 
Nestorius. 

Second  (False)  Coun- 
cil of  Ephesus  (449). 

IV.  Council  of  Chalce- 
don  ( 451 ),  against 
Eutyches. 


Orleans  (511),  convok- 
ed by  Clovis,  chiefly 
on  Discipline.  Oth- 
ers held  there,  on 
the  same  subject,  in 
538,  541,  and  549 


V.  Constantinople, 
(553)  against  Origen 
and  others.  On  the 
Resurrection  of  the 
Flesh  and  Pre- ex- 
istence of  the  Soul. 

Council  of  Toledo 
(589),  against  tho 
Arians. 


VI.  Constantinople, 
(680),  against  the 
Monothelites. 


AND  OF  THE  PRINCIPAL  COUNCILS. 


567 


Popes. 

Eminent   Persons   connected    with 

Died. 

Ecclesiastical  History. 

Important  Councils. 

Leo  II. 

684 

Council     of     Toledo 

Benedict  II.    - 

IW 

(682),  deposed  Vam- 

John  V.           ... 

686 

ba,  King  of  the  Vis- 
igoths. 

Conon             ... 

687 

Constantinople]        in 
Trullo    (693)    (Qui- 

Sergius           ... 

701 

ni-sextum)*  on  the 

JohnVI. 

704 

marriage  of  the  Cler- 

John VII.       - 

707 

gy,  &c. 

Sisinnius         ... 

707 

The  Venerable  Bede. 

The   last  Council    of 

Constantine     -         -         - 

714 

St.   Boniface,   the   Apostle  of 

Toledo  (696). 

Gregory  II.     - 

7:31 

Germany. 

Gregory  III.   - 

7-11 

Leo  the  Isaurian. 

Zachary          ... 

752 

Charles  Martel. 

Stephen  II.     - 

752 

Archbishop  Cuthbert. 

Stephen  III.  -        -        - 

757 

Pepin,  king  of  France. 

Constantinople    (754), 

Paul        - 

767 

John  Damascenus. 

against  Images. 

Schism  between  Paul  and 

Paul  the  Lombard. 

Theophylact. 

Stephen  IV.    - 

772 

Charlemagne. 

VII.      ATce       (787), 

Adrian            - 

795 

Alcuin.     Eginhardt. 

Seventh        General, 
for   the    restoration 

8888 

of  Images. 
Aix  la  Chapelle  (789) 
for  Reformation. 

Leo  III. 

816 

Francfort  (794), 
against  Image-wor- 
ship. 

Others  at  Aix  la  Cha- 

Stephen V. 

817 

Benedict  of  Aniane. 

Paschal           ... 

824 

pelle  (in    797,  799, 

• 

Lewis  the  Meek. 

802,  809,  816,  817 
818,  819). 

Eugenius  II. 

827 

Five    Councils,    held 
in    813,   at    Aries, 
Mayence,    Rheims, 

00  noGO 

qo  88  oo 

Tours,    and     Cha 
Ions. 

Valentine        .        .        - 

827 

Claudius  Bishop  of  Turin. 

Paris  (824),  on  Image 
worship. 

Gregory  IV. 

844 

Rabanus  Maurus. 

Ansgarius. 

Mayence  (848),  against 

Paschasius  Radbertus. 

Godeschalcus 

Sergius  II.      - 

847 

Ratramn.   John  Scorus. 
Godcschalcus.    Rabanus  Mau- 

Leo IV. 

854 

rus. 
Photius  raised  to  see  of  C.  P. 
Charles  the  Bald. 
Hincmar  of  Rheims. 

f  Benedict 

858 

Lupus  of  Ferrara. 

Schism. 

Petrus  Siculus. 

Nicholas          - 

867 

VIII.      (Latin)    Con- 

Adrian  II.       - 

872 

Anastasius  the  Librarian. 

stanimo/ila  (869),  for 
the  condemnation  of 

John  the  Deacon. 

Photius. 

John  VIII.      - 

882 

Constantinople     (879) 

Martin  II. 

884 

held     by     Photius, 

Adrian  [II.      - 

885 

Alfred. 

called  by  the  Latins 

Stephen  VI.   - 

890 

the  False  Eighth. 

*  Neither  the  fifth  nor  sixth  general  council  had  published  any  canons  respecting  ecclesiastical  discipline  or  re- 
ligious ceremonies.  To  supply  this  defect,  Justinian  II.  assembled  another  in  a  hall  of  the  Imperial  Palace,  called 
Truliv.fi  (Cupola)  j  and  it  was  called  Quini-Sextum,  as  being  supplementary  to  the  fifth  and  sixth.  It  passed  one 
hundred  and  two  laws,  of  which  six  are  in  opposition  to  certain  rites  and  opinions  of  Koine  ;  on  u  liich  account  the 
Latins  do  not  hold  it  general.     Mosh.,  cent.  vii.  p.  2,  eh.  5. 

t  It  is  to  this  place  that  the  fable  of  the  female  pope,  Joan,  seems  properly  to  belong. 


568 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  OF  EMINENT  MEN, 


Popes 


Formosus 
Schism. 
Boniface  VI. 

Stephen  VII. 
Schism. 
John  IX. 
Benedict  IV.  - 
Leo  V. 
Schism. 
Christopher    - 
Schism. 
Sergius  III.     - 
Anastasius  III. 
Lardo 
John  X. 
Leo  VI. 
Stephen  VIII. 
John  XI. 
Leo  VII. 
Stephen  IX. 
Martin  III.      - 

Agapetus  II.    - 
John  XII.       - 
Schism. 
Benedict  V.     - 
Leo  VIII. 
John  XIII.     - 
Bomnus  II.     - 
Benedict  VI.  - 
Boniface  VII. 
Benedict  VII. 
John  XIV.     - 
John  XV. 
John  XVI.      - 
Gregory  V. 
Schism. 

Sylvester  II.  - 
John  XVIII.  - 
John  XII.       - 
Sergius  IV.     - 
Benedict  VIII. 
Schism. 
John  XX.       - 
Benedict  XI.  - 
Schism. 
Gregory  VI.    - 
Clement  II.     - 
Damasus  II.    - 
Leo  IX. 
Victor  II. 
Stephen  X.     - 
Benedict  X.    - 
Nicholas  II.    - 
Schism. 
Alexander  II. 

Gregory  VII. 
Schism. 
Victor  III. 

Urban  II. 


897 

897 

901 

903 
906 
906 

906 

910 
912 
913 
927 
928 
930 
935 
939 
943 
946 

955 

963 

964 
965 
972 
972 

974 
975 

984 
985 
985 
995 
998 


1003 
1003 
1009 
1012 
1024 

1033 
1044 

1046 
1048 
1049 
1054 
1057 
1058 
1059 
1061 


1073 

1086 
1087 
1099 


Eminent  Persona   connected   with 
Ecclesiastical  History. 


Important  Councils . 


St.  Odo,  Abbot  of  Cluni. 


Frodoard,  Canon  of  Rheims. 
Otho  the  Great. 
Bernhard  of  Thuringia. 
Liutprand,Otho's  Legate  at  C. 

P. 
St.  Dunstan. 


Michel  Cerularius. 


Petrus  Damiani. 

Lanfranc. 

Berenger. 

Henry  IV.  of  Germany. 

St.  Bruno. 

Roscellinus.  Anselm. 

Peter  the  Hermit. 


Council  at  Orleans — 
some  Heretics  burnt 
(1017). 


Council  of  Nich.  II. 
(1059)  regulating 
Papal  election. 

At  Rome,  against  Ber- 
enger. 


Placentia  and  Cler- 
mont (1095)  orig- 
inate first  crusade. 


AND  OF  THE  PRINCIPAL  COUNCILS. 


569 


Popes. 

Died. 

Eminent    Persons   connected   with 
Ecclesiastical  History. 

Important  Councils. 

A     Lateran     Council 

Paschal  11.      - 

1118 

(1111),  which    can- 

Schism. 

celled         Pasclial's 
treaty   with   Henry 
V. 
At  Worms  (1122),  on 
question  of  Investi- 
tures.   Calixt.  II. 

Gelasius  II.     - 

1119 

Pierre  de  Bruis. 
Peter  the  Venerable. 

Calixtus  II.     - 

1124 

IX.     {Latin).       First 
Lateran        Council 
(1123),  on    Investi- 
tures.   Twenty-two 
canons. 

Honorius  II.  - 

1130 

Abelard. 

Council  of  Pisa  (1134). 

Innocent  II.  - 
Celestine  11.   - 

1143 
1144 

Bernard  of  Clairval.       *>. 
Henri  the  Heretic. 

X.     (Latin).     Second 
Lateran         (1139), 

Lucius  II.       - 

Eugenius  III. 

Anastasius  IV. 

Adrian  IV.  -                  j  - 

Schism. 

1145 
1153 
1154 
1159 

Otho  Frisingensis. 
Gratian  of  Bologna. 
Peter  the  Lombard. 
Arnold  of  Brescia.         4P* 
Frederic  Barbarossa. 

against       Heretics; 
for      the       general 
Reformation  of  the 
Church.     30    can- 
ons are  extant. 
XL     (Latin).      Third 

Alexander  III. 

Lucius  III.                        - 

1181 
1185 

Thomas  a  Becket. 
Peter  Waldus. 

Lateran  (1179),  for 
the       arrangement 

Urban  III.      - 

1187 

of  Papal  Election  ; 

Gregory  VIII. 

1188 

against     Heretics ; 

Clement  III. 

1191 

Dominic. 

and    for    the    Re- 

Celestine III. 

1199 

Simon  de  Montfort. 

formation    of     the 

• 

Francis  d'Assisi.         «>» 

Church.* 

Council       of      Paris 

(1212). 

Innocent  III. 

1216 

XII.    (Latiri).    Fourth 

Honorius  III. 

122/ 

Lateran  (1215),  un- 

Gregory IX. 
Celestine  IV. 

1241 

der  Innocent  III. 

1243 

John  of  Parma. 

XIII.    [Latin).    First 

Robert  Grossetete. 

Council    of    Lyons 

Innocent  IV. 

1254 

Frederic  II. 

(1245),  under  Inno- 

Louis IX.  of  France. 

cent  IV. 

Alexander  IV. 

1261 

Robert  of  Sorbonne. 

Urban  IV. 

1264 

Clement  IV. 

1268 

Thomas  Aquinas.         ^ 

XIV.   (Latin).  Strand 

Gregory  X.              - 
Innocent  V.             - 

1276 

Bonaventura. 

of    Lyons     (1274), 

1276 

Roger  Bacon. 

under  Gregory  X. 

Adrian  V. 

1276 

John  XXI.     - 

1277 

Matthew  Paris. 

Nicholas  III.  - 

1280 

Martin  IV.      -        - 

1285 

Honorius  IV. 

1288 

Nicholas  IV. 

1292 

Celestine  V.  (abdicted) 

1294 

Boniface  VIII. 

1303 

Philip  the  Fair 

Benedict  XI.  - 

1304 

Dante.                           ^ 

Clement  V.- 

1314 

Louis  of  Bavaria. 

XV.  (Latin).   Council 

John  XXII.    - 

1334 

John  Duns  Scotus. 

of    Vienne     (1311), 

William  Occam. 

under  Clement  V. 

Benedict  XII. 

1342 

Marsilius  of  Padua. 

*  The  substance  of  the  principal  Canons  of  the  First  Lateran  is  briefly  piven i  at  page  257.    Of  the  Second,  the  Ninth 
CMoVprSterMonk8PaDd  Canons  Hernial  from  practising  Civil  Law  or  Medirme  ;    the  Thirteenth  was  directed 

a.      st  usurers  ■  the  Fifteenth  protected  &e  persons  of  the  Clergy  and  the  right  of  Awlum.    .  he  condemnation  of 

Pe  Lo  an  f  Arnold  of  Rrescia  were  separate  Arts  of  Legislation.  M  tiM  /  W,  the  ]■  ,rst  .anon  ordained, 
Jcsnect  ,"  ,  ipa  election,  that  If  the  Cardinals  should  no)  be  unanimous  in  their  choice,  two-thirds  oi  the  votes 
and  no    e^s  than  two-thirds,  should  be  suliicient.     Of  the  Fourth,  the  most  important  Canons  have  been  mentioned 


In  various  places. 


72 


570 


A  CHRONOLOU1CAL  TABLE  OF  EMINENT  MEN,  &c. 


Popes. 


Clement  VI. 
Innocent  VI. 

Urban  V.         ... 
Gregory  IX. 
Urban  VI.  (Rome.) 
Clement  VII.  (Avignon.) 

Boniface  IX.  (Rome.) 
Innocent  VII.  (Rome.) 
Benedict    XIII.    (deposed, 

Avignon.) 
Gregory     XII.       (deposed, 

Rome.) 
Alexander  V.  - 

John  XXIII. 
Deposition  and  Vacancy  till 

1417.        -         -        . 

Martin  V.        -        -        . 

Eugenius  IV. 
Schism. 

Nicholas  V. 

Calixtus  III. 

Pius  II.  ... 

Paul  II.  ... 

Sixtus  IV. 
Innocent  VIII. 

Alexander  VI. 

Pius  III.      - 

Julius  It 

Leo  X.  ... 


1352 
1362 

1370 
1378 
1389 
1394 

1404 
1406 

1409 

1409 

M10 
15 


1431 

1447 


1455 
1458 
1464 
1471 

1503 
1503 
1513 


Eminent  Persons   connected  with 
Ecciesiastical  History. 


Jovanni  and  Matteo  Villani. 

Petrarch. 

St.  Brigida. 

John  Wiclif. 

St.  Catharine  of  Sienna. 

Theodoric  of  Niem. 


Pierre  dAilly. 
Nicholas  de  Clemangis. 
John  Gerson. 
John  Huss. 
Jerome  of  Prague. 
Sigismond. 
Poggio  of  Florence. 
Leonard  us  Aretinus. 
Julian  Cesarini. 
The  Cardinal  of  Aries. 
iEneas  Sylvius. 
Laurentius  Valla. 

St.  Antoninus,  A.  B.  of  Flor- 
ence. 
John  of  Wesalia. 
John  Wesselus. 
John  Laillier. 
Jerome  Savonarola,  m 

Cardinal  Ximenes. 
Erasmus.  • 

Luther. 


Important  Councils. 


Pisa  (1407). 
XVI.    (Latin), 
stance  (1414). 


Con- 


XVII.   (Latin).  Basle 
(1431). 


XVIII.  (Latin).  Fifth 
Lateran,  by  Julius 
II.  (1512.) 


INDEX 


Abbesses,  324 

Abbots,  their  office,  311 

Abelard,  account  of,  270 ;  his  disputes  with   St. 
Bernard.  27] 

Adamites,  the,  a  sect  of  Bohemian  fanatics,  473 

Adrian  I.,  195 

IV.  (Nicholas  Breakspeare)  256 

iElia   Capitolina,  new  city   founded   by  Adrian 
from  the  ruins  of  Jerusalem,  30 

./Eneas  Sylvius  (Piccolomini)  espouses  the  pre- 
tensions of  the  pope  after  advocating  the  im-  j 
perial  claims,  502  ;  account  of  him,  503  ;  raised 
to  the  pontificate  on  the  death  of  Calixtus  III.,  | 
with  the  name  of  Pius  II.,  503. ;  convokes  the 
council  of  Mantua  for  a  crusade  against  the 
Turks,  504  ;  an  embassy  from  the  East  arrives 
at  Rome,  504 ;  Pius  canonizes  St.  Catharine  of 
Sienna,  505  ;  discourages  attempts  at  reform  in 
the  church,  formerly  advocated  by  him,  505 ; 
recants  his  early  opinions,  505  ;  his  exertions 
against  the  Turks,  506;  and  death,  506 

Agapa?,  or  Love  Feasts,  46 

Ailly,  Pierre  d',  cardinal  of  Cambrai,an  advocate 
for  reform  in  the  church,  435 

Albigeois,  or  Albigenses,  sect  of,  291,  Bossuet's 
error  respecting  them,  553,  note 

Alexander  III.  excommunicates  Frederic  Barba- 
rossa,  260 ;  encoupages  learning,  261 

V.  (Peter  of  Candia)  elected  by  the 

council  of  Pisa  in  opposition  to  the  two  anti- 
popes,  420  ;  his  death,  421 

VI.  (Roderic  Borgia,  nephew  of  Calix- 


tus III.,)  his  infamous  character,  511 ;  elected 
on  the  death  of  Sixtus  IV.,  512;  enters  into 
negotiations  with  Bajazet  against  Charles  VIII. 
of  France,  513;  his  donation  of  the  Indies  to 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  513  ;  its  validity  con- 
tested by  the  Portuguese,  513;  he  retires  to 
the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo  on  Charles's  entry  into 
Rome,  514  ;  is  suspected  of  poisoning  Zizini,  the 
brother  of  Bajazet,  514  ;  his  death  occasioned 
by  a  scheme  of  his  own  for  poisoning  a  cardi- 
nal, 515 

Alexandria,  introduction  of  Christianity  at,  37 

Ambrose,  St.,  account  of,  128 

Ammianus  Marcellinus,  account  of,  115 

Anchorets,  298 

Andrew,  St.,  his  relics  brought  from  Greece  by 
Palffiologus, 

Angelo,  St.,  cardinal  of.     See  Cesarini. 

Annates,  or  first  year's  income  of  vacant  bene- 
fices, disputes  relative  to,  between  the  pope 
and  the  council  of  Constance,  446;  restored 
after  being  abolished  by  the  Pragmatic  Sanc- 
tion, 521 .  note 

Anselm,  his  writings,  270,  note 

Ansorarius  introduces  Christianity  into  Denmark 
and  Sweden  in  the  ninth  century,  229 

Ante-Nicene  Church,  177 

Anthony,  St.,  monachism  instituted  by,  298;  also 
nunneries,  303 

Antioch,  church  of,  31 

Antoninus  Pius,  his  edicts  in  favor  of  the  Chris- 
tians, 61 

Marcus,  his  strict   persecution  of  the 

Christians,  61 ;  his  character,  62 

Apocrisiarii,  papal  envoys,  143 

Apollinaris,  bishop  of  Laodicoea,  his  opinions  re- 
garding the  Incarnation,  163 


Apostles'  Creed,  46 
Aquinas,  St.  Thomas,  378 

Arian  Controversy,  93;  decided  by  the  council 
of  Nice,  95 

Arians.  divisions  among  them,  98;  Semi-Arians, 
98  ;  character  of  the  Arians,  109 

Arianism,  opposed  by  Theodosius  the  Great, 
100;  spreads  among  the  Goths,  101 ;  extirpated 
from  Spain  by  the  council  of  Toledo,  101 

Arius,  account  of.  93 

Aries,  cardinal  of,  president  of  the  council  of 
Basic.  454  ;  his  death,  501 

Armenians,  their  negotiations  with  the  pope,  after 
separating  from  the  Greek  church,  495 ;  Leo 
expresses  to  Innocent  IV.  a  desire  for  a  re- 
union with  the  Latin  church,  496  ;  doctrinal 
errors  imphted  to  them  by  the  pontiff,  4'J0 

Arnold  of  Brescia,  an  early  reformer,  256  ;  put  to 
death,  250 ;  political  as  well  as  religious  re- 
former, 516,  note 

Artemon,  his  heresy,  76 

Ascetics,  297 

Asia,  the  seven  churches  of,  31 

Asylum,  practice  of,  547 

Athanasian  Creed,  192 

Athanasius,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  account  of, 
97 ;  banished  by  Constantius,  97;  Julian's  en- 
mity to  him,  114 

Athens,  progress  of  Christianity  at,  34 

Avignon,  removal  of  the  papal  see  to,  by  Cle- 
ment V.,  381  ;  decline  of  the  papal  power  at 
this  period,  393  ;  one  of  its  causes  the  profligacy 
of  the*  court  of  Avignon,  394 

Augustin,  St.,  bishop  of  Hippo,  opposes  the  Do- 
natists,  153;  account  of  him,  154;  Erasmus's 
parallel  between  him  and  St.  Jerome,  155 ;  his 
private  life,  156;  opposes  the  doctrines  of  Ce- 
lestius,  160;  and  those  of  Pelagianism,  161 
hermits  of,  a  religious  order,  391 


Auricular  confession  established,  228 
Austin,  St.  introduces  Christianity  into  England, 
133;  Jortin's  character  of  him,  134,  note 

Bajazet,  offer  of  alliance  made  to  him  by  Alexan- 
der VI.,  513  ;  his  brother  Zizini  detained  as  a 
hostage  by  Alexander,  and  supposed  to  have 
been  poisoned  by  him,  514 

Baptism,  sacrament  of,  46 ;  efficacv  imputed  to 
it,  54 

Basil,  St.,  archbishop  of  Ccsarea,  introduces  mo- 
nachism into  the  Greek  church,  300 

Basle,  council  of,  convoked,  447;  its  objects,  447; 
contentions  with  F.ugenius  IV.,  448;  its  arti- 
cles of  reformation,  451  ;  final  breach  with  the 
pope,  453;  the  president,  cardinal  of  St.  An- 
gelo, deserts  to  the  pontiff,  453  ;  questions  as 
to  the  legitimacy  of  the  council,  453  ;  it  deposes 
Eugenius,  454  ;  and  elects  Amadens,  duke  of 
Savoy  (Felix  V.,)  455;  and  dissolves  itself, 
455;  general  principles  of  this  council  and  that 
of  Constance,  457 

Beghards,  a  sect  so  called,  400 

Benedict  of  Aniane,  227  ;  founds  a  more  rigid  in- 
stitution of  monachism,  308 

.  St.,  of  Mnreia,  founder  of  an  order  of 


monks,  300  ;  its  rule,  300 

All.  attempts  to  reform  some  of  the  abu- 


ses in  the  church  and  the  monastic  orders,  388 


572 


INDEX. 


Benedict  XIII.  (Peter  of  Luna,  a  Spaniard)  elect- 
ed on  the  death  of  Clement  VII,  414  ;  refuses 
to  accede  to  the  measures  proposed  for  healing 
the  schism  in  the  church,  415;  the  French 
court  withdraws  its  obedience.  415;  persists  in 
asserting  his  authority  in  opposition  to  the  de- 
cision of  the  council  of  Constance,  428;  he  is 
deposed,  429;  his  death  and  character,  430 
Benefices,  foundation  of,  198 
Benincasa,   Ursula,   the    Ursuline    nuns    derive 

their  title  from  her,  325 
Berenger,   archdeacon   of  Angers,   opposes   the 
doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  247;  twice  re- 
tracts his  opinions,  and  again  returns  to  them, 
248 

Bernard,  St.,  account  of,  269;  his  writings,  269; 
his  disputation  with  Abelard,  271 ;  his  zeal  in 
support  of  papal  authority,  271  ;  censures  ap- 
peal to  the  see  of  Rome,  273;  declaims  against 
the  degeneracy  of  the  clergy,  274  ;  his  char- 
acter, 275  ;  his  character  of  the  Romans,  279  ; 
preaches  against  Henry  (founder  of  the  Hen- 
ricians),  287;  preaches  the  second  crusade,  363 

Bishops,  their  office  and  authority  in  the  early 
church,  43 ;  their  oppressive  conduct,  147 ; 
their  gradual  assumption  of  power,  190;  trans- 
lation of  bishops  prohibited  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury, 227 

Bohemia,  religious  insurrection  in,  472;  sect  of 
the  Thaborites,  473  ;  the  Adamites  massacred 
by  Zisca,  473;  embassy  to  the  council  of  Basle 
for  the  purpose  of  healing  religious  dissensions, 
473;  the  Calixtins,  474  ;  renewal  of  the  war, 
474 ;  the  reformers  concede  most  of  their 
claims  by  the  compact  of  Iglau,  475;  the  pope 
refuses  to  agree  to  the  concordat,  475  ;  Pogebrac 
deposed  by  Paul  II.,  476  ;  sect  of  the  United 
Brethren,  476;  the  schismatics  of  Bohemia  in- 
vited to  enter  into  a  union  with  the.  Greek 
church,  494 

Bonaventura,  St.,  theological  writer,  379 

Boniface  VIII.,  his  ambition  and  insolence,  348  ; 
his  temporal  pretensions,  349;  lays  claim  to 
Scotland,  349;  his  disputes  with  Philip  the 
Fair  of  France,  350 ;  publishes  a  bull  against 
him,  which  the  other  burns,  351  ;  persists  in 
summoning  the  French  clergy  to  Rome,  352; 
his  bull  Unam  Sunctam.  352;  he  is  seized  by 
the  French,  353;  his  singular  death,  354 

IX.  ( Pietro  Toinacelli )  elected    on  the 

death  of  Urban  VI.,  412;  his  avarice,  412; 
permits  Cologne  and  Magdeburg  to  Jiold  a 
jubilee,  412;  promises  to  resign  on  condition 
of  Benedict  XIII.  doing  the  same,  415;  his 
government,  416;  his  death,  418 

Borgia  Rodrigo.     See  Alexander  VI. 

■ Caesar,  natural  son  of  the  preceding,  quits 

the  ecclesiastical  profession  and  is  made  duke 
Valentino,  514 ;  in  danger  of  being  poisoned 
at  the  same  time  with  his  father,  515 ;  he  pro- 
motes the  election  of  Julius  II.,  516 

Bourges,  council  of,  which  fixes  the  liberties  of 
the  Gallican  church,  convoked  by  Charles 
VII.,  455;  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  passed  by 
it,  456 

Brescia,  Angela  di,  founder  of  the  Ursuline 
nuns,  325 

Bruno,  St.,  founds  the  order  of  La  Chartreuse,  310 

Bruys,  Pierre  de,  an  early  reformer,  and  founder 
of  the  sect  of  Petiobrussians,  burnt  alive,  287 

Burgundians,  converted  to  Christianity,  116,  note 

Calixtins,  sect  of  reformers  in  Bohemia,  474 
Calixtus    II.  appoints  a  Diet  at  Worms  for  set- 
ling  the  disputes  regarding  Investiture,  256 


Calixtus  III.  (Alphonso  Borgia)  succeeds  Nicholas 
V.,  502 ;  introduces  the  system  of  Nepotism, 
502 

Calumnies  against  the  early  Christians,  65 

Cambalu  (Pekin,)  see  of,  founded  by  Clement 
V.,548_ 

Canonization,  first  instance  of,  50b,note 

Canons,  regular  and  secular,  312 

Capucines,  order  of,  321 ,  note 

Cardinals,  college  of,  232 ;  rise  and  progress  of 
their  power,  531 ;  Muratori's  explanation  of 
the  origin  of  the  t?tle,  531,  note;  institution  of 
the  conclave,  532 

Carmelites,  order  of,  391 

Catechumens,  one  of  the  two  classes  of  a  congre- 
gation, 53 

Chathari,  sect  of,  288 

Catharine,  St.,  of  Sienna,  324  ;  her  fanaticism, 
391;  sent  on  a  mission  to  Gregory  XL,  392; 
supports  the  claims  of  Urban  VI.  against  Cle- 
ment VII.,  411 

Celestine  V.  (  Pietro  di  Morone,)  the  hermit  pope, 
succeeds  Nicholas  IV.,  346;  his  character  and 
incapacity,  347;  resigns  his  office,  347;  kept 
in  prison  for  the  rest  of  his  life  by  his  successor 
Boniface  VIII.,  348 

Celibacy,  55,  note 

of  the  clergy,  185 


Cesarini,  Julian,  cardinal  of  St.  Angelo,  presi- 
dent of  the  council  of  Basle,  refuses  to  transfer 
it  to  Bologna,  448  ;  his  zeal  for  reform  in  the 
Catholic  church,  449;  passes  over  to  the  papal 
party,  450;  distinguishes  himself  at  the  coun- 
cil of  Ferrara,  490  ;  killed  at  the  battle  of  Var- 
na, 493,  note 

Charlemagne,  his  liberality  to  the  church,  149  ; 
his  Capitulary  for  the  reform  of  the  clergy, 
150  ;  extends  their  jurisdiction,  194  ;  corrects 
the  discipline  of  the  church,  225 

Charles  Martel,  his  victory  over  the  Saracens,  136 
the  Bald ,  dispossesses  his  brother  Lothaire , 


with  the  sanction  of  the  council  of  Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle,  211 ;    Adrian    II.  endeavors   to  exclude 
him  from  his  succession,  212 
VIII.  of  France,  alliance  against  him  be- 


tween Alexander  VI.  and  Bajazet,  513;  he 
enters  Rome,  513  ;  does  homage  to  Alexander, 
514  ;  Savonarola's  interview  with  him,  560 

Chartreuse,  or  Carthusian  order,  310 

Christians,  the  early,  their  unpopularity,  and  the 
calumnies  and  charges  against  them,  65,  &c. 

Chrysostom,  St.  John,  account  of,  130;  his  doc- 
trine, 131 

Church,  difference  between  Eastern  and  West- 
tern,  144;  schism  between  the  Greek  and 
Latin  churches,  72 ;  the  Ante-Nicene  church, 
176;  the  church  in  connexion  with  the  state, 
187;  its  internal  administration,  189 ;  general 
benefits  derived  from  the  church,  202.  See 
Roman  Catholic  church.  Church  government, 
41 ;  at  the  beginning  of  the  third  century,  52; 
ditto  fourth  ditto,  85;  alterations  in  it  under 
Constantine,  and  its  alliance  with  the  state,  86  ; 
abuses  in  the  church  in  latter  times,  383 

Circumcellions,  152 

Cistercian  order  of  monks,  310 

Claudius,  bishop  of  Turin,  a  reformer  in  the 
ninth  century,  228 

Clement  V.,  archbishop  of  Bourdeaux,  conditiona 
imposed  upon  him  by  Philip  the  Fair,  381 ;  re- 
moves the  papal  see  to  Avignon,  381 ;  appoints 
a  council  at  Vienne  to  inquire  into  the  conduct 
of  the  Templars,  382 ;  his  death  and  wealth, 
384;  note 


INDEX. 


573 


Clement  VI.  shortens  the  period  of  the  Jubilee  to 
fitly  years,  389 ;  his  quarrels  with  Louis  of 
Bavaria,  389  ;  his  profligate  character,  390 

VII.  elected  at  Fondi  by  the  cardinals,  in 

opposition  to  Urban  VI.,  409  acknowledged  in 
France,  410  ;  his  death,  414 

Clergy,  origin  of  the  distinction  between  them 
and  the  laity,  42;  Charlemagne's  reform  of 
the  clergy,  150;  jurisdiction  of  the  clergy,  193; 
extended  by  Charlemagne,  llJ4  ;  condition 
and  morals  in  the  ninth  century,  204  ;  their 
general  immorality,  540 

Clovis,  king  of  the  Franks,  converted  to  Chris- 
tianity, 110 

Cluni,  monastic  order  of,  founded.  310 

Coenobites,  299 

Communion,  the  cup  forbidden  to  the  laity, 
54:2 

Community  of  property  among  the  early  Chris- 
tians doubtful,  43 

Conclave,  the,  institution  of,  532 

Concubinage  of  the  clergy,  54(3 

Confession  introduced  by  St.  Leo,  120;  estab- 
lished, 228,280 

Constance,  council  of,  convoked  by  John  XXIII. 
to  settle  the  schism  in  the  church  and  papacy, 
422 ;  it  declares  for  the  cession  of  the  three 
popes,  424  ;  further  account  of  the  proceedings 
of  this  council,  438 ;  it  appoints  a  college  of 
reform,  439  ;  it  is  dissolved,  446 

Constantine  the  Great,  82;  his  character,  83; 
constitution  of  the  church  in  his  time,  o5;  al- 
terations introduced  into  it,  86;  his  division  of 
its  administration,  87;  state  of  Christianity  and 
paganism  in  his  reign,  105 ;  his  edict  of  tolera- 
tion, 1U5 

Constantius  patronises  Arianism,  96;  removes 
Athanasius,  97;  convokes  the  council  of  Rimini, 
99 

Controversies,  religious,  their  origin,  92 

Corinth,  establishment  of  Christianity  at,  34 

Councils  and  Synods,  origin  of,  44 

,  Nice,  94  ,  second  ditto,  168  ;  Rimini,  99; 

Constantinople,  1U0  ;  Chalcedon,  120  j  fourth 
council  of  Carthage,  124;  Toledo,  146;  Pla- 
centia,  253;  Clermont,  253  ;  the  first  Lateran, 
257;  Vienne,  3c2;  Constance,  422;  Feirara, 
453 

-,  ceneral,  remarks  on,  169 


Creeds,  45;  the  Apostles'  Creed,  46 
Cross,  sign  of,  efficacy  imputed  to,  54 

inscription  of  the  true,  pretended  to  be  found 

at  Rome,  545 
Crusades,  origin  of,  253 ;  account  of,  363 ;  St. 
Bernard  preaches  the  second  crusade,  363; 
subsequent  crusades,  365 ;  those  of  St.  Lewis, 
365;  causes  of  the  crusades,  366  ;  favored  by 
the  superstitious  zeal  of  the  times,  368:  ob- 
jects of  the  first  crusade,  369;  of  the  others, 
369;  policy  of  the  popes  in  regard  to  them,  370  ; 
decline  of  the  crusading  spirit,  371  ;  effects  of 
the  crusades,  371  ;  privileges  of  crusades,  372, 
note;  the  crusades  productive  of  intolerance, 
373 
Cyprian,  bishop  of  Carthage,  52;  his  zeal  in 
behalf  of  episcopal  power,  52;  his  martyrdom, 
64 
Cyril,  patriarch  of  Alexandria,  opposes  the  doc- 
trine of  Nestorius,  163 

Doemoniacs,  180 

Damascenus,   John,   last  of  the    Greek   fathers, 

171 
Dancers,  sect  of,  in  Belgium,  433 
Dauphine,  protestants  in,  554,  note 


Deacons,  their  office,  42 

Dead,  prayers  for,  first  introduced,  54 

Decretals,   papal,   374 ;    Gratian's   collection   of, 

375  ;  that  of  Circa,  bishop  of  Faenza,  376  ;  and 

of  Gregory  IX.,  376 

,  the   false,  195,  242;   rejected  by  the 


Greek  church,  483 
Denmark,  Christianity   introduced   into,   in   the 

ninth  century,  229 
Diocletian,  his  persecution,  64 
Dionysius,  bishop  of  Corinth,  his  epistles,  35 
Docetaj,  sect  of,  75 
Dominic,  St.,  ''>I5 
Dominicans,   316,   317 ;   their   dispute    with  the 

university  of  Paris,  318 
Donation  of  Constantine,  the  forgery  so  called, 

195 
Donatists,   the,   152;    persecuted    by   Constans, 

152  ;  their  influence  lessened  by  Augustin,  153  ; 

decision  against  them    by   the    conference  of 

Carthage,  153;  their  doctrine,  154;  frequency 

of  suicide  among  them,  154 
Double  procession,  the,  account  of,  174 
Dulcinus,  his  heresy,  401 ;  and  death,  401 

Easter,  disputes  respecting  the  celebration  of,  36 

Ebionites,  their  doctrines,  75 

Eclectics,  sect  of,  54 

Education  and  theological  learning,  262 

Ecclesiastical  property,  276 

Egypt,  monks  of,  2'.t'.> 

Election,  papal,  independence  of,  205;  regula- 
tions regarding,  passed  by  the  second  council 
of  Lyons,  344 

Eligius,  St.,  bishop  of  Noyon,  specimen  of  his 
sermons,  251 

Encratites,  sect  of,  74 

England,  Christianity  introduced  into,  133;  spirit- 
ual jurisdiction  in,  535,  note 

Ephesus,  church  of,  31  ;  council  of,  163 

Epiphanius,  bishop  of  Salamis,  104 

Episcopal  government,  earliest  form  of,  43 

Erasmus,  562 

Eucharist,  sacrament  of,  46 

Euchites,  a  sect  of  mystics  in  the  Greek  church, 
480 

Eugenius  IV.  succeeds  Martin  V.  447;  his  char- 
acter, 447.;  his  disputes  with  the  council  of 
Basle,  448  ;  the  intrigues  of  his  legate  to  thwart 
its  measures  for  reform,  452;  he  appoints  a  coun- 
cil at  Ferrara,  453  ;  is  deposed  by  that  of  Basle, 
455 

Eusebius,  account  of,  90 

Eutyches,  opposes  Nestorius,  164  ;  condemned  by 
the  council  of  Chalcedon,  165 

Exorcism,  180 

Fathers,  the  apostolical,  79 

Felix  V.  (Amadeus.  duke  of  Savoy)  elected  on 
the  deposition  of  Eugenius  IV.  by  the  council 
of  Basle,  455;  but  resigns  atler  the  election  of 
Nicholas  V.,  455 

Ferrara,  council  of,  convoked  by  Eugenius  IV. 
in  opposition  to  that  of  Basle,  453  ;  deputies 
from  the  Greek  church  arrive  to  settle  the 
differences  between  the  two  churches,  490 

Festivals,  the  two  first,  45 

Flagellants,  the,  account  of,  402  ;  eight  thousand 
massacred  by  the  Teutonic  order,  402 

Forgeries,  religious,  54,  180 

Prance,  Christianity  introduced  into,  37 

Francis,  St.,  of  Assisi,  founder  of  the  Franciscan 
order,  316  J  his  stigmata,  544 

Franciscans,  order  of,  316 ;  dissensions  among 
them,  319 


574 


INDEX. 


Frederic  Barbarossa,  his  jealousy  of  the  papal 
authority,  259 ;  sets  up  the  antipope  Octavian, 
259 

• II.  engages  to  make  a  crusade,  336;  his 

letter  to  Henry  III.  of  England,  accusing  the 
Roman  see  of  rapacity,  336 ;  proceeds  to  Pa- 
lestine, 336 ;  deposed  by  Innocent  IV.,  his 
former  adherent,  338  ;  his  death  and  character, 
338 

Frisingensis,  Otho,  introduces  the  scholastic 
method  into  Germany,  378,  note 

Gallican  church,  it  independence  founded  by 
Lewis  IX.,  362 

Germany,  progress  of  Christianity  in,  134  ;  the 
abuses  of  the  church  particularly  displayed  in, 
562 

Gerson,  chancellor  of  the  university  of  Paris, 
exposes  the  vices  of  the  clergy,  436 ;  attacks 
the  decretals,  &c,  438;  exhorts  to  severity 
against  the  Bohemian  schismatics,  455,  note 

Gladiatorial  games  abolished  by  Honorius,  112 

Gnosticism,  72 

Gnostics,  their  doctrines,  73 

Godeschalcus,  his  opinions,  221;  tried  before  a 
council  at  Mayence,  222 

Gospel,  the  Eternal,  account  of  the  work  so 
called,  404 

Goths,  early  converts  to  Christianity,  116 

Gratian,  his  collection  of  decretals,  375 

Greek  church,  its  history  after  its  separation  from 
the  Latin,  477;  persecution  against  the  Pauli- 
cians,  478;  heresies  imputed  to  them,  478; 
prevalence  of  mysticism  in  the  east,  479; 
Euchites,  or  Messalians,  480 ;  Hesychasts,  or 
(iuietists,  480 ;  the  sect  of  Bogomiles  founded 
by  Basilius,  481 ;  distinctions  between  the 
Greek  and  the  Latin  church,  482;  the  reverence 
of  the  former  for  antiquity,  483 ;  dominion  of 
the  Latins  in  Constantinople,  484  ;  the  Latin 
communion  established  there,  485;  the  chief 
of  the  Greek  church  retire  to  Nice,  486;  Latin 
mission  to  Nice,  487 

Gregory  Nazianzen,  128 

■ the  Great,  138;  Jortin's  character  of  him, 

138,  note ;  maintains  the  doctrine  of  purga- 
tory, 140,  186;  his  reverence  for  relics,  140; 
canon   of  the    mass    instituted   by  him,    141  ; 

■  VII.  (see  Hildebrand)  interdicts  the  mar- 

riage of  the  clergy,  235 ;  and  simony,  236 ; 
excommunicates  the  Emperor  Henry  IV.,  238  ; 
his  temporal  usurpations,  240  ;  his  objects  in 
the  interna]  administration  of  the  church,  242; 
avails  himself  of  the  false  decretals,  242;  his 
double  scheme  of  universal  dominion,  243; 
liberated  from  Henry ,  who  enters  Rome,  by 
Robert  Guiscard,  244;  dies  at  Salerno,  244; 
his  character,  245 ;  the  Latin  liturgy  estab- 
lished by  him,  249 

■ IX.,  his  splendid  coronation,  335;  ex- 
communicates Frederic  II.  for  not  proceeding 
to  his  crusades,  336 ;  persists  in  persecuting 
him,  336 

X.  elected    while    in    Palestine,  343  ;  en- 


deavors to  reconcile  the  Greek  and  Latin  church, 
343 ;  his  death,  344 

IX.,  St.  Catharine  of  Sienna  sent  on  a  mis- 
sion to  him,  391  ;  violence  of  the  populace,  and 
of  party  in  conclave  after  his  death,  406 

XII.,  Angelo  Corrario,   titular   patriarch 

of  Constantinople,  succeeds  Innocent  VII., 
418;  refuses  to  heal  the  schism  in  the  church, 
caused  by  the  pretensions  of  the  antipopes,  419; 
the  cardinals  convoke  the  council  of  Pisa,  419  ; 
and  elect  Alexander  V.,  420 


Hale,  Albert,  the  irrefragable    doctor,  379,  note 

Henricians,  the  sect  of,  287 

Henry  IV.,  emperor,  calls  a  council  at  Worms, 
which  deposes  Gregory  VII.,  238;  is  excom- 
municated by  him,  236;  does  penance  at  Can- 
ossa,  239;  elects  an  antipope,  Clement  III., 
243  ;  enters  Rome,  but  is  expelled  by  the  Nor- 
mans, 244  ;  his  misfortunes  and  death,  244 

V.,  son   of  the   preceding,  quarrels   with 


Paschal  II.,  and  takes  him  prisoner,  255 

Heresy,  origin  of  the  term,  459 

Heretics,  early,  their  numbers,  70;  three  classes 
of,  72 ;  various  heretical  sects  in  the  twelfth 
century,  287;  treatment  of  heretics,  555  ;  canon 
of  the  fourth  Lateran  council  against,  556 

Hermits  of  St.  Augustin,  order  of,  391 

Hesychasts,  or  Quietists,  sect  of,  in  Greece,  480 

Hierapolis,  bishops  of,  32 

Hilary,  bishop  of  Poictiers,  104 

Hildebrand,  a  monk  of  Cluni,  carried  to  Rome 
by  Leo  IX.,  232 ;  his  policy  for  extending  the 
papal  power,  234 ;  succeeds  Alexander  II., 
235 ;  See  Gregory  VII. 

Hincmar,  archbishop  of  Rheims,  asserts  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  church  against  Lewis  III.,  213  ; 
his  character,  217 

Honorius,  gladiatorial  games  abolished  by,  112 
III.,  335 


Host,  elevation  of  the,  542 

Hungary,  Christianity  first  introduced  into,  230 
Huss,  John,  account  of,  462;  summoned  by  the 
Council  of  Constance,  464  ;  his  opinions  and 
attachment  to  those  of  Wiclif,  464.;  imprisoned 
by  the  Council  of  Constance,  466;  accused, 
466;  his  trial;  467;  condemnation,  469;  and 
execution,  470 

Iconoclasts,  168 

Ignatius,  St.,  bishop  of  Antioch,  31 ;  his  epistle 
to  the  Smyrnians,  32;  his  writings,  80 

Images,  use  of,  139;  controversy  on,  167;  edict 
of  Constantine  Copronymus  against,  168  ; 
restored  by  the  empress  Irene,  168;  the  em- 
peror Michael  attempts  to  discard  them,  170; 
their  worship  restored  by  Theodora,  170 

Immorality,  general,  of  the  clergy,  546 

Incarnation,  the,  controversy  on,  162 

Indulgence,  plenary,  traffic  in,  373 

adopted  by  Boniface   IX.,  412;    remarks 


on,  529 

Infallibility  of  the  Pope,  529 

Innocent  III.,  his  pontificate,  276;  lays  France 
under  interdict,  for  Philippe  Auguste  refusing 
to  take  back  his  divorced  bride,  282 ;  excom- 
municates the  English  king,  John,  284  ;  impo- 
ses the  Saladin  tax,  284 ;  convokes  the  fourth 
Lateran  council,  285  ;  urges  Simon  de  Mont- 
fort  against  the  heretics,  293 ;  his  death  and 
character,  294  ;  his  policy  in  regard  to  the  cru- 
sades, 370  ;  his  apprehension  of  the  mystics, 
555 

IV.,     excommunicates     and     deposes 

Frederic  II.  in  the  Council  of  Lyons,  338 ; 
his  conduct,  341 ;  and  character,  342 ;  estab- 
lishes the  Inquisition  iu  the  North  of  Italy, 
359 

VI.,  his    dispute   with    the   German 


Clergy,  390 

VIII.  succeeds  Sixtus  IV.,  510;  vio- 
lates the  engagements  made  at  his  election, 
511;  pensions  his  illegitimate  children  on  the 
Apostolical  treasury,  511;  succeeded  by  Alex- 
ander VI.,  511 

Inquisition,  the,  359  ;  the  title  of  Inquisitors  first 
given  to  the  emissaries  of  Innocent  III.,  358 


INDEX. 


575 


Interdicts,  papal,  282,  note 
Intolerance  of  the  ancient  Romans,  58 
Investiture,  237;  right  of,  extorted  from  Paschal 

II.    by    Henry    V.,    255;    conclusion    of   the 

quarrels  regarding  it,  256 
Irenasus,  bishop  of  Lyons,  account  of,  81 

James,  St.,  first  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  29 

Jerome,  St.,  account  of,  131  ;  Erasmus's  parallel 
between  him  and  St.  Augustin,  155 

Jerome  of  Prague,  disciple  of  Huss,  tried  before 
the  council  of  Prague,  471  ;  and  executed,  471 

Jerusalem,  the  Latin  kingdom  of,  4t4 

church  of,  30 

John  XXII.,  succeeds  Clement  V.,  after  a  lapse 
of  two  years,  384;  his  avarice  and  rapacity, 
334  ;  he  extends  the  power  of  the  Apostolical 
Chancery,  385;  his  contest  with  Louis  of  Ba- 
varia, who  appoints  a  new  pope,  Nicholas  V., 
385;  John  formally  charged  with  heresy,  by 
the  assembly  of  Milan,  3d0 ;  his  death,  387 

XXIII.,  (Baltazar  Cossa)  succeeds  Alexan- 
der V,  421;  consents  to  a  council  for  deciding  the 
schism  in  the  church,  422  ;  and  abdicates,  425  ; 
escapes  from  Constance,  425;  is  given  up  by 
the  duke  of  Austria,  42(3;  is  deposed,  426; 
acknowledges  Martin  V.,  432  ;  his  character, 
432 

Jortin,  his  character  of  St.  Austin,  134,  note;  of 
Gregory  the  Great,  138 ;  note 

Jovinian,  his  attempt  to  reform  monastic  asceti- 
cism, 158 

Jubilee,  institution  of  the,  374 

Julian  the  Apostate,  100  ;  his  efforts  to  restore 
paganism,  107;  and  to  reform  it,  107;  attempts 
to  rebuild  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  108 ;  his 
writings,  113 

Julius  11.,  (Julian  della  Rovera)  a  candidate  for 
the  papal  crown,  with  Roderic  Borgia,  512; 
attaches  himself  to  Charles  V11I.,  514 ;  succeeds 
Pius  III.,  51(3  ;  his  military  character,  517;  his 
patronage  of  the  arts,  518  ;  he  excommunicates 
a  council  convoked  by  same  cardinals  at  Pisa, 
510  ;  convokes  the  fifth  Lateran  council,  510; 
.dies,  510;  his  character  and  policy,  526 

Justin  Martyr,  81 

Justinian,  account  of,  121  ;  his  edict  against  the 
schools  at  Athens,  125 

Knights  of  the  Hospital,  314 

- Templars,  314 

of  the  Order  of  the  Virgin,  314;  note 

Lactantius,  his  character  as  a  writer,  127 

Laillier,  John,  a  reformer,  his  disputations  with 
the  Sorbonne,  559 

Lateran  councils,  27G  ;  the  fourth,  285;  the  fifth 
convoked  by  Julius  II.,  510  ;  its  canons  of  re- 
formation, 510;  its  decree  against  the  press, 
520  ;  the  council  dissolved,  521 

Lay  brethren  in  monasteries,  institution  of,  311 

Learning,  state  of,  after  the  subversion  of  the 
western  empire,  263 

Leo  the  Great,  110  ;  introduces  private  confession 
12i  I 

the  Isaurian,  (emperor)  attempts  to  abolish 

idolatrous  worship,  167 

IX.,  attempt  at  church  reform  by,  232 

X.,    (see    .Medici,    Giovanni    de')    succeeds 

Julius  II  ,  510;  his  decree  against  the  press. 
520;  he  abolishes  the  Pragmatic  Sanction.  530  ; 
degradation  of  the  sacred  college,  522  ;  Leo's 
unfitness  for  stemming  the  reformation,  564 

Lewis  the  Meek,  deposed  by  his  sons,  and  subject- 
ed to  ignominious  ecclesiastical  penance,  210 


Lewis  IX.,  (St.)  account  of,  355  ;  obtains  the  orig- 
inal crown  of  thorns,  356;  his  death,  357; 
canonized  by  Boniface  \  111.,  357 

Libanhu,  Ins  apology  for  paganism,  111,  note 

Literature,  decline  of.  122;  the  clergy  interdic- 
ted from  secular  literature,  124  ;  state  of 
learning  before  the  tenth  century,  224 

Christian,  in    the  third  century,  56, 


theological,  three  reras  of,  267 


Liturgy,  the  Latin,  established  by  Gregory  VIl., 
240 

Lollards,  their  origin  and  opinions,  400;  horri- 
ble doctrines  imputed  to  them,  400,  note 

Louis  of  Bavaria,  his  contest  with  John  XXII 
against  whom  he    sets  up  another  pope,  385; 
his  disputes  with  Clement  VI.,  389;  patroni- 
ses the  enemies  of  papacy,  300 

Lyons,  first  council  of,  deposes  Frederic  II.,  337 ; 
second  ditto,  344  ;  law  respecting  the' election 
of  popes,  344 

second  council  for  reconciling  the  Greek 


and  Latin  churches,   488 
Lucian,  his  account  of  the  early  Christians,  48 

Mahomet,  his  conquests,  135 

Manes,  his  system,  555,  note 

Mantua,  council  of,  convened  by  Pius  II.,  to  form 
a  crusade  against  the  Turks,  504 

Manuscripts,  scarcity  of,  in  the  middle  ages, 
266 

Mark,  St.,  preaches  at  Alexandria,  37 

Maronites,  the,  account  of,  408 

Marriage  of  the  clergy  prohibited,  235 

Martin,  St.,  (pope)  carried  captive  to  Constanti- 
nople, 148 

St.,  (of  Tours)  157 

IV.,  miracles  said  to  be  worked  at  iiis  tomb, 

345 
V.,  elected  during  the  session  of  the  council 

of  Constance,  441  ;  he  eludes  the  articles  of 

reform  proposed  by  it,  444 
Martyrs,  veneration  for,  111 
Mass,  canon   of  the,  instituted  by  Gregory  the 

Great,  141 
Masses,  private,  541 
Mayence,  diet  of,  455 
Medici.  Lorenzo  de',  excommunicated  by  Sixtus 

IV.,  509 

Giovanni,   son  of  the  preceding,    dude 

cardinal  by  Innocent  VIII.,  at  the  age  of  thir- 
teen, 511, note;  succeeds  Julius  If.,  by  the 
title  of  Leo  X.,  519 

Melito,  bishop  of  Sardis,  his  works,  32 

Mendicants,  order  of',  315  ;  their  early  merits,  and 
subsequent  degeneracy,  320  ;  dispute  in  Eng- 
land between  them  and  the  clergy,  320,  note  , 
their  contest  with  the  cures  about  confession, 
404 

Metropolitans,  decline  of  their  power,  146 

Millennium,  opinions  regarding. .56 ;  general  ex- 
pectation of,  in  tin'  tenth  century,  223 

Minimes,  order  of,  founded  by  Franc i: sen  of  Pau- 
la, and  confirmed  by  Si.xtus  IV'.,  510 

Minorites,  or  F  ratricelli,  the,  condemned  by  John 
XXII.  as  heretics,  307 ;  persecuted  by  the  In- 
quisition, 398 

Miracles,  pretended,  40,  note;  remarks  on  the 
cessation  of  miracles,  40;  ditto  false  miracles, 
543 

Miraculous  claims  of  the  early  church,  40 

Missionaries,  the  mendicants  distinguished  as, 
549 

Monachism,  its  origin,  and  progress  in  the  East, 
207;  monks   of  Egypt,   299;   of  Syria,   300; 


676 


INDEX. 


early  forms  of  monachism,  302  ;  character  of 
it  in  the  East,  302 ;  introduced  in  the  West, 
304  ;  its  prevalence  and  character  there,  305; 
account  of  the  Rule  of  St.  Benedict,  305  ;  pro- 
gress of  monachism  in  the  West,  307 ;  order 
of  Cluni,  309;  general  remarks  on  monachism, 
326  ;  successive  reformations  in  the  system. 
327;  advantages  produced  by  it,  323;  super- 
stition encouraged  by  it,  332 ;  the  monastic 
orders  gradually  become  dependent  on  the 
pope,  333 ;  their  wealth,  334 ;  principles  of 
monachism,  547 

Monothelites,  166 

Montanists,  their  doctrines,  78 

Monte  Cassino,  celebrated  monastery  of,  307 

Montfort,  Simon  de,  commissioned  to  extirpate 
the  heretics,  293 

Morality  of  the  primitive  church,  47 ;  begins  to 
decline,  53 

Morals,  state  of,  during  the  fourth  and  fifth  cen- 
turies, 126 

Mosheim,  his  garbled  extracts  from  St.  Elitmis, 
251 

Mysticism,  prevalence  of  in  the  East,  479 ;  re- 
marks on,  549 ;  the  mystics  oppose  the  schol- 
astics, 549  ;  mysticism  prevails  in  the  Catholic 
church,  555 

Nepotism,  system  of,  502 

Nero,  his  persecution  against  the  Christians,  58 

Nestorianism,  spread  of,  164 

Nestorius,  bishop  of  Constantinople,  163;  ex- 
communicated by  Cyril  and  the  council  of 
Ephesus,  164 

Nice,  council  of,  94 

Nicholas  II.,  elected  in  opposition  to  the  Roman 
nobility,  &c.,232  ;  his  edict  in  regard  to  future 
elections.  232 

III.,  344 

V.,  (Thomas  of  Sarzana)  elected    on 

the  death  of  Eugenius  IV.,  the  deposed  pope, 
and  Felix  V.  resigns,  455  ;  his  patronage  of 
literature  and  the  arts,  500 ;  founds  the  Vati- 
can library,  500.;  makes  a  concordat  with  the 
German  church,  500  ;  his  efforts  to  recover 
Constantinople  from  the  Turks,  501 ;  his  death, 
501 

Nogaret,  William  of,  seizes  Boniface  VIII.,  353 

Normans,  converted  to  Christianity,  231 

Novations,  sect  of,  78 

Nunneries,  institution  of,  attributed  to  St.  An- 
thony, 303 

Nuns,  establishment  of,  322  origin  of  the  name, 
323,  note;  their  vow  of  chastity,  323  ;  Bene- 
dictine nuns,  323 ;  canonesses,  324  ;  nuns  of 
the  hospital,  324  ;  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  324  ;  of 
St.  Dominic,  324  ;  of  St.  Brigida,  325  ;  Ursuli- 
nes,  325 

Olive,  Pierre  d',  his  work  against  the  Romish 
Church,  404 

Orders,  monastic,  St.  Benedict,  305;  Cluni,  309; 
Cistercian,  310  ;  La  Chartreuse,  310  ;  St.  Do- 
minic, 315 ;  St.  Francis,  316 

military,  313  ;  knights  of  the  hospital,  314  ; 

Templars,  314  ;  Teutonic  order,  314 

Ordination,  rite  of,  in  the  early  church,  43, 
note 

Origen,  account  of,  51;  his  theological  system, 
51 

Osma,  Peter  of,  a  Spanish  reformer,  559,  note 

Otho  the  Great,  reassumes  the  imperial  authori- 
ty in  regard  to  papal  elections,  206  ;  bestows 
ecclesiastical  investiture,  237 


Paganism,  its  decline  and  fall,  104;  Julian's  at- 
tempt to  revive  it,  107;  a  decisive  blow  given 
to  it  by  Theodosius's  edict,  110  ;  its  extinction 
113  ;  its  influence  on  Christianity,  187 
Papacy,  elements  of,  154  ;  the  papal  principle. 
148  ' 

Papal   power,  increase  of,  195 ;   pretensions  of 
the  popes  for  interfering  with  the  succession  to 
the  imperial  throne,  213 ;  internal  usurpation 
of  the  Roman  see,  215 
Papias,  the  father  of  traditions,  and  the  origina- 
tor of  the  doctrine  of  the  millennium,  56 
Paris,  University  of,  376 
Paschal  II.,  254  ;  his  dispute  with  the  emperor 

Henry  V.,  255  ;  made  prisoner  by  him,  255 
Paul  II.  succeeds  Pius  II.,  507;  diverts  the  war 
against  the  Turks  to  persecution  of  the  Huss- 
ites, 508;  discourages  literature  as  dangerous  to 
the  church,  508  ;  his  death,  508 
Paulicians,  sect  of  heretics  in  the  Greek  church, 
288,  477  ;  numbers  of  them  destroyed  in   the 
reign  of  Theodora,  477  ;  their  opinions,  478 
Pelagian  controversy,  the,  159 
Pelagianism,  161 
Pelagius,  account  of,  159 
Pepin,  his  donation  to  the  church,  148 
Persecutions  against  the  Christians  :  Nero's,  58 ; 
Domitian's,  60  ;  Trajan's  rescript  favorable  to 
them,  60;  Marcus  Antoninus's,  61  ;  Severus', 
62;  Decius',63;  Valerian's,  64;  Diocletian's, 
64  ;  indirect  advantages  of  these  persecutions, 
69 
Peter,  the  Lombard  theological  writer,  378 ;  his 

book  of  the  sentences,  378 
Petrobrussians,  followers  of  Pierre  de  Bruys,  267 
Philip  the  Fair  of  France,  his  disputes  with  Boni- 
face VIII.,  350  ;  he  bums  the  Pope's  bull.  351 ; 
conditions   imposed   by   him   on    Clement   V. 
whose  election  he  favors,  381 ;  causes  all  the 
Templars  in  his  dominions  to  be  seized,  382 ; 
and  several  to  be  burnt  alive,  382 
Photius   succeeds  Ignatius  as  patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople, 175  ;  charges  the  Romish  church 
with  heresy,  175  ;  deposed  and  recalled,  175 
Piccolomini,    iEneas    Sylvius,   ( Pius    II.)    see 

JEneas. 
Pilgrimages,  199,  note,  366 

Pisa,  council  of,  convened  by  the  Cardinals,  to 
settle  the  schism  in  the  church,  419;  it  elects 
Alexander  V.,  in  opposition  to  Benedict  XIII., 
and  Gregory  XII.  420 ;  character  and  results 
of  this  assembly,  437 
Pius  II.,  see  JEneas  Sylvius. 
Pius  III.,  elected  as  successor  to  Alexander  VI., 

but  dies  almost  immediately  afterwards,  516 
Platonics,  new,  sect  of,  55 
Plenary  Indulgence,  373 
Pliny   the    younger,   his    account  of  the   early 

Christians,  33 
Poland,  Christianity  first  introduced  into,  230 
Polycarp,  bishop  of  Smyrna,  32 
Polytheism,   character    of,  57;    its    intolerance 

among  the  Romans,  58 
Popes,  when  they  first  assumed  new  names  on 
their  election,   228 ;    regulations   as    to   their 
election,  232;    which  becomes  independent  of 
the  imperial  sanction,  233 
Pragmatic  Sanction,  the,  passed  by  the  Council 
of  Bourges,  456  ;  annulled  and  afterwards  res- 
tored by  Louis  XL,  509  ;  abolished  by  Leo  X., 
520 
Praxeas,  his  heresy,  77 

Priscillian,  Spanish  bishop,  put  to  death,  157 
Priscillianists,  the,  157 
Prophets,  class  of  ministers  so  called,  42 


INDEX. 


577 


Protestantism,  attempts  to  trace  its  opinions 
back  to  the  apostolical  times,  552  ;  no  histori- 
cal proofs  in  their  favor,  555 

Provincial  Synods,  52 

Prussia,  Christianity  introduced  into,  by  the 
Teutonic  order,  315 

Purgatory,  belief  in,  inculcated  by  Gregory  the 
Great,  140,  186  ;  disputation  on  at  the  Council 
of  Ferrara,  490 ;  doctrine  of,  529,  540 

Radbert,  Paschasius,  his  doctrine  of  the  real  pre- 
sence, 220 

Ratramn,  appointed  to  examine  the  opinions  of 
Radbert,  220 

Reform,  college  of,  appointed  by  the  council  of 
Constance,  439 

Reformation :  attempts  at  self-reformation  in  the 
Romish  church,  434 ;  general  complaints 
against  abuses,  435  ;  council  of  Pisa  appointed 
for  measures  of  reform,  437 ;  of  Constance, 
ditto,  438 ;  college  of  reform  appointed  by  it, 
439 ;  futility  of  the  plan  of  reform,  441 ;  arti- 
cles of  reformation,  442,  450  ,  restrictions  upon 
the  pope,  450  ;  this  scheme  of  reformation  elu- 
ded by  Martin  V.,  445  ;  council  of  Basle.  447  ; 
its  contest  with  Eugenius  IV.,  448  ;  its  articles 
of  reformation,  451  ;  final  breach  with  the 
pope,  453 ;  nature  of  the  reform  attempted  by 
the  church  itself,  500 

Reformers,  early  papal,  Claudius  of  Turin,  228; 
Berenger,  248  ;  Arnold  of  Brescia,  258  ;  John 
of  Wesalia,  558 ;  Wesselus,  558.;  Laillier,  559  ; 
Savonarola,  559 ;  Reuchlin,  561 ;  Erasmus,  562 

Relics,  superstitious  reverence  for,  140 

Reuchlin  a  reformer,  561 

Revenues  of  the  church,  196 

Riario,  Pietro,  favorite  nephew  of  Sixtus  IV  ,  his 
prodigality,  510 

Roman  people,  their  character  in  the  middle 
ages,  278 

Roman  Catholic  church,  its  power  and  constitu- 
tion, 525  ;  secular  authority  of  the  popes,  526 ; 
spiritual  supremacy  of  Rome,  526 ;  infallibility 
of  the  pope,  529  ;  his  dispensing  power,  529 ; 
penance  and  purgatory,  529;  claims  of  the  popes 
to  universal  temporal  supremacy,  530;  the 
cardinals  and  conclave,  531  ;  relative  power  of 
the  cardinals  and  the  pope,  533  ;  general  coun- 
cils, 533;  various  causes  of  the  influence  of 
Romanism,  533;  policy  of  the  Vatican,  535, 
mediatorial  character  of  the  Romish  priesthood, 
536  ;  power  arising  to  the  church  from  a  ple- 
beian order  of  clergy,  537 ;  doctrines  of  the 
Romish  church,  539;  penance,  539;  indulgen- 
ces, 539;  purgatory,  540  ;  discipline  and  morals, 
546 ;  benefits  conferred  by  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic church,  546 

Rome,  persecutions  at,  under  Nero,  35 ;  empe- 
rors favorable  to  Christianity,  51,  note 

Rome,  church  of,  authority  early  claimed  by,  50 ; 
causes  of  the  increase  of  the  authority  of  the 
Roman  see,  190 

Russia,  Christianity  first  introduced  into,  230 

Sabellius,  his  heresy,  77 

Saccas,  Ammonius,  founder  of  the  Eclectics  or 
new  Platonics,  55 

Sacraments  of  the  primitive  church,  46 

Saladin  tax,  the,  imposed  by  Innocent  III.  on 
church  property,  284 

Sarabaites,  a  kind  of  oriental  monks,  300 

Saracens,  their  conquests,  136 

Savonarola,  Jerome,  Italian  reformer,  559;  his 
interview  with  Charles  VIII.  560 ;  and  execu- 
tion, 561 

73 


Schism  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church,  account 
of,  405 

Schools,  Christian,  45 

Scotus,  John,  appointed  to  examine  the  opinions 
of  Radbert,  221 

Scotus,  John  Duns,  380 

Scriptures,  the  reading  them  prohibited,  542 

Semi-Arians,  98 

Semi-Pelagians,  162 

Sigismond,  recommended  as  emperor  by  John 
XXIII.,  422;  he  appoints  Constance  as  the 
place  for  a  council  to  decide  the  schism  in  the 
papal  see,  and  on  the  two  antipopes,  422  ;  las 
character,  424  ;  opposes  John's  interest.  425 

Simon  Magus,  the  heresiarch,  73 

Simony,  edict  against,  236 

Sixtus  IV.  succeeds  Paul  II.,  508  ;  lays  Florence 
under  interdict,  and  excommunicates  Lorenzo 
de'  Medici,  509;  his  nepotism,  509  ;  confirms 
the  order  of  Minimes,  510,  his  character,  510  ; 
and  death,  510 

Socrates,  the  historian,  103 

Sorbonne,  Robert  de,  376 

Sozomen,  Hermias,  103 

Spiritual  courts,  their  jurisdiction,  277,  note 
in  England,  535,  note 


Sylvester  II.,  his  encouragement  of  learning,  225 
originates  the  scheme  of  the  crusades,  253 

Symeon  the  Stylite,  118 

Synesius,  a  platonic  philosopher,  made  bishop, 
112,  note 

Sylvius,  vEneas.     See  JEneas. 

Tartary,  Christianity  introduced  into,  135 

Tatian  founds  the  sect  of  the  Encratites,  74 

Templars,  knights,  314 ;  council  appointed  by 
Clement  V.,  to  inquire  into  their  conduct,  382; 
Philip  the  Fair  causes  all  in  his  dominions  to 
be  seized,  382;  their  probable  innocence, 
386 

Tertullian,  account  of,  52 

Teutonic  order,  the,  314 

Theodoret,  ecclesiastical  historian,  104 

Theodosius  the  Great,  his  edict  against  paganisr. 
110 ;    compelled   by  St.  Ambrose   to   perform 
penance,  129 

Theological  writers,  377 

Therapeutre  or  Essenes, 

Tlwmists  and  Scotists,  380 

Tithes,  200  ;  the  first  legally  established  by  Char- 
lemagne, 201  ;  their  payment  not  universally 
enforced  till  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century, 
202 

Toledo,  councils  of,  146 

Toulouse,  councils  of,  293 

Transubstantiation,  Radbert's  doctrine  of,  220 ; 
opposed  by  Berenger,  248  ;  the  doctrine  of, 
confirmed  by  Innocent  III.,  285 

Truce  of  God,  546 

Turks,  exertions  of  Pius  II.  against,  506  ;  and 
of  other  popes,  523 

Ulphilas,  bishop,  spreads  the  tenets  of  Arianism 
among  the  Goths,  101,  115 

United  Brethren,  sect  in  Bohemia,  476 

University  of  Paris,  376  ;  it  condemns  Aristotle's 
metaphysical  Works,  378;  its  projects  for  heal- 
ing the  schism  in  the  church,  413 

Urban  II.,  953 

Urban  V.  restores  the  papal  residence  from  Avig- 
non to  Rome,  391 

Urban  VI.,  archbishop  of  Barj,  his  election,  407, 
arraigns  the  bishops  for  their  misconduct,  408  ; 
the  cardinals  cancel  his  election,  409;  Ins 
cause  espoused  by  St.  Catharine  of  Sienna,  410  ; 


518 


INDEX. 


hnprisons  six  cardinals,  411 ;  dies  at  Rome, 
Ursuline  Nuns,  325 

Valentinian  I.,  110 

Vaudois,  or  Waldenses,  289;  crimes  alleged 
gainst  them  by  Rainer ,  290, 291 ,  note  ;  account 
ot  them,  554;    persecutions,  556,  note 

Ventunus  of  Bergamo,  founder  of  a  sect  of  fana- 
tics, 

Vienna,  council  of,  to  inquire  into  the  conduct  of 
the  Templars,  &c.,  382 

Vigilantius,  boldly  inveighs  against  the  supersti- 
tious practises  of  the  church,  159 

Virgin,  office  instituted  to  the,  544 

Waldenses,  the,  account  of  that  sect,  289 
Waldus,  Peter,  account  of,  289 ;  his  death,  292 
wesaaa,  John  of,  a  reformer,  account  of,  558 


Wesselus,  John,  a  reformer,  558 ;  deaifmnfawi  *u 

forerunner  of  Luther,  558  aesiS™tei  the 

White  Penitents,  a  sect  of  religious  enthusiasts 

Wiclif  John  account  of,  560  ;  his  bones  dug  up 
by  order  of  the  council  of  Constance,  461-  his 
rmam462         '  his  doctrine3  carr^d  into  Bohe- 

Wilfri'd,  St.,  134,  note 

Winfnd,  an  English  missionary  in  Germany,  134 

Ximenes,  cardinal,  546 

Zeno,  emperor,  his  Henoticon,  or  edict  of  union 
Zisca,  heads  the  insurgent  reformers  in  Bohemia 
Zosimus,  the  historian,  115 


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